Page 15 - ELG1601 Aug-Sep Issue 439

2016 ELrankings Page ix

Prying into the private sector

Melanie Butler looks at inspection results for chains and independents

nly 52 per cent of British- Where chains fall down is in their pro- However, there is one group of inde-
Council-inspected centres are pensity to collect needs for improvement pendent schools that knocks chains for
Oprivate language schools (PLSs) – given by British Council inspectors six: those founded more than 25 years
in the traditional sense, Gazette research when centres fail to meet the requirements ago which have not been taken over
reveals. Of the 288 PLSs defined as year- in a significant number of criteria within by chains. Perhaps the most famous of
round schools teaching English language a single area. Overwhelmingly that area is these belong to The English Network
courses to adults and often also juniors, in publicity, and typical criticism involves (TEN), but they are not the only schools Courtesy London School of English
46 per cent now belong to chains of three unsubstantiated claims about methods, of this kind. They make up 13 per cent
schools or more. However there are only exaggerating teacher qualifications and of the total of British Council centres,
seven chains with more than six UK- lack of clarity about costs. Chain schools over 50 per cent of them are Centres of
based British-Council-accredited centres. make up 24 per cent of accredited centres Excellence, but only 7 per cent have any
Independent PLSs, together with their but 45 per cent of all the centres given a needs for improvement. From the his-
summer school operations, make up 28 need for improvement in publicity. Not toric London School of English, more HISTORIC The London School of English is more than a century old
per cent of all accredited centres. They all chains, however, should be tarred with than a century old, to the delightful Lake
perform a little below the average: 26 per the same brush – among the well-ranking School of English, which costs less than British Council accredited – overall
cent of them appear in the EL Gazette Cen- chains where not one single school has £13 an hour, the long-established inde-
tres of Excellence ranking compared to 38 a need for improvement in anything are pendent language schools dominate the 20% 28%
per cent overall; 23 per cent receive one or Bell, Eurocentres, Kaplan, St Giles, Skola league tables. Their characteristics –
more ‘needs for improvement’ compared and our fastest-rising chain Language well-established, owned by families or
to 20 per cent overall. Six of them have Studies International. not for profit – are shared by some of Private language schools (PLS) – independent
their accreditation under review. On aver- One reason why chains outperform pri- the best-performing chains: Eurocentres,
age, the summer operations of independent vate language schools is that they charge Bell, St Giles, Skola and Language Stud- 23% 26%
PLSs perform below their year-round more. Although there is no clear corre- ies International.
mother schools, with only two schools – lation between quality and price, of 53 These are also the traits of the best- PLS – chains
Anglo-Continental and Churchill House independents that charge £10 a teaching performing sector: boarding schools.
– achieving Centre of Excellence standard hour or less only one, Live Languages in Not one of them has a single need for 25% 33%
for both their adult and junior operations. Glasgow, is a Centre of Excellence. It is improvement and 64 per cent of them are
The chains perform slightly better, incredibly difficult to run a top-ranking Centres of Excellence. Why? Only a few
with a third of then appearing as Cen- privately owned school at a price which is of them, such as Harrow, Sherborne and PLS – independent over 25 years old
tres of Excellence. The rankings are below the average for Beijing. There is no Millfield, belong to the upper echelons
dominated by six chains: Eurocentres, clear correlation between price and qual- of traditional public schools, but they 7% 56%
Kaplan, EF and St Giles for adults, and ity in chains either, although three of the are all steeped in the traditions of Brit-
for young learners Skola. Only the three high-performing chains show a clear value ish education and they are almost always Boarding schools
Bell schools have received a Centre of offer: Eurocentres has an average score of well established. On average the boarding
Excellence award for both their adult and 12 areas of strength and an average price schools inspected by the British Council 0% 64%
their junior operations. In chains, as in per hour of around £20, St Giles averages are 163 years old.
independent language schools, excellence 9 strengths at around £16 per hour and If you want to buy quality in Britain,
with adults does not necessarily transfer Language Studies International averages it pays to choose the traditional and long = under review = need(s) for improvement
to excellence in juniors, or vice versa. 5.5 strengths at around £13 per hour. established. It is what we do best. n = other = Centres of Excellence

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