Long Stay Students

Lake School of English: Home > Student life > Long stay students

We offer long stay students advice and a range of services to help them make the most of their stay in Oxford.

Accommodation

Many Lake School students choose to live in one of our friendly homestays to help them improve their English and to learn about the English way of life. Your homestay will provide breakfast and cook dinner for you each evening and give you a packed lunch at the weekend, if you want. Students who live in a homestay make faster progress than students who live in a rented house or flat.

However, if you prefer to live in rented accommodation, it costs approximately 350 per month for a room in a shared house. To rent a 1 or 2 bedroom flat, the cost is approximately 800 per month. These prices do not include gas, electricity, water, phone or local taxes.

You can find shared houses, flats and houses to rent in local newspapers and on notice boards in school.

Opening a bank account

If you are staying in Oxford for more than six months, you may like to open a bank account here. You will need to:

deposit money (cash, cheque or bank transfer) in the account.
show your passport
prove your address in your country, by showing a bank statement with your name and address, for example
prove your address in Oxford, by showing your homestay address on your Lake School registration letter, or by showing your contract if you are renting accommodation.
prove that you are studying at the Lake School, by showing your confirmation of registration letter.

Registering with the police

If you are from a non-EU country and if you are going to stay in Oxford for six months or more, you may have to register with the police. Check in your passport to see if "holder is required to register with the police" is written there. If it is, you should go to the police station in St Aldates and tell them where you are living in Oxford. You will need to take:

your passport,
2 passport-size photos
the fee of £34

Staying in touch with home: by phone

Some students bring a mobile phone from their country. Some students buy a mobile phone while they are here, and some students buy phone cards and use public phones or their homestay's phone. If you would like to buy a contract mobile phone, you will need to:

show your passport,
prove your address in your country, by showing a bank statement with your name and address, for example
prove that you are studying at the Lake School, by showing your confirmation of registration letter.

Staying in touch with home: by email

The Lake School has free WiFi and LAN email and Internet facilities. Students can bring their own laptop computers with them. Computers have software for Chinese, Japanese and Korean alphabet input. Some homestays are happy for you to use their Internet access for a limited time for a charge.

Making friends

In the school and in Oxford you will meet students from all over the world. Hopefully you will find that it can be interesting to learn about each other's cultures and customs, while communicating in English of course! So try to use English as much as possible. If you speak your own language and there are other students with you, they will probably not understand and this can seem unfriendly.

Also, you'll probably notice some differences between England and your own culture. Most English people will be friendly and try to help you if you smile and say please and thank you.

Getting a job

All students who are from an EU country can work without restriction in the UK. Students who have a full General Student Visa can work for up to 20 hours per week. We can help you with looking for a job, if you wish, so you can earn money and study at the same time. Taking a part-time job can improve your future career opportunities.

Students who have a Student Visitor Visa are not permitted to work.

In Oxford, it is usually quite easy to find part-time jobs in restaurants, bars, cafes and shops. There are job advertisements in local newspapers and on information boards in school.

Making progress

Long stay students can make a lot of progress in their English during their course. When you first arrive you will have a placement test and an interview to discuss your study programme. During your course you will have regular tutorials with an academic advisor.

Having a holiday

You may take holidays during your programme, but requests for holidays must be made at least 1 month in advance. We do not refund fees but add the weeks that you take as holiday to the end of your course

Extending your visa

Make sure you know when your General Student Visa expires. If you want to stay longer in Britain, you should complete a "Visa Extension" form and send it to the Immigration and Nationality Directorate. We will show you where to downlaod this form if you need to. It can take quite a long time renew your visa, so don't leave it until the last minute!

The Lake School keeps attendance records. Any visa national student who regularly misses classes will be sent a non-attendance warning letter and may be reported to the UK Border Agency.

Students who have come to the UK on a Student Visitor Visa cannot extend their visa and must return home to make a fresh visa application.

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