The Global Scale of English (GSE) Partner School program by ɫèAV stands as a beacon of innovation and excellence. This initiative is not just about enhancing English language ability: it's about transforming the educational journey for both teachers and students. Today, we celebrate the success stories of two institutions: Batari School and Maitreyawira School, both of which have embraced the GSE Partner School program with inspiring results.
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Since joining the ɫèAV GSE Partner School program, Batari School in Medan has witnessed a remarkable transformation in its approach to English language education. With students from diverse backgrounds, the GSE framework has empowered teachers to tailor their teaching methods to align with each student's specific language level. This personalized approach has not only improved language proficiency but also built confidence and competence among students.
Bapak Feliex Lee, a teacher at Batari School, talks about how the GSE Toolkit makes lesson planning easier and helps create quality, level-appropriate lessons for students. This tool reduces teachers' workload so they can focus more on student growth. The ɫèAV English Journey program, with its courses, tests and certifications, guides students to reach fluency efficiently.
The results speak for themselves. Batari School has reported measurable progress in students' language skills, with average gains of 5.9 points on the GSE scale between grades 11 and 12. This success shows how effective targeted support and a clear plan are for learning a language. Before joining the GSE Partner School program, teachers worked with varied methodologies, leading to inconsistencies. Now, with regular tests, teachers can find out where students need help and give the right support to improve their English.
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At Sekolah Maitreyawira School in Deliserdang, the GSE Partner School program has been a catalyst for change. The school wanted a reliable international way to measure students' English skills. The GSE framework provides that, helping teachers set clear goals and customize lessons for each student.
Ibu Hera Feitra Lubis, an educator at Maitreyawira School, emphasizes the value of the training provided by ɫèAV. This training has equipped teachers with the skills to set goals using the GSE Learning Objectives, integrate them into lesson plans, and focus on the critical language skills needed for proficiency. The digital assessments have further empowered teachers to measure progress and support students according to their individual needs.
Maitreyawira School has embraced the GSE program to not only teach English but to enable students to live it. The program ensures that every student develops real communication skills, equipping them with the tools needed to thrive in the world. The GSE's data-driven approach has personalized learning, resulting in increased student engagement and motivation. With clear learning objectives at every point on the GSE scale, teachers can design the best learning pathways and work towards achieving specific goals.
The impact has been strong, with students at Maitreyawira School improving their GSE scores by an average of 5.4 points. This shows how dedicated the teachers are and how effective the GSE curriculum is. The school's overall approach helps students become confident global citizens.
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Both Batari and Maitreyawira Schools show how the GSE Partner School program transforms educational practices. By offering a structured and consistent framework for teaching and assessment, these schools have boosted both student results and the quality of English instruction overall.
Teachers now have the tools to deliver effective, level-based lessons, while students enjoy a clear understanding of their progress and the steps needed to achieve their goals. This alignment has brought consistency to teaching practices, raised proficiency levels and encouraged a collaborative environment among educators.
The success of these institutions highlights the importance of equipping teachers with the necessary tools, training and support. As educators gain confidence in delivering skills-based teaching, students become more engaged and motivated, paving the way for future success.
The stories of Batari School and Maitreyawira School are a testament to the dedication of educators and the transformative potential of the ɫèAV GSE Partner School program. By aligning teaching practices with internationally recognized standards, these schools are preparing students for global opportunities and a brighter future.
The GSE Partner School program extends beyond curriculum improvements; it acts as a driver for educational excellence. Empowering teachers and motivating students sets the stage for a future in which learners are not only skilled in English but also confident in seizing opportunities.
Read our posts 'Planning for success with the GSE' and 'Real-world English: How GSE Job Profiles bridge learning and work'.
Watching films can be a great way for people to learn English. We all have our favourite movie moments and, even as passive viewers, they're probably teaching you more than you realise. Here's a selection of our favourite scenes, along with the reasons why they're educational as well as entertaining.
Why does progression seem to slow down as an English learner moves from beginner to more advanced skills?
When presenting at ELT conferences, I often ask the audience – typically teachers and school administrators – “When you left home today, to start your journey here, did you know where you were going?” The audience invariably responds with a laugh and says yes, of course. I then ask, “Did you know roughly when you would arrive at your destination?” Again the answer is, of course, yes. “But what about your students on their English learning journey? Can they say the same?” At this point, the laughter stops.
