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This Marlborough College offshoot was established in Malaysia in 2012 and is a fantastic school for those looking for a traditional British education: it has a rigorous curriculum, excellent teaching, fabulous pastoral care, as well as heaps of sport and space. The 90-acre campus is built on a former palm plantation in Iskandar Puteri on the southern tip of Malaysia and the school sits just 20km from the Singapore border.
Marlborough College Malaysia (MCM) is split into different sections: the nursery and pre-prep are together in a purpose-built ‘micro-school’ which consists of several buildings: Upcot (nursery and Reception), Hermitage (Year 1) and Priory (Years 2 and 3). Confusingly, Year 3 is technically the start of prep school, but the classrooms are in the pre-prep building and children only move into the prep school building once they are in Year 4.
British Simon Burbury is the
master of college; he and his wife Jennifer joined MCM in August 2023 from Dollar Academy, an HMC co-educational boarding and day school in Scotland, where he has been Deputy Rector since 2020.
Registration can’t be made more than three years before the term of entry. Assessments (a morning of introduction and observation, including the potential pupil bringing an object for show-and-tell) are held three times a year ahead of each academic term. There are waiting lists if demand for places is high, but offers can’t be rolled over – if you don’t take it up that year, you need to repeat the process again the following year. Also, it’s worth noting that while MCM is very much considered part of the Marlborough family, it does not offer automatic entry into Marlborough College in the UK.
The nursery (three- to four-year-olds) follows the Early Years Foundation Stage. This includes taking children out of the classroom to the recently expanded forest school area for experiential learning and using Barton Farm, which was set up by sixth-form students and has a potting bench that is low enough to be used by the little ones at the nursery. It’s a full day (8am to 3.15pm with the option of adding an extra hour of additional supervised provision – great for parents with older children who have later pick-up times). The day includes lunch and snacks and a rest period. In the pre-prep (four- to seven-year-olds), children continue with EYFS, then move on to Key Stage 1.
The majority of staff have teaching experience at Marlborough College in the UK or other British independent schools (90 per cent hail from the UK). MCM has a first-rate learning support team and is good at identifying needs, although it says it is limited and on a case-by-case basis. The school will go as far as it can with its own resources before putting in a paid-for-plan: shadow teachers can be organised to help in class and outside educational psychologists can be arranged, both for an extra fee.
There are 44 nationalities throughout MCM, which attracts a wide audience across Asia. Families rave about the school, especially the level of care, attention and support the children get. Communication with parents has improved since Covid, which the school handled superbly. Parents tell us that children are really happy here. The MCM ‘family’ is a huge strength – many of the teachers live on campus and, alongside the local parents, this creates a real community feel.
MCM brilliantly balances a British ethos in an international context, appealing to parents for its small class sizes, great sports facilities, the boarding experience and strong pastoral care. Its location – not actually in Singapore and not in Kuala Lumpur either – may be off-putting for some, but the campus itself is amazing.