Scarborough: Thor the walrus sparks global interest in town's school

A school in Scarborough has received dozens of admissions enquiries from abroad after a walrus visited the town, a councillor has said.

The mammal, known as Thor, arrived in Scarborough on 30 December and his antics attracted worldwide coverage.

Scarborough College, an independent school, had since had more than 40 international queries from families who saw the town on TV, a meeting heard.

Council leader Steve Siddons said that "any publicity is good publicity".

Scarborough's New Year's Eve fireworks display was cancelled because of concerns for Thor's welfare after he arrived in the harbour.

Councillor Guy Smith said the Arctic animal had created "tremendous publicity" for the town.

The fee-paying Scarborough College had since received enquiries from all over the world from people who had "been really taken in with it all and they want to bring their children to be educated here", he said.

Meanwhile, Mr Siddons said he had been emailed by people from as far away as the US and Australia who wanted to find out more about the walrus.

"Of all the things we have done in this borough over the last few years, I never really expected the appearance of a walrus to overtake all the great work that has been done," he said.

"But nevertheless, as they say, any publicity is good publicity."

A Scarborough College spokesperson said they could not comment on the admissions enquiries, according to the Local Democracy Reporting Service.

They said that many of their current international students saw the walrus on the news in their own countries during the school holidays.

"As Scarborough isn't often world news, this was quite a nice thing to happen over Christmas, while our overseas students were home," they added.

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