Feature: Winston Churchill's alma mater aspires to educate future leaders of oriental world

Harrow School, one of Britain's most famous independent schools, is "very open to appropriate opportunities" to cooperate with Chinese educational institutions, the head of the elite school told Xinhua in an exclusive interview.

"At the moment, with the current news about the interaction between the UK and China, maybe we have a fresh opportunity to look at educational goals together and see what we can learn from each other," says Jim Hawkins, Harrow's headmaster.

Hawkins, who became the head of the school four years ago, discussed with Xinhua the potential for educational cooperation between the prestigious London institution and the booming oriental world.

Harrow, the alma mater of eight former British or Indian prime ministers, including Winston Churchill and India's first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, has also educated the likes of poet Lord Byron, actor Benedict Cumberbatch, Jordanian and Iraqi kings as well as some members of the British royal family.

In recent years, the English boarding school, occupying more than 400 acres (about 162 hectares) of idyllic, rolling grounds in north London, has stepped up its international expansion, striving to deliver quality private education overseas.

By founding international schools abroad, Hawkins says, Harrow hopes to produce "great leaders not just for the UK but also for other countries as well."

GROWING LINKS WITH CHINA

This very British, all boys' boarding school, whose annual fee for a pupil amounts to 36,150 pounds (about 54,660 U.S. dollars), was established in 1572 under a Royal Charter granted by Queen Elizabeth I. It has so far opened three overseas schools in the Far East, including one in Beijing another in Hong Kong and a fourth set to be unveiled in Shanghai next year.

Hawkins, an ever-smiling Oxford graduate in his late 40s, says the way for Harrow to develop partnerships with China has been through its international school presence, which makes it necessary for him to travel abroad regularly to keep a watchful eye on the overseas schools.

"We are really quite a family of schools and as such I will go out to Beijing, Hong Kong and in the future Shanghai at least once a year, in order to maintain those relationships," he explains.

"And every time I visit, I learn more and more about China--the education system and also what possible opportunities there could be in the future, so I look forward to seeing where future discussions will leave lead us," adds the headmaster.

INTERNATIONAL EXPANSION

Harrow started its overseas venture in Asia in 1998, when its first international school was set up in Bangkok, capital of Thailand. Seven years later, its second foreign outpost gained license to operate in Beijing in 2005, and the third in Hong Kong in 2012.

More than 3,300 children representing about 50 nationalities enrolled in the Harrow International Schools at the start of the 2015/16 academic year, nearly four times as many as the parent school's 830, according to statistics provided by Harrow.

The international schools all follow an English style curriculum, based on the National Curriculum for England and Wales. Most lessons are taught in English, with the pupils all prepared for mainstream British qualifications, including GCSE and A-levels.

The overseas outposts also share similar teaching philosophies, techniques and values to those of the original Harrow, inheriting its typical approaches, such as the house system, pastoral care, and an emphasis on extracurricular activities.

"There is a very English feel to the education there, and much resonance with the sort of education here (in London)," Hawkins tells Xinhua.

Unlike the original Harrow, which remains an all boys' boarding school admitting pupils aged from 13 to 18, the international outposts are co-educational institutions taking a mix of day and boarding boys and girls aged roughly from three to 18. A significant proportion of their students are the children of Western expatriates working in Asia.

The international schools are independently owned, with many links and partnerships between different campuses.

Harrow agrees to partner these overseas offshoots for mutual benefit. The Asian outposts operate as Harrow franchises, paying fees to the parent school for sharing its brand name and expertise. The parent school can then allocate some of the earnings to fund its own development and provide bursaries for its pupils in Britain.

QUALITY MONITORING

Harrow' governors and management have carefully introduced a system of checks and balances to protect its prestige in the international buildup.

"The protection of Harrow's name and the quality of education programs is of primary importance to us," says Hawkins. "For international school developments of the kind that Harrow is engaged with to truly succeed, there needs to be great attention to detail and effective relationships."

