Boarding Schools Magazine Issue 33

BOARDING SCHOOL

The magazine of the Boarding Schools’ Association

Dancing to a different school tune

Boarding dynasties

Seven steps to boost prep school boarding History in the house • An American education Number 33 • Spring 2011

The Magazine of the Boarding Schools’ Association BOARDING SCHOOL • 1

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BOARDING SCHOOL

The magazine of the Boarding Schools’ Association

Number 33 • Spring 2011

Contents

Boarding House History page 22

Flat pack boarding as Seaford goes green page 36

Learning to give a hoot page 44

The deadline for the next edition of Boarding School (issue No.34) is 28 August 2011. Copy for this edition should be sent to: The Editor Dick Davison Boarding Schools’ Association Grosvenor Gardens House 35-37 Grosvenor Gardens London SW1W 0BS Telephone 020 7798 1580 Fax 020 7798 1581 Email bsa@boarding.org.uk www.boarding.org.uk

Boarding Schools’ Association Ltd Registered in England and Wales.

Registered No: 4676107 Registered Office: Grosvenor Gardens House 35-37 Grosvenor Gardens London SW1W 0BS Publisher’s Notice Boarding School is published bi-annually by the Boarding Schools’ Association.

Director’s column: Wish fulfilment

3

Dancing to a different boarding tune

5

Boarding dynasties

10

Seven steps to boost prep boarding

14

Bridging the funding gap

16

The journey to great leadership

18

The British Music Experience at the London O2 centre

21

Boarding house history

22

An American Education

28

Co-educational boarding

32

New boarding developments: Sixth tense Flat pack boarding as Seaford goes green Sherbourne International College expands its boarding

34 36 38

What’s in a name

40

Learning to give a hoot

42

Classifieds

44

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Wish fulfilment Someone once said, ‘Be careful what you wish for, you just might get it.’

What a wonderful doom-sayer, to suggest that we are all a bit clueless about the future, or about the nature of wishes and who might grant them for us, and so a wish may be just a blind assertion of what, like greedy children, we want, rather than a fair assessment of what would actually be good for us.

At the 2010 Boarding Schools’ Association annual conference for heads, Chairman Dr Christopher Greenfield, used his address to call for a ‘bonfire of the regulations’ to which boarding schools were subject – a very public wish, if ever there was one, echoing Sir Roger Singleton’s report which had come to the same conclusion.

The demand struck a huge chord with his audience, very aware that the conference itself coincided with the general election which, at the time, looked set to change the party in power for the first time in thirteen years.

The election and its results, including the probably un-looked for and to many completely surprising coalition, are history now.

But at the time of writing – March 2011 – we are seeing the first tangible responses to the demand for fewer regulations to be wrapped around boarding schools.

It has not – quite – been a bonfire. But it is certainly a drastic reduction, and as I write, the final version of the new National Minimum Standards for Boarding Schools is well on its way to publication, to be ready for implementation in 2011.

• The good news is that the standards are reduced in number from 52 to 25.

• The good news is that the ‘scaffolding’ of the 294 bullet points which previously illustrated, defined and supported the original 52 standards has been removed. Some standards do have explanatory bullet points – e.g. standard 22 on staffing and supervision – but for the most part, the new document simply lists 25 minimum standards which every boarding school should meet.

• The good news is that confusion arising from phrases such as ‘The school should ensure. . .’ – what does ‘should’ mean?

Does it mean ‘must’? - has been cleared up by the simple expedient of strengthening the verbs to say ‘the school ensures that. . .’

• The good news is that the Department for Education’s one master-list of the new standards can be adopted into the inspection frameworks of whichever inspectorate is responsible for a particular school’s inspection – ISI (in all probability) for independent schools in membership of ISC, Ofsted for state boarding schools.

the director’s column

• The good news is that the response from schools to the consultation on the new NMS was overwhelmingly positive.

Respondents welcomed the new standards as recognising the wealth of professionalism in schools, and opening the door to the grown up world of responsibility and accountability. If the 294 bullet points had previously tied schools and inspectors in knots, then the new simple statements of the outcomes pupils, parents and inspectors are entitled to expect from the boarding experience offered beacons of clarity which schools could achieve in many and various ways because schools themselves are many and various places.

Here indeed was just what they wished for.

And should we be frightened because boarding schools are getting what they wished for? The answer must be a resounding ‘No!’ Because these are not just changes which heads and heads of boarding and Sir Roger Singleton and the BSA and its chairman wished for. These are changes we have all worked for.

There was no petulant demand for change, followed by sitting on our hands and waiting for it to happen. There have in fact been at least two years of very hard work.

The good news is that the response from schools to the consultation on the new NMS was overwhelmingly positive.

BSA alerted schools to the deficiencies of the draft new NMS produced by DCSF (as it then was) early in 2010. BSA responded to the consultation on that document with a tenpage line-by-line analysis of exactly what was wrong with the proposed document. BSA drafted the ‘tweaks’ which were accepted as additions to the old standards for adoption in September 2010. BSA then served on the new DfE committee to re-draft the 2002 standards, and alerted schools to the consultation period when a draft emerged, and itself submitted a detailed response to the consultation, and returned to the table to review and agree all the changes flowing from that consultation period. Everyone was aware that work done on this document was likely to be the most important thing the BSA did for its members in the last five years, and the results could be with us for the next ten.

