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CONFIRMATION
All bookings must be made using the Online Registration Form. Once a booking has been sent to and confirmed by Castleforbes College the client agrees to our booking and cancellation policy.
PAYMENT CONFIRMATION
All fees must be paid in full 14 days before the commencement of the course. Castleforbes College can not guarantee the booking unless full payment has been received.
PRICES
All prices are subject to change. It is the responsibility of the client to ensure that they are aware of the current price for the course being booked. Castleforbes College reserves the right to change prices at any time of the year.
All cancellations must be made in writing to Castleforbes College
SHORT TERM COURSE
If cancellation is made at any time, there will be a €50 administration charge.
Under no circumstances will refunds be issued for cancellations once a course has started.
VISA REFUSAL / NON EEA ACADEMIC YEAR COURSE
In the event of a cancellation, an administration charge of €150 will apply. All applications for refunds due to visa refusal must be accompanied by all relevant Irish Naturalisation and Immigration Service (INIS) documentation.
No refunds can be requested once a student has received their GNIB/IRP letter from the school (unless their visa is rejected after entering the country).
If the visa is refused after starting the course, Castleforbes College will keep the fees of the weeks joined plus €150 of administration fee.
Note: This only applies to renewal students if their visa has been fully rejected and the student has followed all requests immigration have asked of them in order to get their visa renewed.
HOST FAMILY ACCOMMODATION
In case of cancellation, a €150 administration fee will be charged.
Cancellations received 14 days or less prior to the expected arrival date and “no-shows” will incur a penalty of one week’s accommodation fee.
Amendments received 14 days or less prior to the expected arrival date will be charged from the original arrival date.
If a student decides to amend and short his/her stay with the Host Family there will be no refund for the current week and the following.
Refunds for unused portions of accommodation in the event a student cuts short his/her stay at a host family will only be issued for the portion less than an entire week’s notice.
Castleforbes College reserves the right to make changes to the accommodation address up to the arrival date.
No refunds will be available for accommodation if cancellation is made within 24 hours of arrival in accommodation.
STUDENT HOUSE/HOSTEL/CAMPUS ACCOMMODATION
In case of cancellation, a €150 administration fee will be charged.
Cancellations received 21 days or less prior to the expected arrival date and “no-shows” will incur the following penalty, according to the length of the stay booked:
Under no circumstances will refunds be issued for the cancellation of accommodation after arrival. This also applies should you shorten your length of stay.
No refunds will be available for accommodation if cancellation is made within 24 hours of arrival in accommodation.
Airport Transfers
Airport transfers are not included in any course booking. Airport transfers may be booked as an additional item. For all transfers, complete flight information must be provided in advance and Castleforbes College will provide you with a contact number for the driver.
No refunds will be available if cancellation is made within 24 hour of arrival.
Other relevant information
In all cases, Castleforbes College will strive to finalise all approved refunds within one month of approval.
All refunds will be paid directly by bank transfer to the original payer account.
All applications for refunds should be made in writing to Castleforbes College by email to info@castleforbescollege.com.
Attendance and Punctuality
All students are requested to be punctual as lateness disrupts other students and the teacher. Therefore, students who arrive more than 15 minutes late for class will be marked absent for that part of the class. In addition, students are not permitted to leave the class early. Should a student leave the classroom more than 15 minutes before the end of the class, they will lose attendance for the entire portion of the class. The college monitors attendance for all EU/EEA and non-EEA students using a hard copy as signed by the classroom teacher.
If a non-EEA student has more than a total of 15 minutes of absence during a week, they will lose one period of attendance. If a student arrives more than 15 minutes late for class, in the interest of learning, students may be permitted to attend the lesson, but non-EEA students will be marked absent in conjunction with the guidelines stated by the INIS.
Castleforbes takes non-compliance with its Punctuality policy very seriously and to this effect students attendance figures for a week period are based on the accumulative time which they are late for lessons and will therefore deduct a period of attendance for each 15 minutes of class time that is missed out on over the course of a week. This remedial action is implemented by the biometric system and in class legal document as signed by the classroom teacher on a daily basis. Students who are persistently late in arriving to the school are requested to attend a meeting with the Director of Studies. If required, this may then lead to formal verbal and/or written warnings as outlined in the Attendance policy, culminating in register removal and, finally, expulsion.
