The Mary Glasgow Award 2005 was won by The Ashcombe School, Dorking, for their International Business Week

The International Business Week, very successfully provides for all Ashcombe School’s students  in Year 10  a week’s conference which allows them to acquire a sound level of basic Italian and Chinese, and to develop knowledge, understanding, skills and attitudes within an international business context. This  5 day programme  is meticulously and imaginatively planned, and makes excellent use of the school’s annual Activities Week when students in other year groups are engaged on study visits and other activities, or older ones have left after taking public exams. 

All  year 10 students, regardless of their ability, are involved in the International Business Week. The atmosphere is an adult one – the students wear their own clothes, not uniform; the teachers act largely as facilitators (except when they are introducing new language), and teachers from all disciplines are involved, not just the modern linguists.  Local business people lend a measure of authenticity to activities, and take the lead in the 2 business games on the final two days. The presence of the school’s Chinese exchange visitors much enhanced the Chinese language and cultural activities on the day we visited -  a particularly successful feature being the use of Chinese 14/15 year olds to act as tutors to the teams during oral group work in Chinese as the English students learned to memorise and pronounce Chinese numbers.  

 

A visiting Chinese businessman watching the Ashcombe students
taking their first steps in learning Chinese

 

Ashcombe students enjoying business- and language- related activities during International Business Week in 2005 – the year the school won the Mary Glasgow Award.

 

Read more about Ashcombe School's reaction to winning the Mary Glasgow Award by visiting their website: 

 http://www.ashcombe.surrey.sch.uk/News/05-06/EAL/eal.htm