BSA is grateful to all the heads, deputies and heads of boarding who contributed to the new standards, particularly to the small, faithful band who brought so much to the DCSF/DfE table: Tony Halliwell (Principal, Welbeck Defence Sixth Form College), Richard Harman (Headmaster, Uppingham School), Christian Heinrich (Headmaster, Cumnor House), Melvyn Roffe (Principal, Wymondham College) and Dale Wilkins (Deputy Head, Old Swinford Hospital).

All our member schools are in their debt for their hard work and commitment, and, perhaps, for their capacity to make wishes come true.

Hilary Moriarty

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4 • BOARDING SCHOOL The Magazine of the Boarding Schools’ Association

Dancing to a different boarding tune

Pictured Anna Rose O’Sullivan & Brandon Lawrence Pictures for the Royal Ballet School by Johan Persson

Boarders at the Royal Ballet School are preparing themselves for one of the world’s most physically demanding professions. It makes for an unusual educational environment and makes special demands on the boarding staff, writes CHARLES RUNACRES, its academic and pastoral head.

What is the perfect school day? For many students in my previous schools, heaven would be a school day consisting mostly of sport, with just one and a half hours of academic lessons. For others, it would be a day with no homework; or one spent pursuing just a couple of subjects that really interested them. A great site in central London would really help, as would the chance to see superb shows and even to meet some of their heroes.

Even the chance to get their own breakfast would have been welcome, as would be liberation from the fixed hours of the dining hall.

The Magazine of the Boarding Schools’ Association BOARDING SCHOOL • 5

Dancing to a different boarding tune continued All the above are true in the Upper School at The Royal Ballet School, where I have had the extraordinary pleasure now of working for two terms.

The Royal Ballet School is on two superb sites in London. The Upper School (our three-year sixth form) is housed in a beautiful newly-built school across the lane from the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden, with the unusual twisty Bridge of Aspiration linking the school to the Opera House (look up next time you’re in Floral Street). About half the students from Lower School pass the auditions to Upper School, and are joined there by students from all over the world: some from other UK schools, others from Australia, Mexico, Japan, Portugal, USA, France, even China. Every social background, race, religion and colour is represented, with the majority of students on government or school scholarships. Boys outnumber girls, and students are placed in year groups according to talent: the first year started with one student aged 15 and one nearly 18. Some have boarded before, and some are away from home for the first time. The problems of applying Tier 4 and boarding standards are intriguing, and have made me one of the most frequent customers of the ISC’s superb legal department.

in Performing Arts (Dance). Academic lessons occupy just 90 minutes of each day, with five days of BTec a fortnight and five of A level. Some overseas students replace the A level with Cambridge ESOL; others follow on-line diplomas for their own countries: USA, Canada or Spain. Results are good, and the small number of students who have gone straight to university in the last few years have done so at London, Bristol (winning last year’s Gold Medal for Maths) and Cambridge.

It’s in the rest of the day that you really see how unusual a school this is. Dance occupies at least six hours a day and its requirements dominate everything, from nutrition to injury.

This is a vocational school; the students are here to train for jobs in the world’s ballet companies. As a result, most of the school day consists of dance classes: classical ballet classes (boys’

The Royal Ballet Lower School in Richmond Park

What is new to almost all of the students is the sheer focus on dance, and the requirement that they look after themselves to a great extent. Each of the first two years has “It’s in the rest their own boarding house. The first of the day that you years live in shared rooms in two joined houses in Barons Court in really see how unusual West London, with two full-time a school this is. pastoral staff to look after them; Dance occupies at least the second years also live in shared rooms, but in a former block six hours a day and its of flats just around the corner requirements dominate from the school. In both houses, everything, from students are responsible for doing their own shopping, cooking, washing nutrition to injury.” up and laundry; and in the Second Year house they also do all but the basic cleaning. It’s boarding life, but not quite as we know it in more mainstream schools.

The evenings are also different: students have a curfew, but return to their house at different times in the evening, and have no formal prep time. The main pastimes, apart from TV and chat, are cooking and watching ballet on YouTube. It’s a much more independent life than in many boarding schools, and is part of the way in which the school prepares students for their life at work.

Very unusually, there is a third year of Sixth Form, which students join by invitation. The third years have class every day, but also dance regularly with the Royal Ballet, prepare for an ambitious annual school tour and attend auditions for professional companies around the world. They mostly live in their own flats, essentially as young professionals in London.

At school, the differences continue. The school takes academics very seriously: the career of a dancer is necessarily limited, and it’s crucial that students be given the qualifications to help start their careers after dancing. The school offers students the chance to achieve the equivalent of three A levels as a preparation for possible eventual university, but does it through a mixture of one A level and a Level 3 BTec Diploma 6 • BOARDING SCHOOL The Magazine of the Boarding Schools’ Association

and girls’, solo and pas de deux), contemporary, character, choreography and body conditioning, taught by a complete dance and creative staff.

There are, too, regular opportunities for performance in the school, and this year second and third year students have danced professionally with the Royal Ballet, the Birmingham Royal Ballet and English National Ballet amongst others. The professional performances don’t necessarily stop for school holidays or fit around the timetable, of course, and students and school have to be creative in working around them. The ballet world’s great and good pass through the school, as guest teachers or observers; and the students learn to take their chances to impress in class and competitions. It’s an intensive way of life, but what the students have dreamed of for years.