Castleforbes College is compelled to comply with INIS rules and guidelines in relation to visa students studying in Ireland. These rules are set out by the Irish Government and require that all full-time courses attended by non-EEA students comprise of 15 hours of day time supervised study per week.
Class attendance is taken at 9am and 10:45am for morning classes and 1:45pm and 3:30pm in the afternoon to ensure full attendance. Students are made fully aware of this during induction, as well as being reminded on a regular basis. Further to this, teachers record departure times of students who leave the class before it finishes. Attendance is recorded on an attendance sheet which is updated on a weekly basis on the school’s database.
The attendance is entered into the school’s attendance system every Friday by the School Manager and the Director of Studies.
Non-EEA students who require visas must maintain an attendance level of no lower than 85%. If a student wishes to transfer from another institution they must furnish the college with a letter stating that they have attended 85% or more during their previous course. It is the goal of Castleforbes College to ensure that all students finish with full attendance on all courses offered by the college.
It is the responsibility of the Director of Studies to ensure that the aforementioned process is completed daily and that all procedures are followed.
Students can apply for sick leave from their studies under exceptional circumstances, e.g. for health, medical or compassionate reasons (for example bereavement of a family member).
If a student is sick, they must inform the receptionist at the school on the first and every subsequent day of the illness. This must be done by sending an email to info@castleforbescollege.com.
Once the student returns to the school, within 5 days they must produce a hard copy, original doctors/medical certificate confirming their absence due to illness
If the certificate is produced the student’s attendance will not be affected by the sick leave and will be recorded on the school’s attendance system.
If no medical certificate is produced, the student will be marked as absent on the school’s attendance system for the days they were sick and did not attend classes.
PLEASE NOTE that sick days will not be added to the end of the course period.
Students are not permitted to take holidays within the first 8 weeks of arrival nor during the last 4 weeks of the conclusion of their course. Non-EEA students should arrange their holiday periods during enrolment and before registering with INIS. Holidays must be taken in consecutive two week blocks. Non-EEA students are required to inform the school of their intended first two week holiday break during the booking process. Due to operational reasons, these dates cannot be changed once agreed.
Returning early from holidays – Students who return from holiday earlier than agreed may not be able to rejoin their class as this is subject to availability of places in the class.
Castleforbes College conducts a monthly review of all student attendance in order to ensure proper attendance and enforce the college’s attendance policy. All non-EEA student’s cumulative attendance (calculated over one academic term) should be at least 85%.
Should a student’s attendance fall below this level, they will receive a 1st, 2nd and 3rd warning depending on the level of absenteeism. INIS wish to be informed of any student not attending classes and whose attendance falls below 85%.
If you wish to terminate your visa early and you are going back to your country, we will require a copy of your ticket and boarding pass.
If a student has been missing for more than two days, the college will contact them via text message in the first instance, followed up by a phone call on the third day. If the student is a non-EEA student they will then be sent a 1st official warning letter.
If a student’s attendance falls below the required level the Poor Attendance Disciplinary procedure, as detailed in the student handbook, will be followed.
Non-EEA students who require visas must maintain an attendance level of no lower than 85%. If a student wishes to transfer from another institution they must furnish the college with a letter stating that they have attended 85% or more during their previous course. It is the goal of Castleforbes College to ensure that all students finish with full attendance on all courses offered by the college. It is the responsibility of the Director of Studies to ensure that the aforementioned process is completed daily and that all procedures are followed.
Monitoring of attendance involves reviewing the completed class attendance registers, reviewing medical certificates and the sending of attendance concern emails by the school.
Once a student has been removed from the class register due to low attendance, as described above (non-EEA Attendance), that student may then be expelled by the school. The student will receive an email that she/he is at danger of being expelled with instruction on how to arrange a meeting with the Academic Director. The final decision to expel a student after this meeting, or if the student does not respond, is at the discretion of the director of Castleforbes college. By this stage we will have given the student every opportunity to discuss with us if there are any particular reasons for their low attendance. The decision will be issued by email. If a student is expelled from Castleforbes college, the student must stop attending classes immediately.
If the expulsion is not contested by the student, this will be reported to the student’s agent (where applicable), parents (where applicable) and INIS (if visa-required). The student will not receive a certificate for the course and no refunds will be issued.
