Staff at Embassy

News from Embassy London

Lisa, the new Activities Leader at Embassy London, has these updates from the school. it certainly sounds like it's been an exciting few weeks.

New staff starting at Embassy

Four new members of staff join the school. Welcome to all of them!

Amanda Mackmurdie: Welfare Officer
 Sheila Clewley: Assistant to the Principal
Ian Claridge: Head of Security
and me, Lisa Evripidou: Activities Leader and Librarian

Celebrity Sightings at Embassy London!
Pirates of the Caribbean 4: On Stranger Tides, the new sequel to be released in Summer 2011, is currently being filmed at The University of Greenwich. It's a ten minute walk from Embassy London.

Some very lucky students have seen Johnny Depp, Penelope Cruz and Ian McShane. The filming has been going on for over a month and does not seem to be leaving any time soon!

The University of Greenwich is a popular filming location and has hosted feature films such as The Duchess (2007) starring Kiera Knightly, National Treasure: Book of Secrets (2007) starring Nicholas Cage, and Harry Potter and The Order of The Phoenix (2005).

 
Riz Ahmed, a British actor and musician who has starred in The Road to Guantanamo, Shifty and Four Lions was spotted at The Nikey Running Club in Shoreditch, London, where students had the chance to meet with the celebrity.

In 2008, Riz won Best Actor at the Geneva Cinema Tout Ecran and was nominated for Best Actor at the British Independent Film Award for his role in Shifty.

 

 

 

 

Upcoming events on the Social Programme:

Legally Blonde in the West End
London Eye visit
Halloween Party on a boat
Lion King in the West End
Phantom of the Opera in the West End
England vs France football game
Gorillaz (music band) perform live at the 02 arena
Chicago in the West End
Madame Tussauds visit
Wicked in the West End
39 Steps in the West End
Westlife (music band) perform live at the 02 arena
Maroon 5 (music band) perform live at the 02 arena
... and lots of visits to museums, sporting events, night clubs, galleries and exhibitions.

Building futures

You may not know that Embassy language schools are one branch of a large global education company named Study Group. Study Group has many schools and colleges, including Bellerbys, Taylors College, and International Study Centres in the UK and USA - so it is a big company!

And big companies can achieve big things... which got us to thinking. We recognise that, as our students are benefiting from a great education, and in turn, our company is benefiting from your investments, that we should share that good fortune with those who need it most.

So we set up a company-wide charity initiative.

Charitable contributions

Education is our business, so when we were deciding which charity to support, Plan International was a natural choice. With Plan International's help, Study Group build schools for developing communities around the world.

You may have noticed references in our blogs and school news pages to charity events. Every school has regular money-raising activities; in addition, staff in all our offices often run marathons, jump out of aeroplanes, or (less energetically!) put on cake or book sales to raise money. For every penny that is raised, Study Group donate an equal amount, meaning staff efforts are doubled.

All the staff here at Embassy love to hear about the new schools as they are built. We enjoy looking at the photos and learning a bit more about the region.

Our achievements

To date, we have built schools in:

• Aceh, Indonesia
• Zounzounkanme, Benin
• Codó Nova, Brazil
• Liu Shu, China
• Van Han Commune, Vietnam

Schools benefit not only children, but the community as a whole, because educated kids grow up to become skilled adults.

The projects often also bring water and sanitation to the region; and as well as the building works, the charity provides educational materials, computers and teaching staff.

The latest school

Here are some images from our latest completed school, in Van Han Commune, Vietnam:

Study Group staff and children from Van Han Commune crowd around the foundation stone.

 

The new school in the background, with the kids who will benefit.

It's so great to see images like this, and realise that our small actions and donations are actually making a massive difference to children and their families across the world.