Years 7 to 11 are in the Lower School, based in White Lodge in the middle of Richmond Park. It’s a very distinguished Georgian building: a former Royal hunting lodge atop a man-made hill, with amongst other things a basement specially conceived so that you can enter on horseback without having to dismount (sadly the hill makes my approach by bicycle a less insouciant one). It’s a building especially associated with Dame Ninette de Valois, the remarkable founder of the Royal Ballet, the Birmingham Royal Ballet and the school, amongst many other things. Extensive redevelopment in the last five years has included the remodelling and new building of many facilities.

The school is exceptionally lively, and a stimulating diet of visits, author readings, science practicals, music, the Museum and special events keep things constantly varied. It has a more

The Magazine of the Boarding Schools’ Association BOARDING SCHOOL • 7

Dancing to a different boarding tune continued

“The dominant sense, though, is of fun. In the evening couple of students each year leave after the houses are full Year 8; others move out of dance after of noise, chat, laughter, Year 11; others still stop at the end of music and (rather more second year sixth. worryingly) singing; during The days of being taught by having the day the ethos is the your legs banged with a stick are long past, and relationships between staff relaxed atmosphere and students are excellent; but you are of shared drive and still pushing yourself physically, mentally excellence.” and creatively for hours every day. The

predictable boarding day, with evening prep and quiet time in houses; a curriculum based on eight or nine GCSEs with a core of English, Maths and Science; and the familiar structure of exeats, discos and shopping at weekends. Academic results are very good, especially given that selection is by dance: a few students each year go into the sixth forms of very selective schools. Numbers are small: 24 or so in each year, usually split equally between boys and girls.

Houses are based on year groups: Years 7 and 8 board in wings of the old main building; and Years 9 to 11 in newly-built houses linked together along one edge of the grounds. The house staff are dedicated pastoral figures rather than teachers, and they and the tutors provide close support for the students.

Again, it’s when you look a little more closely that things start to look less familiar. The school is in the middle of a park that is locked at dusk every day; there’s no popping out to the shops at tea time. Students are selected by ability or their potential in dance, and very few would have been boarders had it not been for their talent in dance. Everybody has two hours of dance class every day, in a variety of disciplines from classical to character and Irish, with Pilates and body conditioning on top. Only Years 7 and 8 have PE and there is no outdoor education programme: it’s not hard to understand that potential sports injuries are not particularly welcome for young dancers. There is a full- time physiotherapist, and regular visits from a nutritionist. Dance history and sports psychology play their part, and Expressive Arts is a core subject at GCSE. Most exciting, although very demanding, are the opportunities to mix and perform with the Royal Ballet and its stars; students regularly travel up to the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden to dance in performances, with notable recent participation in Peter and the Wolf and Swan Lake. Lower School is a more familiar boarding setting, but has at its heart students aspiring to the exceptional standards and discipline of a career in dance.

So do we all have black feathers sprouting from our arms while we go quietly mad? Far from it. Ballet teaching is very technical, and ballet itself an amazing mixture of elite and aesthetic athleticism. If you ever get the chance, see ballet close up, and you’ll see and hear the extraordinary fitness, skill and breathing required to produce the apparently effortless grace of the dance. It’s a particular profession, and requires a mixture of determination, mental toughness, fitness and physical attributes. There is a series of assessments to go through: a 8 • BOARDING SCHOOL The Magazine of the Boarding Schools’ Association

physiotherapist is busy, although again the attitude to sports medicine is changing rapidly: there is a very active body of ballet medicine, and the use of Pilates, body conditioning and preventative technique is making good inroads into injury. Everyone asks about weight, but this becomes a very different matter when students are in their leotards for most of the day: you can’t hide under the multiple jumpers. The students are conscious of the need to eat well to keep up the energy levels they require, and are helped by the staff, the emphasis on health and fitness in PSHE and the BTec, the Lower School dining hall and the availability of excellent cheap lunches in the Opera House canteen.

In some ways it is the mental toughness and resilience of the students that is most marked: these are very determined and ambitious young men and women who have focused their lives to achieve an astonishing level of specialised excellence.

It’s here that the pastoral care becomes crucial: the students are going through all the same things as any other teenagers, with the addition of aiming for the stars in a demanding career.

Some inevitably find themselves feeling under pressure; and the boarding setting provides the opportunity for excellent support, through a combination of knowing about ballet careers, creating a welcoming house, being able to re-assure, and simple listening.

The dominant sense, though, is of fun. In the evening the houses are full of noise, chat, laughter, music and (rather more worryingly) singing; during the day the ethos is the relaxed atmosphere of shared drive and excellence. These are hugely competitive young women and men; but without enjoyment their exercise would be pointless. It’s both like and unlike the boarding I’ve seen in the rest of my career. As in any boarding school, the compliance, caring, teaching and educating are central, as are the relationships; but the Royal Ballet School also dances to the distinctive and unusual rhythms of the attempted pursuit of excellence, of astonishing skill and creativity, and of student self-reliance, devotion, and ambitions.

