Provision for students during the COVID-19 Pandemic
14 Jul 2020
During this very difficult period for students, schools, parents and teachers we at OISC are trying to flexibly support our partners, and those students who are unable to study in person as usual.
Whilst the college office is closed at present, all staff are working as usual and can be reached at the usual email addresses.
We have always offered online personal tutoring – often to students who have come to us for short programmes and then wish to continue when they return. But the number of requests for online teaching has risen enormously of late, and we are offering this option to all students who wish to continue their studies during this difficult period worldwide.
We are continuing to offer tuition in all subjects, via online teaching. Tuition for those students taking lessons remotely continues to be “live”, since the teaching is bespoke, and does not consist of pre-recorded lessons, or online ‘study guides’, which can often be easily be bought online.
We believe that the personal connection with the teacher is very important to encourage perseverance, and to maintain morale. We do not have set courses, but we seek to maintain syllabus coverage , progress and assessment at a personal level in the absence of the traditional classroom. Each course is designed around the individual student.
As such each distance-learning student is, as usual, matched with one or more of our leading OISC tutors, who will help with working through the student’s syllabus, planning revision, giving advice on weak areas, and setting targets and tests.
The methods used depend on the subject and the student, and are based on one-to-one Skype or Zoom tutorials, together with submission and assessment of written work.
Most subjects are offered for ISEB (Common Entrance and scholarship tests, 11+, 13+), (I)GCSE, A-Level, I.B., alongside our usual range of English Language programmes – both General English, and preparation for English Language exams, e.g. IELTS. For younger children it is important to maintain their general education while they are living at home, and we can arrange multi-subject programmes to cover all key areas.
The online programmes can be combined with personal tuition in Oxford when circumstances permit, and all programmes purchased can be converted to personal tuition in Oxford at any time.
Given the challenging times all online programmes are offered with a 10% discount on usual rates for one to one tuition, and these reduced rates are outlined below:
Individual lessons of 45 minutes are priced at 47 GBP per lesson (usually 52 GBP).
Our usual packages of 10, 20, and 30 lessons are available at the rates below:
10 lessons (7.5 hours) – 450 GBP (usually 500 GBP)
20 lessons (15 hours) – 810 GBP (usually 900 GBP)
30 lessons (22.5 hours) – 1260 GBP (usually 1400 GBP)
All tuition is one to one, unless a course is booked with a friend, in which case reduced group rates may be available.
Subject to interest, dates chosen, and level of English, group English Language tuition may be offered, up to a maximum of 5 students per class. The cost of this is 350 GBP per person for 20 lessons per week.
It is particularly important with online teaching that we have as much information in advance as possible. The tutors set, mark and assess written work and provide reports in the usual way. For examination students tests will be set as the exams approach.