Good Morning Everyone - It's 2018 ;-)

... and we're back and raring to go!

Happy New Year for 2018

A Very Happy 2018 from all of us at LSI Portsmouth

Happy New Year - 2017

Happy New Year

Happy New Year!

Happy Chinese New Year!

Today marks Chinese New Year, the longest and most important holiday in the Chinese calendar. The festival, known as Seollal in South Korea and Tet in Vietnam, is traditionally a time to be with family, and is celebrated by roughly a sixth of the world! The evening before Chinese New year’s Day is an opportunity for Chinese families to spend time together for an annual reunion dinner. For our students at LSI, being apart from their family at this time of year can be a bit difficult! We asked a few of our Chinese students how they will celebrate the New Year, when they are living nearly 5000 miles away from home.

Hui told us she will be cooking up a Chinese feast for her English host family, serving up traditional dishes such as dumplings, soup and duck leg. She wanted to show her English host family exactly how she would celebrate Chinese New Year if she was back home in Wuhan, China. Another student, Fisher from Beijing, said her family would light fireworks and firecrackers to welcome New Year in with a bang! Although neither student can be with their families, continuing their traditions whilst in Portsmouth is a fantastic way to share their culture and customs with their English host families.

According to Chinese astrology, each year is associated with a particular animal sign and 2015 is the year of the goat.  However, you may also see it referred to as the “Year of the Sheep”. The confusion stems from the Chinese character “yang”, which translates in colloquial Chinese as either goat or sheep! Those born in the year of the goat are supposedly peace-loving and kind, and their lucky flowers are carnations and primroses.

We’d like to wish everyone a Happy Chinese New Year, wherever and however you are celebrating it. From everyone at LSI, we hope your year is filled with good fortune, happiness and health, and hopefully lots of studying!

Belle.

Happy New Year from all at LSI Portsmouth

That was 2014 - Wow

What an amazing 2014 we have had at LSI Portsmouth.  Here is a quick run down of some of the best stories of the year:

January:
We started the year off with promotions, a new Exams Director of Studies, a new Pre-sessional Course Manager and a new Assistant Director of Studies for GE and Exams, a Pre-sessional Logistics Co-ordinator, Pre-sessional Support and a Quality Assurance Manager! We got an amazing new coffee machine in the exec centre.  We have always provided filter coffee for our exec students but now they had the ability to have fantastic coffee as if they had a coffee shop on the premises.
Story here

February
In the month of love, G Boutique won an award, and LSI added another self catering student house to the stable.
Stories here

March
In March, we had a very successful cake sale, and we added Instagram to our Social media - which is proving very popular, students  can see pictures of their school and Portsmouth all in one place.
Stories here

April
Well what a month this was!  We launched our brand new Guided E Learning site, Andrew our Principal went to Australia, but the most popular of all the events in April was our Happy video, celebrating the United Nations 'Day of happiness' with Pharrel Williams' song Happy. We had such fun! (and the video has now had over 3000 views!)
Stories here

May
This month saw a lot of interviews with staff, students and a football team, and the announcement that we were now supporting the Rowans Hospice in their efforts.
Stories here

June
Wow, June! We had a fly past by the Red Arrows, a photo competition, our new study centre was opened, and our video showcasing Portsmouth was published - which is also very popular with 6500 views so far!
Stories here

July
We launched our first Business function video, started an art club, had a whole bunch of teachers and staff graduate, and welcomed Belle our new General Social Programme Organizer to the school.
Stories here

August
We set aside August as a month to support a very special student's charity Auxilia, had our first Rooftop Interview, and had a British Council Inspection - Everyone in the school can remember that! But for fun, Jon D's class made a song video.
Stories here

September
September was a quieter month as everyone was able to relax a little after the inspection. Pre-sessional students finished their courses, work experience girls from reception left (we were very sad) and one of our ex students had his final art exhibition.
Stories here

October
Some great taxi drivers from Japan left and made everyone laugh at their leaving ceremony, a fantastic interview with Roy the LSI football captain and LSI student, and we were voted joint first as the top executive centre in UK. (Celebrations all round for that one).
Stories here

November
An amazing Halloween party, Nicki P left to have a baby, five of our teachers started studying in-house for their DELTA, another three of the staff started studying for the Diplomas in English Language Teaching Management, and a lovely video about the difference between weddings in Bangladesh and England.
Stories here

December
We said goodbye to Roy (the football captain) the nights drew in which meant wonderful sunsets from the roof and our final quicktip of the year came from Jon D.
Stories here

So, that was 2014, a very eventful year.  We hope next year is as much fun, and wish everyone a peaceful, happy and healthy 2015.

Happy New Year 2014