Felsted School remained open over the Half Term break in October 2020 to accommodate 53 pupils who chose to remain at the school to avoid having to isolate on return from their homes overseas.

Boarding pupils aged 11 upwards from France, Italy, Switzerland and further afield, enjoyed a mixed programme of revision, sports, yoga, swimming and social activities including bake off, laser tag, combat archery, zorb football, pumpkin carving and roller disco!  
 

Daniel Emmerson, Director of Global Education at Felsted, who masterminded their programme of activity, comments; “It was wonderful to be a part of this programme and to see how resilient our students can be. Being away from home for such a long period, particularly when taking into account that many of our Italian students did not know that they would be staying with us right up until the last minute, must have been difficult. However, our students demonstrated commitment and determination to revising for their subjects, taking part in an active sports programme and enjoying a number of social activities.” 

Zoia O, a boarder from France comments; “I am so glad I stayed in school over half term because I got to take part in many fun activities as well as having plenty of spare time to do my work and the whole experience was enhanced by the enthusiasm of the staff.”

Eddie B, a boarder from Italy comments; "The staff who were with us have been amazing, trying to make all of us feel like we were at home. There was no chance to get bored between study time, gym, sports and evening activities and this made us all enjoy our time and make the most of it, instead of thinking about how much we miss our families and friends back at home.”
 

Many of these pupils have not been home since mid August, having come back to Felsted two weeks early to isolate before the start of term. In August Felsted ran online Global Studies and English Language courses for all international returners, which was also delivered to a number of other partner schools around the world. This included a mixture of recorded and interactive lessons which worked flexibly around different time zones. 

Following the success of this, as well as Felsted’s Online International Summer School in July, Felsted will be offering a dynamic one week English or Global Studies online course starting on 17 December.

Click here to find out more Felsted's Online Courses