Beaconhurst Welcomes Round Square Exchange Pupils
Two foreign exchange pupils have spoken about their experiences after studying at Beaconhurst School as part of the Round Square International programme.
Hanna Essob, from Johannesburg in South Africa, spent a month attending Beaconhurst while living with a host family in Bridge of Allan.
Janav Singh, 14, travelled from India to study at Beaconhurst for six weeks and stayed with the school’s Round Square International Representative Dawn Haughton and her family in Alva.
The pupils were allocated places as part of an exchange programme and next year, two Beaconhurst pupils will have the chance to study at Hanna and Janav’s schools.
Hanna, 15, stayed with Beaconhurst’s Head of Biology Vanessa Tierney and her S5 daughter Ellie during her trip. She said: “It’s been an amazing experience which has given me the chance to grow as an individual and try something completely new. I wanted to come to Scotland as I’ve been before and love it - particularly the fact you can walk everywhere.”
Hanna is a pupil at Roedean School in Johannesburg – an independent girls’ school.
She said: “It was
interesting to come to a different type of school with Beaconhurst being much smaller. We have 900 pupils just in the senior school compared to about 400 in total at Beaconhurst and it’s all girls - so it was a very different experience. I had the chance to play hockey which was so much fun and got involved with the Young Enterprise group.
I did lots of
activities with my host family at the weekends and visited various places including Aviemore which was stunning.I missed my family a bit but made so many friends at Beaconhurst that it’s was fine and I will definitely be keeping in touch with lots of them.”
Janav Singh came to Beaconhurst from Woodstock Boarding School in the Himalayas and stayed with Mrs Haughton and her S4 son Jack for six weeks.
He said: “I’ve really loved it here – it’s the first time I’ve been to Scotland and it’s the prettiest place I’ve ever seen. The buildings and the architecture are amazing and I’ve visited so many places including St Andrews, Edinburgh Castle, Stirling Castle and the Wallace Monument. In lessons I’ve done Business, PE, Physics, Chemistry, English, Maths, Spanish and Computing while I’ve been here and I’ve found it harder than the work we do back home - particularly the Maths which was really tough.”
Janav also learned how to play golf and enjoyed squash, canoeing on the River Forth and endurance running during his exchange. He said: “I have loved it and especially enjoyed doing Business Management which I had never done before and which I would now like to consider as a career. I like the fact that Beaconhurst is a smaller school than mine, which has about 700 pupils, because you get to know people better and everyone has been welcoming and accepting. Round Square gives you an opportunity to step outside your comfort zone, meet new people and have an amazing time in a different country.”
Mrs Haughton, Beaconhurst’s depute head Dawn Haughton, said the exchange programme had been a success. She said: “It’s been fabulous having Janav to stay and hearing about the differences between his school and Beaconhurst. And both pupils gave a fantastic assembly together which had great feedback from pupils who learned a lot about their different cultures.”
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Round Square International is a world-wide association of schools with 180 members across five continents.
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