St. George’s Day may be the national day of England, but 23 April is not even a national holiday and celebrations are generally muted. Not so at St. George’s International School in Luxembourg, where the name day of the saint is marked with a hive of activity and a traditional English tea laid on for invited guests.

Usually invited to participate in games such as splat the rat and pin the donkey or sports activities like shooting netball hoops, guests at this year’s celebrations were asked to do nothing more strenuous than choose their five favourite dragon drawings from a selection created by pupils from different age groups.

They had already been treated to performances from two shows put on at the school this year--Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Year 3 and The Snow Queen by Year 5. Both performances enchanted the guests, who included the school’s patron, British ambassador Alice Walpole, Irish Peadar Carpenter and Japanese ambassador Atsuko Nishimura.

Walpole and the school’s principal, Dr. Christian Barkei, addressed the guests before the entertainment. The school’s student population is very international, although the “largest minority” is British, Barkei explained. The principal spoke about immigration and told the story of a speaker who had addressed the school the previous day, a Polish survivor of a Nazi concentration camp who had been smuggled illegally into Britain after WWII, had built a life and started a family and was now proudly British.

Walpole said she admired the international aspect of the school and the “rather nice symmetry” in the fact that St. George is also the patron saint of many of the countries, other than England, from which students originate.

The ambassador also touched on the support the government provides St. Georges, and addressed the upcoming “other” referendum on allowing non-nationals to vote in Luxembourg parliamentary elections. “I think it will be a very interesting litmus test on where the government here is going in its openness to the international community. Certainly the ministers know that the international community is integral to the success of the country,” she said adding that there is also a strong awareness of the importance of English as a business language in Luxembourg and also growing demand for English-speaking education.