English UK South has started 2019 with a series of quality training events. On Thursday 21 February, 50 staff from 19 schools attended our accreditation training day focussed on helping schools improve on the number of strengths they achieve in their British Council Accreditation inspections. Liz McLaren led the presentations with an overview of the scheme inspections in 2018, followed by tips from member schools on how to achieve strengths in management (Sue Edwards, Kaplan), teaching and learning (Ross McKenzie, LSI Portsmouth), safeguarding under 18s (Alistair Walker, Lewis School of English Southampton) and welfare and student services (Spencer Fordham, Capital School of English Bournemouth).

On Wednesday 10 April, 13 schools benefited from increasing their team skills on safeguarding with a training day delivered by Kevin O'Donnell. 44 training experiences were completed with 20 staff completing their level 2 safeguarding training and 24 staff completing their level 3 safeguarding training. With such high numbers of staff acquiring higher levels of safeguarding skills, the English UK South region is rapidly becoming a safer place for international students to study in. The course was so popular that one school is looking at training a further 22 staff in safeguarding levels 2 & 3 in June so that their summer teams are as highly skilled as possible for summer 2019.

English UK South training continues in May with an accommodation training day on Wednesday 1 May, followed by two events in collaboration with Trinity College London on Thursday 2 and Friday 3 May looking at Trinity exam products in general and the Graded Examinations in Spoken English (GESE) in particular. On 1 May, Dr Diane Phillips will deliver a workshop for UK ELT providers, which aims to share good practice and give the most up-to-date information on all aspects of managing homestay and residential accommodation. The day will also include a focus on how schools can gain strengths in their British Council inspected provision.

English UK South has a regional stand at StudyWorld from Monday 2 - Wednesday 4 September. Come and visit the stand to learn more about the English UK South region and the wide range of courses that our schools offer. Check out the updates section on our website to see the photo galleries from our events.