Page 16 - ELG2001 Jan Issue 468

El•Gazette 468.qxp_El•Gazette 468 08/01/2020 15:58 Page 16

DESTINATION .

In a league of its own: a tale of two cities

Melanie Butler examines two types of London location

o, which is the best value school in cost less than the one in the centre, as is the centre has great schools across all price
London? The answer is easy: case with St Giles Highgate, which is around ranges, though interestingly neither of the
Wimbledon School of English. In ten percent cheaper than St Giles Central, most expensive schools – those charging £24
Ssecond place is the London School of though both schools score 12 points. an hour or more – make it into the top value
English. So, there are two value rankings: one for list: in London, high cost doesn’t always
These schools have two things in common: the villages, where we have data on a total of mean high quality.
they both received perfect scores on their 14 schools, and one for the centre, where we
British Council inspection, and they are both have data for a total of 24. Top Value London Central
1) International House
located in London villages: the quintessential London
leafy and historic areas outside the centre Top Value London Villages 2) Kensington Academy PIXABAY
1) Wimbledon School of English
where Londoners prefer to live. Wimbledon 3) Oxford House
2) London School of English
is, of course, the home of lawn tennis, while 4) Delfin
3) St Giles Highgate
riverside Chiswick, the home of the London 5) Victoria School of
4) West London English School, Ealing
School’s General English centre, is another English
5) Oxford House College Richmond
historic residential area beloved of British 6) St Giles
6) TTi Camden (a student zone school)
elites. 7) English Studio
The UK capital has two main kinds of 8) EC London
destination: the centre and the villages OCTAGON 9) Frances King
(though there are a tiny number of schools in 10) Malvern House Interior of the British
11) LSI Central Museum, London
student zones like Camden). When it comes
to value for money, the villages are at an Wimbledon village Perhaps the most distinctive difference
advantage – classroom space is cheaper and between London and other major EFL
accommodation is local. However, at the Where the London village ranking is centres, such as Oxford or Manchester, is not
bottom end of the price range, there are more dominated by the high-ranking schools, the the number of great schools it has based on
schools in the centre. results for Central London are far more the British Council rankings, but the number
Where there are two schools with the same spread out. Long popular with students for its of great value schools the city offers at every
score, the one in a village location is likely to mix of the historic and the fashionable, the price point.
Best bargains in London

Melanie Butler explores the best-value
short courses
he average hourly cost for a 15 hour-a-week short course in
London is just under £18, but between £5 and £7 of that
money normally goes to the travel agent. Shorter courses are West London English School is a privately-run
Tmore expensive: the hourly rate can drop 20 per cent or more English language school in Ealing Broadway.
for longer, ten-week courses. Since opening 5 years ago, WLES has gone from
Also, higher quality doesn’t always mean higher price. Wimbledon strength to strength by maintaining top-quality
School of English, one of only seven UK centres to achieve a perfect teaching, small class sizes and an increasing range
score from the British Council, costs below the London average, at of classes.
around £17.50 an hour.
The average variation from the mean in short course prices is £4 an The school is proud to be 1 of only 4 schools in
hour, so anything over £22 is quite expensive, and anything under £14 London with Premium Preparation Provider status
is relatively cheap. for Occupational English Test, an alternative exam
For a five-star school at two-star prices, there’s Kensington to IELTS for doctors and nurses.
Academy, at £12.50 an hour for an EL Gazette Centre of Excellence We also run a range of General English and exam
with eight strengths. Delfin School, at £13 an hour, has an above- preparation courses for Cambridge, Trinity and
average six strengths. Other London schools with the same score cost IELTS in the morning, afternoon and evening.
between a reasonable £15 and an eye-watering £27.
English Studio, with three strengths, scores below-average but
comes in at just £10.50 an hour.
Statistically, any price below £10 an hour is two standard deviations
below the mean, in other words, it’s astonishingly cheap – making
West London College with two strengths and costing just £10 an
hour a real bargain.
If you’re on a tight budget, any accredited school charging under
£10 is worth looking at. But most focus on enrolling local residents
and won’t pay agents’ commissions on short courses.
The Britannia School of English, for instance, is just £6 an hour – Telephone E-mail:
but if you need 15 hours a week for your visa you will need to sign up +44(0)20 3198 1888 info@wles.net
for a minimum of ten weeks.
16 January 2020