Moira House, Eastbourne Celebrates 140 Years Aniversary

MOIRA HOUSE CELEBRATES 140 YEAR ANNIVERSARY


A Great Celebration for our  Bright world  Partner school, Moira House, Eastbourne

It is a tremendous achievement to have reached 140 years (1875 - 2015) and to be the only Girls School which remains in Eastbourne.

We will be celebrating our Anniversary throughout the year and you will see the theme run through events and the curriculum. Already several teaching staff are planning to incorporate the 140th into their teaching and evidence of this will be revealed in our coming newsletters. The photograph above was taken of the Christmas play at Moira House Girls School in 1941, when the School had been evacuated to a hotel in Windermere. Prunella Scales performed in the play and is seated in the centre of the picture - she was also a Standard Bearer.


Mr Giles Carrington

Mr Giles Carrington, Market Development Manager, gave a moving speech on how Braille has changed the lives of blind people in this week’s assembly.

 Louis Braille was born in a small town outside of Paris. At 3 years old he injured his eye and by the age of 5 was completely blind. Despite this, Braille was determined to work hard and he was able to attend the Royal Institute for Blind Youth. In 1821, at the age of 15, he worked tirelessly on a system to enable blind people to recognise letters with a single touch of a finger. The Braille system was finally adopted by the Institute in 1854.
Giles Carrington, who was sighted 30 years ago, found a way to go to college and live independently after losing his sight. In his assembly he talked about how Braille has inspired and changed the lives of so many blind people even today; Giles would not have been able to achieve all he has without it. Giles described what it was like to be blind: “Everything is a surprise and it is frightening when your surroundings bump in to you without warning. The determination and focus of Louis Braille shows that in seeking an answer for yourself you can also change the lives of those around you and in the future”.

“Moira House will provide an excellent all-round education, which will encourage each individual pupil to attain her highest academic, artistic, musical, social, and sporting potential in a friendly, happy yet purposeful community, with a global perspective which is multi-cultural with a Christian foundation, in a safe and caring environment.”

China - Treading Carefully...

Most schools rely on a diverse network of International Agents who are based overseas and whom recommend their institution to parents and students:

Agents whom they entrust with the grave task of invigilating the all important entrance test and ensuring that they honour the commitment displayed by their UKBA highly trusted status.

According to BOSSA (Beijing Overseas Study Service Association) founded in

2004 and supported by the Chinese Ministry of Education and the Beijing Municipal Education Commission, there are currently 454 government licensed agencies in China, mostly deemed as 'small agencies', yet there are thousands of unlicensed agencies operating in the country. With the Chinese market growing at a rate of 8.8% per year, China remains a key market for UK Institutions looking to develop their international intake. Schools bound by their highly trusted status are therefore bound to take great care when choosing their Overseas Agents and Partners.

Here at Bright World Education, the consultancy wing of Bright World, we have a similar undertaking when building relationships with sub agents overseas and therefore treasure those which have span over many years and have stood the test of time. To display our trust and mutual commitment, we now allow a very select number of our Partners with a proven track record and no sub-offices, to invigilate exams for prospective students on our behalf.

For newer Partners or those who introduce sub-offices we insist that they use their local British Council offices to ensure that tests are taken under strict examination conditions.  In China we also offer testing service via our Regional Manager who attends agents' offices to invigilate our examinations.

Some of our partner schools want the extra security offered by Bright World via our policy, our network of secure and trusted agents and in China via our testing service and therefore invite new agents or direct enrolments in China to use Bright World as an agency.  We are keen to expand on these closer relationships with our schools.  We would ask you to get in touch with Sheena Trist, our Director of Admissions if you want to establish such an arrangement. 

Not only does this policy allow us to protect our reputation with our Partner Schools, but it also helps to protect the Schools themselves.

For further information, or if you are interested in learning more about placement and uk guardianship, please get in touch with Sales & Marketing Manager, Charlotte Hamson; email: charlotte@brightworld.co.uk tel: 01273 835745 

Police inspector joins Bright World

Our new Director of Safeguarding and Operations, Claire Taylor (pictured above) joined the Bright World team on Monday 5th January 2015.  

Claire has served in the police for 17 years and most recently has achieved Inspector rank, working as acting Inspector in Sussex branches. In her new role as Director of Safeguarding & Operations, Claire will bring a wealth of knowledge, specifically in safeguarding, maintaining our processes and upholding policies.

Claire will be working closely with Lana (MD) to achieve our ambitious safeguarding targets and Fiona (Director of Guardianships) to bring together customer service and programme operation. Claire will also heading up our new Travel & Accommodation department.

Because of the great work of our Host Family recruitment Manager, Lindsay Gayler and our Local Coordinators who visit and inspect our families, we are lucky enough to have a large network of excellent Host Families who have not only passed our stringent recruitment process with flying colours, but whom are happy to assist us in an emergency. However even with these families in place, it is inevitable that plans may change. Perhaps the student's parents will decide they now want their child to fly home for the holiday or our Host Family may be met with unforeseen circumstances meaning they cannot host. In order to allow this crucial part of our service to get even better as we grow we have decided to make some changes that will do just this.

       

Historically it has been the role of our Guardianship Care Managers to arrange and contact Host Families, arranging for them to collect our students from their respective Boarding Schools and care for them during their short holidays. This will now be taken on by this whole new department and will be handled with even more efficiency and with more contemplation. 

Travel & Accommodation Manager, Hannah Newton and her team of Accommodation & Travel Administrators (Leanne Poole & Kate Hewson) will provide an internal service to our Guardianship Care Managers, by arranging transfers and host family stays for all our guardianship students.

