Page 1 - ELG1601 Jan Issue 432

ELgazette

£3.50 • US$6.50 • ¥700 • €5.50 The newspaper for English language and international education Issue 432 | January 2016

First lady’s

English

surprise
Inside...
CHINA’S FIRST lady Peng
Liyuan (partner of President Xi
Jinping) surprised her audience
with a fluent speech in English
at the United Nations, Andrea
Pérez writes.
As part of the couple’s first
state visit to the US in October,
she spoke at a summit on wom-
en’s rights in New York about
the importance of education for
Courtesy Aysha Fekaiki about her own family, explain-
women and girls.
During her speech she talked
ing how her father had opened
a night school in a poor Chi-
nese town to teach residents to
Pages 6&7: It’s great up read, the Wall Street Journal
north – hunting the best value ‘Negative outlook’ LEARNING BARRIER reported. Peng’s father grew
schools in northern England As part of the National Union of Students up in a small village where the
majority of the people were
day of action in solidarity with international
for Study Group students and migrants, a fake border uneducated and ‘as his daughter
I know what education means to
control post was set up in mid-November
people’.
at the London School of Economics to
Her proficiency in English has
protest against the UK student visas
regime. The union is trying to tackle been noticed previously, but the
anti-immigration sentiment growing in speech at the UN was her first
CREDIT RATING agencies Moody’s and care’. In 2014 three Bellerbys Colleges – Britain in the wake of the government’s chance to demonstrate this to an
Standard and Poor’s have changed their London, Oxford and Cambridge – failed to response to the refugee crisis international audience. n
outlook on Study Group bonds to negative meet the UK’s national minimum standards
and affirmed their credit rating as B3/B-, for boarding schools, although all subse-
or high risk. Moody’s senior analyst for quently passed on re-inspection.
Study Group, Pieter Rommens, also gave a In September 2015 the Independent Schools
negative outlook for the Study Group Cor- Inspectorate found that Bellerbys Brighton
porate Family, citing weakened cash flow did not meet these standards, and judged the
as a result of the acquisition of Endeavour governance of the college to be unsatisfac-
Page 8: Why studying art Learning Group and a delay in fee payments tory. Gordon Bull, general counsel for Study
can benefit literacy and from the Australian government. Group, commented, ‘Our recent Brighton ISI
language development The rating agencies’ judgements coincide inspection highlighted a number of areas of
with the failure of two Study-Group-owned excellence and good practice as well as areas
colleges, Bellerbys London and Bellerbys where we need to improve; we’ve already put
Brighton, to meet all UK national minimum in place an action plan to address these.’
standards for boarding schools at inspection. In June 2015 Bellerbys London also
Weaker trading in both Bellerbys and Embassy failed the national minimum boarding
language schools was also noted by Moody’s, schools standards in an inspection by Eng-
though overall trading remains healthy and land’s school inspectorate, Ofsted. The
student enrolments are up 19 per cent. inspectors noted, ‘A high turnover of staff
The Study Group bonds, or ‘senior secured … has resulted in weakness in provision for
notes’, were issued in 2013 by Study Group students’ welfare and safety.’
subsidiary Edu UK Bondco plc, which is listed Study Group’s managing director James
on the Luxembourg stock exchange. Investors Pitman acknowledged that, despite passing
buy a tranche of Study Group debt, to a total an inspection in 2014, Bellerbys London had
amount of £205 million, and receive an annual ‘fallen short in some areas. This was primarily
interest payment, or yield, of 8.875 per cent, due to senior leadership changes at the college,
with the initial investment due to be repaid in which could have been managed better. An
Pages 9&10: Asia special full in 2018. The investment is described in updated welfare programme has since been
explores Japan, Thailand, the offering memorandum issued to potential introduced and we were pleased Ofsted noted
Malaysia and Vietnam investors as involving the ‘high degree of risk’ our safeguarding, child protection and health
typical of high-yield bonds. and safety policies all meet best practice.’
Concern from the agencies rating the bonds Ofsted also found that Bellerbys London did
appears to be based on the worsening position not meet some educational standards, in partic-
of the company’s free cash flow, used to pay ular judging the attainment at GCSE (national
the interest, and the increase in the group’s exams taken at sixteen by students in England)
debt compared to pre-tax earnings (Ebitda). as ‘too low’. In 2014 31 per cent of Bellerbys
Under a covenant with its banks, the company London students achieved the national target
must reduce its leverage, or debt ratio, from of five GCSE at A*–C grades, compared with
5.1 times debt to Ebitda to 4.05 by the end 63.8 per cent of students nationally.
of 2016. Moody’s believes it is ‘now highly James Pitman told the Gazette that short-
likely that the company will breach its cov- comings in educational provision were being
enants in June 2016’ but adds that it expects addressed urgently but pointed out that ‘over
Study Group to be able to renegotiate the half of this year’s Bellerbys London A level
agreements with its banks. Sources close to results were at A* and A grades and over 90
Study Group confirm that the group is work- per cent of results were at A*–B, significantly
ing with the banks to manage risks. above the national average. This is testament
Pages 15–17: ELjobs One risk noted in the group’s 2014 to the hard work of the academic staff and the
– recruitment opportunites accounts is to its reputation if it fails to excellent teaching practices at the college,
across the industry ‘appropriately supervise children in our and should not go unrecognised.’ n