Portsmouth - Oh how we love you, all of you

At the last count, we came up with another 11 different places called Portsmouth.  Probably one of the more famous ones is the Portsmouth in New Hampshire.  Recently on Instagram, someone posted a video of Portsmouth, and when watching, it was very much a case of 'how lovely ... hold on a minute ... that's not...'.  It really is extraordinary how similar the two places are.  Check below and see if you agree.

1)

Video from instagram by: @lilyhairullina

2)

Video from instagram by: @LSIPortsmouth

So of course, video number 2 is the Portsmouth, Hampshire, UK, the top video is Portsmouth New Hampshire, USA.

In case you are interested here are the other 11 places called Portsmouth:

Other Portsmouths in UK:

Portsmouth - Calderdale

Places called Portsmouth in America.
Portsmouth - Virginia
Portsmouth - Rhode Island
Portsmouth - Ohio
Portsmouth - North Carolina
Portsmouth - New Hampshire
Portsmouth - Kentucky
Portsmouth - Iowa

Others in the world:
Portsmouth - Saint John, Dominica

Portsmouth - Ontario, Canada

Looking Back Over 2015

2015

What a fantastic year we have had this year. Happy, sad, funny and interesting. Here is a round up of all the fabulous things we have been involved in this year.

January:

We started off the year discovering how many languages in total our teachers speak, with a great little info graphic. Then came the sad part where we said goodbye to our lovely Bill Phillips, a hugely popular teacher who has been with the school for 20 years. He decided it was time to stop, but he is now a host family. We also had some of our staff start on a management course. Probably one of the most fun things to happen in the school this month was some of our teachers started learning Arabic with Arif.  See stories here

February:

In February, we welcomed back an old friend, a student who attended the school over 25 years ago. And we said a temporary goodbye to Hannah who started her maternity leave to have her and Adam’s baby. We were delighted to hear that Allan Gray’s (who used to be the marketing director here) G Boutique hotel had won yet another award.  See stories here

March:

We launched our first quiz, ‘What type of student are you?’ which proved very popular, and we finally launched our new study centre, with Becky telling us on video what was available. We also had another rooftop interview this time with Belle telling us about the LSI Social Programme. As always, the generous side came out for Comic Relief day and there was a charity cake bake. See stories here

April:

In April we had a celebrity visit us in the executive centre and gave us a lovely interview. Paul Rosenmöller is a well know TV face in Holland, dealing with hot political topics. There was also a great little story about LSI’s involvement with Karaoke.  See stories here

May:

Once again the LSI team were out supporting charity, this time with a fun run in Oxford along with a lot of other language school’s teachers and students. However mostly May was dominated by the General Election. One of our teachers Jeremy made a lovely presentation which explained how are elections are carried out in the UK.  See stories here

June:

In June we finally revealed the long awaited reveal of LSI’s fantastic facelift. For months we lived in a building covered by netting and scaffolding, but it was most definitely worth it to finally see the fantastic new face. Once again we focussed back on the many language skills our teachers have by showing an interview with two of our bilingual teachers.  See stories here

July:

Quite a few events of note happened this month. Firstly our sweet little Ellis I Bear arrived at the school, hoping to go travelling with as many people as he can. Lovely Hannah (teacher and marketing lady) had her baby, and then the incredible Americas Cup race event happened in Portsmouth.See stories here

August:

Yet another charity event happened in August, this time football. A wonderful video interview with Amelia and two lovely Arabic students and another big event in Portsmouth; Victorious Festival.  See stories here

September:

England was agog with Rugby mania but closer to home was a milestone in LSI’s history. This year we reached the grand old age of 30 years! We decided to celebrate it this year with two parties and a video showing the journey from where we started to where we are today.  See stories here

October:

The Halloween theme seemed to dominate most things in October. So to continue with the fun theme we made a quiz for people to find out how well they knew Portsmouth. This proved incredibly popular and was taken a few thousand times. Amelia interviewed two wonderful Chinese students and our Vice Principal and his band headlined a refugee charity gig.  See stories here