Photograph Courtesy of Castle Court School

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Educated at St Edward’s, Oxford, and Brasenose, Oxford, Stephen Winkley taught at Cranleigh and was Second Master at Winchester before becoming Headmaster of Uppingham in 1991. Leo Winkley, after Oxford (Lady Margaret Hall), taught at Ardingly, Cheltenham Ladies’ College and Bedales, before becoming headmaster of St Peter’s in 2010. (His brother Mungo is now a housemaster at Rossall).

10 • BOARDING SCHOOL The Magazine of the Boarding Schools’ Association

Boarding dynasties Boarding seems to run in some families. STEPHEN WINKLEY, headmaster of Rossall School and former BSA chairman, and his son LEO, headmaster of St Peter’s School, York, are currently making history as the first father and son to be active members of HMC at the same time.

Stephen Winkley: It all makes sense backwards. From the foothills the path to the summit is quite unclear; and even though the way up and the way down are the same it is only from the crystalline peak that the route is perceptible: look, this is where you fell, this is where you got lost and disheartened, this is where the clouds parted and you could see the destination. Perhaps at the start you only set off for a stroll, and then get a taste for the journey.

The journey to headship was a journey I knew I would never make: Frank Fisher presented an image of penetrating gravity, frightening omniscience and alarming persuasiveness which I knew I would never match. Perhaps Leo, brought up in schools, would be less inhibited. I recall him as the angel at the end of both acts of Waiting for Godot, and the voracious reader of unlikely books. I think I first recognised the seeds of greatness when he composed and helped to perform a musical item during a damp holiday in Devon. “What is the piece called?” I asked my twelve-year-old son. “The many moods of the sea”, he replied, gravely. It lasted thirty seven seconds. This boy will impress, I thought.

And in due course he did. He learnt to be the complete schoolmaster at Ardingly, helping to run a house, taking a hockey team, teaching Theology. Then Vicky Tuck picked him to run the RS department at Cheltenham Ladies. It was a huge success. Then they wanted him at Bedales as Deputy Head.

The selection process was unbelievably strenuous, making my selection as Head of Uppingham (two one-hour interviews) look comparatively simple. He won glittering reviews at Bedales: I had a nagging feeling that other schools might believe that very special Hampshire experience would not be relevant to their own traditions. Expelling people who remonstrated using your Christian name was a poor preparation for the measured formalities of more conventional places.

We can all see the shift in relevant experience: the housemaster route prepares us for many of the excitements of running a boarding school, but prepares us less well for the formal procedures of headship. In my time we moved from a culture where the important thing was to behave reasonably to a culture where what was important was to follow the correct procedure. While I went into headship as a blundering visionary, Leo was the real deal: he had enormous experience of that class of person who is the fly in the ointment at all schools: the adult.

Children, the reason we join the trade, are never the problem: adults, their lawyers and their union representatives, give us hours of anxiety.

When Leo was six I was awarded a sabbatical term (“I didn’t know you were Jewish, Sir”, said a friendly Cranleighan). I decided to record a story to help the lad to go to sleep. The story was Oscar Wilde’s The Selfish Giant. We could both have been that, I suppose, but he learnt the lesson of the story and he’s now he’s ready to be a better headmaster than me.

All those years in schools failed to inoculate him against their allure, and I’m delighted they haven’t. He’s ready for headship in a way I never was, and I now feel I have permission to withdraw gracefully and watch in admiration.

Leo Winkley: “You change things by being there”: the six simple words of advice given to me by my father when I was nervously anticipating a new role in a new school – I think it was when I was about to start at Cheltenham Ladies’ College.

Given that we have both been in the same game for 17 years now, it might seem obvious that I would have dipped often into the well of the old man’s experience. He’s been at it a long time, after all: this is his fifth decade working in boarding schools.

He started in 1968, an auspicious year for visionaries, idealists, mavericks, those who will not bend to the sterile strictures of process or hide their inadequacies in authoritarianism. My father has always played things from the heart, spoken with the spirit. He is not one to be daunted by – or interested in protocols. If they happen to coincide with what he instinctively knows is right, so be it. But it is the gut – and his has become ample with the rigours of after-dinner speaking – yes, it is from the gut that my father thinks. Or rather feels. Being in boarding requires a sharp intellect. To look after the Scholars of Winchester College, all of whom are boarders, you have to be a nimble thinker. And my father has a staggering range of knowledge. Classics to great depth and a goat-like appetite for high-brow trivia and, frankly, a prodigious talent for bluffing.

But all this intellectual acumen is merely a bonus to what is the core of working with Given that we have children, particularly both been in the in boarding, and that is a natural, deep same game for 17 sympathy for those voyaging the choppy years now, it might seas of adolescence. seem obvious that I He is not one to blame, to scold, to would have dipped disdain, to write off. Rather, he has often into the well always had a talent of the old man’s for finding the little thing that makes experience. a boarder turn a corner. He has done it too many times for it to be chance. It is a great and mysterious knack and comes from a profound feeling for what it is to be human: confused, surprising, frustrating, dull even – but always human.

The Magazine of the Boarding Schools’ Association BOARDING SCHOOL • 11

Boarding dynasties continued...

So, back to advice. Oscar Wilde sagely remarked that the only thing to do with good advice is to pass it on. It is never of any use to oneself. But, wisely as ever, my old man has kept his wisdom largely to himself. He has allowed me to make my own mistakes – right from when my brother and I were running amok at Cranleigh and he was trying to run a boarding house, teach Classics and French and be a single parent.

