Great teachers but not trained for this
Teachers hired from selective schools are used to international pupils with very high English proficiency. They’re not trained to develop language and subject knowledge together.
Inspectors are catching up
Inspectors are increasingly looking for language development in every classroom. That means mainstreaming the skills, not adding an EAL specialist on the side.
It’s a growing market
Aspirational parents want a premium education but their children may not have fully fluent English skills yet. Without effective language support, schools recruit from a much narrower pool.
Every international education group is pursuing the same goal: pupils who can work at the highest standard and benefit fully from everything their school life offers.
Fluent in the corridor, stuck in the exam
Many pupils seem fluent in conversation but lack the language needed for demanding assessments. By the time it’s obvious, you’re racing to catch up.
The usual fixes don’t work
CPD fails when it’s “feast-and-famine”: you can organise training or buy into an app, but it doesn’t change what happens in the classroom.
Each school is working alone
When it works, it’s because a few passionate people are driving it. That doesn’t help the next school and the larger you grow, the more problems it creates.
Whether you’re bringing consistency to schools you already run or opening new ones, the goal is the same: language provision that doesn’t depend on who happens to be in the building.
A toolkit for every teacher
A set of strategies to use in every lesson that grows as their confidence does, and support to make it stick.
Schools supporting schools
A system that brings together admissions, learning support, teaching and leadership, so that all your schools are working to the same plan.
Leaders see the whole picture
Clear insight into what’s happening for every pupil, so you can see which schools are doing well and which need more support.
Want to spend time negotiating with schools and wrestling with dashboards? Buy a course or an app.
Want the time back so you can focus on the next challenge? Bring in Heddle.
Here’s how it works:
1. Strategy workshop
We dive deep into your schools, survey the staff, then report the findings in a tight, 90-minute strategy workshop. You’ll leave with a clear plan for us to deliver.
2. Introduce HAT, our data platform
HAT ensures everything is rooted in evidence, not guesswork: a system that replaces manual induction and assessment, so every decision is grounded in what’s actually happening in your schools. It’s discreet, effective and loved by EAL leaders.
3. Tailored staff training
We’ll design and deliver training that’s tailored to each of your schools, built around our core framework so that everyone knows how it all fits together.
4. Transition to your team
We’ll build up the language leaders in every school and hand over the day-to-day running to them. We’ll stay in the background, helping them to fix any thornier challenges before they reach you.
Once it’s running smoothly, you’ll get a termly update on which schools are doing well and which need more support. And if you need us urgently – before a surprise inspection, say – we’ll be there.
We’re the specialists that can deliver lasting change, at the pace and scale of the world’s most ambitious school groups.
All teachers within Rugby School Global are supported by a sector-leading set of bespoke training resources delivered online in liaison with Heddle EAL. The provision is genuinely world class.
Dr James Whitehead | Director of Education, Rugby School Global
Heddle didn’t just train our staff and disappear. They built the systems around us, so that language support is now part of every classroom in every one of our schools.
Peter Collier | EAL lead, British International School Riyadh
Inspectors increasingly look for language development in every classroom, and that’s what we now have. Heddle helped us build provision that’s embedded, not bolted on.
Karen Jones | Principal, British International School Riyadh, Al Waha
We work with a small number of groups at any time, so we start by making sure we’re the right fit for both of us.
You’ll speak directly with our founder, Dr Robert Sharples, and we’ll follow up with a no-cost diagnostic report to review before making any commitment.
Engagements typically start at £12,000.
