Class act: can Harrow sell an elitist British boarding school fantasy to New Yorkers?
The private school will open its first US campus in Long Island. Will it assimilate Americans into the upper crust – or is it more about branding?This fall, the British boarding school Harrow will open its first offshoot in the US: a lush 170-acre waterfront campus in Long Island. For $75,000 a year, parents can wave away their children to the prestigiously named school, renowned for its centuries-old traditions (such as calling teachers “beaks” and bad behaviour “skew”). Classes will take place in the Bourne mansion, the opulent former home of a wealthy American businessman, around which modern facilities will be built.A shiny teaser video paints an idyllic picture of an anglophile life at Harrow New York. “The school is like an oasis,” says Nick Page, former deputy head of Harrow UK, as drone footage pans out over pristine lawns and lakes, where ducklings and deer roam wild. “Yet so close to this huge metropolis of New York.” (The new school is almost equidistant from New York City and the Hamptons, so parents who have a seaside pied-à-terre can whisk away their darlings for the holidays.) In the video, students stroll about the verdant campus wearing Harrow’s trademark straw hats, and are seen painting, playing soccer, wearing VR goggles, reading poetry by Lord Byron and books about Winston Churchill. Continue reading...
The private school will open its first US campus in Long Island. Will it assimilate Americans into the upper crust – or is it more about branding?
This fall, the British boarding school Harrow will open its first offshoot in the US: a lush 170-acre waterfront campus in Long Island. For $75,000 a year, parents can wave away their children to the prestigiously named school, renowned for its centuries-old traditions (such as calling teachers “beaks” and bad behaviour “skew”). Classes will take place in the Bourne mansion, the opulent former home of a wealthy American businessman, around which modern facilities will be built.
A shiny teaser video paints an idyllic picture of an anglophile life at Harrow New York. “The school is like an oasis,” says Nick Page, former deputy head of Harrow UK, as drone footage pans out over pristine lawns and lakes, where ducklings and deer roam wild. “Yet so close to this huge metropolis of New York.” (The new school is almost equidistant from New York City and the Hamptons, so parents who have a seaside pied-à-terre can whisk away their darlings for the holidays.) In the video, students stroll about the verdant campus wearing Harrow’s trademark straw hats, and are seen painting, playing soccer, wearing VR goggles, reading poetry by Lord Byron and books about Winston Churchill. Continue reading...
