Marlborough’s international links are growing with a party of 30 children from China now booked in to attend the annual Summer School at Marlborough College, bringing the number of countries represented to 26.
And the three-week Summer School, which takes off on July 14, is also proving recession proof, more than 3,000 students already signed up to take part in its galaxy of classes.
“The numbers coming from abroad are absolutely fantastic,” Jon Copp (pictured), the Summer School director now promoted to be the College’s enterprise director, told Marlborough News Online. “We’re thrilled to have 26 countries represented at the moment.
“And for the first time we have a group of children, aged from nine to 12 years, coming from mainland China. They are from Zhejiang, not too far from Shanghai, which is an honour for us.
“They are all doing English in the morning and then a whole range of things, from fly fishing to clay pigeon shooting to art, drama, even cookery, in the afternoon. It will be an entirely new experience for them.”
The China link has come via Plymouth University’s international connections, where Chinese students in the past have visited.
“This year they very much wanted to bring them to an independent school like Marlborough,” added Mr Copp. “So we hope that this is the start of more people coming from China, all of which adds another cultural layer to what we’re doing.”
Germany and Spain head the European countries sending students to Marlborough this year, followed by the French and Italians. Added to them are students from eastern Europe, the Middle East and America.
“When people do come from abroad – and they’ve made that giant journey across the world – we work hard to give them a chance to jump into a mini-bus and explore the area,” said Mr Copp.
“If they haven’t got transport, then we can ensure that they get out and about and enjoy to real flavour of Wiltshire and places like Stonehenge.”
Plans are underway for students to visit the Wilton Windmill and Crofton Beam Engine, the influx of Summer School visitors mutually beneficial for volutary-run organisations as well as the College.
That, of course, includes UK citizens too.
“We are already well over 3,000 students and still motoring,” Mr Copp pointed out. “It’s more than last year and we need only another 200 or so to compete with the record year of 2011. So we shall see what happens in the next couple of weeks.”
What the Summer School offers doesn’t basically change, though this year the chance to take an eight-hour course in flying lessons at Clench Common, costing almost £1,000, sold out when it was first advertised.
“It is the whole Summer School atmosphere that people come for, not one single thing,” explained Mr Copp. “The generational mix from the very young to senior citizens in their nineties and the international is what creates our real specialness.”
For full details of the Summer School: www.mcsummerschool.org.uk
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