The Happy Camper

By Mark Greenow

I was in a Parent/Student fair in Germany a few years ago. To set the scene these fairs are a bit like ‘speed dating’, you usually sit at a table, although this one was standing room only as it was a small venue. You then have a time slot to try and entice the people in front of you whether, Parents/Students directly, as in this case, or to Agents (who will then go on to promote the schools they have chosen). They then rotate, and you do your pitch all over again to the next people to arrive. If you have seen the film ‘Groundhog Day’ you will have an idea of what that might be like!

Now, this is a very friendly industry. We travel together, we eat together, and we help each other when we can. For example, if somebody is looking for a course, we don’t offer, we refer them to an industry colleague who does provide it. Having said that, there is inevitably an underlying level of competition. Even though we say there are enough students to go around - I did attend a fair once when nobody turned up – we are all trying to fill our schools. We all have our tables set up, brochures, business cards, little gifts and USP’s at the ready. We need the customers to remember us. The competition usually stays friendly but one time a school owner (and good friend) did stamp repeatedly on a DVD I had been playing during a fair – you know who you are ‘JF’!

Also, it is a good way to keep up with what is happening in the industry - I don’t mean the gossip you hear at mealtimes- although there is a bit of that too - but you can’t help but notice what and how other people are selling, and how successful or not they are?  This, used to be called ‘keeping up with the Jones’ now we call it ‘benchmarking’. In other words, we all have our eyes wide open it is just human nature after all, isn’t it?

So, there I am at my stand when I am approached by a very angry looking man. I notice a few sets of eyes begin to look my way. Behind him a 15-year-old girl who I recognise as a student from the previous summer is blushing and shuffling her feet. “I want to make a very serious complaint” he says. Suddenly all eyes now seem to be on me. “What have you done to me Fabiana?” I thought “you always looked happy”. She was looking as embarrassed as I too, now was. Now, we can deal with the occasional complaint, but I would rather not do so in such a public place with my ‘industry colleague competitors’ all around me. The vast majority of students do have a great time, but I can’t help but take it personally when one does not. Idealistically we want all our students to be ‘Happy Campers’.

On this weekend when we say goodbye to our first students of the summer, as well as welcoming many new ones, and without getting too Bryan Adams, as I always say, it is “all about the kids”. As a team we do everything we can to make everybody’s stay as happy, productive and memorable as possible. We hope all students leave with a little bit of BSS in their hearts and we look forward to reading the first leaver feedback of this summer.

In this story though I want to focus on the unsolicited feedback of our youngest camper at Worth last summer. I had heard from her Agent that she had had a good time and had written about her experiences, so I asked for a copy and when I read it, I was blown away. Grace, from China, is 11 years old and wise and mature beyond her years.