November:

Joel rounded up a very successful year for him by being promoted to GE/Exam ADOS. One of our teachers had a surprise (to us) wedding. We had not one but two charity events, one was a bake off in aid of the most wonderful charity in this area – the Rowans Hospice, the other was the Great South Run which not only included teacher Jenni (running for DEBRA), but also two Swiss students, who talked with Jenni in an interview about their experience. Finally, being November, it couldn’t pass without a visit to the traditional fireworks display held every year in Cosham.  See stories here

The Social Programme at Portsmouth

Early summer last year saw the lovely Belle join us to become the new Social Programme Organiser for the General English side of the school.  Well ... the social programme has been transformed!  The students now have something to do every day, and that includes Saturdays as well. Lots and lots of new exciting events and parties have been organised; sporty, cultural and fun, something for everyone.  Belle is pretty much like the Duracell Bunny.

We recently did a rooftop interview with Belle, to show what kind of events are on offer to the students. Do watch as Belle explains the different types of event, the most popular events and why students should join in. 

If you would like to know more about Belle, here is a post from when she joined the school.
Welcoming Belle to the Party

Great New Quick Tip From Jon D

The last quick tip of the year comes from the Irrepressible Jon D.  Watch as our Jon gives a great tip on how to keep your English up to date with the news!

We are Happy at LSI Portsmouth ;-) The story of our video

Happy at LSI

Here is our video, showing what a great place this is to work and study.  To read more of how this happened see below.

Day of Happiness Website

Action for Happiness Website

In July 2011, the United Nations General Assembly adopted a groundbreaking resolution which recognised happiness as a “fundamental human goal” and called for “a more inclusive, equitable and balanced approach to economic growth that promotes... happiness and well-being of all peoples”. In April 2012 the first ever UN conference on Happiness took place in New York and in July 2012 the UN General Assembly adopted a further resolution which decreed that the International Day of Happiness was to be observed every year on 20 March. It was celebrated for the first time in 2013.

So we decided to join in and make a video with our school. Circumstances stopped us making it in time for the 20th March, however we believed that it was better to be late and 'happy' than never.

Once we decided to go ahead, we found we were suddenly on a roller coaster. We posted an invitation on our Facebook page inviting everyone to get involved and letting them know that we would be filming on the Friday.  The response was tremendous, suddenly there was a real buzz around the school, with students asking how and when and where.  A lot of students were practising moves and teaching their colleagues (and teachers).  And so Friday 4th April arrived.  

Of course with an international school such as ours, and so many different cultures involved, we were mindful that it might not be appropriate for everyone.  We set up a barrier in the area of filming and told everyone that in front of the barrier was the filming area and behind was a 'safe' zone.  This worked beautifully, and while those in front were really happy to be filmed there were also many others behind who either watched or danced along, but in the knowledge that they would not end up on YouTube ;-).
The logistics meant that of course some teachers and staff were on holiday, however we knew that we needed to get it done in one day otherwise it would be a never ending project and would never be finished.  And so in one day we made our video.

We are just delighted that so many participated and had so much fun.  We are grateful to all the students, teachers and staff who were involved, our Principal who was so enthusiastic for this to go ahead, the UN for such a great idea, but most of all to Pharrell Williams for the opportunity to experience such a happy day.

If you would like to read more of the background to the day, to donate or to get ideas on how to make life happier, see the links below.

http://www.dayofhappiness.net/#context
http://www.actionforhappiness.org

If you have 24 hours to spare or are just curious - watch the 24 hour round the world video, showing how the world got involved!

24 hours of happiness video

Finally - if you would like to see Pharrell Williams' reaction to all the many 'Happy' videos, then click below to go to Oprah Winfrey's video clip and interview - it's a joy to watch. '

"Pharrell Sobs Tears Of Joy While Watching The World Dance To ‘Happy’ "