Opening of Lucton School Shanghai
Lucton School in Herefordshire has joined a select group of UK schools following the opening of Lucton School Shanghai on the 3rd of September 2018. The Chairman, Dr Tony Paterson, and Vice-Chairman, Peter Morris, of Lucton UK’s governing body, along with Mrs Gill Thorne, Lucton UK’s Headteacher and Lucton’s Bursar, Paul Thorne, who manages Lucton’s overseas developments, were all in Shanghai to be part of the opening celebrations. The opening ceremony included praise and support for the new school from John Edwards, the British Consul-General of Shanghai.
The new purpose-built campus is designed to take 300 full boarding pupils and is situated just a few miles from Shanghai International Airport in Pu Dong. Whilst there are already a number of UK schools with a presence in China, Lucton believes that this will be the first British Curriculum 100% boarding school in China as most others are either day schools or day schools with a boarding element.
Lucton School Shanghai will take in pupils at the age of 15, straight from the Chinese compulsory stage of education and they will take IGCSE exams, followed by A Levels, together with an exceptional extra-curricular offering designed to provide much of the breadth of activities available in typical UK independent schools, such as Lucton. This excerpt from Mrs Thorne’s speech at the opening ceremony encapsulates much of the thinking behind this unique school: “With full boarding, evenings and weekends become opportunities to develop the students with not just further academic support, but also vital interests which enhance both the cultural and physical development of the whole person.”
Neil Clayton, the founding Headmaster of Lucton School Shanghai is also keen to see continued innovation and development in the curriculum as he ensures that China’s cultural and national preferences are fully integrated with Lucton School’s heritage and the British curriculum.
Teacher recruitment has been co-ordinated by Lucton UK, and Lucton School Shanghai pulls together a great team of teachers, nearly all educated in the UK and many have had previous experience of teaching in overseas international schools.
With a population of over 33 million people, Shanghai is the largest city in the world and Lucton School UK, together with their Chinese partners, identified Shanghai as the obvious city to open Lucton’s first Chinese senior campus. Lucton School already had a presence in Shanghai, having opened Lucton Kindergarten Shanghai in the Gubei area in January 2018, with a second Kindergarten already set to open in March 2019. Plans are also underway for building Lucton’s second Chinese senior school campus and the site for a third Early Years campus has already been identified.
All of these developments do not just raise Lucton’s international profile, but represent great news for Herefordshire and UK education in general.
Email: [email protected] Tel: +44 (0) 1568 782000 www.luctonschool.org
