How we teach
A fun and effective English curriculum for your child designed by British Council early years experts
Our innovative play-based methodology features animated characters from Academy Award®-winning Aardman. Your child will learn naturally through play and Timmy’s stories. When your child is with our specially-trained teachers they will feel safe and relaxed, as if they were at home.
Watch this video to find out more.
Happy children learn best
An effective learning experience needs to tap into your child's natural curiosity. It needs to be holistic and inspired by play to keep up with your child's cognitive, linguistic, social, emotional and physical development.
Your child will enjoy learning English through stories, videos, songs, movement, drama, arts and crafts and much more. Our teachers set up purposeful play activities that provide opportunities for your child to encounter and learn new language.
You will see your child make real progress in their English language learning, building their self-confidence and having fun along the way.
Our teachers
Learning Time with Timmy teachers are early years specialists who have:
- a degree and an appropriate qualification to teach young children
- a minimum of two years’ teaching experience
- attended a Learning Time with Timmy training programme.
Our teachers get to know every child in the class. They plan lessons to meet your child’s needs, helping them to progress at their own pace.
Our early years experts provide training and ongoing professional development for our teachers so that we set the highest standards of teaching English in the early years.
Be part of your child's learning experience
We see parents as partners. Our teachers provide you with regular feedback on your child’s progress. They also offer guidance on how you can continue your child’s English language learning adventure at home. Your observations of how your child uses new skills at home are invaluable too!
Learning in a safe and secure environment
You can also trust us to put your child’s personal development, security and well-being first, both in the classroom and online.
We give you peace of mind - our policies and processes meet the highest UK child protection and safeguarding standards, which are among the best in the world.
Frequently Asked Questions
My child’s regular pre-school is also using Jolly Phonics. Isn’t it unnecessary to repeat the same curriculum during enrichment?
Jolly Phonics is a recognised programme for teaching phonics that is used throughout the UK. We believe that it provides the building blocks required to enable your child to recognise the sounds of English. The repetition of using the Jolly Phonics system on our enrichment programme will help your child to become more familiar with the sounds and in turn, lead to greater confidence as a reader.
Will my child be able to read after joining British Council classes?
Our range of pre-school courses will provide your child with the necessary skills to become a confident reader by the end of pre-school. These range from the learning and pronunciation of individual phonics to the application of simple reading strategies to enhance the understanding of a text.
My child has a limited understanding of English, will he/she be able to join classes?
Our pre-school courses are inclusive and we accept learners who have little grounding in English at N2 and K1 levels. The teacher monitors each child’s progress in the class and should they experience any difficulties, parents will be contacted and advised accordingly.
For a child joining K2, we conduct a short placement test to check that the learners have a sound grasp of the basic phonic units. Without a grasp of these units, it would prove challenging for them to attain any sort of fluency by the conclusion of the course.
My child finds reading difficult. How can your programme help him?
Our programme provides your child with a rich learning environment that makes reading a fun experience. Interactive activities that highlight and explore phonics are central to our lessons and ensure that your child becomes fully engaged in reading. In addition to classroom activities, your child will be given a story book to take home each week and from K2 they will also be given a guided reader to further encourage their literacy skills.
What is unique about studying with the British Council?
- High Calibre Teachers: All of our teachers have recognised teaching qualifications and are experienced pre-school professionals. In addition, we run regular training sessions to ensure that our teachers are acquainted with the latest developments in pre-school teaching.
- An International Environment: Students meet teachers and staff from across the world, exposing them to different accents and ideas.
- Close Home-School Links: You will receive a welcome email from the teacher in addition to parent meetings and progress reports. We encourage you to communicate regularly with the teacher through these channels.
