In Focus Interview: Matthew Brown, Headmaster, Epsom College Malaysia

By Lucy Haydon, Editor, Orient Magazine

In our latest In Focus interview, we spoke with Matthew on inspiring the next generation of business leaders, the importance of creating a nurturing environment in a boarding school, and preparing students for future career success by aiming high and being prepared.

So, let's start with the students. How do you inspire the next generation of leaders?

We work hard to be positive influences in our students’ lives, nurturing relationships that become the cornerstone of a student’s happiness and fulfillment. At Epsom, everything that we do is focused on our three core priorities to Nurture, Educate and Inspire. As a boarding school, we are a close-knit community - teachers and pastoral staff live on campus and eat with our students on a daily basis, fostering these strong ties very early on. Part and parcel of our jobs as educators is to ensure that every child who walks through our doors feels seen, noticed and heard and is not just another cog in a well-oiled machine.

At our teachers’ meetings at the start of the school year, I always emphasize the importance of positivity and authenticity and encourage our teachers to share their personal experiences with students. Why do they love teaching their respective subjects? Why did they choose to teach Physics, Biology, Geography or whatever it may be? Our students are naturally inquisitive, curious and intelligent and this exchange helps to foster closer ties that ultimately inspire our students to want to learn more.

When a safe and supportive environment is created, brilliant things can happen. For example, at the end of 2021, a school Prefect asked if they could organise a ‘Spirit Week’, to help bring some cheer to the community after a challenging COVID-stricken year. They provided a variety of ideas including a fancy dress Career Day and a Backpack Free day where students had to devise novel ways of carrying their books around. We worked together to bring this plan to life and in the process made a lot of people smile during the week. This is just one example of our students’ self-driven initiatives that I am very proud of. We also encourage our students to create and develop academic societies, which they run themselves with our support. Most recently, our students have set up the Comfort Society where they meet and talk about the stresses of being international students, living away from home, exam pressures or any issues they may be currently facing. It is an excellent forum for the students and teachers to come together to share ideas and strategies in an informal, safe and nurturing setting.

You can't force students to learn, and you cannot fake passion. Our role as teachers is to do all we can to create the environment, the values and the ethos that enables them to flourish and grow into independent and creative thinkers, making the right decisions along the way. As Headmaster, I ensure that we have the best, qualified teachers who are genuinely passionate about their subjects and have the innate desire to help students to reach their full potential.

How does the Epsom College student experience in Malaysia integrate with that in the UK?

Epsom College in Malaysia was founded by a former Epsom College UK alumnus - AirAsia CEO Tony Fernandes. His boarding school experience made a profound impact on his life and he wanted to provide the same opportunity to students in Asia. It was important to him that a student’s boarding school experience at Epsom College in Malaysia closely mirrored that of a student at our sister school, whilst influenced by our Asian context. Our curriculum is based on close to 170 years of academic excellence as at Epsom College in the UK, which was founded in 1855 with Royal patronage granted by Her Majesty Queen Victoria and today has Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II as its patron. We have a shared governance model, with key personnel visiting both campuses regularly to ensure that there is internal alignment.

Let's move on to some of your standout moments during your time in education. I'm sure you have some stories to tell.

I feel very fortunate to witness our students evolve during their time at school. There have been many instances where students arrive on their first day understandably nervous, quiet and reserved, then visibly come out of their shells after the first few weeks and grow in confidence. From hardly being able to hold a conversation, within a few months they may be presenting in an assembly and learning to share jokes to make everyone laugh. These are the moments that make it all worthwhile because we have made them open up and take risks.

As a school, we recognise that academic achievement, first and foremost, is significant. Our hope, however, is that our students leave Epsom with the self-confidence to walk into any room, or working environment, knowing that they can be themselves and valuably contribute to any conversation or discussion they choose to. This is when we know we have done our most influential work.

Absolutely. Confidence unlocks many doors.

Yes! We can help students to get into some of the world’s best universities but if they do not have the necessary interpersonal skills and the values such as kindness, honesty, humility and care for the environment, their success will be limited. We recognise that it is more than just academic progress that we are helping them to achieve.

Tell me a little about the Weekday Boarding program for those in Singapore.

The Weekday Boarding Programme at Epsom started in 2021 offering students the opportunity to benefit from the British boarding school experience - an on-campus community feel, engagement with academic staff in a pastoral setting and a distraction-free academic environment - on weekdays whilst enjoying quality time spent with family over the weekend. For younger children, the week is short enough for them to feel secure knowing that it will not be long until they see their parents (and vice versa), and also short enough to pass quickly with a long list of activities, staff on hand to help with prep and the freedom to live, study and play alongside their friends. Weekday Boarding offers a breath of fresh air for pressured parents who are discovering the benefits of space, time, safety, adventure for their children, knowing that all their children’s needs will be catered for.

This Programme proved to be very popular with our Malaysian students and given our close proximity to KL International Airport (a 15 minute drive), we are offering the same programme to Singapore families. The Weekday Boarding Programme can be paired with a flight package add-on that provides return air tickets for every weekend throughout the entire academic year. Singapore residents and nationals may also choose to be full boarders, depending on their individual requirements.

Wonderful, thank you. Our last question – typically, which universities do Epsom A Level students go on to receive offers from?

Most of our A-Level students choose to go to the UK to continue their studies, with the vast majority placed at Russell Group universities. For the past three consecutive years, we have had successful applications to Cambridge University to study Law and Natural Sciences.

We believe that preparation for university is a continuous process which starts early in Senior School. From Year 7-9, we work on our student’s holistic and developmental skills (eg. confidence, writing and presenting and creative and critical thinking), identifying not only their strengths but also areas for improvement. Our resident Elite University Tutor will organise seminars with top university graduates and lecturers in chosen subject fields to provide students with a more in-depth look into what to expect from full specialisation in a chosen degree path. Given the size of our Sixth Form cohort, students benefit from a bespoke university support programme and an open-door policy for after school application support (including evenings and weekends). For students aplying to Oxbridge, we will match students with Oxbridge alumni mentors who will provide an insider’s perspective on the application process and 1-to-1 sessions for interview preparation

We always encourage our students to be ambitious and to aim high. Last year, several students were invited to interview with Oxford and Cambridge and although some were unsuccessful, every candidate left pleased with their performance and felt like they had given it their best, as a result of their preparation, hard work and dedication. This selfassuredness is something we look to nurture in each and every one of our students.

Next Steps

Enrolling in a boarding school can be a big decision for many students and their families. We offer a Taste Of Boarding programme for prospective students to experience life at Epsom for a week and to see if it will be a good fit. Students will actively participate in classroom discussions, experience how subjects are taught at Epsom and live on campus at the boarding houses.

"Our hope, however, is that our students leave Epsom with the self-confidence to walk into any room, or working environment, knowing that they can be themselves and valuably contribute to any conversation or discussion they choose to. This is when we know we have done our most influential work. "