Page 22 - ELG2003 Mar Issue 469

El•Gazette 469.qxp_El•Gazette 469 25/02/2020 21:51 Page 22

UK TOP SCHOOLS 2020 .

Who does best in the

Young Learner rankings?

Melanie Butler examines the results sector by sector

wo things set the UK junior market
apart from competitor countries. PIXABAY
First, most of the courses are
Tresidential, especially in the summer,
and second, the high level of child protection,
or safeguarding, as the British call it,
demanded by the British Council inspectors.
Of course, Britain is famous for its
boarding schools, and the Harry Potter books
have made the idea of boarding popular with
children across the world. But any residential
care for children, from orphanages to scout
camps, demands a high level of safeguarding,
and in the UK, children’s welfare on
language courses is in the remit of the British
Council inspectors.
Boarding schools have been subject to
strict safeguarding regulations for many years.
But an analysis of the rankings shows that
the two residential centres with the highest
scores in child protection, Discovery Summer
and Wimbledon School of English Juniors,
are not owned and operated by year-round
boarding schools.
There is still, of course, a demand for non- Hurst College, home of Manor Courses International Summer School
residential courses, and the top ones on our
list include family run summer schools, two learner sector. Based on their inspection the highest mean average score of any sector,
year-round dedicated young-learner centres, reports, only 22 boarding schools opt to be with 8 areas of strength out of 15, and they
Broadstairs English Centre and the English accredited by the British Council (25 if we make up nearly half of all the top-ranking
Experience (UK), and one private language count the language schools which share young-learner specialists.
school which also has adult courses: premises with boarding schools owned by To celebrate their success, we have given
Sidmouth International School. There is also King’s), so they make up less than 5 per cent them their own listing on this page (tied
one year-round boarding school, St Clare’s of all accredited centres and 15 per cent of rankings are ordered by the bonus points, as
Oxford, which runs a year-round private young-learner specialists. But they also have explained on page 20).
language school.
The traditional family-run summer school Rank Top Boarding Schools INSP Rank % B Pts
operations are holding their own with Isca,
Manor Courses, ECS and the International 1 Millfield English Lang Hols 2018 5% 5.17
Student Club all making our list. 2 Bishopstrow College 2016 5% 5.10
The most common form of summer school,
however, is the ‘multicentre’, where an 3 St Edmunds College SS 2017 5% 4.47
organisation runs residential courses in more
than one location, often in boarding school 4 Heathfield Summer 2016 8% 4.78
facilities. Many of these are run by 5 Harrow School Short Courses 2019 12% 4.61
organisations which only operate vacation
courses, and five of these make our charts: 6 Concord College Summer 2017 12% 4.58
top performer overall Summer Boarding 7 Buckswood Overseas SS (BOSS) 2017 12% 3.58
Courses, Discovery Summer, Exsportise,
UKLC and Bucksmore Education. Three 8 St Clare’s Oxford 2018 19% 5.00
private language schools in our list have
successful young-learner operations: 9 Stonyhurst Language School 2018 19% 4.64
Wimbledon School of English, International 10 Bede’s Summer School 2017 19% 4.60
House London, and Churchill House; as do
four chains: Bell, St Giles, Regent and King’s; 11 Sherborne International 2019 19% 3.94
and one boarding school, Bede’s, which runs 12 Kings Summer Camps 2019 19% 3.67
courses in seven locations, including other
boarding schools and universities. 13 Moreton Hall Intl Study Centre 2017 25% 5.17
But it is the traditional year-round
boarding schools which dominate the young- 14 Windermere Intl Summer Sch 2017 25% 4.81

22 March 2020