A warning by Russia's embassy in London
to Russian parents, who send their children to summer schools in the UK,
has created something of a stir. On its website, the embassy said it
had received complaints that some students had been ‘coarsely’ treated,
refused food by their hosts or put up with so-called ‘families of
homosexuals’.
Russian and UK gay activists meanwhile have strongly
condemned the embassy’s warning. Caroline Drewett, owner and director of
the 'Coast to Coast' English language school in the town of Ascot,
Berkshire, on what she thought of the Russian embassy’s warnings to
parents of students coming to the UK.
We have a lot of students from
Russia and Russian speaking countries on our camp. They all tend to be
incredibly happy with the food, with the situation. We obviously speak
to our children every day, check that they’re ok. We’ve never had any
complaints. I’m in touch with a number of other language schools,
residential camps and homestay organizations none of which have ever had any complaints.
What are some of the criteria that families have to meet in order to receive these students?
They
have to be checked by the government, they have no previous
convictions. We go to the families themselves, our school itself is
completely accredited. And we go through incredibly rigorous check. The
accreditation company comes to our school, they interview all of the
staff, they interview all of the students including previous Russian
students. And they basically say if everything is ok, if something needs
to be improved.
You
have a lot of Russian students and students from the Russian speaking
countries. You’re based in Ascot, I understand. Why is that place so
popular for Russian students?
They really like the fact that we’re a very quaint English town. It’s very traditional. It’s very English.
Diplomats have blamed companies that organize these trips for these negative reports.
Some
language schools actually do use agents. Personally we don’t use any.
We speak directly to the families. We speak directly to the parents. And
if there’s any problem – I e-mail parents daily, I send them photos
daily. And they can fix their children every other day. But if you go
through an agency – there’s a lot more lack, you don’t really know,
you’re guessing. If you speak to the company directly - then you’ve got
much of the chance of really understanding where you’re sending your
child.
So your advice would be not to go through these agencies.
No,
I would say – go directly to the language school. And then you can
speak to the director. I mean, when I speak to parents who send their
children up, they have the knowledge that I will be with their children
every day. I haven’t gone through companies in Turkey, an agent in
London when children are 50 miles away. I think that makes a difference.
So these warnings are slightly hysterical as far as you’re concerned?
I’m saying that nothing’s happened from my experience on our camp and with
the camps that I know in our area – that’s absolutely nothing similar
to this. I’m sure this is one of incidences which managed to get back to
the wrong people.
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