LARA BOOSTS GORDONSTOUN PUPILS

[ 4 September 2001 ]

Gordonstoun School, the real-life boarding school credited with giving Core Designs British aristocrat Lara Croft her first taste of adventure and survival training, welcomed a record number of pupils during yesterdays new term inauguration thanks largely to the fictional cyber-heroine, The Times reports today.

Mark Pyper, head of the £18,000 a year prestigious school located in Elgin which has three generations of royal children pinned to its educatory bonnet, said "Lara was certainly very helpful to us. She introduced the school to a new audience and has prompted hundreds of enquiries."

Fiona Valpy, spokeswoman for the Scottish Council for Independent Schools attributes the influx of boarding school appointments to both the Lara Croft connection and Harry Potter, who attends fictional Hogwarts School.

Gordonstoun School successfully negotiated an advertising deal earlier this year with Tomb Raider publishers Eidos Interactive and Paramount Pictures to capitalize on specially created footage which appeared in a series of campaigns to herald the Paramount motion picture.