Our General English and Intensive English courses are designed to help students of all ages make rapid progress with their English.
We focus on the four key language skills reading, writing, listening and speaking with work on vocabulary, grammar and pronunciation.
Course Key Facts
Flexible Learning – Group and Individual Classes
Our courses suit many who enjoy the opportunity to learn with others and meet new people whilst improving their English at the same time.
All new students are asked to complete our online placement test or are tested on their first morning in the school so that we can put you in the class at the right level to develop.
Courses are 10 hours per week, 20 hours per week or 30 hours per week* and at times to suit students.
Group Learning
Our classes are small, with a maximum of 15 students. At lower and higher levels, there are often only 6 – 8 students per class.
*Academic hours: each academic hour = 50 minutes class time
Individual Learning
We provide individual tuition which can enable a student to make significant progress especially if they are willing to undertake intensive study to support the work in class. This is particularly useful for students who want to pass IELTS or need to learn and improve their English quickly for a specific reason such as professional or academic opportunities.
International mix – all ages
Every year students from many different countries come to join our General English courses and Summer Schools.
Most are age 18 – 30 although have a significant number of gap-year students, focusing on improving their English before university and other academics and professionals who want to improve their English whilst working or studying in Oxford.
Summer Schools
We run our summer school programmes every year for students age 16 years and over also always have students age 16 – 17 (our minimum age is 16), eager to expand their English skills for high school or university entrance.
More mature students are always welcome too, and older people from huge range of professional backgrounds including doctors, lawyers, academics as well as others mainly from Europe and the Middle East who are now living in Oxford.
Our inclusive approach and newly refurbished school help to make everyone feel welcome and at home.
Speaking
- Increase vocabulary and fluency through practice with your teacher and classmates
- Improve pronunciation through use of phonetics.
- Feel comfortable to build confidence in speaking in a friendly learning environment.
Listening
- Regular formal listening practice boosts development of this key skill
- Use techniques to help you get the most from listening to English voices in different contexts.
Reading
- Use texts from a wide range of sources and authentic material to progress your reading ability.
- Students are encouraged to bring reading matter that interests them and that they can share with others.
Writing
- Grammar and spelling practice are vital to enable our students to write good English especially for those who aim to do on to use English for academic studies or professionally.
Social and cultural activities
Aside from learning English we know that our students like to get to know Oxford. All CCO students can enjoy and learn about English culture and the history and contemporary culture that the city of Oxford offers.
We have a programme of different activities and events according the time of year. This includes organised visits to local places of interest, social gatherings in historic hostelries and restaurants, visits to museums and galleries, music and poetry, theatre, picnics and games in the parks and meadows and much more.
Day trips and excursions
It is very easy to get to London from Oxford. We include visits to other places such as Bicester Village Shopping and Blenheim Palace as well as different sights, activities and events in London.
Anyone is welcome to join in and details are provided when students register.