A very lively party was held on Saturday 12 May to celebrate the opening of Inter-national House Malta in the heart of Swieqi, a stone’s throw from St Julian’s/ Paceville entertainment Mecca. Among the prominent guests were Martin Lemon, managing director of Wels Group of International House schools, and over 50 directors and agents of International House (IH) schools from all over the world on the last leg of a jam-packed stay in Malta and Gozo. Attending the inauguration were monitoring board directors as well as directors from local English language schools.

In Gozo since Thursday 10 May, the IH directors and their agents had completed a highly successful workshop at the Kempinski San Lawrenz Spa and Leisure Resort, visited the IH Gozo school in Gharb, and stopped briefly at IH young learners centre located at Paradise Bay Holiday resort, before coming to Swieqi. While in Gozo the international guests were ably catered for by the management and staff of the Kempinski Resort and Calypso Hotel.

Tourism and Culture Minister Francis Zammit Dimech opened the Malta adult centre. He said that the hosting in Gozo of the annual workshop of this language school network, International House World Organisation (IHWO), with over 140 schools in more than 46 countries worldwide, was a tribute to the sterling results of the Wels-International House language schools in Malta and Gozo. The minister confirmed that the English language-learning sector is booming with a steady annual increase of students, and that this success also had spin-offs for the tourism sector.

Mr Lemon said he was thrilled to participate in the opening of the new school and happy to welcome IH Malta-Gozo staff into the Wels team. He emphasised that working with Corinne Xuereb, executive director of IH schools in Malta and Gozo over the last three years had been marvellous and that Ms Xuereb was an asset to Wels-Inter-national House.

The Wels Group of International Schools and summer centres are affiliated to the IHWO. They have centres in San Diego, USA and Sydney, Australia as well as Britain and Malta.

Executive director of the IH schools in Malta and Gozo, Ms Xuereb IH Malta-Gozo caters for a niche market of select clients.

It was set up in 2000 and has been an affiliate of International House since 2001.