All too often English learners find themselves without a clear picture of the journey they are embarking on and the steps they will need to take to achieve their goals. We all share a fundamental need for orientation, and in a world of mobile phone GPS we take it for granted. Questions such as: Where am I? Where am I going? When will I get there? are answered instantly at the touch of a screen. If you’re driving along a motorway, you get a mileage sign every three miles.
When they stop appearing regularly we soon feel uneasy. How often do English language learners see mileage signs counting down to their learning goal? Do they even have a specific goal?
The key thing about GPS is that it’s very precise. You can see your start point, where you are heading and tell, to the mile or kilometer, how long your journey will be. You can also get an estimated time of arrival to the minute. As Mike Mayor mentioned in his post about what it means to be fluent, the same can’t be said for understanding and measuring English proficiency. For several decades, the ELL industry got by with the terms ‘beginner’, ‘elementary’, ‘pre-intermediate’ and ‘advanced’ – even though there was no definition of what they meant, where they started and where they ended.
The CEFR has become widely accepted as a measure of English proficiency, bringing an element of shared understanding of what it means to be at a particular level in English. However, the wide bands that make up the CEFR can result in a situation where learners start a course of study as B1 and, when they end the course, they are still within the B1 band. That doesn’t necessarily mean that their English skills haven’t improved – they might have developed substantially – but it’s just that the measurement system isn’t granular enough to pick up these improvements in proficiency.
So here’s the first weakness in our English language GPS and one that’s well on the way to being remedied with the Global Scale of English (GSE). Because the GSE measures proficiency on a 10-90 scale across each of the four skills, students using assessment tools reporting on the GSE are able to see incremental progress in their skills even within a CEFR level. So we have the map for an English language GPS to be able to track location and plot the journey to the end goal.
When it comes to pinpointing how long it’s going to take to reach that goal, we need to factor in the fact that the amount of effort it takes to improve your English increases as you become more proficient. Although the bands in the CEFR are approximately the same width, the law of diminishing returns means that the better your English is to begin with, the harder it is to make further progress – and the harder it is to feel that progress is being made.
That’s why many an English language-learning journey gets abandoned on the intermediate plateau. With no sense of progression or a tangible, achievable goal on the horizon, the learner can become disoriented and demoralised.
To draw another travel analogy, when you climb 100 meters up a mountain at 5,000 meters above sea level the effort required is greater than when you climb 100 meters of gentle slope down in the foothills. It’s exactly the same 100 meter distance, it’s just that those hundred 100 meters require progressively more effort the higher up you are, and the steeper the slope. So, how do we keep learners motivated as they pass through the intermediate plateau?
We have a number of tools available to keep learners on track as they start to experience the law of diminishing returns. We can show every bit of progress they are making using tools that capture incremental improvements in ability. We can also provide new content that challenges the learner in a way that’s realistic.
Setting unrealistic expectations and promising outcomes that aren’t deliverable is hugely demotivating for the learner. It also has a negative impact on teachers – it’s hard to feel job satisfaction when your students are feeling increasingly frustrated by their apparent lack of progress.
Big data is providing a growing bank of information. In the long term this will deliver a much more precise estimate of effort required to reach higher levels of proficiency, even down to a recommendation of the hours required to go from A to B and how those hours are best invested. That way, learners and teachers alike would be able to see where they are now, where they want to be and a path to get there. It’s a fully functioning English language learning GPS system, if you like.
It's 6 AM on a Monday morning. Ms. Lopez wakes up early to prepare for the day ahead. She spends the morning reviewing lesson plans, making sure everything is ready for her students. By lunchtime, she is preparing for the afternoon, grabbing a quick bite between classes... but it doesn’t stop there. The school day finishes but Ms. Lopez stays late marking assignments. Finally, on Sunday night, she sits at her kitchen table, surrounded by papers, course books and lesson plans.
Does this sound familiar? You are not alone.
In 2024, ɫèAV research found that76% of teachers spend at least one hour of their personal time on lesson planning each week, with 43% spending more than three hours. This is a lot of time that could be spent on other important tasks. Teachers need a solution that helps them plan lessons fast, is connected to their course books and is built by learning experts.
