All tuition at Greene’s is in English. You may need support in developing your English language skills for successful academic study and to achieve the the IELTS certification level required by your prospective university course. IELTS English language certification is universally accepted by universities around the world as a measure of English language proficiency.
Today, most internationally recognised English language tests base their assessment on the “four skills” of Listening, Reading, Writing and Speaking of which IELTS was a pioneer. There are three Greene’s English language courses designed to take students from an IELTS score of 4.5 to 7.5.
Progression to the next course is by internal assessment. To progress from the foundation year to the first year of A level study or the Geoscience Diploma you should achieve an IELTS score of at least 5.5 in each of the four skills.
The average student advances by one IELTS score band per year. This means that if your assessment shows you to have a score band of 4.5 you will be studying English for one year before you are likely to reach a score of 5.5 when you can start your A level course or the Geoscience Diploma. However, if you work hard and follow the Greene’s English Language learning method this can be shorter.
When studying English at Greene’s you not only improve your general English to raise your IELTS score but you also learn academic English – especially the vocabulary and terminology that you need for study in your chosen subjects. This means that working with Greene’s you can progress faster towards both your English language goals and your academic goals.
To register for the EFL course, you must take an initial assessment test to establish your CEFR English language level against which your future performance will be measured. CEFR is the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages and is the recognised benchmark against which nearly all language qualifications are measured.
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The Greene’s English language courses offer the following:
Practice: daily practice in groups combined with supplementary individual tuition where required.
Fluency: timed exercises to increase your speed and accuracy helping you to meet the listening, reading speaking and writing requirements of EFL examinations.
Breadth: the grammar, vocabulary and terminology needed for successful academic study.
Testing: the course begins with a diagnostic test followed by regular testing to measure progress towards your IELTS target level.
Each course involve a mix of group and individual tuition. Typically one group tutorial per day – five per week – plus two individual tutorials per week. The courses courses include a range of material that concentrates on and provides practice in all four skills: Listening, Reading, Writing and Speaking. New grammar and vocabulary is introduced with the aim of improving interpretation of spoken and written work more effectively and employing more accurate and varied grammatical and sentence forms.
Homework and regular testing is an integral part of each course. There are regular online tests that are timed and which should be completed before the next class session. As these tests cover work recently completed, students are expected to score at least 80% in each of these tests. You should allow at least one hour of homework for each course hour. Supplementary individual tuition and/or additional homework may be required to help get students back on track who achieve lower scores.
Other homework assignments include language based exercises and extensive reading.
The structure of the Greene’s English language programme consists of an initial diagnostic assessment and three courses arranged as shown below.
Greene's English language courses
Initial diagnostic
Starting point
Intermediate EFL
Pre-sixth form study
(Foundation year)
IELTS band 4.5-5.5
Advanced EFL level I
First year of sixth form study
(A levels, Geoscience diploma)
IELTS band 5.5-6.5
Advanced EFL level 2
Second year of sixth form study
(A levels, Geoscience diploma)
IELTS band 6.5-7.5
The initial diagnostic assessment will determine which course you should start with. If your starting point is IELTS 5.5 or above you may also enrol at Greene’s to study A levels or the Geoscience diploma.
At the end of each course there is an internal assessment and if you reach the required IELTS score you may proceed to the next higher course. If you do not, you may need to repeat the course before progressing or have some additional tuition.
Cressida has a post graduate Master’s qualification in Classics (Latin and Ancient Greek) from the University of Cambridge, U.K. that was followed by a Ph.D. from the University of Nottingham, U.K. on the literature of Sophocles. Cressida is currently a lecturer in Classics at the University of Oxford, and has a long list of publications [...]
Meryl holds a B.A. in French and English Literature from the Université Lumières, Lyon II, and an M.A. in Film and Media Studies from Oxford Brookes. Following this, Meryl has taken an M.A. in Integrative Psychotherapy and Counselling, a master’s degree validated by the University of Middlesex. Meryl is an experienced and enthusiastic tutor, who [...]
