A belated welcome to Kathryn in the UK head office!

Hi there!

My name is Kathryn and I’ll be working in the UK head office on the MyChoice UK programme.  Its a very exciting time to join the department and is certainly going to give me something to get my teeth in to.

I thought I’d give you a little insight in to my travel experiences.  Although this is temporarily on hold as I have a nearly-one year old son, Freddie.  Prior to his arrival, I was a big ski fan and spent a very exciting five months living in Northern Italy, working in lots of different ski resorts.  I was so lucky in my job as I got the chance to drive across the gorgeous country and experience the culture and lifestyle.

I do have one very clear memory, that is probably not what you would call a positive experience, but it certainly made the day exciting (ish).  I was leaving a small resort called Spiazzi (so small it didn’t even have a piste map!) and heading towards Alpe de Susi to meet a hotelier and try out the ski area, when I suddenly realised that my Sat Nav was taking me away from the main road and sending me through a small town.  This would normally be absolutely fine, but then I found myself going higher and higher up a mountain road that was getting narrower and narrower.  There was so much snow on the ground and trees down and no traffic to speak off, that I realised the road had been closed.  It was completely treacherous but I couldn’t turn the car round so had to keep going.  My diversion added about 2 hours on to my journey, and it was pretty hair-raising, especially as I was on my own, but I did see some amazing sights across the tops of the mountains and all the apple orchards that produce world-famous apples!  


One other highlight of my time was in Folgarida, part of the Val di Sole ski area.  They hold an annual vintage car rally called the Winter Marathon. The route has a total length of 426,060 km doing a circular route starting and ending in Madonna di Campiglio.  The night they arrived in Folgarida there was a bad storm and they were delayed.  They eventually pulled in to resort in a blizzard at 2am!  Imagine the sight of 40 vintage cars, many with their roofs down, chugging up the road and slipping all over the place.  It was incredible and certainly something I won’t ever forget…  


Kathryn is responsible for recruiting host families for our international students coming to study in the UK for up to one academic year. She matches the families and students together and then supports the host family throughout the student's placement. For more information on becoming a host family please go to www.xploreuk.com or email Kathryn; homestays@xploreuk.com 

Xplore on the road again!

There is so much to love about the Netherlands, the architecture, stunning 17th century canals, the fact that bicycles have right of way over cars, the amazing bread, beautiful flowers and that the Netherlands came top of a Unicef league table for child well-being. 

James and George from our UK head office sales team have just returned from a trip to the Netherlands and we are super pleased with the bag of stroopwafel that they brought back with them! They went to meet with bilingual schools and educational agents to discuss what Xplore can offer to their students here in the UK and to hand out our brand new brochure for Dutch Bilingual schools.  

We know that international education doesn't just take place in the classroom but through worldwide experiences and cultural exchanges. For many years Dutch students have come to the UK to use and experience the English language whilst visiting our towns, cities and attractions. We have built up a relationship with various schools here to offer integration between Dutch and English students and also offer activities for team building and fun! 2014 has been a busy year for our Dutch school groups and we have more booked to visit in September. 

James and George travelled across many of the provinces which make up the Netherlands and were made very welcome by everyone they met, visiting places such as Eindhoven  Weert, Landgraaf, Amsterdam, Maastricht, Rotterdam and Harderwijk.  

The schools were positive about our all inclusive programmes, our new brochure and what we can offer their students in 2015. We really hope to be welcoming them to the UK in the near future! 

'Train few, save many'...

On the evening of the 11th June 2014 our Training &  Development Manager was back on his Lifeboat with two more Crew and a Helmsmen, all members, to carry out an extended training exercise with a local fishing boat. 

The scenario was that a mechanical fault had caused the boat to drift onto the rocks and this had caused a serious injury so a medi-vac was needed and the vessel needed to be towed and then ‘shot’ onto the beach.  Unfortunately to make things interesting there was also missing person from the fishing boat who was located after completing a sector search from the last known position. 

It was a lovely evening for the training exercise but was hard work, everything was ticked of well by the crew and as they say at the RNLI ‘train few save many’. 

Well done to Paul and the RNLI to for doing such important work on our coastlines around the UK! Thanks to http://www.christaylorphoto.co.uk for the gorgeous photos! 

Xplore the Needham Raft Race

Sunday 8th June saw Xplore take to the water on their raft to compete in the annual Needham Market Raft Race which was in it's 12th year.

Aboard their tried and trusted raft structure, which features in all raft building sessions at camp; 4 members of the Xplore team raced against 10 other teams (in 3 separate heats) to win the title.

Unfortunately, the team were unsuccessful in their endeavour to lift the trophy, but had a brilliant day at the event and are already thinking up new raft inventions for next year!


Check out this video above of our team showing a stirling effort in overtaking the competition!