IELS Malta

About IELS Malta

IELS (Institute of English Language Studies) is an English language school located in Sliema, on Mattew Pulis Street, a stone’s throw from the seafront and facing Valletta. It is one of the oldest English schools in Malta, founded in 1985, now part of the international LAL group. It welcomes both adults and younger learners all year round and offers a wide range of courses: General and Intensive English, junior programmes (Young Learners), school groups, English for companies, exam preparation, teacher training and Erasmus+ courses. Teaching is based on the Communicative Language Teaching method (CLT), with a placement test on arrival and regular progress reviews.

The campus is large and has 45 classrooms, with capacity for up to 700 students. Adult courses run in groups of 12 students maximum, junior courses up to 17. A distinctive feature of IELS: the school runs its own accommodation — the Days Inn Hotel, student residences (OneSite, Tigné Suite) and a network of host families, so you can stay on site with no middleman. The school also provides a library of graded readers, film nights and an activity programme to practise English outside class.

IELS Malta accreditations

IELS is an official English language teaching institution: it holds the ELT Council licence, issued by the Maltese Ministry of Education, which licenses and monitors every English school in the archipelago.

The school also holds various accreditations and labels. IELS is notably a member of FELTOM (Federation of English Language Teaching Organisations Malta), the association of Maltese English schools that promotes and monitors quality standards across the sector; its teachers are qualified under Maltese law and meet the requirements of these bodies. The school also takes part in the European Erasmus+ programme, welcoming students and teachers on mobility placements.

For clarity, we do not show every logo the school promotes here, only the labels that genuinely matter. To learn what each one is worth, see our guide to the accreditations and labels of English schools in Malta.

Reviews of IELS Malta

IELS is one of the best-rated English schools in Malta, driven above all by the quality of its teachers — experienced, well-liked and often mentioned by name — and by the rapid progress students report. The international atmosphere, the activity programme and the location on the Sliema seafront round out the picture. The reservations, in the minority, come back to two points: frequent changes of timetable and teacher from one week to the next, awkward for those working alongside their studies, and the organisation of junior and group stays in peak season, with activities sometimes cancelled or charged as extras. The school’s management also has a very commercial bent and host families are of uneven quality.

Where IELS Malta is located

IELS is at 20 Mattew Pulis Street, in Sliema, a few steps from the seafront and the promenade, with views of Valletta across the harbour.

IELS Malta in pictures