George Watson's College

Our support

We provided funds to assist a month-long visit in October 2007 by a Chinese teacher of English from Wusong High School, Shanghai, to George Watson's College, as part of an existing "sister school" relationship. This was aimed at providing the Scottish school with support in developing its Chinese language teaching programmes and materials, and at providing the Chinese school with knowledge to help develop its English language programmes and materials. The project is also consistent with the Scottish Government's 'China Plan' to develop the teaching of Chinese in Scottish schools.

Background to our partner (see also here)

Originally established in 1741 as a charitable hospital, today George Watson's College is a fully integrated private school, catering for girls and boys from Nursery through to Senior 6 on a single campus just to the south of Edinburgh's city centre.

The Hospital was the legacy of merchant and financier George Watson ; today, the George Watson's Family Foundation continues this legacy, raising funds for bursary support.

The school has a well-developed Chinese language programme, and teachers from Watson's have been closely involved in the development of Scotland-wide Chinese teaching. The school has offered SQA Intermediate 2 certification in Mandarin since academic session 2008-2009. In addition, Mandarin is now offered as a language option in Senior 1.

A party from the school visited China in March 2008, going to Shanghai, Beijing and Chengdu. Shortly after they returned from Chengdu, the region was struck by a terrible earthquake. The pupils felt that they would like to do something to help the people who were so kind to them during their time there. A fundraising drive took place, including the school's charities day, and £4,000 was raised, enough to fund a significant part of a community project at Xie Zi village, arranged by The Blackford Trust. For more on this project please see here.