Happy birthday to International House Newcastle!
The school celebrates its 40th anniversary this year, and held a party for staff, homestay hosts, partners and friends on Thursday 6th September to mark the special occasion.
Trevor Udberg, Managing Director of IH Newcastle, talked about the roots of the school, which started in the front room of founder Gill Mitchell’s home in Gosforth, Newcastle, with two Turkish students.
Since then, IH Newcastle has brought in more than £90 million to Newcastle's economy, said Trevor, into student-favourite hang outs such as shops, cafes and bars.
He continued by praising staff – past and present – for helping to make the school not only last 40 years, but weather the difficult times and come out the other side thriving. He said, “The thing about International House, is that it’s a people business. It’s about people meeting people. We have a little slogan outside our door and it says ‘bringing people together’, but we only do that by being a people business, and I just want to say a big thank you to all our current and previous staff because you are making it the great organisation that it is.”
Trevor finished by commenting on the ethos of the school with regards to making IH Newcastle students into citizens of a globalised world and helping them gain confidence.
“We are challenging young kids to get out of their comfort zone, to get to hear other opinions, other points of view from people who live in different parts of the world.”
Happy 40th, IH Newcastle!
