Season’s Greetings from Living Learning English – A Review of 2025
As the year comes to a close and we step into a new one, we’d like to send our warmest season’s greetings and best wishes for the months ahead.
Before turning fully towards 2026, we wanted to take a moment to reflect on what has been a significant and rewarding year for Living Learning English – one shaped by collaboration, growth and a shared commitment to personalised, high-quality English education.
2025: A year of progress and recognition
2025 has been a year of strengthening everything we do – from teaching and safeguarding to academic pathways and community partnerships. We are proud to share a few highlights from the past 12 months.
Explore our courses for 2026 →
British Council reaccreditation: an outstanding report
This year, Living Learning English was reaccredited by the British Council with an excellent report. Inspectors highlighted the quality of our teaching, the strength of our homestay provision, our personalised academic approach and our robust safeguarding practices.
Read our British Council reaccreditation story →
EL Gazette Centre of Excellence 2025
We were proud to be featured in the EL Gazette Centre of Excellence listings, achieving a score of 8.0 and placing Living Learning English in the top 25% of UK language schools.
This recognition reflects the dedication of our teachers, the quality of our courses and the strength of our personalised immersion model.
Read the latest EL Gazette issue to see the rankings →
Marking an important transition in 2025
2025 also marked an important moment in the life of Living Learning English, as Kate Hargreaves stepped down as Principal and retired, after many years at the heart of the organisation.
Kate played a central role in shaping Living Learning English into what it is today. Her commitment to quality, safeguarding, personalised learning and thoughtful academic care has influenced every part of the organisation – from the way students are supported, to the values shared across our teaching and administrative teams.
While Kate stepped down earlier in the year, the principles she helped establish continue to underpin everything we do. As we look back on 2025, it feels right to acknowledge this transition as part of the story of the year – one grounded in continuity, care and a strong foundation for the future. We remain deeply grateful for Kate’s contribution and wish her a very happy and well-earned retirement.
Investing in our teachers: CPD, community and innovation
Alongside our students, our teachers are at the heart of everything we do. Throughout 2025, we invested heavily in continuous professional development, offering monthly CPD sessions with expert trainers, including:
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Jo Krousso (Macmillan Education) – integrated skills, mindset, mediation and video exploitation
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Monika Smith – preparing homestay and online students for IELTS
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Barbara Lewin – safeguarding training
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Dr Giedre Balcytyte (Academic Summer) – learner strategies and success
We also continued to support teachers through:
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LLE Café sessions
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An updated teacher platform with CPD recordings, slides and resources
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A growing library of external CPD opportunities
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A supportive community of practice across Living Learning English and Academic Summer
Learn more about our teaching approach →
Brightseeds & Anhelina: supporting young people through education
In 2025, we continued our partnership with Brightseeds, offering funded English courses to young people who would not otherwise have access to this type of learning experience.
One of these students was Anhelina, a teenager from Ukraine. Her time with Living Learning English focused not only on developing her English, but also on rebuilding confidence, forming connections and experiencing everyday life in the UK.
Her story is a powerful example of what personalised learning and a warm homestay environment can achieve.
A year in photos
From classroom breakthroughs to weekend adventures, 2025 has been full of memorable moments. Our Flickr gallery captures the diversity of our students’ experiences – from homestay life to cultural excursions across the UK.
Stronger together: Living Learning English & Academic Summer
One of the most important developments this year was Living Learning English joining the Academic Summer family. This partnership allows us to offer a wider range of academic pathways, stronger long-term planning for students and a more robust structure for teachers, families and agents.
You can read more about what this means for the future here:
Our future with Academic Summer →
Together, we are expanding what is possible in personalised English education – while keeping the warmth, care and individual focus that Living Learning English is known for.
A lighter moment to end the year
Alongside all the hard work of 2025, we’ve also enjoyed taking a moment to celebrate the season together as teams.
This year, Living Learning English and Academic Summer joined forces for a playful seasonal series – “The 12 Days of CLIL-mas” – sung by our teams and shared across social media. It was a fun way to reflect our shared love of language, creativity and not taking ourselves too seriously.
Watch the 12 Days of CLIL-mas →
We also shared our own Living Learning English Christmas message, again sung by the team – a light-hearted thank you to everyone who has been part of our year.
If you enjoy seeing a more informal, behind-the-scenes side of our work, we’d love you to follow along.
Follow us on social media (Linktree – scroll to the bottom for social links) →
Looking ahead to 2026
As we move into the New Year, we remain focused on offering thoughtful, personalised learning experiences that support students at every stage of their journey.
All courses in 2026 remain frozen at 2025 prices, helping families, students and partners plan ahead with confidence.
If you’d like to discuss plans for the year ahead or explore course options, we’d be very happy to hear from you.
Request availability or discuss a student plan →
Make a booking →
Or email us directly at info@livingenglish.com
With best wishes for the year ahead
Thank you to everyone who has been part of the Living Learning English community this year – our students, families, teachers, partners and agents. Your trust and collaboration make everything we do possible.
We wish you a happy, healthy and successful New Year, and we look forward to working together in 2026.
