Sevenoaks has been teaching the International Baccalaureate for over 30 years now, and it has been the sole qualification for our 430 Sixth Form students for several years. The IB is recognised by universities across the world and is therefore ideal for international students who want to complete their education in the UK, and also for UK students who would like to attend University abroad. There are international students in all year groups but the Sixth Form is particularly cosmopolitan as a result of the 80 or so who join our Lower Sixth each year from around 35 countries. Our Sixth Form leavers regularly achieve offers from US and Canadian Universities, including Yale, Colombia, Princeton and MIT. Our younger students gain an appreciation of internationalism through International Studies, a course devised by our teachers.
Language Exchanges and Study Trips
Our Modern Languages department lead exchanges to Russia, Belgium, France, Germany, Spain and Italy. The Classics Department takes study trips to Naples and Rome each year. The Design and Japanese departments recently combined forces to accompany their students to Japan. The English department has taken literary trips to Italy and to Dublin.
Field Trips
The Geography department has taken a Lower Sixth field trip to Morocco for many years now. The Biology department works in conjunction with Operation Wallacea to give students the opportunity of studying habitats across the world. In recent years they have visited Honduras, Ecuador, the Galapagos Islands and Indonesia.
Charity Work
The school's Charity Action Group raises money for international charities each year through its work within the school. Typically around £3500 is raised for Lotus Outreach in Cambodia, £3000 for a charity supporting victims of the Rwandan genocide, £1000 to help build schools in Morocco and a further £1000 is donated to Habitat for Humanity in Tanzania. Our students travel to Romania to the orphanage in Iasi, to Moldova to work in the children's hospital and to Mumbai, India for ten days to work in a street children's education centre and orphanage.
Model United Nations
Sevenoaks has an extremely successful MUN team which attends the Bath, Paris, Hague and London MUN conferences annually. Our students regularly have their resolutions passed and win Best Delegate awards.
Sport
The Sports department organises international tours regularly. In recent years our rugby players have travelled to Biarritz and Canada and the hockey team to South Africa. There is an annual ski trip to Switzerland.
Music and Drama
The Music and Drama departments each take students to Germany every other year.
Cultural Awareness
The Cultural Awareness Society raises the profile of Internationalism through its termly International Weeks and assemblies which focus on a particular country. Students are educated about cultural, political, geographic and culinary aspects of the country and our kitchens provide traditional local meals throughout the week. Our two Sixth Form Boarding Houses, the IC and GIH, regularly put on International Evenings with sketches, dances, music and dinner. Recent International Evenings have focussed on Germany, Saudi Arabia and India. Our colourful biennial International Nights allows students of different nationalities to give ethnically diverse performances to a large and enthusiastic audience; the Modern Languages department always makes sure that there is an interesting range of snacks on offer.