Page 22 - ELG2304 Apr Issue 484

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BOARDING SCHOOLS

Ar e Boar ding Schools always better?
Are Boarding Schools always better?

Melanie Butler digs into the history behind sectors success

he number of British Boarding Schools choosing to be
accredited by the British Council has been growing steadily in
recent years. I say choosing, because all Boarding schools in
TBritain have to be inspected – either by the State run Ofsted- COPYRIGHT PEXELS.COM
scheme or by the specialist Independent School Inspectorate. So they
don’t need the BC scheme at all.
Covid has made very little difference to this sector, one BC accredited
boarding schools closed though at least two left the scheme. – two more
have joined but neither currently run summer schools. Compared to
the closure of over 25 per cent of year round private language schools,
the boarding school sector has escaped relatively unscathed.
The boarding schools sector does extraordinarily well on inspection
with an average score of 8.5/15 areas of strength awarded, slightly ahead
of the score of the universities.
But it would be untrue to say that Boarding schools have it all their
own way. Here is a list of the top 3 per cent of language centres in
Britain, the summer centres are marked in red,
Top Centres 2023
Perfect score ELC Bristol, English Language Centre Brighton, English
Language Centre Eastbourne, London school of English,
LSI Portsmouth, SBC, Wimbledon School of English
14/15 Bell International Cambridge, Bell Young Learners
Multicentres, Broadstairs English Centre, Discovery
Summer, English in Chester.
13/14 University of Manchester

Plenty of Junior Summer providers – none of them owned or run by
boarding schools.
And here are the top boarding school -run summer centre providers.

Top Boarding Schools 2023
13/15 Bishopstrow College, Millfield
12/15 Heathfield International Summer,
11/15 Concord Collegee, Harrow School, Sherborne International,
10/15 Bede’s Summer school, King’s Summer, St Clare’s Oxford,
St Edmund’s College, Stonyhurst
The main difference between the two sectors is that the boarding school,
of whom there are now 22 running English Language summer schools
are very consistent. As this list shows half of the 22 school boarding
summers operations make it into our rankings.
Overall Boarding schools obtain an average score is 8.5 areas the
lowest scoring boarding school score is 3. Three is also the most
common score for other summer school, highest performing independent colleges in the country and owned
What is the secret of their success? They have all specialised in young quite separately from the language schools.
learners for a very long time, since 1550 in the case of Sherborne and So the best of the summer schools can – and do – take on the boarding
1568 for St Edmund’s. schools at their own game, though it is far from an easy thing to do.
The high-performing language school operations also tend to be On average, though, boarding schools do better – partly it’s down
long-established – Bell has been running summer schools for 50 years, to economics. If you already own the building, you don’t have to pay
English in Chester for 47. Good summer language schools tend to be yourself rent and can afford to pay your summer staff more, increasingly
specialised in young learners SBC is owned by a group of independent important in an era of teacher shortages.
schools language schools, Exsportise grew out of sports programmes Most boarding schools are not for profit educational trusts. Their
run by professional coaches in Independent schools. summer schools though are run for profit, money for a war chest they
Good boarding schools are lead by great founders. Jane Merrick, at are building against future government plans to increase their taxes.
Discovery Summer for example has the same vision and strength of There will be more boarding schools coming into the UK Summer
spirit as the fearsome founder of my own Alma Mater – Anne Dreydel School market.
of St Clare’s, Oxford. Most of them will be – on average- better than you average language
And as for the late Frank Bell he created not one but two of the school summer school. If you know nothing about a summer school
organisations on this list: both Bell Young Learners but also Concord except who owns it then -despite the fact that they can be beaten by the
College which he bought as a Language School and is now one of the very best EFL outfits – choose the one run by a boarding school.
22 April 2023