Page 22 - ELG1906 May-Jun Issue 465

EU special .
SPECIAL FEATURE
Academic excellence

CONCORD COLLEGE
comes at a cost
Summer School

Melanie Butler fi nds great CLIL summer St CLARE’S OXFORD

courses, but choose with care

he demand from the CLIL countries UK specialist teachers work a 50-60 hour
English courses Science courses is clear: they want summer courses week, including all duties and preparation
with Content and Language time, for which they earn £1,000 a week
TIntegrated Learning. And they want once the 35 per cent additional holiday pay
them taught by subject specialists, preferably is factored in.
with experience of L2 students. An EFL summer teacher, by contrast,
Stefania Bresquar, of the Italian agents’ typically works around 50-55 hours a week,
association IALCA, put it at a recent road including all duties, but excluding any St Clare’s Oxford hires in visiting experts
show run by Language Cert: “We want preparation time. They typically earn just for its summer courses in Science,
physics taught in English by people who under £500 a working week, including 12 per Business and Art and Design
University preparation Activities & enrichment know about physics.” cent holiday pay, but before the government
This is ‘hard’ CLIL, an approach where accommodation offset of £52.82 is deducted. Others use visiting university post-
subject specialists, trained to work with L2 Such rates can easily fall below minimum grads to deliver lectures or lab sessions.
children, deliver content in English while wage (see box). This approach is known as ‘English as a
supporting language Yet with student Medium of Instruction’. It can work well on
acquisition. fees around £1,000 a pre-university programmes with B2 level
Foundations for Academic Success Soft CLIL is a good
The main place to week, surely there’s students, but may be less effective with low-
find such teachers in the way to improve academic enough money for level learners or under-16s.
UK is in independent language skills rather than physics teachers? A few use EFL teachers with a degree in
+44 (0)1694 731631 summer.course@concordcollege.org.uk boarding schools. Not in the private the relevant academic subject, to run hands-
www.concordcollegeuk.com/summer-school
The international subject knowledge. sector. Of that on courses or workshops. This approach is
study centres, like £1,000 fee, the agent known as soft CLIL and is a good way to
Bishopstrow College and Sherborne will typically get 40 per cent. Between 25 and improve academic language skills rather than
International, which prepare children to join 40 per cent goes to the venue, for board and subject knowledge.
boarding schools, generally use their own staff to lodging for students and staff. That leaves Non-residential summer schools could
run the same hard-CLIL courses in the summer. £200-£350 a week to cover teaching, activities, easily run hard CLIL courses because
Other boarding schools bring in day trips, 24-hour pastoral care and more. venue costs are much lower. But they are
specialist summer teachers. Concord Boarding schools don’t have a problem. very rare.
We have the right course for you
for university, for career, for life International, for example, employs residential They pay agents a maximum of 20 per cent has an English and STEM course. Students
Emerald Cultural Institute in Ireland
and, as long as they own the venue, the other
specialist teachers for Maths, Science and
Economics in the summer. St Clare’s Oxford
school and ten hours a week studying
recruits extra non-residential teachers and 80 per cent goes to them do 10 hours a week in the language
Which is not to say private providers don’t
visiting experts for its summer courses in offer effective academic courses. science at Trinity College Dublin’s Trinity
Science, Business and Art and Design. Some top providers use specialist subject Walton Club.
Private sector EFL, at least in the teachers with EFL qualifications, which is the And the cost? About £1,000 a week if you
residential sector, simply can’t afford this. kind of hard CLIL agents say they want. include £180 for the host family.
The true cost of teachers

In the UK, minimum wage is calculated for every hour a worker is required to be on site, awake and on duty. Plus, any work-
related travelling time. This covers all the duties listed in any fairly typical summer school job description, including:
• Wake up/bed time duties, meal monitoring and supervisory duties, English tuition, afternoon and evening activities, full
day or half day excursions and trips, meet and greet on arrival days, airport check-in assistance on departure day.
• Meetings and travelling time to airports or on excursions are also working time. Preparation time does not count unless
English language
it’s timetabled.
and As a rule of thumb, to be deducted from working time, rest breaks should last at least 20 minutes and staff must be
English plus permitted to leave the workplace.
In minimum wage calculations, holiday pay must be deducted, but a maximum of £52.85 a week can be added to offset
Academic Subjects accommodation.
Minimum pay is currently £8.21 an hour for those aged 25 and over, and £7.83 for those between 21 and 24.
To calculate how many duty hours can legally be expected from a residential worker, take the weekly wage net of holiday
pay and before accommodation, say £400, and add £52.85 to give you the total.
Divide the total, £452.85, by the minimum hour rate. That give you 55 hours and 12 minutes for staff aged 25 or over, but
57 hours 50 minutes for those under 25.
ic.enquiries@stclares.ac.uk +44 (0)1865 517706 www.stclares.ac.uk
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