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Harrow School launches £15,000-a-year 'virtual sixth form' to teach overseas children A-levels

The 450-year-old boarding school counts Sir Winston Churchill and six other British Prime Ministers among its alumni
The 450-year-old boarding school counts Sir Winston Churchill and six other British Prime Ministers among its alumni

Harrow School has launched a £15,000-a-year “virtual sixth form” to teach overseas children for A-levels.

The 450-year-old boarding school, which counts Sir Winston Churchill and six other British Prime Ministers among its alumni, will launch the new online course for English-speaking students next year.

It is aimed at wealthy international families who are “looking for a prestigious, high-quality British education that suits their lifestyle”.

Pupils will be given one-to-one academic tutorials, live online lessons with a teacher and other students, as well as regular coaching sessions for support.

The new venture - called Harrow School Online - will be open from September 2020 and will initially focus on science and maths A-levels.

The online institution will have a “virtual house system” as well as offer students the opportunity to take part in extracurricular activities such as a chess club and a student newspaper.

Students enrolled at the online school will also be able to attend a summer course at Harrow School. The online classes will only be available to pupils outside the UK so it does not compete with its own bricks and mortar school in north-west London, where fees for boarders are £41,775 per year.

The online school, which will admit both boys and girls, is hopes to appeal to affluent families in Russia, China, Nigeria, the Gulf and Hong Kong. Heather Rhodes, the principal of Harrow School Online, said the new venture has been set up to cater for students in a “rapidly changing world”.

She added: “Education must too adapt to the new challenges this presents, and reflect young people’s lifestyles and aspirations.”

The income will be shared between Pearson, which is providing the technology that underpins the course, and Harrow which says it will use the money to support bursaries for disadvantaged pupils.

Harrow is the latest private school to set up an online venture to cater for wealthy international students. In 2015, Eton College announced its plans to harness centuries of expertise in turning out future rulers with lessons in “modern leadership” for pupils in China.

The online project is aimed at preparing aspirational, middle-class Chinese students for higher education and the workplace.

The Modern Leadership Programme, which will cost around £700 per pupil, consists of individual tuition from Eton-trained tutors based in Britain plus group activities helped by teachers in the Chinese schools.