Students may be excused for their absence under exceptional circumstances, e.g., for health/medical reasons or based on compassionate grounds (bereavement). The application for being excused must normally be accompanied by documentary evidence (e.g., medical certificates from a registered medical practitioner). Excused absences may only be approved by the College Director. Castleforbes will check a sample of all certificates submitted to ensure their validity.
If you are not happy about something at the college we would like to know about it. Your feedback and satisfaction is important to us. Castleforbes College has a documented complaints procedure. Your complaints will be treated in confidence and given paramount importance and we will do all we can to resolve it for the satisfaction of all parties.
If the student has a complaint, they can bring it to the attention of reception or the Director of Studies, depending on the nature of the complaint. If needed, they can bring the complaint to the attention of senior management. The student should put their complaint in writing, which they can do via a complaint form available from the reception. It will be dealt with as swiftly as possible. If that is not possible, an appointment will be set up to address the issues.
PROCEDURES FOR DEALING WITH FORMAL COMPLAINTS
Where the informal approach fails or if the harassment is more serious, you should bring the matter to the attention of the Directors as a formal written complaint with all documented evidence. The person dealing with the complaint will carry out a thorough investigation in accordance with our disciplinary procedure. Those involved in the investigation will be expected to act in confidence and any breach of confidence will be a disciplinary matter. When the investigation has been concluded, a draft report of the findings and of the Investigator’s proposed decision will be sent, in writing, to you and the alleged harasser.
If the report concludes that the allegation is well founded, the harasser will be subject to disciplinary procedure. Anyone who receives a formal warning or who is dismissed or expelled for harassment may appeal against the disciplinary action by using our disciplinary appeal procedure.
If you bring a complaint of harassment you will not be victimised for having brought the complaint. However, if the report concludes that the complaint is both untrue and has been brought with malicious intent; disciplinary action will be taken against you.
COMPLAINTS and GRIEVANCE PROCEDURE
Castleforbes College strives to achieve complete student satisfaction. However, we do acknowledge that the students may have reasons for complaints. There is a weekly feedback questionnaire as well as an end-of-course feedback questionnaire which will monitor your level of satisfaction with the services offered by the college, and help us improve.
If a student has a complaint either with the school in general or with a service the school provides, we would like to know about it. You should raise any problems with a member of staff, who will advise you how to proceed. We will always treat the student’s complaint seriously and do all we can to resolve it for the satisfaction of both parties.
Formal complaints should be made in writing by email to the School Manager. The complaint must include all relevant details of the complaint, including the name of the person or the service the student is making a complaint about. Further details which should be included are dates, times, witnesses and circumstances, as well as details of any previous attempts to resolve the issue. Moreover, students may wish to suggest any reasonable measures they think could be taken to reach a satisfactory resolution.
In order to assure complaints are dealt with in an efficient manner, formal complaints should usually be made within 5 working days after the event about which the complaint is being made, but no more than 10 working days after such an event.
All complaints will normally be acknowledged by the School Manager in writing within 5 working days. The School Manager will undertake an investigation, including meeting with the complainant, as deemed appropriate if further details of the complaint is needed.
A written recommendation on how the matter could be or has been resolved will be sent by email to the complainant. This recommendation normally takes up to 30 days. Appeals must be made in writing directly to the School Manager.
GRIEVANCE PROCEDURE
All Students have the right to seek redress for grievances relating to disciplinary decisions which have been made against them. In order that students can raise grievances and have them settled fairly, promptly and without prejudice to their position in the Organisation, the following stages outline the procedure to be followed.
Note: Where the grievance is in respect of the person named at stage one of the procedure, the complainant may proceed immediately to stage two. Under certain unavoidable circumstances i.e. holidays, absence, business etc. the number of days stated above may vary.
BEHAVIOUR and COMPLAINTS
Any form of harassment is not tolerated at Castleforbes College. Typical types of harassment include those on the grounds of:
If any of the above mentioned behaviour is reported then this may result in immediate expulsion from the college and from your accommodation.
If you have a complaint, you should report this to reception or the Director of Studies where it will be dealt with by an appropriate person. Castleforbes College will always aim to resolve situations efficiently if it is within our ability to do so.
