Epsom’s poshest college is to open a new school – in Malaysia.
Epsom College, which charges fees of £27,000 per year, is to open a new school in Bandar Enstek, just south of Kuala Lumpur.
It is scheduled to open in 2012, and will eventually cater for some 900 pupils aged 11 to 18, who will follow a British curriculum. Most of them will be boarders.
In addition the school – ECKL – will cater for another 150 pupils in a preparatory wing.
The co-educational school will be built on a 30-acre site as part of a development which will include a university, colleges and a medical hub.
The new school has been made possible through the joint funding and support of Kuala Lumpur Education City (KLEC) and the college’s network of high-profile Old Epsomians living and working in Malaysia, and will offer opportunities for exchanges for both pupils and teaching staff between the two schools.
It is intended the new school will follow the pattern of all-round education offered by the original Epsom College, which has the Queen as patron.
The school was founded in 1854, and has a tradition of educating pupils for careers in medicine, science, economics and law.
With a long history of educating Malaysian and other international students in England, the new venture is a natural extension, designed to further the college’s international reputation, says Epsom College headmaster Stephen Borthwick.
It will foster educational and social links between both cultures.
He said: “A high calibre project team has been put in place to oversee the establishment of this exciting new venture for us.”
ECKL pupils will be following in the footsteps of many notable Epsom College alumni, including Tony Fernandes, founder and CEO of Air Asia and the Tune Group; Mark Mardell, North America editor at the BBC and John Scarlett, recently retired director general of the UK’s Secret Intelligence Service, as well as journalist broadcasters Jeremy Vine and Jonathan Maitland.
Epsom College has been approved as a training camp for overseas archery and fencing teams at the 2012 Olympics.
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