Page 11 - ELG1601 Mar Issue 434

ELcentres of excellence
March 2016 Page 11

... our at-a-glance guide

Melanie Butler searches through the data for patterns of performance

sing colour coding to Check out the Eurcoentres results in Chester, Eurocentres Bourne- King’s College London, Kings
show the areas where on page 9 – very strong in teaching mouth, Cambridge, Eltham and Oxford (no relation), Sheffield
Uschools have been and resources, and if you look at London Central, EF Manchester, Hallam University and the Uni-
awarded strengths by the British Eurocentres Brighton you can see Sherborne International, Accent versity of Salford. And apologies
Council inspections reveals at why they lag behind a little: prob- International, d’Overbroeck’s, to anyone we failed to find! n
a glance in which areas centres lems with resources. Kaplan too
excel. It also shows clear patterns has a consistent pattern – strong in
and highlights variations among management and resources – while
different types of providers. EF, despite spectacular results for
The vast majority of boarding- most of its schools, is less so. EF 10/15
school-owned summer schools, Manchester excels at teaching, for
for example, get a perfect score example, while EF Oxford does Anglo-Continental School for Young Learners
for child welfare – perhaps unsur- better at welfare.
prisingly since they have all had Resources and environment is
to meet the devilishly difficult the area where centres are most Bede’s Summer School
national minimum boarding likely to get a perfect score. You
school standards. Several of the might think this was hard to get if
private language school multicen- you are a small independent low- Bishopstrow College
tres manage that too, including cost centre, but schools like Lake
Discovery Summer, Thames Val- in Oxford, IH Newcastle and IH
ley Summer Schools, English Bristol – all of which appear in our Dudley College
Country Schools and Exportise, list of best schools on a budget (see
but overall the boarding schools page 15) – prove this to be untrue.
have it by a short head, and also Teaching and learning turns Milton Keynes College
tend to score a little better on out to be the hardest area in
teaching and learning. Univer- which to get a perfect score.
sities, very few of whom take Ten out of the top twenty-five EF International Language School Bristol
under-18s on English language schools do manage this, but we
courses, are instead more likely can find only six in the rest of our
to do well at teaching and put less Centres of Excellence listings. EF International London Roupell Street
emphasis on pastoral care. So special congratulations to
The coding can also reveal us Wimbledon School of English,
how consistent (or not) a chain is. Beet Language Centre, English Embassy English Oxford

Eurocentres Brighton

11/15 Hampstead School of English
Accent International

Harrow House International College Swanage
Anglo-Continental School of English (inc. Vacation)

International House Bristol
British Study Centres Oxford

Kaplan International Colleges Torquay
Churchill House School of English Language

Kaplan International English London
D’Overbroeck’s

St Giles London Central
International House Newcastle and Edinburgh

Summer Boarding Courses
Kaplan International Colleges Manchester

Taunton School International
Kingsway English Centre for Professionals, Worcester

Torquay International
SKOLA English Study Tours (EST)

St Giles International, Brighton

Stafford House School of English, Canterbury

St Clare’s, Oxford

Thames Valley Summer Schools

10/14
Leeds Beckett University

London School of English, Canterbury

We make every effort to ensure that lists in the Gazette are as
comprehensive and up to date as possible. However, we are reliant
on published reports from the British Council, and we can only use
the latest published information (19 February 2016). Sometimes the
information is updated several months after an organisation has been
inspected, and this may mean that the data here is based on informa-
tion from before the last inspection or spot check.