Castleforbes College has strict admissions policies for its programmes. All students do an entry level test and will be assigned to a class based on the result. Castleforbes College offers a free online test located at: https://www.castleforbescollege.com/our-courses/english-test/
All non-EEA students must choose and pay for a recognised exam before finalising their enrolment with Castleforbes. In the case of the college, all Castleforbes College students will be enrolled on the Test of Interactive English (TIE), which is recognised by the Irish Department of Education and the Italian Ministry of Education for the purposes of Credito Formato. For more information on the Test of Interactive English, please visit: http://www.tie.ie/.
All students must have a minimum level of A2 to undertake the exam. For this reason, students must pass the placement exam for each course level.
If a student does not reach the minimum required level to undertake the TIE exam, the student will be offered an alternative programme which is more suitable to their level.
It should be noted that students can only renew their course with Castleforbes College at a higher level than that which they finished in their previous school.
There is no compulsory end or course exam in Castleforbes College for EU students. However, it is our policy to encourage all students, however short their time is, to take an externally recognised examination. All English language programmes at Castleforbes College include preparation for the TIE exam.
For students on an academic year programme (25 weeks minimum) it is our policy that they must enter for an externally recognised examination and failure to do so will be considered a disciplinary issue for the student. All non-EEA students must pay for their exam and sign an agreement to undertake the end-of-course exam before their enrolment at Castleforbes College is finalised.
The college prepares students for the Test of Interactive English (TIE), since students can be prepared for these exams in house and they can be taken at an established centre in Dublin. Castleforbes College will enrol students for the TIE examination and the results will be sent to the college and the student. The results will be recorded on the college database. Responsibility for this process lies with the Director of Studies who can be contacted via email at info@castleforbescollege.com or on +353 1 8746848.
All examination results and grades will be available for inspection by students and all other relevant authorities, including the Irish Naturalisation and Immigration Service (INIS) and the Garda National Immigration Bureau (GNIB).
Please note that English language courses are not on the National Framework of Qualifications (NFQ) and students who complete a course at Castleforbes College do not receive an NFQ award.
Improving our service at the college is of vital importance to us and in order to ensure a consistent level of student satisfaction, Castleforbes College conducts weekly feedback surveys which cover all aspects of the college’s services including academic, administrative and accommodation.
The college also monitors academic performance by way of weekly tests which offer students an opportunity to review what has been covered during the week. In addition, teachers hold mid-course and end-of-course tests intended to assess students’ suitability to proceed to a higher level class. A record of students’ results is kept on the college database. Individual tutorials are also offered to all students enrolled on a 25-week plus courses and will be conducted during the weeks following the mid-course and end-of-course tests.
As part of our commitment to improving services, in-house continuing professional development (CPD) workshops and seminars are frequently led by the Director of Studies and senior teachers. All academic staff are obliged to attend. Furthermore, Castleforbes College also notifies all academic staff of up-coming CPD events organised by external bodies. Additionally, teachers are also monitored by way of regular observations, both formal and informal, by the Director of Studies and constructive feedback is offered with regard to any improvements needed.
When a student enrols with Castleforbes College, they will be supplied with all contact details of the school, along with emergency contact numbers for use in emergency situations outside of office hours.
A Castleforbes College member of staff is available on this number 24 hours of the day, 365 days a year.
In line with current national regulations; all students enrolled on courses 25 weeks or longer in duration, are obliged to purchase Learner Protection Insurance as part of their course fees. This is an insurance that protects the student’s fees.
The school is opened all year, Monday to Friday, from 8:30 to 17:00 except for the following days:
As medical insurance is a necessary requirement to get a work-study Visa in Ireland, Castleforbes College offers the option of a comprehensive medical insurance to its non-EEA students with ACE European Insurance Group. A full copy of the insurance policy is given to the student on their arrival and can be sent to them before they travel if required. The insurance supplied will cover the student throughout the term of their Visa.
When a student enrols with Castleforbes College, they will be supplied with all contact details of the school, as well as the emergency contact numbers for use in emergency situations outside of office hours. A member of Castleforbes College staff is available on this number at all times of the year.If cancellation is made at any time, there will be a €50 administration charge.
Under no circumstances will refunds be issued for cancellations once a course has started.
