Page 34 - ELG1806 June Issue 458

INTERVIEW .

‘Staff and students ‘Not to mention the other diplomas, the
courses for foreign teachers, the course we
run for foreign governments,’ adds Joseph.
know this school ‘But it’s also about how you treat your staff,
and that is what we are emphasising a lot.
‘For example, a lot of staff used to
complain that they were on 23-month
is different’ contracts, which meant that they couldn’t
gain employment rights, and we changed
that. We discussed it with the board and
we realised that we’re actually in favour of
IH London prides itself on its sense of community, a giving teachers more security.’
Eleanor is convinced that it is the quality
commitment to teachers and the quality of education it of the teachers that has helped IH London
provides, its new management team tells El Gazette gain fourteen out of fifteen points in its
latest British Council inspection.
She says: ‘We don’t have a prescribed,
top-down way of teaching; everything is
tailored to the individual group of students,
and lessons are designed based on the
students’ needs.’
‘That approach isn’t something you
can necessarily roll out in a large chain of
schools because it’s difficult to guarantee
you’re going to get the same high quality of
tuition in every single classroom.
‘Whereas large chains tend to rely on
prescribed methodologies or materials to
standardise the quality, we focus more
on creative, flexible ways to teach the
individual student. To do that, you need to
have a lot of faith in your teachers.
‘But at IH we can be confident in the
ability of our teachers because we train
them. In fact, most of our permanent
teachers are teacher trainers.’
The emphasis on meeting student needs
extends to sales and marketing. Shortly
Greg Patton, Eleanor Maly after a student arrives at the London
and Joseph Lowe school, the sales person whose client they
are comes down to talk to them, to check
how everything is going. IH sales people
hen you walk into this Maly, an old EFL hand new to the IH are part of the community; they work in
building, you get the family, agrees. ‘When I was director of the same building as the teachers and the
sense of the scale of what studies I was always very interested in any students; they eat in the same café.
‘Whappens here.’ teacher with an IH Celta on their CV. That Since Greg arrived, he has set about
Joseph Lowe, now chief executive of was a selling point to me and that was recruiting salespeople with an IH
International House London, first came to always borne out in the teacher’s abilities. background, bringing them home, you could
the school as finance director two years ago. say. ‘As the market becomes more mature
He had no experience of EFL, but had a We’re so confident and more commoditised and there are more
background working for other educational big players, what we have is the sense of
charities, so the not-for-profit environment in the ability of our community,’ Greg says.
at IH was nothing new. ‘It’s a people place on many levels,’ agrees
‘The ethos and the culture is what I have teachers because we train Eleanor. ‘We survey our staff each year to
worked in for many years,’ Lowe said. them. In fact most of our take the temperature of the organisation,’
But it was a surprise to Greg Patton, the explains Joseph, ‘and what came across last
new sales and marketing director, however. permanent teachers are year so strongly was that the commitment of
Originally an investment banker, he the staff to the organisation is unparalleled.
switched into education after the crash. teacher trainers ‘It must go back, I think, to the charity
His last job was with Bell. values on which we operate. Staff and
‘The biggest shock for me coming from ‘It’s justifiably a very strong brand in students know this school is different
the commercial world, from banking, is English language teaching and of course in because it is not just about a couple of
that at IH, the most important thing isn’t teacher training.’ people getting rich: it’s about the benefits
profitability, it’s quality – it’s all about the ‘IH London is big,’ chips in Greg, ‘not we can bring to the community.’
quality of the education. just in terms of the number of students we
‘To achieve that, you need to focus on teach but also the number of teachers we
getting the right staff. You employ the right train… One thing that really surprised me n Joseph Lowe is the CEO of International
staff, you point them in the right direction when I first got here is the sheer extent House London. Eleanor Maly is director of
and you empower them.’ of the teacher training, the scale. We run education and Greg Patton is director of sales
The new director of education, Eleanor something like 50 Celta courses a year.’ and marketing at the central London school.
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