Season 2: Ep 5: A Festive Welcome for the Christmas Holidays
Lia and Louis are joined by Bright World Managing Director, Lana Foster, and Mary Doody, Director of Young Learners at Kings Education, who reveal Bright World's new Relax & Revise @ Christmas programmes, and take a detailed look at the centres and activities planned.
an estimated 15,000 overseas boarders can't return home
Looking at ISC Census statistics for the 2020 entry , we at Bright World estimate that there may be as many as 15,000 international boarding school students in the UK without their parents from countries not on the travel corridor list. This means they are likely not to be able or willing to go home at Christmas as they will have to quarantine on their return in January. In response to this, Bright World Guardianships has teamed up with Kings Education to create a great residential solution for them so Christmas does not need to be cancelled. This will be offered at Padworth College in Reading.
a bid to avoid quarantine
As Christmas is usually a long holiday for UK boarding schools, spanning around 3 weeks, it is customary for the majority of students to return home. This year is going to be different as the quarantine requirements for the main boarding school market countries look likely to remain in place until well into next year. In some cases, such as Hong Kong, although there is no need to quarantine on return to the UK, there is now a requirement for travellers from the UK to quarantine for 14 days in Hong Kong in a government hotel making travel home at Christmas a pretty unattractive option. Some schools are able to stay open at Christmas but others cannot and therefore their students are looking for somewhere safe to stay for their holidays.
a festive welcome in a Covid-safe environment
When it became apparent that quarantine requirements were not going to be reduced any time soon in major boarding school markets, Bright World approached Kings Education to see if they could assist with the increased demand that was likely for Christmas. Kings, in turn, have contracted Padworth College for the entire Christmas period.
Feedback from overseas parents, agents and boarding schools has been very positive so far, as many were at a loss as to a good solution for students wishing to remain in the UK at Christmas.
Kings are very excited to fire up their young learner operation again after an unexpected season off and very much look forward to partnering with Bright world and offering our expertise in the running of a safe secure and for the first time festive programme at a fantastic location.
We are delighted that Bright World and Kings have chosen Padworth College to host a Relax & Revise @ Christmas programme. This presents the perfect solution for our own students and those at our sister college, Bishopstrow, as well as offering places to other boarding school students whose school will be closing for Christmas and who cannot travel home. By working with professionals such as Kings and Bright World, we can rest assured that our students and others will be well looked after, that our Covid-19 safe policy and plan will be carried on through Christmas and our staff will all be able to enjoy a well-earned rest over the Christmas holidays.
