One of the founding aims of The School of English Studies, Folkestone was to create “a mini United Nations that really is united”.
On July 30th, 1966 the students and staff at SES were invited to watch the final of the World Cup. It was shown on a relatively modest-sized television in the Students’ Common Room.
I was seven years old. I had no understanding of football but I was spellbound by all the cheering and stamping, the waving and hugging.
When England won, our German friends were disappointed of course, but the French, the Spanish and the Italians, the Iranians, the Turks and the Israelis were thrilled. They loved England, they loved Folkestone and The School of English Studies. They had a strong bond of friendship with their teachers and their host families.
It was as if their own country had won the World Cup.
On that Saturday afternoon in 1966, we truly were ‘a mini United Nations’.