Summing up summer schools

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Family-run Isca specialises in teaching teenagers

Under-16 specialists are the safest bet, says Melanie Butler

When it comes to UK summer school operations, it pays to check the British Council reports: 70 per cent of summer schools are awarded fewer areas of strength than the industry average, and just 30 per cent score the industry average or above, all of them on the ranking opposite.

The mixed results continue when it comes to the welfare areas we use to give bonus points for young learner operations. The two highest performers in our young learner rankings, with 5.5 out of a possible 6 bonus points, are both summer schools: Discovery Summer and Wimbledon School of English Juniors. On average, summer schools score lower on welfare than boarding schools (page 29), but higher than the year-round providers.

Summer schools run by under-16s specialists tend to do best. Summer Boarding, which has a perfect score, is one of five multi-centre operators in our ranking, but when it comes to the big chains, only two make it in: BSC and Oxford International’s Bucksmore.

Four stand-alone language schools appear in our listing, or five if we count Bell, which is really a mini-chain. In fact, Bell is the only organisation which has a ranking year-round young learners’ school as well as a summer school. But then, their founder, Frank Bell, always put as much emphasis on under-16s as adults. Indeed, he also owned Concord College, one of our best-ranking boarding schools, though that is now a charitable trust with no connection to the language schools.

However, the best performing group in this ranking are the family-run summer schools, perhaps unsurprising since, in British education, private junior schools, known as prep schools, have traditionally been run by members of the same family for many years.

At least two summer operations, Manor Courses and Cambridge Language and Activity Centres, are run by the second generation, while the principal of our top- ranking family school, Isca in Devon, is the founders’ granddaughter.

Images courtesy of ISCA and Library