UK boarding schools 'the choice of parents in GCC'
Originally published in Gulf Times on January 22, 2008
BOARDING schools in the UK are increasingly becoming the choice of working parents in the GCC, because “they offer a multi-cultural environment” for students from around the world, said Sue Anderson, a visiting British consultant yesterday.
Speaking to Gulf Times, Anderson, who arrived in Doha after her visits to Kuwait, Bahrain and Oman, said the GCC countries are a melting-pot of cultures because of the presence of a huge number of expatriates from around the world. “A child, who joins a boarding school in the UK from the GCC, feels just at home.”
According to Anderson, boarding schools in the UK do not take more than eight students from one nation to maintain a healthy ratio among their international students.
These boarding schools, according to Anderson, offer supportive and structured environment with excellent pastoral care, while instilling traditional values in a child. Also the wide range of subjects including sports, music, drama, art and languages, and activities on weekends, are what makes “boarding fun”.
“A lot of expatriate families are seeking information about getting their children into quality boarding schools in the UK or in other places in Europe, due to their job requirements. And it is important to choose the right school.
These schools usually like 11-18 years old, and that’s a period of a child’s life when he can build confidence and independence, all the while making life-long friends,” said Anderson, who as a consultant has some 400 boarding schools on her list out of an approximate total of 550 schools in the UK.
“The first question I usually ask the parents is about the academic level of the child, followed by their ward’s favourite subject, interest m arts, music or sports and finally if there is any family member based in the UK already. After this, the most suitable five-six choices of boarding schools are offered to the parents and then the decision is theirs,” said Anderson.
Other questions pertain to the type of educational environment, co-educational or singlesex schools, highly selective or all rounder students and so on.
“It’s very important for parents to visit the selected schools personally to see the schools in action, because the brochures or Internet browsing makes all of them look glossy,” she said.
Asked if the number of students going to the UK has decreased post 9/1 I and 7/7, Anderson’s associate, Sara Sparling answered with a resounding “No.”
“The reason for students from the GCC and other countries to go to UK schools and colleges was the quality of the education and that has not changed, rather continues to improve. Some of the schools on our directory don’t even require a student to go to Heathrow. They land on a small airport close to the boarding school and then are driven directly to the hosts,” said Sparling, while agreeing that “rare incidents of racial discrimination or abuse in some areas do exist.”
“There are some areas in London that I don’t feel comfortable going myself. And these areas exist all over the world,” she added.
Anderson is also hosting a UK Boarding school Exhibition in Dubai and Abu Dhabi from February 8.
As Published
