Gateway: a place through which you have to go to get to another place. And that’s exactly what the Gateway Programme is at Harrow International School Bangkok.

The Admissions Department at Harrow Bangkok found that all too often they have had to turn away prospective Upper School students who would be excellent scholars except their English is not strong enough to study the curriculum. The school decided to provide the Gateway Programme for these students: boys and girls aged 10-12 with basic English skills but strong academic potential. Students go through the Gateway Programme to rapidly learn English, with qualified and experienced UK teachers and then, so long as they meet the level needed, they can join mainstream classes.

For most of their lessons, students in this programme study English but they join other pupils in their year group for subjects like maths, computing, physical education, design technology, art and music. To further boost their English they also attend Saturday School at Harrow Bangkok.

Students can join the Gateway Programme at the start of any of the three school terms and they then study it for a maximum of two school terms. They are regularly tested and if these show they are ready, they can then join mainstream classes, as soon as possible.

Gateway students live in the Boarding Village at Harrow Bangkok. They can choose to be a full boarder – seven days a week – or a weekly boarder (Monday-Thursday). This gives them the very best opportunities to succeed by being truly immersed in school life.

And here’s what some current Gateway Programme students have to say about it:

‘I like Gateway because we always have lots of fun in lessons. The teacher makes many games and we really like them. Sometimes she will give us some little tests to know how our English is developing. The teacher is kind and asks us questions if we feel sad. We also study art, design technology, maths, PE, computing and music. We’re looking forward to using our new vocabulary with our new classmates.’ –Emma

‘I like Gateway English because this class is very small. I get a lot of attention and help from the teacher. We often play games to learn new words or study English. It helps me to improve my English. I’m looking forward to studying the full programme with all the other students.’ –Eugene

To find out more, phone the Admissions Team on (+66) (0)2503 7222 or email admissions@harrowschool.ac.th.