He reveals that the governors of Harrow's foundation, the John Lyon Foundation, are "actively involved" in the monitoring process, with two of the governors visiting each international school every term and monitoring what's going on there.

The two governors, with experience and knowledge of either the education sector or finance related matters, inspect the performance of each school, and discuss their findings and observations with each local governing board and the school management.

Hawkins says each international school has its own local board of governance, which oversees the strategy of the local school; the system "works very well" with oversight from the Harrow family.

"We are constantly vigilant and active in order to maintain the quality," the headmaster stresses.

The original Harrow School also has a say in appointing the headmasters of the international schools, who are selected with the agreement of Harrow's governors and its partners. The governors of Harrow School in London retain the right of veto over appointments.

SENSE OF HERITAGE

A quick glance of the boys' life in Harrow tells a lot about its unique traditions. From wearing the iconic boater hats and tailcoats, to singing Harrow songs and using bewildering Harrow jargon, the elite school has kept many of its oldest practices.

The boarding school now employs about 700 members of staff, of whom 12 are House Masters who specialize in providing parent-style pastoral care for the boys, under a centuries-old House system.

Anne Hall-Williams, a tour guide at Harrow, says that some of the traditions, such as carving names in the wooden panels on walls, started as vandalism committed by a few boys, but later became a legacy in the collective memory of generations of pupils.

"Because once one boy had done it, they thought: 'Great, we'll all do it,' and they did! And they went on doing it, because the teachers couldn't ask them all to leave," she tells Xinhua during a campus tour at Harrow.

This tradition has continued for hundreds of years and is still carried on by present pupils.

Maintaining such traditions is "very worthwhile," Hawkins declares. "These are precious things because they add to that sense of heritage and being somewhere special."

Some of these traditional hallmarks have been transplanted to Harrow's overseas branches, forming bonds and linkages among the schools. For example, most international schools require that pupils should wear the Harrow hat on special occasions or on designated days.

"Being part of a family, even though they (the international schools) are relatively young institutions, means they can refer to those traditions," Hawkins says.

School uniforms and buildings are not the same, but an emphasis on Harrow-style curriculum, pastoral care, ethos, discipline and extracurricular experience is shared.

In Harrow London, older boys may be given a trip to Budapest or Jerusalem to study foreign culture and history, while Sixth Formers at Harrow Beijing could enjoy an expedition to Pyongyang or Malaysia's Kota Kinabalu to explore exotic lives there.

"Within their local environment, they are also developing their local approaches and characteristics, and what one doesn't do deliberately is to try to have a replica of a school in a different country," Hawkins explains.

MARRYING ORIENTAL, WESTERN TRADITIONS

During Chinese President Xi Jinping's state visit to Britain in October, the two countries vowed to enhance cooperation in areas of economy, culture and education, etc.

Hawkins says he expects a "potentially beneficial and complementary" discussion about educational cooperation between the two nations.

"If one were able to in some way marry the traditional strengths of Chinese approaches and UK approaches, that could be very interesting," he says.

Having made multiple visits to Chinese schools, the headmaster sees merit in both educational systems.

"When I was in my last job in Norwich, I visited a district in Shanghai, and visited some state schools, and was very struck by the amazing levels of competence and technical skill in mathematics, science and other areas that I thought exceeded what one would expect from a UK student at the same age," he recalls.

The British education, he says, can offer the breadth of its experience, the quality and range of extracurricular life, the imaginative uses of teaching and learning and encouraging critical thinking among the students.

He suggests that the two sides engage in a debate and discussion about education and prepare the students as effectively as possible for the future.

"I think it's a case of engaging in discussion, visiting one another's countries and learning from the best aspects of educational institutions, and seeing where that leads," says the veteran educator.

The results of the discussion, he adds, would perhaps be "a combination of traditional strengths one find in different parts of the world, not least China and the UK." Enditem