Study and welfare
At International House London, we do all we can to make your experience the best it can be.
This means making sure you are able to study effectively in a safe and positive environment. We have many policies and procedures to help.
Your Student Welfare Officers
Karin Fitzpatrick is our Welfare Officer. They are here to help you if you feel ill, or have any personal / emotional problems. For example, if you feel homesick, lonely, or just need someone to talk to.
They can give you support and confidential advice for a range of welfare issues, from personal safety to health problems.
If they can’t give you the assistance you need, they will refer you to other information or another source of help.
Appointments can be made by contacting the Welfare Officer by email: welfare.officer@ihlondon.com
IH London Mental Health first aiders
Our mental health first aiders at IH London are located in the school or online if you need to contact them at any point in time;
- Caroline Turner (Designated Safeguarding Lead)
- Drew Hyde (Deputy Safeguarding Lead)
- Jo Stansfield
- Pauline Loriggio
- James Lattimer
- Chaya Shetty
- Karin Fitzpatrick
Your study
Curriculum – we have a comprehensive curriculum that describes our overall educational aims and objectives, core competencies and syllabus objectives at different levels. See the IH London Curriculum for full details.
Attendance policy – we know that in order to make progress in your language learning you need to attend classes. See the IH London Student Handbook for full details.
Student agreement – this tells you what we expect from our students in order to make every classroom a positive learning environment. See the IH London Student Handbook for full details.
Academic support – we have an experienced academic manager who you can talk to about your learning at any point in the course.
People
Safeguarding young and vulnerable adults – we know that many of our students are living away from family and friends and we therefore train all our staff in safeguarding awareness. Please see our Safeguarding and child protection policy for full details.
Equal opportunities and diversity – we make sure that all staff and students are treated equally and the school is committed to working with diversity in a positive way. As part of this, we do not tolerate any form of harassment and bullying. See our Equality and diversity policy for full details.
Exclusions policy – the school is a friendly and open environment. In order to maintain this, the school will take the following steps with anyone found to be acting contrary to school policies:
Step 1: a verbal warning
Step 2: a written warning
Step 3: a letter and asked to leave the school
In extreme circumstances, the person will be asked to leave with immediate effect. In any of the above circumstances, no refund will be given.
Harrassment policy – we believe that everyone should be treated equally, fairly and with respect. Bullying and harassment of any kind is unacceptable. Both students and staff have the right to work in a safe environment. See our Harassment policy for full details.
Learning Difficulties and Disability Access – the school will look at applications from any students or trainees with learning difficulties. We will decide on an individual basis if the course is suitable. It is very important that the school is aware of any learning difficulties or special educational needs before enrolment so that if an application is accepted, we can support the student in the right way
The school building is fully equipped for disability access.
Rules and information for students under the age of 18
According to British Law everybody under 18 years of age is considered a child.
Due to this law and in the interest of your safety we want you and your parents to be aware of the following rules and regulations which must be followed while studying at International House London.
- Attend all your timetabled classes on time because arriving late is unfair for the teacher and your classmates.
- Make sure you have filled in the Contact Details form and given it to reception. If your address or telephone number changes please let us know immediately. Please exchange telephone numbers with your host on the first day so that you are able to contact each other if necessary.
- You must inform your host if you are going to be late for your evening meal.
- You must be home by midnight and inform your host if you are going to be late and for how late.
- If you go out in the evening, at weekends or on trips inform your host where you are going, who you are going with (including their age) and give details of departure and arrival if you go travelling.
- Please leave a telephone number or address where you can be contacted at all times.
- You must ask your host for permission if you have friends visiting you.
- Ask the Welfare Officer or your host if you have any questions or concerns about cultural differences in the UK.
- Tell your host or Welfare Officer if you feel sick or unwell.
- Inform the Welfare Officer, teacher or reception if you are concerned about any issue including bullying and harassment.
- You must be over 18 years old to buy cigarettes/tobacco and to drink alcohol in pubs, bars, restaurants or nightclubs.
We need your parents’ written permission if you want to:
- Stay with friends/relatives/guardian or in a hotel during your studies.
- Arrange your own transfer from/to the airport.
- Go on trips and excursions (within the UK or abroad).
- Stay out overnight with friends.
Environment
Health and safety – your safety and security inside and out of the school is very important to us and we have many procedures regarding fire safety, first aid and what to do in emergencies. See the IH London Student Handbook for full details.
Feedback and Complaints
International House London is committed to providing high quality services and we welcome all feedback.
We know that we won’t always get it right and that with input from our customers we can make our services better. We encourage feedback and would like to know when you are happy or dissatisfied with any aspect of our services. Our student feedback system gives all students the opportunity to easily submit meaningful feedback to provide us with useful information regarding our services and facilities.
Students have the opportunity to give feedback at the start and end of their course through our online feedback system and next to this we welcome our students to submit comments to:
We take your concerns or complaints about our services very seriously and want to make sure that we deal with them in an efficient and open way. To submit a complaint please follow the complaints procedure below. We strive to resolve your complaint as quickly and amicably as possible.
Complaints procedure
If you have a problem or are not happy with any aspect of our services please talk to us. We need to know so that we can help you and improve our services. Please see the “I’m not happy…’ section of the IH London Student Handbook for full details.
If you would like to make a complaint, please see our Complaints Procedure.