Bell Quality and Innovation Awards
Awards - Recognising quality across
the Bell network Winners of the Bell Educational Trust's
International Quality & Innovation Awards were announced
on Saturday 17 May, at an awards ceremony at Bell Bedgebury
International School in Kent.
Picture: From left to right - Keith Ellis (Bell Intensive
English Programme, King Saud University), Jean-Luc Payot
(Bell Geneva), Varbinka Hadjidimitrova (AVO-Bell Sofia),
Ron White (Bell Educational Trust), Wojtek Graniczewski
(Bell Krakow) Kasia Lisiewicz (Program Bell Poznan) and
Professor Lei Yin (MPI-Bell Macao)
Six Bell Centres from Bulgaria, Poland, Macao, Switzerland
and Saudi Arabia are celebrating after being recognised
for their outstanding contributions to English Language
teaching over the last year.
The four award categories are:
- Academic excellence - recognises academic excellence,
either through the outstanding achievement of academic
goals or an outstanding academic record.
- Customer care - recognises outstanding customer
care provision, benchmarked not just against other
language providers but against leading service industries.
- Innovation - recognises innovation in the development
of new language learning products or services.
- Staff development - recognises special achievement
in staff development that is aligned to the strategic
development of the Bell group.
The entries were judged by The Bell Educational Trust's
Academic Board. Ron White, Chair of the Academic Board,
commented on the overall quality of all the entries:
"The Bell Educational Trust has a global reputation for
quality and each year takes time to recognise and celebrate
achievements across the Bell network. The awards demonstrate
how creative and innovative the Bell network is. From
learning English through the medium of cooking to developing
ways for busy professionals to access English language
learning tools online. The range of entries showed how
responsive members of the Bell network are to the changing
needs of learners."
The award winners came from across the Bell global network
and include:
Winner of the Bell Award for Academic Excellence - AVO-Bell
Sofia (Bulgaria)
Project: Can do statements - a tool for motivating students
and helping them to measure their own progress
The school developed a series of can-do-statements for
students to boost their motivation through self assessment
while also providing teachers with a useful tool for
analysing students' needs. The statements are in line
with the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages.
Highly Commended - Bell Award for Academic Excellence
- Bell Kraków (Poland)
Project: Bell Kraków English Language Practice Books
A series of English Language Practice Books written by
Bell Krakow teachers and published by the school as supplementary
material for FCE, CAE and CPE course books.
Winner of the Bell Award for Customer Care - MPI-Bell
Macao (China)
Project: From Macao to Xinjiang: Training today's teachers
for tomorrow's world
Working with Xinjiang Normal University MPI-Bell Macao
provides English teachers from this remote underdeveloped
region with a unique teaching programme. Twice each year,
MPI-Bell Macao hosts teams of teachers for three months,
providing them with training, accommodation, a subsidy
to cover living expenses, and a range of social visits
and professional development opportunities. Twice a year,
MPI-Bell also sends two of its own trainers to Xinjiang
to deliver training to middle and high school teachers.
Winner of the Bell Award for Innovation - Bell Geneva
(Switzerland)
Project: Innovating in response to growth - Bell Switzerland:
Centre of Excellence for International Civil Servants
The school has developed a whole range of innovative
courses and services catering for the specific needs
of the International Organisations in Geneva. This includes
a tool that allows students to access material from classes
using Moodle, a software system which helps supports
online learning communities.
Highly Commended - Bell Award for Innovation - Program
Bell Poznan (Poland)
Project: Learning English by Cooking
By attending the monthly classes students learn how to
describe the cooking process, understand the recipes,
name the tools and ingredients, and use suitable vocabuary
in discussing the cooking process with other students.
Filming enables the students to revise the whole process
and practise English by watching the film and listening
to it again at their leisure.
A new addition to this year's awards' categories was
the Bell award for staff development. The Bell team working
at the King Saud University in Saudi Arabia were highly
commended for developing and delivering a special week-long
training session which equipped 85 teachers with relevant
teacher training techniques.
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