Page 23 - ELG1909 Sep Issue 466

.
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