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I couldn't believe my luck when I got an offer by Svitlo School to study in Year 9 at a real English school — Highgrove Online School. Of course, I said yes right away! I didn’t really know how I’d manage it with my busy schedule, but I decided to give it a try.
The very next day, I had to take two tests in school subjects, and a few days later — three more. They were a bit hard but the school admission lady who supervised me was very helpful and nice.
At first, everything felt kind of confusing. I’ve had lots of online lessons before, even in English, but they were more like clubs or casual conversation classes. Highgrove Online School has its own learning platform, its own email system, and homework with clear deadlines.
One thing that really helped was that every student gets their own learning coach. We meet once a week to talk about how things are going and if anything’s difficult. That makes it almost impossible to get lost or confused about how the school works. Also, English schools don’t have as many subjects as Ukrainian ones, so I could focus on what I enjoy.
Every week there’s a general meeting called an assembly with the school administration and another one in our “house,” where we talk about school updates and events. There are also lots of clubs. I go to Debate Club and Games Club — both are awesome.
Since I’ve already been studying at Svitlo School for two years and have had many classes with native English-speaking teachers from different countries, I felt pretty comfortable speaking English from the start even with my English classmates.
There aren’t many tests like in Ukrainian schools because the teacher can always see our work on the platform and the classes are very small. We get regular holidays as well, and at the end of each term, parents get a report with grades and teacher comments about your progress.
Overall, studying at an English school isn’t that hard — as long as you’re are organised, want to do your best and have good English skills. And if the first two depend on you, then Svitlo School will definitely help you with the third one!
After all getting a real British education certificate is worth it and I think will open lots of world universities and work opportunities for me.
Highgrove Online School in the UK provides an outstanding British education for ambitious pupils at secondary school age, including GCSE and A level. Every academic year they offer a scholarship place to Svitlo pupil.
To find out more, visit their website: https://highgroveeducation.com/