SALLY CHAPLIN’s grandparents took over Vinehall, a prep school in East Sussex, just after the Second World War. For 56 years, three generations of the family ran the school.

I made plenty of mistakes. If you learn by them, I am not short of material. As boarders at Cranleigh, my brother and I felt we were in our own home. We were born there after all. Being told what to do by older boys didn’t quite wash somehow and I’m afraid I was not easy to deal with. It’s the same with vicar’s children, isn’t it? Anyway, thanks to the adroit stewardship of my brilliant housemaster, I survived. I loved boarding. I just struggled with some of the protocols. Strange that.

A close colleague of my father’s once described him as a “walking oxymoron”. Spot on. He contains multitudes, as Whitman would have it. Or perhaps he is like the Gerasene Demoniac – “My name is Legion: for we are many”. Luke’s Demoniac was clearly mad, poor fellow. But, far from being an argument for sectioning, the ability to contain multitudes is, I think, at the heart of being a schoolmaster (to use an old-fashioned term), and particularly a boarding housemaster – or mistress for that matter. You have to be able to deal in contradictions. And you really do have to love and forgive people.

To adapt a favourite office-mug platitude, you don’t have to be mad to work here but it helps to have multiple personalities. If I was going to market a mug for the boarding life I would choose a simple, white mug, sufficient for a decent draught of late night coffee or early morning tea, with six simple words on it: You change things by being there.

From 1946 to 2002, our family was associated with Vinehall: 56 years of more or less believable stories to tell. I’ll begin at the beginning.

In 1946 my grandparents bought Vinehall from the Jacoby family for £18,000. The school had recently returned from a tough evacuation in Devon to find Vinehall wrecked by Canadian troops occupying the place during World War II. My grandfather, Tom Stuart-Menteath, became headmaster. My grandmother Kitty, a trained nurse, was matron and doubled as housekeeper. Three days before the autumn term began, my own parents Richard and Pat Taylor, newly trained teachers, started at Vinehall … and so did I, born three days after my parents’ arrival at Vinehall.Our three generations fit neatly into the year of 1946.

The winter of 1946-1947 was a hard one. Weeks of snow, ice and storms, frozen pipes, black paper covering windows where the glass had been blown out during the war, electricity for only a few hours each day; coal, petrol, clothing and food severely rationed. It was miserable but my grandparents and parents were not daunted. The farm attached to the school was quickly made productive, supplementing our diets with fresh milk, eggs and vegetables.

No television of course; it didn’t come to Vinehall until 1953 when my parents bought a tiny black and white set in honour of Queen Elizabeth II’s coronation. Many evenings with power cuts were spent lit by candles and hurricane lamps playing ‘Giants and Ogres’ around the school in the dark, competing with board games, or gathered around the grand piano in the library to sing wonderful old English songs: ‘Campdown races’ and ‘My bonny lies over the ocean’.

Vinehall then was a boys only boarding school but my sister and I were also day pupils there. In fact we hardly ever left the

12 • BOARDING SCHOOL The Magazine of the Boarding Schools’ Association

place. We learnt how to climb trees, construct camps, make and use catapults, trap and skin moles, build dams on streams, cook over camp fires, fish in the pond, enjoy cubs and scouts, toboggan on tin trays from the kitchen. The staff never seemed to be around to keep an eye on us; ‘trust’ was high on their list of priorities and, if we made mistakes, we learnt by them, as I did when, showing off, I fell out of a tree and broke my arm.

Epidemics were very much feared: measles, mumps, scarlet fever, chicken pox, whooping cough, Asian flu and the dreaded D and V could sweep through the school in a matter of days. Ill children were put to bed in the san with a hot water bottle, fed on honey and lemon drinks, given a tonic called Parish’s Food and were anxiously watched over by my grandmother. Chilblains were a constant blight in winter and, because of our poor diet and before the antibiotic age, boils and septic fingers, toes and knees, were common. Each morning every boarder had to tick the lavatory book when he had ‘been’!

Kitty Stuart-Menteath

Richard Taylor

The few teachers that there were at Vinehall during the ‘40s and ‘50s were not only expected to teach their subject but also to take sport every afternoon, to do long weekday and weekend duties, and to assist in the holidays with building and decorating work.

A half day off a week in term-time was all that a full time teacher got and not much more in the holidays.

In 1957 my parents, Richard and Pat Taylor, took over the school and developing the sport at Vinehall was their priority. My father, a fanatical sportsman, would spend every Sunday when the grass was growing, mowing and marking out the pitches. He turned the fields of the school farm into a nine hole golf course.

Every spare hour was spent coaching teams and individuals, or refereeing matches.

But by this time Vinehall was establishing itself academically too and the school began to grow in popularity. Boarding was still the thing to do for certain sections of society and my parents’ relaxed and happy attitude towards bringing up children made Vinehall a good choice, especially amongst the Foreign Office and armed forces families. Boys came from London, too, and there was visible relief on their faces at the beginning of the September term, having been cooped up in a city for eight weeks, when they would arrive by train and rush off to enjoy the freedom of the grounds, ride their bikes along the paths, build camps and climb trees.

