IH Bristol Joins IALC

Established in 1987, IH Bristol is a leading English language school situated in the picturesque Clifton neighborhood of Bristol, UK. Renowned for quality education, IH Bristol ranks in the top 8% of UK language schools for both adults and juniors. Offering a diverse range of courses, including General English, Cambridge and IELTS exam preparation, and CELTA teacher training, IH Bristol provides immersive language experiences tailored to every learner’s needs.

We had the pleasure of interviewing School Director Dr. Val Hennessy to delve deeper into IH Bristol’s journey and their perspective on joining IALC

In what ways is your location different and remarkable?

Anybody who has ever visited Bristol knows why it is a remarkable place but let me try to explain why. Bristol is the jewel of South West England. It has everything you could want in the city – endless festivals, live music of all kinds, theatres, sports stadiums for rugby, football and cricket, an artistic temperament and is home to not one but two prestigious universities, which help to give the city its youthful vibrancy. There is always something to do. Despite this, it is an easy city to get around and small enough to explore on foot. It has a huge amount of history from Defoe overhearing the story that became Robinson Crusoe to its Nobel Prize winning writers and scientists, its aerospace industry, Rolls Royce cars and its pivotal position in Wildlife filming. 

Banksy is from Bristol and Wallace and Gromit films (and all other Ardman productions) are made here. It abounds in green space affording all those who live here the opportunity to enjoy running or biking or just walking in beautiful surroundings. It is quite alternative and boasts the longest street of independent shops in the UK. The native Bristolians are open and welcoming – bus drivers frequently call their passengers ‘my lover’ – and students quickly feel at home here. The only problem is that when it comes time to leave, it feels like leaving home. I came here by accident in the 1980s and have not yet been able to drag myself away. Once you have lived in Bristol, other places seem drab and unimaginative.

How does your school stand out from others?

We have a number of unique features to enhance students’ learning experience at IH Bristol, including:

• Our Phrase of the Day, taught at the start of each day on all Adult and Junior courses
• Our daily Cultural Question, taught on all Adult courses to provide a fun way for multi-national students to compare cultural similarities and differences between their countries
• Our website has a section for Free Exercises, which is available not only to all our students but to anybody, anywhere in the world who wants to improve their English.
• Our Junior Creative Classes – learn a fun new skill, though English! Juniors choose from Creative options including, Video-Making, Football, Journalism, Drama, and Photography

All Juniors programmes use our original Junior lesson booklets, created by our in-house Senior Academic Team. This means students won’t have used the materials before, and we can be sure that all lessons are communicative, have interesting topics, useful new language, and fun and memorable classroom activities.

What do your students love most about your school?

I am tempted to say ‘the free coffee’ but, while that is true, it is not the only thing. Students love how they are made to feel ‘at home’ at IH Bristol, that we get to know them on an individual basis, and how their needs and goals are supported by IH Bristol staff and hosts. They enjoy chilling in the students’ room, listening to other students playing piano or guitar, playing chess or other board games, or trying desperately to beat their classmates at table football. On the academic side, they love our Phrase of the Day – one for each day of the year ‘live’ on the homepage of our website for all to see – our e-learning student area included for all Adult courses, and our varied social programme of events in and out of Bristol. And the pancake parties and BBQs!

Why did you decide to join IALC and how do you feel about it?

We are all about quality and IALC is a quality association of quality schools. We are keen to get to know the other member schools and to share best practice with them while making everybody aware of just what makes us special. We believe that this business is all about the individual and sometimes that gets lost in large, international language school events. We hope IALC will give us a more intimate environment in which to meet other schools and agents and the opportunity to forge new and lasting relationships with like-minded people.