Page 17 - ELG2202 Feb Issue 479

SPECIAL SUPPLEMENT
An English Contents

summer 18 explained
WHAT IT ALL MEANS
Our summer school ranking system

Our special supplement will help you
decide where to get the best English
THE RANKINGS
instruction the UK has to offer 19
The top 50+ UK summer schools
ome things in education are completely predictable.
For example, on average, schools that deal with one
age group all year round are likely to be good at it
Sduring the summer too. 22
BOARDING SCHOOLS
So, as we report on page 22 and 23, boarding schools Why they’re best for students
who have been looking after children in residential
accommodation for several hundred years are, generally
speaking, better at doing it in the summer than language
schools which, from September to June, specialise in
teaching adults. And, as we show on pages 24 to 25, 23
TEACHERS’ CHOICE
universities are pretty good at offering courses which
introduce teenagers to the university experience. Here’s where you want to work
Nor is it surprising, as these two features reveal, that
one reason they’re better is that they offer the best terms
and conditions to their teachers. Many summer school
providers don’t believe they’re in the business of education 24
THE UNIVERSITY EXPERIENCE
at all, but in
Many summer school hospitality, There’s nothing like the real thing
and treat
providers don’t believe teachers
they’re in the business like waiters
who happen
TOP FOR JOBS
of education at all, but grammar. As 25
to know a
Calling all qualified teachers
in hospitality, and treat little about
a parent who
teachers like waiters
With parents in mind, we created our ranking of the top 26
shelled out
thousands
UK’S VISA MAZE
to send my child to summer language courses overseas,
I really cared that she had good teachers. Navigating the post-Brexit minefield
50 summer course providers on pages 19 to 21, to focus
in on the areas that the parents who pay for such courses
worry about and, once again, the specialists generally
came out tops. Whether they were boarding schools, like SUMMER IN THE EU
St Edmunds, specialist summer providers like Discovery, It’s boom time for teachers on the
or year-round schools like Bell and Churchill House, who 27 continent
have been in the summer school business for decades,
they were more likely to make the grade. As for the school
groups, it was year-round schools like IH Bristol, St Giles
Highgate and CES Edinburgh, rather than the chain
summer operations, that stood out.
Not everything about this summer is predictable.
Will Covid surge again? Will there be enough teachers
in a world where everyone is changing jobs? And, as
we ask on page 26, will the UK Government sort out
the bureaucratic dog’s breakfast that is the post-Brexit
visa system?
Whatever happens, two countries are likely to benefit.
We confidently predict that, barring pandemic chaos,
Malta and Ireland will be fully booked. In fact, we as report
on page 27, many of their schools are
running out of summer spaces already.
The other thing they’re short of, at
least to judge by the job adverts,
is teachers. PHOTO SHUTTERSTOCK
MELANIE BUTLER,
EDITOR IN CHIEF
editorial@elgazette.com 17