My mother made sure that her team of matrons were kind and loving towards the children and she herself invested much time and effort into the care of the boarders, playing games with them, reading bedtime stories and kissing the juniors goodnight.

House parents were not invented during their tenure at Vinehall and the matrons and my parents ran the boarding house as well as running the school and teaching full time themselves.

Twenty years on, in 1977, my husband David (then an English teacher at Tonbridge School) and I went to Vinehall. We had two children aged two and one and soon after another was on the way. So there was no way that we could take on the boarders full time, as well as everything else. We were lucky enough to find a young couple of teachers with similar ideas to our own

with whom we shared the boarding duties. Throughout our time there we continued to employ motherly matrons who worked long hours throughout our time at Vinehall. These matrons (usually parents or exparents of children in the school) were jacks-of-all-trades, caring for the sick, present at meal times, ready to shift the laundry or unblock the drains, reassuring to parents and, above all, accessible, kind and sensitive to

My mother made sure that her team of matrons were kind and loving towards the children and she herself invested much time and effort into the care of the boarders... the children’s needs at all times. They expected to be called in the night and their door was always open ready for the unexpected, and willing to give hugs. Girls officially came to Vinehall for the first time and, by the time we finished in 2002, their numbers accounted for one third of the school roll.

From the 1990’s, when our boarding numbers increased to 120+ boys and girls and the number on the school roll passed 400, we were lucky enough to have dedicated house-parents who gave their all to ensuring that the boarders had a steady routine and a good time. This was not achieved through expensive outings or entertainment, but more through allowing the children to use their ingenuity to invent their own games, friendships and interests after school and at the weekends. It has always been our belief that children should not be entertained and supervised every minute of the day. Over the years we had a wonderful run of New Zealand GAP students who helped us achieve this, and their influence at Vinehall, especially in the boarding house, cannot be underestimated.

Finally I would say that putting the children to bed on Sunday nights was one of the best things that David and I did while we were at Vinehall. We always had a couple of GAP students helping us up to 9 pm but after that we were on our own.

Cutting the boys’ toenails in the washroom, listening to them chatting in their baths, helping the girls brush their hair, talking about the weekend just gone and the week ahead, we learnt more about what was really going on at Vinehall than any detective could glean.

We are still in touch with lots of our former pupils and it’s great to know how many of them are going into teaching. We hope that it might be, in part, to the happy experience of boarding at Vinehall!

The Magazine of the Boarding Schools’ Association BOARDING SCHOOL • 13

Seven steps to boost A West Country prep school, which has just spent £1 million on new facilities, has also seen a record increase in boarding numbers. What can other schools learn from its experience?

A warm welcome for first-time families

“When we first married we were clear that would not send our children to boarding school,” Mr Livingstone explains.

“However, it soon became the obvious solution. We looked for a school which was approachable with a welcoming atmosphere combined with a strong academic record but also good at all the extra-curricular activities such as sport, music, art and drama.”

More families than ever are considering boarding for the first time, according to the Prep School’s head, Adrian Palmer.

Let the houseparents focus on boarding

Wycliffe Preparatory School, near Stroud in Gloucestershire, has just completed an investment of over £1 million in new facilities. As result of this, and other initiatives, this prep school for 350 pupils from 2–13 years has experienced a record increase in boarding numbers.

“The ongoing credit crunch has meant that parents are under greater work pressures with long hours or they have to relocate with their careers. Therefore, boarding schools such as Wycliffe are an option that many families are now turning to. Those who have never dreamed of it before realise that a school like ours can provide a stable education for their children within a happy, busy and supportive atmosphere,” says Mr Palmer.

The Livingstone family who joined Wycliffe recently are in the Army and move every two years. By the time he was seven, Mr Livingstone’s son had attended three different schools across the UK.

“The ongoing credit crunch has meant that parents are under greater work pressures with long hours or they have to relocate with their careers.

14 • BOARDING SCHOOL The Magazine of the Boarding Schools’ Association

It is tempting for prep boarding schools to give houseparents many other responsibilities during the day. However, at Wycliffe Prep, they have full-time professional boarding staff who don’t have any teaching responsibilities.

Parents think this makes a big difference as the houseparents are free in the evenings and weekends to give their full attention and energy to the role.

Mr Coffey, who has a son and daughter who board at Wycliffe, agrees. “The most important thing to us is the pastoral care of our children. We feel that if they are looked after and happy they will learn. The house staff are wonderful people and are able to just focus on looking after the children. It is like they have another set of parents.”

prep school boarding Integrate boarders into the school community Wycliffe is keen to ensure that all boarders are part of the whole school community. They leave their houses at 8am and don’t return until after completing their prep at 6.30pm.

Mr Palmer explains: “The boarders come to school and ‘go home’ at the end of the day. This means that they have to become totally integrated with the day pupils. And when they return to their boarding houses, they can properly relax and unwind just as the day pupils do.”

Keep them busy...but not too busy Like most prep boarding schools, Wycliffe has a vast array of things to do arranged for the evenings and weekends. In their recent investment programme, they even included a large sports hall within the boarding house itself for soft ball and other games.

However, Wycliffe also understands that children, like their busy parents, need down time too. Mr Livingstone elaborates: “We used to think that the school should organise a full on programme of activities to ensure that they wouldn’t get bored or homesick. Our children are involved in so many activities such as music, sport, clubs and scouts that they do need to rest sometimes. They have the freedom to have their own space to just sit and chat with friends.”

