Submit a Review Here for Atlantic School Of English and Active Leisure, West Cork

Having completed theTESOL teacher training course at Atlantic SEAL, I know it's one of the best things I've ever done. I met wonderful people there who never failed to be motivational and supportive. The course itself was well-structured, highly informative and not only that; I enjoyed it immensely. The location was ideal to really immerse yourself in the course and still have time to enjoy the odd hike and a beer in one of the local pubs. The staff were amazing and provided useful feedback and tips. I remember being a nervous wreck before my first teaching observation, but by the end of the course I had gained so much confidence.

Since leaving Schull, I've been teaching English in Greece and I also worked for a publishing company writing English language books, which goes to show there are other possibilities, too. I returned to full-time teaching though since I find the interactive nature of it all the more satisfying.

I highly recommend Atlantic SEAL to any prospective student or teacher. You will find the welcoming environment both stimulating and rewarding. Barbara and her staff demonstrate a genuine interest in each and every individual. I hope to return to Schull for a visit before long.
To Barbara, Pat and Peter: I hope you are all keeping well!

I was apprehensive about undertaking the TESOL Teaching course but I am very happy that I chose Atlantic Seal! As I was living in Ireland at the time of making this decision, I chose to complete the course at Atlantic SEAL and relocated to Schull, West Cork. It is a small, welcoming, friendly and very well organised and run course with excellent teachers. The month's course was intense but enjoyable and providing you have the commitment to see it through, you are unlikely to fail, given the great support of all those working at the School. I felt the month's course equipped me with all the necessary skills to teach English as a foreign language. Schull is a beautiful village, located in a stunning part of Ireland. It is a multi-cultural place and attracts nationalities from all over the world. During the course, I had the opportunity of teaching students of all levels, ages, abilities and nationality including French, Columbian, Italian, German, Algerian and Basque. Also, having completed the course in June-July, I was fortunate enough to continue my teaching practice until the end of the summer period, which helped me to consolidate all that was learnt on the course.
I would highly recommend the course and location to anyone thinking

I completed the Certificate in T.E.S.O.L at Atlantic Seal in June 2009. I found the course to be a challenging, rewarding and worthwhile experience. I had worked as a primary school teacher for five years prior to doing the T.E.S.O.L course and I can say with all honesty that the course gives as solid a foundation in the fundamentals of teaching as any other teacher training courses I have completed. The staff were extremely experienced and in touch with the realities of teaching. The skills that I learned during the four weeks in Schull stand to me each day I work as primary school teacher. I would recommend it to anyone who wishes to be a teacher and who would like to take on a genuine challenge for a month of their lives.

I completed the TESOL teacher training course at Atlantic SEAL and taught English in Spain for a year after taking the course. The course is excellent - the staff really know their stuff and I genuinely felt well prepared for teaching in a TESOL environment. The course provided a sound theoretical basis and practical experience for teaching. Furthermore, the location of the school is absolutely stunning, and is the ideal location to train and to soak up culture!

I went into this course with absolutely no teaching experience and petrified about getting up in front of a class. The month long course at Atlantic SEAL soon shook that fear out of me and gave me the confidence to go on and teach abroad. The course is extremely hands-on and there is no escaping gaining vast experience in teaching practice. Schull is a very multi-cultural village and the people who come and participate as students for the trainee teachers during the course reflects this. My teaching experience during the course allowed me to teach Germans, Italians, French, Russian, Lithuanian, of all levels and abilities. Some of them had been living in the area for years, while others had just arrived.

I walked away from the course with mountains of material including a folder full of lesson plans, all of which I still use to this day, eight years later. Since partaking on the course, I have taught English in Italy, Australia ( in a language school for asylum seekers), Guatemala, Cork city, and of course Schull. For the past four summers I have worked in Atlantic SEAL as a teacher in both the adult and the junior school. Another advantage of participating in this particular course in Schull is that, once qualified, there are often opportunities to work in Schull for a summer, something which gives the recently qualified English teacher great experience in teaching both adults and kids, and opportunities to facilitate on the leisure programme.

I would highly recommend this course at Atlantic SEAL. The school is small, friendly, atmospheric, and because the class size is small, the trainee gets individual attention, tutoring and guidance from the course tutors. All in all, you would be mad to choose anywhere else!

Geographically speaking it was a perfect setting.Beautiful area.The school was welcoming, the course a great confidence building exercise for me personally. Met alot of interesting people and made a few good friends.Good course, great experience, i would recommend for anyone interested in english

If you want to teach English and you need a qualification it is possible to do a bit online and try and get away with it that way, if you want to become and English language teacher you really should do this course in Schull. I went with zero teaching training and hadn't spoken in front of an audience apart from some shaky presentations in university but by the time I was half-way through this course, I was teaching classes, planning lessons, disecting phonetics and grammer and learning Russian (to get an idea of what learning a second language is like). The course begins at a hundred miles an hour and gradually increases from there on and as long as you stick with it you will succeed. This has a lot to do with Pat and Peter who teach the course - they are by far the best course leaders I have had and will not let you fail as long as you are willing to put the work in (which is a lot but manageable).

This course is given in other schools but I doubt the training and feedback is better elsewhere. The location is definately unbeatable. I stayed in holiday accomodation at low season prices and the school will help you find contacts for this too. However busy the course was we managed to find plenty of time to explore Schull, Mizen Head, Crookhaven and elsewhere- we also found plenty of time for Schull's great little pubs which operate in their own time-zone!

If you are even half-way interested in doing a course like this I can't really recommend Atlantic Seal high enough.