Geography, Sociology Alex began his academic career began when he gained a B.Sc. from the City of London Polytechnic in Geography in 1989. From there he went to University College, London to complete a M.Sc. in Micro-palaeontology. Remaining at University College for his doctoral research, he was then awarded his Ph.D. in Geological Sciences. Alex [...]
Rowena is a chemist and after having received First Class Honours in Chemistry at the University of Oxford she went on to complete a Ph.D. at the University of Birmingham on “Zeolites and other molecular sieves for chromate remediation”. Rowena has been tutoring in Chemistry for the last ten years and during that time was [...]
Angus lectures in English Literature at the University of Oxford, U.K., and has been working for Greene’s since 2011. Angus was awarded his D.Phil. from the University of Oxford for his doctoral research on James Joyce, and he has numerous publications to his name, covering a wide spectrum of English Literature. He has also written [...]
Having studied and worked in many different countries, Lamine has a wide international education and experience. He holds a BSc qualification in Computer Science from Oxford Brookes and has been teaching Mathematics in the UK and at a range of levels for over 15 years. His particular area of interest is Decision Mathematics and logical [...]
Sarah completed her doctoral research in 2018, at Oxford Brookes University, on early modern melancholia and present day depression in literature. Before gaining her Ph.D. she gained her B.A. from the University of Buckingham in English Literature and French, and then went on to gain her M.A. Sarah’s lecturing and tutoring experience has been extensive [...]
Brian teaches English Literature and Government & Politics. He did his undergradaute, masters and doctorate degrees at Oxford and his academic research specialism is the Old Icelandic language. Brian frequently acts as an examiner for several of the major examination board and is passionate about education and the tutorial method of learning. Brian is also [...]
Emily has a BA in Cell and Systems Biology from the University of Oxford and has been tutoring Chemistry and Biology at Greene’s for a wide range of students. She is currently working on her D.Phil – also at the University of Oxford – and coaches athletics for competitive running. She is particularly keen on [...]
Agnieszka teaches both Government & Politics and Law. She holds an M.A.and LL.M. in law as well as a Ph.D. from Oxford Brookes where she was a univesity lecturer. Agnieszka is passionate about tutoring and runs the College’s debating society.
Julian has a Master’s Degree in Engineering and a Post-graduate qualification in Education from the University of Oxford. Since then he has taught Physics at a range of top independent schools in the U.K. and has been tutoring at Greene’s for the last three years. Julian is an experimental Physicist who strongly believes in learning [...]
Saif tutors Biology and Chemistry and has been running Biology A level practicals at Greene’s for the last two years. He is a passionate tutor and keen scientific researcher – even building his own artificial coral reef. Saif has a First Class Honours degree in Biochemistry from the University of Manchester, U.K. and a doctorate [...]
Morag has been teaching for over 20 years – including the last two years at Greene’s – and is an Examiner in Business Studies for Edexcel. She has a wide experience of tutoring at a number of further education colleges. Morag is especially clear in her ability to identify weaknesses in examination technique and to [...]
Anne completed her joint honours postgraduate qualification in Physics and Theoretical Physics from the University of Cambridge, U.K. in 1995. Since then she has been tutoring at a range of colleges in different places and has been at Greene’s for the last three years tutoring Physics and Mathematics. Anne is a highly experienced professional tutor [...]
An extremely accomplished actor and a graduate of the University of London, Kieran is an extremely experienced English Language teacher. He specialises in all aspects of English Language tuition including IELTS preparation and holds the prestigious CELTA qualification for teaching English Language. After an extensive career in television, film and theatre, Kieran has taught English [...]
Jenny has postgraduate qualifications from both the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge. From Oxford Jenny was awarded her Masters degree in Classics (Latin and Ancient Greek) and from Cambridge a post-graduate teaching qualification. Jenny has almost 30 years of experience teaching Latin and Ancient Greek in range of top schools in the U.K.
Margaret has undergraduate degrees in Psychology and Nuroscience from the University of Indiana (U.S.) and is currently working on her D.Phil. on Experimental Psychology at the University of Oxford. Margaret brings a wealth of undergraduate and further education tutoring experiences to Greene’s. She has worked with undergraduate students from a third-year cognitive psychology course and [...]