“Summer school, very important! But what even more important, a GOOD summer school. If you can’t even find a summer school good enough what’s the point of going there at all? But don’t worry, you will find a summer school that will suit you. And speaking of suiting you, I have a suggestion to make and I believe it will suit most or many of you. It’s ok, I’m not selling or anything, I’m simply writing down what I think in my mind. You are lucky to get comments strait from the horse’s mouth, cause believe it or not, I actually went to Worth in 2023 august! And let me tell you, it’s absolutely great! It has everything you could possibly think of! Well not the anti-gravity thing or time travel machine, but a forest, horses, frogs, a dog, sheep. The only thing bad about Worth is that its doors are pretty heavy. But come on, Worth is built a long, long time ago, what do you expect? Food, really, I’m not exaggerating or anything but thinking about the food their make my mouth water. And I especially love the pudding, it’s in the desert section by the way, and it’s strawberry flavored which makes it even better. Also the other foods are nice my favorite is pasta, and they sometimes serve donuts as desert too, it’s what I like to say, donut is bonus! About the classes, it’s arranged in five categories which are A1, A2, B1, B2, and C1. Most of my friends are in the B1 group, I’m in the B2 group with a bunch of older kids. Actually, I would consider myself as lucky to have made friends in an hour or so cause I’ve never made friends that quick in a situation like that where I’ve never met them in my whole life. So that kind of give you the idea about how friendly the people are. There were a few naughty kids though. But I didn’t play with them. Instead, I played with my friends and had tons of fun. You probably have a question- what about the woods? Of course, they are for the afternoon class which mostly is extracurricular activities. You can learn how to build shelter or make your own parkour game and you got to play it or something like that with your class. For the extracurricular activities you can choose which one do you want. Most or you can say all of them are really, absolutely fun. Common room is a great place to relax. If you say you’ve never been there before when you go to Worth, I definitely don’t believe you unless you don’t have a phone. Because that’s the where they collect your phone before you go to sleep. By the way, the common room and dormitory are all in the same building, St Mary’s. the dormitory is clean, always, although the bed is a bit narrow. Also, if you are worried for bathroom privacy, don’t worry, every room has its own private bathroom. Free time, I say it’s great, you can do whatever you like read a book, look at your phone, or whatever. Excursion the best time of the week if you ask me. But like what they say, when you’re happy you are not. It's also a time to say goodbye to your friends. If you add each other’s email or something then good for you! You would visit many famous places in London like the Tower of London, or go on the London Eye. Friday is also a great day! You will have a disco night on Friday. It’s happier than you can ever imagine! You even get to eat snacks, drink sodas! Just make sure you don’t slip when you run, walk, or dance. Let’s go! Party hard people! And now, for the grand  finale, True Me! This is an activity that helps students to know each other better and to learn how to move things from your stretch zone to your comfort zone. But what I am trying to say is, whatever fits you the best, study, make friends, play, have fun, anything can be done in the beauty of Worth. There are somethings that can’t be done in the beauty of Worth though, like stopping the sun from being a white dwarf. “

Although I think I am a pretty good ‘travelling salesman’ I always say nothing sells your school like a happy student and whenever I can, I invite one to come and help me at the fairs. Grace is ‘selling’ one of our centres in her story through a child’s eye so brilliantly it doesn’t need any commentary from me. I loved it so much though I asked Grace’s Mum for permission to speak to her and we zoomed last night. What a joy it was to talk to Grace.

She was full of tales: of the friends she made from all over the world (Tibet, Japan, France, Portugal, Ukraine, Italy, Switzerland…); her impressions of the school premises and campus which, as also comes across in her story, seem to be a sort of magical wonderland to her; she felt her English had really improved, especially her vocabulary; she learned to live independently and to get along with and help her roommates; she ate the food, much of which she had never tried before; she had many adventures including dressing up as a Mummy and doing an outdoor obstacle challenge; she learnt a lot more about herself and who she wants to be in the future; and she was very proud of the awards she won which greatly boosted her confidence.

In short Grace is a star. Like all BSS students we hope she goes on to live a full and meaningful life, achieve her maximum potential and have lots more exciting adventures along the way. I hope though, as she grows up and prospers, she will always remember how she felt last summer in Worth.

The thing that keeps me going is that I know that over the years we have helped many young people develop and often they tell us so. As I was writing this a new message popped up on Facebook from a Mum in Greece. With photos from her summer schools the Mum had written “Because life is all about memories!!! Mark Greenow holidays Mark!!! AMAZING moments.” Her daughter, Hara, who started her first summer school when she was about Grace’s age, is now in her second year in MIT in the States. Summer School has already changed Grace’s life as it did Hara’s. Because Grace’s experience was so positive her parents have taken the huge step of enrolling her into a British Prep School starting this September. I look forward to hearing about the great things they both, and countless others, will go on to achieve.

But of course, you can’t please everybody all the time, and having established we have had many happy students, I must go back to Fabiana’s very angry Dad. All eyes are still on me, and the time seems to be going very slowly. Dad continues “Fabiana came home and told us…” pause “Oh no here we go” I think to myself. I am probably now blushing more than Fabiana! The eyes around me seem to be burning into me. “it was the best two weeks of my life” as I and my audience are processing this surprising turn of events he concludes “How do you think that made her Mother and I feel?”. Fabiana is still looking embarrassed but Dad smiles, heads turn away and we shake hands. A ‘magic’ moment. I love my job.