The Bucksmore Education story started in 1979, when the British educator, Michael Reise, opened a secondary school for English students at Buckswood Grange and began a summer school for international students on the same premises.
Originally, based more on American summer camp models, Bucksmore Education (or Buckswood Summer Programmes as it was then called) very quickly built up a considerable reputation for the excellence of its courses and English lessons, friendliness and hard work of its staff and for the quality of its locations. As its reputation grew, it also expanded, opening many more centres including a centre in the USA.
In 1999, the successful summer school for international students split from Buckswood School for English students and in 2003, as Buckswood Summer Programmes, became part of the ISIS Education and Travel Group. Its programmes and locations represent the top of the range of summer schools that ISIS Education and Travel provide.
In 2009, Buckswood Summer Programmes changed its name to Bucksmore Summer Programmes to avoid confusion with the old Buckswood Grange School.
In 2013 the name was again changed, this time to Bucksmore Education. It was also in 2013 that the Cambridge Advanced Studies Program was run for the first time before Bucksmore also took over the operation and marketing of OASP to form the Oxbridge Advanced Studies Program.
Bucksmore Education is full of history and tradition. We have had 35 years to perfect and improve the quality of our schools and we are very proud of both the courses that we offer and the achievements that our students have made over the years.
For more details about all of Bucksmore’s summer programmes please visit our main website www.bucksmore.com.
The Bucksmore team:
Rory Wilkinson, Chairman – Rory has been the Bucksmore Director since 2008 and has over 30 years’ experience working in the EFL world. Before Bucksmore Rory owned his own school which became one of the most successful language schools in Cambridge. Since he took over as Director, Bucksmore has gone from strength to strength through a mixture of innovative courses and the old Bucksmore tradition of delivering high quality English language courses to multinational young learners in the UK.
Matthew Tighe, Company Manager – Matt arrived at Bucksmore in 2010 and has overseen two very successful summers so far. He is determined to build on these to make them even bigger and better. Matt is a graduate of Magdalene College, Cambridge University where he studied English Literature. He is responsible for the day-to-day running of Bucksmore before, during and after the summer. matt@bucksmore.com
Ben Walker, Managing Director – Ben started working for Bucksmore in August 2011. He is a graduate in Law and has spent two years teaching in China before coming to London. He has 5 years experience working in residential summer camps so he knows everything there is to know about running a successful summer school. Ben is responsible for delivering the high-quality academic, activity and excursion programmes every Bucksmore student receives in the summer. ben@bucksmore.com
Peter Grieve, Operations Manager- Peter started working for Bucksmore in 2013 as an Activity Leader and in summer 2014 was the Activity Manager of one of our summer centres, King Edward’s School. He graduated in Chinese and Business Management and spent a year in China as a student at Nanjing University in order to perfect his language skills. Peter speaks Chinese and French and he is now responsible for the operation of all our summer centres, ensuring the excellent quality and smooth running of all our programmes. peter@bucksmore.com
Matt Doherty, Academic Manager- Matt has five years worth of teaching experience at summer camps, and has been teaching full-time since 2012. Matt designs and oversees the academic content for all Bucksmore courses. Originally from Northern Ireland, Matt spent a year and a half teaching in the Czech Republic, in between working two summers at Bucksmore. mdoherty@bucksmore.com
Alexandra Millard, Marketing Officer- Alexandra is the lastest addition to the Bucksmore team, having joined at the end of September 2015. Alexandra graduated from Oxford Brookes University with a degree in Business & Marketing Management and worked at our Brasenose Centre during the summer. Alexandra is half Peruvian and speaks fluent Spanish. alexandra@bucksmore.com