With over 30 years in education, Mark Love, Head Teacher of Earlscliffe in Folkestone, reflects on the true meaning of impact, the value of diversity, and why the UK boarding experience offers something uniquely powerful.
If you ask Mark Love what has kept him in education for more than three decades, his answer is quick and refreshingly simple: the impact. The Head Teacher at Earlscliffe in Folkestone, United Kingdom, has dedicated his career to guiding students from diverse backgrounds and shaping their journeys well beyond the school gates.
THE EARLSCLIFFE EXPERIENCE
Along the way, he has earned a reputation for balancing academic excellence with an inclusive culture at one of the UK’s most distinctive independent boarding schools. When Love speaks about impact, he is not referring to grades or university placements, but something less quantifiable and far more profound. It is the impact of creating a safe space where young people can truly be themselves – a school without a dominant culture, where tolerance, empathy, and global understanding are at the forefront.
With more than 30 nationalities represented, Earlscliffe is, in Love’s words, “a bit of a beautiful melting pot.” He explains: “When you’ve got kids from all over the world learning together, they start to understand different cultures, different religions and different ways of thinking. Through that, they don’t just understand the world better – they make it better. And that, to me, is more important than any exam result.”
WALKING THE TALK
Love credits the school’s small size – just 140 students – for making this culture possible, though he insists it is more about intention than numbers. “Everyone here, staff and students alike, has a role to play in living out the school’s values,” he says. “If you say you believe in kindness, you’ve got to show it. If you say you value multiculturalism, you’ve got to live it.”
For families in Asia weighing up options, he stresses the authenticity of the UK boarding experience. “If I wanted my daughter to have a Vietnamese education, for example, I wouldn’t send her to a Vietnamese school in the UK – I’d send her to school in Vietnam,” he explains. “And if you want the real UK education, you come here.”
MEANINGFUL MOMENTS
To Love, the UK provides a cultural bridge that connects tradition with modern multiculturalism while offering students a globally relevant education. His own role in that has become ever clearer since the birth of his daughter. Each exam season brings a knot of anticipation: “You think about each student and what they hoped for. And when they make it – that’s an incredible feeling.”
Other moments come unexpectedly. “I was at the airport one day and a man approached and said, ‘Do you remember me?’ It took me a second, but then I recognised him – a former student, now 20 years older, with a family of his own. He said, ‘I never thought I’d get where I am, but you and the school helped me believe I could.’ You hear something like that, and it stays with you.”
For Love, education was never about ticking boxes. It is about tearing them up and giving students the space, support, and confidence to build something entirely their own.
To find out more about Earlscliffe, please contact MABECS at enquiries@mabecs.com or call 03-7956 7655.