Be flexible with parents Another area that is becoming more popular with families is ‘flexi-boarding’, particularly for the older pupils. This flexibility is both for parents who want to see their boarding children during the week and also for parents of day pupils who need them to stay over occasionally, almost like a hotel for children!

Mr Palmer says: “Often both parents are working and they need the option for their children to board sometimes. They have the confidence too that they will be well looked after.

Normally, they have such a great experience that they pester their parents to board full time.”

Invest in facilities Before they arrive, many families that approach Wycliffe have an impression of austere dormitories and cold showers in boarding from various novels and television documentaries.

However, the standards that they find today often take parents by surprise.

“Not only are parents looking for a family atmosphere in the boarding community, they are looking for a five-star facilities.

We are continually investing hundreds of thousands each year in Wycliffe boarding, so that they are pleasantly surprised when they visit each of the houses,” says Mr Palmer.

Listen to the parents Wycliffe admits that it doesn’t always get it right. To help them resolve any issues quickly, a few years ago they set up a parents’ forum which meets each term.

Mr Livingstone, who is on the committee explains: “We are on the boarding parents’ committee and we make suggestions to the school on any improvements that we think they should make. The school is approachable and listens. A lot of the things we recommend get taken up.

It seems that the steps to successful boarding are few, but in combination very effective. The strategy to be approachable, flexible, homely and continually invest significant sums in facilities seems to be paying off. It is certainly attracting a new wave of first-time boarding families for Wycliffe Prep.

The Magazine of the Boarding Schools’ Association BOARDING SCHOOL • 15

Gardyner House - New School House opened in 2008 providing boarding facilities to compare with any in the country.

Development and fund-raising are well-established in the independent sector but is still a comparative rarity in the state sector. But at Lancaster Royal Grammar School, fundraising has helped to transform the school over the past 40 years. Development director JENNY CORNELL tells how.

Arups Masterplan for LRGS

Bridging the From every perspective, Lancaster Royal Grammar School is an unusual school: one of only four grammar schools in the Lancashire LEA and one of only 35 state boarding schools in the country. As a voluntary aided selective school of over 1,000 boys, including a thriving sixth form of over 300, it offers a unique boarding opportunity to around 190 boys in three purpose-designed houses.

Founded in antiquity, the school is proud of both its heritage and its position as one of the top state schools in the country with an excellent academic record as well as a reputation for providing a wide range of extra-curricular activities. Originally endowed by a local merchant, over the years the school has continued to benefit from philanthropic support, helping to bridge the gap between government funding and the excellent facilities and opportunities that the school is able to provide.

This continues today with generous support from governors, staff, parents and alumni.

Over the past 40 years, fundraising has been an important feature of the development of the school. Traditionally, additional funds were achieved through capital appeals, generally at seven year intervals, using the services of external fundraising consultants. During the course of a very successful “Millennium” £1m campaign, the governors decided that fundraising should become a permanent feature of the school and created a development department with the appointment of a development director in 1998: the first development office in the state sector. The office soon became well established with a broad remit of activities including marketing, publicity, PR, publications, alumni relations as well as fundraising and income generation.

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Having reached our target and, with matched government funding, an extensive building programme was completed.

Over £3 million was spent on improving facilities at the school – creating a new science centre, renovating the vacated building, refurbishing the school’s assembly hall, remodelling classrooms and upgrading rugby and cricket pitches. In addition, the generosity of donors allowed us to fund a staff sabbatical programme, establish a fund to provide financial help to families for the costs of extra-curricular activities and fund an annual travel award to help A level language students in their studies.

Three years ago, we were delighted to be chosen as one of the first state boarding schools to receive government funding to improve boarding facilities. £1.25 million was allocated towards the development of a new boarding house. The new School House opened its doors in spring 2008, replacing some very antiquated boarding accommodation and providing boarding facilities to compare with any in the country.

Work then began on creating an ambitious development programme for the whole school. With the consulting expertise of Arups Architects, a master plan was created to develop the school over the next century. Several months work culminated in our Plan for Renewal, launched in 2009 and combining educational philosophy with structures for finance and building redevelopment. Since the launch of the campaign, we have raised just under £1 million. We hope to break through our first million milestone very shortly.

The first phase of the plan is under way. With a combination of government funding, bank loan and donations, a new building is being constructed to provide state of the art facilities for

Old School House opened in 1851 providing a home for boarders for over 150 years.

Boys are helped by the Lune Scholarship Fund enabling them to take part in trips and visits.

funding gap teaching food technology. The new building will also extend our dining and common room accommodation for both staff and boys.

As well as the building programme, we have identified other key elements in our Plan for Renewal which we consider to be important. Our innovative InspirUS programme of masterclasses for local primary school children provides opportunities for bright youngsters to take part in challenging and stimulating lessons hosted at LRGS. Funded purely by donations, this initiative aims to influence and hopefully change the mindset of the children who come to the sessions. It helps them to recognise that their abilities can grow and that they can make life-changing choices.

years. It is still fairly new in the state sector and is a challenging commitment for heads and governors to make. The assertion that state funding is inadequate is becoming increasingly apparent and a growing number of state schools are recognising the benefits that a development function can provide in adding value to the education of current and future pupils.

