Ross Preece.Relationships between schools and education agencies in Japan and Ashburton College were cemented recently when college principal Ross Preece spent time in Japan.

While he did not intend to widen the catchment for students from Japan, Preece said it was important to nurture the relationships the college had as part of its drive to create a broad international student base at the school.

“I’d like to grow our international student numbers but we don’t want to have a mass of students from one country; our intention is to grow our numbers across a range of countries,” he said.

The college had hosted international students for a number of years but this had been the first year where significant effort had gone into broadening that base, but that was unlikely to show in additional students until 2021, Preece said.

While some schools focused on large numbers of students from one country, the college believed that did not encourage those students to integrate in their new school as they’d always gravitate towards their own cultural group.

His preference is to have five students from each of 10 different nationalities represented in the student body rather than 10 each from five countries.

By Sue Newman © The Ashburton Guardian - 29 October 2019