British Ambassador to Romania visits Cambridge School of Bucharest new campus in Pipera (press release)

The students at Cambridge School of Bucharest (CSB) were visited in their new campus by the British Ambassador to Romania Andrew Noble on the morning of 03 June 2021. During his visit, H.E. Mr. Andrew Noble met with Rita Hayek Maalouf (School Director), Heath Renfroe (Deputy School Director), Joseph Khoury, one of the school’s partners, and student representatives. Joining the tour was Neil McGregor, Chairman of the British Romanian Chamber of Commerce.

The visit started in the main hall of the school’s building, where the Ambassador was greeted by Alina D. (Year 12), Rebecca S. (Year 11), and Karl M. (Year 11), representatives of all CSB students throughout this entire official visit. Here, H.E. Mr Andrew Noble learned about CSB’s House System, a system common in the English-speaking world, particularly in the countries of the United Kingdom.

The visit continues on the upper floors, where the Ambassador was shown the Biology, Physics, Chemistry, and Computer Science labs, where students were attending classes. The next stop was the Assembly Hall, where students from Year 10 were expecting the Ambassador, bearing in mind lots of questions and curiosities they were eager to address regarding his day-to-day duties or the challenges he currently faced during the pandemic. H.E. Mr. Andrew Noble enjoyed answering all of the questions, describing them as qualitative and interesting.

Being asked by one of the students about how much COVID-19 has impacted his daily activities as a diplomatic representative, he answered: "Yes, it has changed completely just as it has for all of you guys. In fact, in some way, we may have even changed more than you have. You have been in your school buildings more than I’ve been in the Embassy since March last year. I’m suddenly working in my little study in the residence, and I’m talking to all of my staff on Teams meetings. It feels like a negative situation, but in fact, there are huge positive outcomes, and I think if I encourage you to think about the lots of opportunities COVID has created, that’s actually a really good start for you to master this crisis. […] It’s much easier for me today to talk in multinational video conferences than it was before COVID. We know that the technology existed, but we all know how much pressure we need to actually use technology to its full potential. So I’m very aware of the extra opportunities as a result of this current crisis as much as I am about the limitations it imposed".

The Ambassador learned that the majority of students had visited the UK and would consider going to the UK to live, work or study.

After the short Q&A with the students in the Assembly Hall, His Excellency continued his visit with a tour of the schoolyard, where the Year 5 students were planting seeds in the school’s urban farm, a project dear to the students of the school.