Boarding schools in England have attracted interest from growing numbers of wealthy Russians in the past decade who are keen to give their children a high-quality education in a secure, friendly environment.

Brighton College is seeking to build on these links by building its own public school, 50 miles south of Moscow.

Several elite schools, such as Dulwich College, Harrow and Shrewsbury, have set up in the Far East to feed a growing appetite for British public school education, but none has so far attempted such an undertaking on Russian soil.

Four hundred boys and girls will be offered Mandarin, polo and cricket, and taught a European-style curriculum, in English, in the grounds of a school near Borovsk, south of Moscow. Estimated to cost £18 million, it could open as early as 2009. The school is the brainchild of Mikhail Orloff, a Russian businessman and the grandson of King Farouk, and it hopes to blend the best of English education with Russia’s culture and history. It would operate mostly as a weekly boarding school.

Richard Cairns, the headmaster of Brighton College, said that Russian parents were attracted to the school because they would no longer have to send their children abroad for a top-class education.

“Parents have been sending their children to Europe, but they don’t like it because when they come over, they stay,” he said. “They believe that Russia is losing her children. But this way, they hope to keep the same value system and the children.”

The cleverest pupils would be able to spend their last couple of years studying A levels at Brighton College, which also has partnerships with schools in China and Australia. Mr Orloff approached the college after it became the first private school in England to make Mandarin compulsory for all new pupils.

Brighton College is developing a three-year plan with Lord Skidelsky, an economist of Russian origin and chairman of its board of governors, to raise the money.

Richard Niblett, the director of music, is overseeing the project. He has been living in Moscow since September to undertake feasibility studies and raise to funds for the school.

“The concept is to draw on the best of both education systems — the logic of science and maths, which the Russians excel at, and the house-style system and arts of British public schools,” he said. “Teaching in Russia is quite dogmatic, whereas we tend to help them think outside the box more.”

There would certainly seem to be a market for it.

According to the Independent Schools Council, which includes 1,288 of the Britain’s 2,500 private schools, 343 Russian students were attending its schools in 2005-6.

These parents were paying more than £5.5 million for one year’s school fees. Brighton College charges about £16,000 a year for weekly boarders, but their Russian affiliate would charge just £10,350 a year.

While Russia already has a handful of good Western-style private day schools, such as the Anglo-American School, the English International School and the British International School, they are not linked to any leading independent schools in Britain.

The advantage of its model, Brighton College argues, is not only that it will follow a tried and tested method of schooling, which has worked well for centuries in Britain, but will also take children out of the pollution of Moscow during the week.

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