We always like to innovate at the Chippendale school, and the creation of our one-month intermediate course earlier this year is a case in point.

It’s proving to be more successful than we expected, with one current student, Mara Dreger, coming to us all the way from Sao Paulo in Brazil.

As an international school, our professional students do come from all parts of the world, but it’s unusual to have overseas students on our intermediate or one-week introductory course.

That said, a recent introductory course student was from Germany – underlining our reputation on the international market, and the reason why we will continue to innovate to keep ahead of our competitors!

This year, our professional course had students from Italy, New Zealand, Switzerland, USA, India, Singapore, Germany, Trinidad & Tobago, and the Falkland Islands – as well as far-flung parts of the UK.

Mara is a paediatrician and a keen woodworking hobbyist who wants to move her skills to the next level.

So far, she’s learned many new facets of woodworking – from setting up angles to dovetailing, and from making drawers to mastering routing.

She’s hard at work making an olive ash jewellery box which she’ll complete later this week with a final coat of lacquer – and we’ll bring you pictures of the finished item.

She’s pictured working on her box, and with tutor Alan McGovern, a skilled cabinet maker with over 33 years of experience.

Students on both the one-week and one-month courses do complete individual pieces that they can take home with them – mostly larger items such as chairs tables or cabinets.

Mara’s olive ash box is therefore a little smaller than usual…but how else do you easily transport something back to Brazil in your hand luggage!