Cashmere High School: Untapped potential? Mexico and Eastern Europe!

Wondering what it’s like to be an international education professional on the other side of the world? Sit comfortably, because you’re just about to find out!

Meet Cashmere High School all the way from New Zealand, kindly represented to ETN Focus by Ms Tania Woodham.

Read our interview with Ms Woodham below:

ETN Focus: Please introduce yourself to ETN Focus and tell us a bit more about your school?

Tania Woodham, Cashmere High School: My name is Tania Woodham and I am the International Director at Cashmere High School, a public co-educational secondary school in Christchurch New Zealand. Our school has a role of 2000 students and 80 of these are international from a variety of countries. We offer a broad range of subjects, an Intensive English programme, an outdoor education programme and a wide variety of sporting and extracurricular opportunities. Students can study from one month up to three years, depending on what experience they are wanting. All students attend mainstream classes.

We offer an Intensive English Programme of up to 11 hours per week of ESOL for those students without the level of English required to meet our mainstream requirements. Students in the Intensive Programme will study English and ESOL science with option classes that include visual and performing arts, digital technologies, hospitality, multi material technology, environmental science and mathematics.

ETN Focus: What makes you the right choice for international students who are looking to complete their secondary education in New Zealand?

Cashmere High School: Cashmere High School has excellent achievement results with NCEA – a recognised qualification in many countries around the world.

ETN Focus: What is the importance of diversity in your school?

Cashmere High School: Cashmere High School’s local students are mainly European and Maori. International students bring cultural diversity to our school. This diversity enhances the learning experience and cultural awareness of students, and encourages respect for differences.

ETN Focus: Tell us a bit more about your international student recruitment strategy. How do you identify your target markets, and what kind of international students are you currently looking to attract?

Cashmere High School: We recruit students through relationships formed with on-shore and off-shore Agents, school website and word of mouth. In addition, we are visiting target markets to improve relationships with existing Agents. Cashmere High School attracts students from a wide variety of countries and can offer study for a period of 4 weeks to 5 years.

ETN Focus: What channels and tools do you use to promote your school internationally? Do you think having an agents network is important?

Cashmere High School: The majority of our international students are introduced by on-shore and off-shore agents. Therefore agents are a very important factor in the recruitment of international students for Cashmere High School.

ETN Focus: What is your biggest challenge when working with international students? How do you approach cross-cultural differences during recruitment, in the classroom, and after students leave your school?

Cashmere High School: Cashmere High School has a dedicated team of international expert staff. They support, care for and help our international students to settle in school, with their host family and socially. In addition, international education in New Zealand is governed by a strict ‘Code of Practice’. This Code ensures students are well looked after while they are studying an appropriate course in New Zealand.

ETN Focus: Are there any new markets where you see untapped potential for promoting New Zealand as a study abroad destination?

Cashmere High School: Mexico, Eastern Europe.

ETN Focus: Finally, what is your vision for the future? How do you see Cashmere High School evolving in the years to come?

Cashmere High School: Our vision is to maintain student numbers while offering a great learning and cultural experience for our students.

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All images courtesy of Cashmere High School.