Page 28 - ELG2009 Sep Issue 472

UK RANKINGS 2020-21 . UK LANGUAGE CENTRES

Bubbling up

The BEC Bubble BROADSTAIRS ENGLISH CENTRE

– a stepping stone to normality in Broadstairs

Showing our commitment to safety by welcoming

just one group each week from January to June 2021 How can you run language courses safely in the
time of Covid-19? One school may have found
the answer as Melanie Butler reports Chris McDermott

s educational systems around the And you turn your language school into a Indeed, the whole programme is a la carte.
world slowly open up, one UK bubble, too. The BEC bubble will not only Group leaders decide the level of Covid-19
language school is tracking their offer a deep-cleaned, Covid-secure building, security the school adopts, perhaps fitting it
Number 1 year-round junior provider, UK Aprogress carefully, looking for the but a small group of dedicated staff, all signed in with the regime run in schools back home.
As ranked by the EL Gazette based on the 2019 British Council inspection best way to offer a secure environment for up to the King’s College London Symptom They can decide if students should wear
school groups to come when the centre Study system, which logs the health of every masks (currently compulsory in schools in
reopens in January. The answer – now staff member every day and, within 24 hours, France and Italy but not Germany). They can
Enjoy exclusivity of our comfortable student residence located in our school building familiar to educators around the world – is to arranges a test for anyone who shows a single set the minimum social distance in class
create a protective bubble around the Covid-related symptom. (currently 1 metre in Germany but 1.5 metres
Create your own bubble for 1 – 4 weeks children by keeping them within one social in Spain). “It’s one of the advantages of
group. having a large school building: when you
Choose your learning-focused activity programme, adapted to ensure visitor and staff safety “It’s a stepping stone towards post-Covid The students learn restrict your numbers to 60 or 70 students at
normality,” says Chris McDermott of together, eat together, a time, social distancing is easier.”
Visit places chosen by you, by private coach, using the latest data on the safest locations Broadstairs English Centre (BEC), the top- It will be up to groups to decide how much
ranking, year-round young learners’ school in do activities and risk they feel comfortable in taking. Take
Experience the red carpet treatment as our only guests, getting to know our dedicated team both our overall ranking (see page 19) and excursions in the same excursions. If they are nervous of visiting big
Enjoy our complimentary group leader programme consisting of English classes and private trips our list of the top private sector performers cities, they can switch the London trip and
for this age group (see page 23). social group. explore the delights of Kent. BEC will check
Now we all know how you create a primary the latest Covid-19 risk level for every
school bubble: simply isolate a class or a year A bubble school only works if you keep the destination.
One group at a time. group so they can’t mix with other children bubble intact. The students learn together, bubble school takes one group from one place
It’s the same with activities. Since the
in school. But how do you create a “language
eat together, do activities and excursions in
school bubble?” the same social group. At BEC they can all at one time, students cannot mix with
Safety first. #bubbleschool Simple – you only allow one school group sleep in the same place, “I don’t think we children from different countries. So BEC are
in your centre in any one week. You recruit could have devised this programme if we devising optional activities that can be done,
from one school. You make sure they all didn’t have an on-site residence,” says Chris. either online or socially distanced, with
travel together. You go out of your way to The final stepping-stone is to create a British children.
keep the bubble together: “We will send a bubble for the group leaders, usually teachers, “It’s something we used to do when we first
Covid-secure bus as far as Italy to collect who accompany the children: a programme started,” says Chris. “We linked our Spanish
them if the students are nervous of flying,” of English classes and private excursions are children up with Spanish learners at King’s
Chris promises. all on the menu for them. Canterbury – Britain’s most ancient school –
Resuming July 2021 for language exchanges. “Since BEC also
works closely with local grammar schools
School Immersion Courses there are a range of possibilities.”
This attention to detail is typical of the
Residence open all year BROADSTAIRS ENGLISH CENTRE ‘wrap around’ school, whose unique system of
training all its staff – include its host families
Homestay courses all year – to support students’ language learning has
led to BEC being the only UK finalist in the
English for Work with Language Provider of the Year category at the
PIEoneer awards.
Focussing on learning will be just as
company visits important in the bubble. After all, the bubble
Exam preparation courses is a stepping-stone to normality. But when
will normality return? BEC is aiming to open
fully in summer 2021, but is not relying on it.
“For us, the bubble school is a sustainable
www.broadstairsenglish.com model. One group a week and a small team
of staff allows us to deliver a safe, learning-
bookings@broadstairsenglish.com focussed programme and make a small
profit.” He smiles. “We can keep the bubble
Another successful course going as long as it takes.”
28 September 2020 editorial@elgazette.com 29