Boarding Education Facilities Somerset Cultural Centre

A full refurbishment of an 1807 manor house to provide boarding education facilities for a not-for-profit education charity based in mainland China.

Students from years 9, 11 & 13 visit the area for 3 week periods from March to October and spend their time immersing with British culture and local schools/ artists to gain a feel for the country prior to attending University. The charity is currently limited to bringing only 20-25 students each time and wishes to increase this number.

The refurbishment is the first of a multiphase programme aspiring to take the capacity of students from the initial 40 achieved here up to 150 within 5 years and the facilities from a few classrooms toward a full campus providing a gym, an auditorium, multi use classrooms, visiting staff facilities, dormitories and external workshop facilities for visiting local school children.

With the increase in facilities, the school wishes to build upon their relationships with local schools and colleges by bringing visiting artists, writers, designers, etc to the site and holding full day educational events where Chinese and British students learn together.