ALTON College hosted a delegation of students from The People's Republic of China this month.

Fifteen visitors from Xinghua High School in the Eastern province of Jiangsu, accompanied by their English teacher and vice-director of foreign affairs, Wang Jianhua, spent 10 days at the college, shadowing their student hosts and living with their families. Seven of the 15 students are the first to have enrolled in the college's new international student programme, to attract young people from overseas keen to gain AS and A2 level qualifications prior to continuing their studies at a UK University.

These students will take their AS exams in China and return to Alton College in 2015 to spend a year studying before they sit their A2 exams. The Chinese sampled many aspects of life in the UK. In addition to attending classes with their hosts, they also spent a day in London seeing the sights, as well as a fun afternoon in Basingstoke trying their hand at 10-pin bowling.

For full story, see this week's Alton Herald.