CHINESE lessons have been made compulsory at a school where half of the pupils now come from abroad.

Roedean Independent School in Brighton is relying ever more on international students as the recession hits even this exclusive institution.

The girls’ school, which charges £30,000 a year for senior boarders, has seen admissions fall from a peak of 400 to the current level of 375, with half of that number coming from abroad.

Now the school’s headteacher has admitted students from Year 9 onwards will get the opportunity to learn Mandarin.

Frances King took control of the school three years ago and has been wrestling with the challenge of repositioning the school ever since.

She said some parents are “misty-eyed” over boarding schools of a lost age.

She told the Sunday Times magazine: “The danger is, Roedean has this name people think they know – an all-white, jolly hockey-sticks school. And these lovely parents from Wiltshire walk down the corridor and have the shock of their life.

“My students come from Brighton, from Hong Kong, from Nigeria, France, Wisconsin and (some parents) can’t really cope with the reality of the school. Our intake is around 50% international, 50% British.”

But she insisted Roedean is moving with the times. She said: “Fifty years ago boarding schools were horrific places; the fagging, the beating, cold water, leaking windows. That’s why I’m very transparent with my parents who sit on my sofa, because once in a while I will have the ‘misfits’.”

Mrs King said the school’s challenge was to be more original.

She said: “One shouldn’t be alarmed that the world is changing. I see our USP as holding on to the past, but ensuring we educate girls for a career in any country in the world. This is the future.”