For further information, or if you are interested in learning more about placement and uk guardianship, please get in touch with Sales & Marketing Manager, Charlotte Hamson; email: charlotte@brightworld.co.uk tel: 01273 835745 

Hello from James, Our UK School liaison mananger

At the end of last year we recruited James Graydon-Rhodes as our new UK Schools Liaison Manager to help us develop and nurture our important relationships with our Partner Schools.
James joins Sheena Trist, Carol Gill and Charlotte Hamson in the Marketing and Admissions department; his brief, to learn more about the requirements that you as Schools have in terms of placements and to keep our Schools updated on the latest developments within our expanding guardianship department. 

In order to achieve his goal, James may be keen to pay you a visit in the near future and to feed all the news from his visit back to our Marketing and Admissions department here at head office.
As Bright World's new roving eyes and ears, we hope that James's visits will fully equip for overseas trips. Our current, up to date view and understanding of our Partner School will surely aid us in promoting our Schools to Partner Agents and prospective parents alike.

We hope that you will join us in congratulating James and welcoming him to this new exciting role.

For further information, or if you are interested in learning more about placement and uk guardianship, please get in touch with Sales & Marketing Manager, Charlotte Hamson; email: charlotte@brightworld.co.uk tel: 01273 835745 

Stover Prep School Photography Exhibition a Huge Success

After school on Friday 21st November a large crowd of Stover Prep School pupils, parents and friends gathered in Jubilee Hall to view the photography exhibition held in support of the World Wildlife Fund. With over eighty entries from pupils in Reception to Year 6, the competition for prizes was fierce!  Bright World Partner School were absolutely delighted to welcome Mark Hannaford, award winning wildlife photographer and Fellow of the National Geographic Society and Royal Society of Arts, to judge the entries and present the prizes which had been generously donated by the WWF. Mark brought his beautiful husky dog, Anya, with him to help with proceedings and she was certainly appreciated by the audience, many of whom enjoyed meeting her in person after the prize giving.

Mark began by giving a presentation, showing us some of his amazing photographs taken in exotic locations all around the world. Ishka Thres (Year 4) whose idea it had been to organise this special event in aid of the WWF, also spoke to the audience about his passion for the Snow Leopard and how this had inspired him to want to save this very special animal before numbers drop any lower.

When presenting the prizes in each age group, Mark explained to winners the elements of the photograph that showed particular strength, resulting in their picture being selected. He also commented on the high standard of entries overall.

We should like to thank Ishka for his wonderful idea; all those pupils who entered the competition; everyone who came on the night; the parents who donated cakes for the cake sale and those who kindly served refreshments on the evening. Very special thanks go to Ishka’s mother, Mrs Pearson, for her support and help with the organization of this memorable event.

We are delighted to say that we raised a total of £271.25 for the WWF through competition entries and the cake sale. Hopefully we have also inspired some budding photographers of the future! 

If you would like to apply to join our host families or to find out more about UK guardianship. Please enquire today.

For further information, Or if you are interested in learning more about placement, please get in touch with us via our enquiry form or call 01273 835745.

Armed with Clip Boards & Wellies

Great news from our Bright World partners at Stover School, At the start of this Half Term, the Year 7 pupils from Stover Senior School embarked on their first Geography field trip of the year. Armed with clip boards and wellies they set off to firstly, find out a little about the history of Stover Country Park; secondly, to study the broad leaved, coniferous and heath land ecosystems and lastly, to see what management techniques were being used to control the rhododendron problem!! Lots of vigorous note- taking and field-sketches were produced in order for informative write-ups to begin back in the classroom.

Miss Evans, who accompanied us on the trip, commented on what a pleasure it had been to be in the company of such interested, well-behaved children.

Stover School is a leading independent co-educational day and boarding school for pupils aged 3 – 18. It is set in 64 acres of beautiful and historical grounds in the heart of Devon’s glorious countryside between the foothills of Dartmoor and the South West Coastline.

Founded in 1932 Stover School aims to provide a high quality education in accordance to Christian principles, enabling pupils to acquire the qualifications, confidence and skills needed to achieve their aspirations.

Stover School recently received an overwhelmingly positive inspection report from the Independent Schools Inspectorate, in which, Stover School was deemed to ‘very successfully fulfill its aim of providing a high quality education’.

The school is proud to have been judged as ‘Excellent’ in; teaching, pastoral care, welfare, health and safety, quality of leadership and management and governance.

If you would like to apply to join our host families or to find out more about UK guardianship. Please enquire today.

For further information, Or if you are interested in learning more about placement, please get in touch with us via our enquiry form or call 01273 835745.

Bright World joins ALTO

We are delighted to announce that Bright World are now fully fledged members of ALTO (Association of Language Travel Organisations).

ALTO are an elite global forum for leading industry professionals within the language travel industry and after receiving recommendation, Bright World join this unique network of top-level decision makers within the field. ALTO membership will allow us to access top-level seminars, networking events and industry information.

Bright World Directors Lana and James Foster will make their ALTO debut next year at the Professional Development and Networking Conference in NEW YORK! The Conference promises to give an insight into the future of our industry and will help us make important decisions for Bright World’s future.

We thank ALTO for granting our trusted membership and look forward to joining this great forum for our industry!

For further information, or if you are interested in learning more about placement and uk guardianship, please get in touch with Sales & Marketing Manager, Charlotte Hamson; email: charlotte@brightworld.co.uk tel: 01273 835745