City Lit Avis 

The course about song lyrics: The teacher was rude, dismissive, condescending.

I made an official complaint but the response I received didn't really suggest they were going to change anything so I'm trying to prevent others from going through the same thing I did. I booked a weekend-long course four months prior to the start date and it was cancelled with only three days notice. I don't live in London so I planned to travel from out of town and I've now lost a lot of money because I couldn't get a refund on my hotel room.

When I wrote to them, I made specific suggestions for how they could fix this in future such as introducing a cut-off date for enrollments which would ensure they had enough people to go ahead and that they could give appropriate notice if a course needs to be cancelled. I also suggested that they put a note on course enrollment pages warning that courses can be cancelled with short notice and that they don't advise that people travel from out of town. Both of these suggestions were ignored. I was told 'We leave our courses open until quite close to the start date to enable any more learners to enrol'. That's clearly great for the organisation but awful for people left disappointed and out of pocket when courses are cancelled with only a few days notice. They also said 'Further, we have a procedure for off-site courses that must be met, and unfortunately, on this occasion we didn’t have the full details required, nor the means to get them in the window presented between realising, and start date'. This doesn't explain why everything was left until the last minute and it doesn't really inspire confidence that they have good processes in place.

I'm writing this as a warning to others who are thinking about enrolling. Other reviews seem to suggest this is a bigger problem than they are implying. They have responded to several people saying that they only cancel courses 'in exceptional circumstances'. If this is happening frequently, I don't think I can say the circumstances are exceptional.

Edit: Following the response below, I think it's important to say they did not take my comments on board (my suggestions were ignored) and I didn't receive any information about why the course was cancelled other than what I said above. No explanation was given as to why everything was left to the last minute. I really wish they'd just be honest at this point and admit that a mistake was made and it was avoidable.

I have been taking various courses at City Lit, in Covent Garden for some years; most recently and for the recent years, Pottery on a Tuesday. The tutors are absolutely first-rate, always on hand to ask questions, help with a problem, give advice on how I can make something better.
Besides Arts courses, City Lit offers literature classes, languages, dance, music...well, you name it, City Lit will probably have it! I really recommend City Lit

I recently completed the intro to creative writing class with KR Moorhead (they were a fantastic tutor!) and am now taking the start your novel course and loving it.
The intro to creative writing class was pretty chill, really informative and surprising (I found I enjoyed poetry which I did not expect.)
The start your novel course feels a bit more like "serious writing." Both were exactly what I was looking for at that particular time.

I have just given up hope of being able to access google classroom for my course that starts tomorrow and have asked for my money back.It is impossible to find an appropriate phone contact and the email I was given bounced.

Excellent teaching, a very wide choice of courses, times and days to attend in person or online.

I recently completed the City Lit BSL Level 1 course and had a really positive experience.
Carolina was very patient, encouraging and supportive teacher who made learning feel comfortable and enjoyable from the start.

Throughout the course, I developed a solid understanding of BSL grammar, particularly how to sign and space effectively.
The lessons were clear, engaging and well paced, which helped me build confidents week by week.

I would definitely recommend this course to anyone interested in learning British Sign Language.
I've learnt so much and hope to use these skills to become a valuable asset to the community.
I`m really looking forward to continuing my journey with BSL Level 2 soon.

Frances Perera

I attended the French Conversation Intensive evening course this year. Mr Neil Hillman was the tutor. He was an excellent teacher, well organised classes incorporating various methods of learning French.
I felt very comfortable in the class and the other students were friendly and able to interact easily too.
All in all this has made me feel I should carry on with learning French at City Lit Keeley Street.
Great place and staff in the library and French department so supportive and welcoming.
My only difficulty was with “google Classroom “. Which I could access on my phone but not on my laptop.
I went down and the IT department helped to sort this out for me.

Great teaching. Insightful comments. Very well managed Zoom learning experience.

I have just completed Sarah Jaffray's Introduction to art history.What an amazing course, taught by a fantastic teacher whose enthusiasm for her subject was truly infectious. Even though this was an on line course, she managed to include each of the 15 students in each and every class with no pressure or judgment. I will be signing up for another course soon.

Excellent tuition, good organisation and a friendly and supportive group of fellow students. I thoroughly enjoyed the course, both for the learning and the sociability.

Having already studied this subject, I felt that I needed to get back to basics, and this was just the right course for me. Our tutor was very patient and gave us plenty of time to work on tasks set. She has inspired me to sign up for another term and I now feel ready to expand my vocabulary and grammar with a lot more confidence.
This course was well organised with easy access to all the material. No computer glitches and all was well organised.

City Lit is an amazing place to study and meet new people. We are so lucky to have access to fantastic teachers in a safe non threatening environment.

City Lit is a fantastic place to learn - the tutors are highly experienced and knowledgable and they offer a fascinating range of courses. It’s a very welcoming environment and I have loved every course I’ve studied here

All the teachers are experienced, knowledgeable, thoughtful and available. No time is wasted and all required materials are available

Quality of the tutor is very high with excellent lesson materials and background reading notes as well as knowledge of the subject not always a given in my experience.

I just finished the second term of Singing 2 at City Lit - led by the wonderful Håkan. The class is is great fun and the students are really friendly. We are making great progress, singing pieces all together and progressing on to solos. Great teaching and guidance on preparing to sing from sheet music (though sight singing is definitely not necessary) breathing, posture, and vocal technique.

A terrific course about Michelangelo and his age. Fascinating insights
Perfectly explained bringing the era to life . The City Lit is a wonderful place to learn.

Good teaching which stretched me but was supportive at the same time

I was disappointed by my by recent language course at citylit and ultimately didn't attend the last few sessions. The tutor was a native speaker of the language but that appeared to be their only qualification for teaching the course. Their knowledge of grammar was poor and I learned more doing private study at home .