Page 23 - ELG1909 Sep Issue 466
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        RANKING 2019                                                                                                                                                                                                 UK Language Centres

        Pool of talent                                                                                                         In summary



        Liverpool lass Maria McDonnell                                                                            LIVERPOOL SCHOOL OF ENGLISH                                                            I N C O RPOR ATI NG  B O U R N E M O UTH  BUSI N E S S  S C H O OL  I N TE RNAT IONAL

        put her city's soul in her school                                                                                      Melanie Butler explains how


             iverpool is an international city with a rich cultural history and                                                we calculate the rankings
             the heart of a village.”
               So says Maria McDonnell, Liverpool School of English, which                                                            he EL Gazette rankings are based entirely on the summary
       Lshe owns and runs with sister Kathy Gibson, reflecting their                                                                  statements published by the British Council. The statements
        home city’s unique culture.                                                                                                   appear on the bottom of the first page of every full report,
          So how did they get into the language school business?                                                               Tpublished on https://www.britishcouncil.org/education/
          In 1999, Maria decided to return home from her job teaching in                                                       accreditation/centres/.
        Istanbul. Her students asked her to find them a summer school in                                                         From the summary statement, we assign one point for each ‘area
        Liverpool.                                                                                                             of strength’ listed and deduct a point for each area that ‘needs   English Language, Business English
          “They said they had always gone to the South Coast for their   Catherine Gibson, Maria McDonnell and Kathy Gibson on the   improvement’ to arrive at the ‘net areas of strength.’  and English for Special Purposes
        Summer School, Hastings, Eastbourne… and were looking for   steps of the school.                                         The British Council inspection covers up to 15 areas. Thirteen   for adult students in the beautiful
        something different. They had heard a lot about Liverpool and asked                                                    of these areas are applicable to all centres: strategic and quality
        me to find them a summer course.’’                     The inspectors also made special mention of the school’s buddy   management, staff management, student administration, publicity,   beach resort of Bournemouth
          Back home in Liverpool, Maria found that there were no language   system for new employees.                          premises and facilities, learning resources, academic staff profile, academic
        schools at all, while the universities only offered pre-university   “We developed the system to support the newcomer, and to   management, course design, learner management, teaching, care of students   General English Language for Adult Students
        courses.                                              recognise the experience and expertise of serving staff,” explains   and leisure opportunities.                          Business English (25+)
          So, with her sister Kathy, she opened a school and arranged to rent   Maria, adding that, “For teachers, it encourages teachers to plan and   Two areas, accommodation and safeguarding under 18s do not apply to   Business Simulation Programme (16+)
        university facilities for the summer. “We thought we would get 70 or   work together. In other departments, it’s a really important source of   centres which do n ot offer accommodation and/or who do not enroll   English for Aviation
                                                                                                                                                                                       English for Special Purposes
        80 students, but we attracted almost 400.”            information sharing and support.”                                students under the age of 18. So, most centres have 15 potential areas   Tailor made training
          The school remains family run, with Maria’s niece Catherine Gibson   The school scored a strength in every single criteria of strategic   of strength, some have 14 and a handful have only 13.
        being the Operations Director and as a team they are rooted in the   and quality management, so what piece of advice would Maria give   Each statement includes the age range of students accepted by
        city’s warm and welcoming culture. “We have been voted the UKs   a school manager worried about their next inspection. “Think about   the school and notes all areas where a centre is strong and all areas
        friendliest city by Condé Nast several years running.”  the criteria, and the positive reason why the framework exists, what a   which, in the judgement of the inspectors, need improvement.
          Indeed, British Council inspectors note how friendly the school’s   valuable learning experience it can be for all staff.”  Here is an example: “This private language school offers courses   TM
        homestay families are.                                 In Liverpool, city of football and the Beatles, it is all about the team.  in general English for adults (16+). The inspection report noted a
                                                                                                                               need for improvement in the area of publicity. Strengths were noted in   W W W. M L S - CO L L E G E .CO.U K
                                                                                                                               the areas of staff management, care of students, accommodation and
                                                                                                                               leisure opportunities.”
                                                                                                                                 So, how do we calculate the rankings? We start by noting the   Partner with us
                                                                                                                               number of areas a centre is inspected under: 13, 14 or 15. In the above
                                                                                                                               example, the school takes under 18s and it offers accommodation, so it
                                                                                                                               is inspected under all 15 areas.                        Students from 34 countries
                                                                                                                                 Then we count the areas of strength listed, in this case 4. Next, we
                                                                                                                               deduct any areas with a need for improvement. This school has 4 areas    †Ѵ|†u-ѴѴ‹ bll;uvbˆ;
                                                                                                                               of strength and 1 area with a need for improvement, so it has 3 ‘net
                                                                                                                               areas of strength.’                                      ubѴѴb-m| -11ollo7-ঞom
                                                                                                                                 Next, we should divide the net areas of strength by the number of
                          x
                                     x  Enjoy
                    Learn     Succ  eed                                                                                        areas inspected under. However, 10 per cent of accredited centres have
                                                                                                                               passed inspection with net areas of strength equal to zero. Another
                                                                                                                               4 per cent have passed with a negative net score because they have
                                       General English: 15, 21, and 25 lessons per week including Communication                more areas with need for improvement than areas of strength. The
                                       Skills, English for Business, Academic Skills and Live Liverpool afternoon electives.   lowest ‘score’ a centre has currently been awarded and still passed
                                                                                                                               the inspection is -3.
                                       IELTS Examination Preparation                                                             When you throw zeros and negative numbers into statistical
                                                                                                                               calculations you get odd results. Besides, all these centre have passed
                                       Cambridge Examination Preparation                                                       their inspection, which must in itself be worth some points.
                                                                                                                                 So, we use a ‘range modifier’ of 4. That means we add 4 to each
                                       New! Occupational English Test (OET) Preparation                                        centre’s raw score and 4 to the number of areas they have been
                                                                                                                               inspected under. This pulls all scores into the positive range.
                                       Teacher Training Courses: TKT, CLIL and Trinity CertTESOL
                                                                                                                                 Going back to our example, we add the range modifier 4 to the 3
                                                                                                                               net areas of strength, giving us 7; and we add 4 to the total areas of
                                       Year-Round Groups: 12+ years old
                                                                                                                               inspection, giving us 19. We divide 7 by 19, giving us a score of 0.37
                                       Liverpool International Summer School Groups: 10-17 years old                           or 3.7 out of 10.                                                                 Contact the Founder and CEO at
                                                                                                                                 All centres are thus given a standardised score, with a minimum                 imran@leedsschool.co.uk
                                                                                                                               of 0 and a maximum of 10, regardless of how many areas they are                   www.leedsschool.co.uk
                                                                                                                               inspected on. Currently, only schools scoring                                     +44 (0)113 2456476
                                                                                                                               6.3 or above are listed in our Centres of
                                                                                                                               Excellence ranking. This roughly equates to               7†Ѵ| "1_ooѴ ŐƐѵƳő Ŋ  †mbou "†ll;u "1_ooѴ Ő!;vb7;mঞ-Ѵő
                                                                                                                               a minimum of 7 net areas of strength, or 8
                   TheLiverpoolSchoolofEnglish       LiverpoolSchool       TheLiverpoolSchoolofEnglish       LiverpoolSchoolEng   for those centres that are inspected under
                    www.lse.uk.net        #LiverpoolSE        info@lse.uk.net                                                  all 15 areas.         MELANIE BUTLER,
                                                                                                                                                     EDITOR IN CHIEF
        22                                                                                         September 2019              editorial@elgazette.com                                                                                23
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