Choosing the best British language course or accredited school or teacher is difficult at the best of times. 2020 has been very difficult and everyone is waiting to see what will happen. It isn’t over yet but we hope you are thinking about how your child will spend next summer.
We have thought about how to help and this is the first of our mini guide to answer questions that we are often asked.
- What is the most important thing to check for when choosing a school?
Firstly make sure your school is Accredited. If they aren’t, they do not have to follow any guides about duty of care some summer camps set up each year. We have been running our courses since 1966! You might save some money but your child might have an absolutely terrible English experience.
When you have decided on the school you like then read their inspection report and look at the summary statements. You can read our Accreditation report on our website.
Another good thing to do is to look at their Facebook and Google reviews or to look at the testimonials from real people on their website. We have a section on our blog called “student stories” where our students tell you about their experience at the Isca School of English.
- Look and see if you can find their UK ranking on the El Gazette (the industry newspaper rather like the mainstream news for language schools!). The El Gazette rank us based on the results of our latest accrediting inspection report:
We are the best family-run summer school in the UK again in 2020-2021 and are ranked joint 9th in the rankings published by the EL Gazette http://digital.elgazette.com/march-2018/uk-language-centres-rank-1-18.htmlIn
In our latest British Council inspection, we achieved 13 out of a possible 15 strengths* in the following areas: areas of teaching, care of students, accommodation, leisure opportunities, and care of under 18s, staff management, student administration, quality assurance, premises, and facilities, learning resources, academic management, course design, and learner management.
*All the centres ranked in the EL Gazette score more than 50 percent of available areas of strength. This puts them in the top 20 percent of all the centres in the UK accredited by the British Council. The Isca School is one of the very best English Language Schools in the UK!
We are the only school in Exeter to achieve this many British Council “strengths” and one of only two in the Southwest of the UK!
- Where is the best place in the UK to send your child to learn English and have a wonderful experience?
Where a language school is based is really important to teenagers. They want exciting cities and new experiences especially after 2020!
There are of course many well-known and excellent centres in the traditionally popular big cities of London, Wimbledon, and Brighton.
You can find our school in the beautiful modern city of Exeter in the South West of England. Exeter is a lovely city and is very close to the sea and the beautiful Devon countryside. It is a good choice for students who would like to have an authentic English experience and as a small city is a great choice for giving teenagers independence.
- How seriously do the schools you are looking at take of their care of students? This is really important and here at Isca caring for our students is our number one priority. We want to offer a great English course and experience to our students in a caring environment. Ask to read the safeguarding policy. You can read ours in our documents here
- What about personal attention? The Principal (Sarah Tomlinson) greets the students as they arrive at school and is there throughout their stay to care for them. She has over twenty years experience teaching English to teenagers and loves talking to our students.
- Will your homestays be kind and welcoming to our child? What happens if there is a problem?
We talk on our website about English homes because this is what we choose for our students. We visit all of our English homes regularly and are very sure that they are welcoming to all of our students and hosting students for the right reasons. If there is a problem (and you tell us) we will do our very best to solve this.
I hope that this helps you choose the right school for you and if you have any questions please contact us and we will do our very best for you here