International school links

It was a real delight to visit St Stephen's College in Hong Kong today. Situated overlooking the sea in a beautiful location, they are doing excellent work with a lot of students in the area and beyond. As an IB World School we have a lot in common with them and have been exploring ideas for closer links to join with our current links with schools in France, Kazaksthan, Italy, Japan and Mexico.

International school links are so important to all of us as we drive to make all of our students genuinely international citizens ready to face the challenges of the 21st Century. St Stephens has a long and proud history and under their Principal Carol Yang have even more exciting times ahead. The photo is of the member of staff in charge of exchange programmes at the college.

We share a strong commitment to international education and doing the very best for our students and hope we can develop good links together in the years ahead.

A Royal End to the year

Beginnings and ends of years are really important for students. In September, January and other points of the year we give a warm welcome, but in June and August we have very special celebrations as students leave us. The Vice Chancellor of the University of Kent will be presenting certificates to all our graduating students this week and we have just had a great Prom with hundreds of students relaxing and celebrating with buffet, dancing and loads of photos. Many staff were also present as we start to say our farewells for June.
On top of all this , today on the Queens Birthday came an amazing end to the term with Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth honouring the college and our students by making the Principal a Member of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire. The photo shows the Queen in the robes of the order.
It's an amazing end to the year, which reflects honour at the highest level for all our students  in Canterbury and reflects the quality and excellence of so much that we do here. It makes me very proud to be the Principal with such amazing students and staff around me

Jonathan

Looking after you at CATS Canterbury

Its really important for us that all our students feel really looked after and cared for. We have a new Welfare booklet which shows you who all the key people are who support our students. We have full time Welfare Officers, a College Counsellor, House Parents, a Student Support Officer as well as our very experienced team of Senior Tutors - the Senior Tutors meet with students every week and are available every night from 4-5pm if you need to talk to them.
The booket shown here is available in College for any of our students and also can be obtained from any of our CATS staff overseas or by emailed by the college directly - we are always happy to help.

For any of our students we have a great 'Tell Us' button system so students can tell us on line what they think about things, as well as coming to see any of us at any time. The Principal is available most nights from 5pm onwards for students to see, but will often see them during the day as well when he is free. Its important for students to see us and talk with us, particularly when they are under pressure, and remember we are always here to help you.
I have chatted in another blog about the activities we do to help support student university applications, but we also have a booklet with all our other activities we offer outside lesson time - again these are available to all students from our Activities Manager, Claire, or from Senior Tutors - you can see a picture of it here. Its great to get involved and feel part of the college!
Jonathan

Your future subject choices at Canterbury

When you come to select your subjects for A Level or IB or Foundation - it can be a challenge! Remember we have a series of A5 booklets which explain what all these subjects are and you can look and see what really fits with your future. There are some special subjects you will need to take if you are heading to LSE, Imperial, Warwick, Oxford and Cambridge so do check with us and we can always help. In your first weeks of term there are lots of chances for you to have special academic counselling in September - we are always here to help! 

If you would like copies of the booklets please ask your CATS staff in your home country or you can email the college and we are always happy to help too.

With very best wishes for all your future plans as you consider the exciting changes ahead!