Cheltenham Muscat, Oman continues to thrive. With over 750 pupils now, and growing, the school has become a leader in the region. Under the leadership of Executive Principal Oona Carlin the school has set new academic highs, gained a Guinness World Record (for ‘Largest Plastic Bottle Sentence’ which read ‘Project Earthlings has launched from Oman’ using 32,316 bottles), and is on the verge of opening an incredible new senior specialist teaching facility. This new building will offer an array of state-of-the-art facilities, offering a bespoke learning environment, allowing our senior pupils to reach their ‘Cheltenham Potential’. Pupils from Muscat have visited twice this year, on the International Summer Course (July 2023) and Choir Tour (June 2024), and we look forward to building ever closer links.

Cheltenham Malaysia opened in central Kuala Lumpur, catering for boys and girls aged 3-18, in October 2024. The school is owned by the Malaysian company Edumaax which was founded by OC and highly respected businessman Tunku Dato’ Yaacob Khyra, Executive Chairman, MAA Group Bhd (H, 1979 and past parent). This organisation has a legacy of operating highly successful schools and colleges in Malaysia. Cheltenham College has links with Malaysia going back over 50 years and Kuala Lumpur is a city that combines diverse and ancient cultures, modern technology and excellent education. Cheltenham Malaysia will be a proud part of the excellent International Schools hub in South East Asia.

Cheltenham Centre, China, at Junhua International School will sadly close this year, after two years of excellent work and collaboration in the face of very challenging changes to the international education laws in China. We will continue to work closely with our long-term partners in China and share opportunities for collaboration in the future.

We are continuing to explore projects in other parts of the world, so long as there is a happy combination of a suitably high-quality partner to work with, and an opportunity to bring our educational values, standards and culture to more pupils in other parts of the world. We anticipate being able to announce two such new schools in the coming year.

Mr Alan Etherton, Head of Overseas Education