Three years ago, Unlike independent schools, it is we were delighted normal for development offices in the state sector to be selfto be chosen as one of funding with modest budgets the first state boarding and resources. Capital projects inevitably have to take advantage schools to receive government of government initiatives. funding to improve boarding There is no regular fee income to fund or help plan for them. facilities. ÂŁ1.25 million The majority of the fundraising income goes towards major capital was allocated towards the campaigns rather than bursaries development of a or scholarships. At LRGS, as in most state schools, there are limited new boarding opportunities to find funds to undertake Being a state school, education at LRGS development and opportunities to expand house. is free. However, for some families the costs of school uniform and funding extra-curricular activities are a challenge. Thanks to the generosity of a former pupil, the Lune Scholarship Fund was established to help boys take full advantage of all that there is to offer at the school.

other income streams are limited. Generally, though not always the case, the alumni and parent base is not as affluent as in the independent sector. However, there is a wealth of appreciation, goodwill and gratitude from both groups for the outstanding educational experience that they receive from a non-fee-paying school.

Development in the independent sector is well established and has successfully been augmenting fee income for several The Magazine of the Boarding Schools’ Association BOARDING SCHOOL • 17

The journey to great leadership Frances King, Headmistress of Roedean, explores the keys to successful leadership and concludes that boarding, with its imperative for forging successful relationships, is the ideal environment in which to learn to “know thyself”.

Roedean was established 125 years ago and today educates 400 girls from 11 – 18 years in a stunning 45acre coastal setting overlooking the English Channel just on the outskirts of Brighton. Approximately 75% of the girls are full boarders.

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Browsing the airport bookshop at Heathrow early one morning this spring, I was struck by how many books there are on leadership. These were books with catchy titles, attractive covers and big promises. It seemed I could be a great leader by the time I landed in Frankfurt!

However, the route to inspiring leadership requires more than a few quick fixes. School headship is a life’s vocation.

Vocation may not be a word that one immediately associates with leadership, but it is appropriate. The word portrays the focus and commitment required in such a role. As heads, we appreciate that leaders oversee the operational side of running a school. But more personally challenging is the role of shaping and sustaining the community.

A head must identify the school’s direction and shape the moral character, ethos and values which are essential as it moves forward. She must also support the nature of the community itself.

Understand yourself first The theme of leadership as vocation was explored in the school context at the second annual Roedean Lecture last autumn: a number of the ideas described here were stimulated by this presentation .

The guest speaker, Professor John West-Burnham, an independent teacher, writer and consultant in leadership development and Professor of Educational Leadership at St Mary’s University College, Twickenham, inspired and challenged the heads and deputies in the audience to see their crucial role as a ‘calling’. Through this focus, he wanted people to understand the aspect of leadership that draws on the individual’s sense of purpose and how this is finds expression through their work.

Leadership as vocation calls on the individual to balance work with reflection; the hands-on challenges faced by leaders test and clarify one’s sense of purpose whilst time spent thinking over these experiences should lead to a greater understanding of both oneself and of others.

Dr Peter Senge of the MIT Sloan School of Management was quoted in order to provoke thought on how vocation is developed. Senge states that: “If you want to be a leader, you have to be a real human being. You must recognise the true meaning of life before you can become a great leader. You must understand yourself first.”

Lively discussion followed this bold statement as delegates shared their response to, and interpretation of, Senge’s challenge. We recognised that such words are not, indeed, new: the Delphic oracle beloved of Socrates and Plato instructed the enquirer to “know thyself” and many words have been written since the ancient Greeks to explore such a statement.

The route to self knowledge is not an easy one and such a journey might seem a little daunting to someone still a little unsure if headship is for them!

Leadership as vocation calls on the individual to balance work with reflection

Life in boarding – life in community My own response to Senge’s challenge arises from my years of experience working in the boarding environment.

I believe that living in community offers an ideal opportunity for you to learn about yourself. For me the “real human being”, the model to which we are to aspire, is forged through relationships with others.

The day to day business of living successfully with other people makes great demands on all. If you are able to negotiate your way through these day by day and reflect on both the the ups and downs of such relationships you will make significant progress on the journey towards self knowledge.

Having worked in boarding for the last eleven years I believe that there is much about our schools which help to develop the full person – for students, and the staff too.

Central to my understanding about the school I run is that we are a community; as such, every individual plays a part in the life and well being of this group entity. The values which are held central to my school are those which lie at the heart of a thoughtful community: • Fairness and honesty • Respect and tolerance • Compassion and forgiveness We aim to enact these values in our dealings with others and, through the myriad encounters that take place every day, create a community in which every person can flourish and grow towards becoming “real human beings”.

The Magazine of the Boarding Schools’ Association BOARDING SCHOOL • 19

The journey to great leadership continued...

Those who opt to live in such communities have made a lifestyle decision. This choice has an impact on their own personal development and, in my view, enhances it.

We are integral members of our boarding community and we too learn much more about ourselves through the ups and downs of our relationships with both pupils and staff.

Leaders of communities Leaders of any communities must be sensitive to relationships; those responsible for a boarding community need to develop a particularly strong awareness of interpersonal skills and of their role as stewards of the community.

Find, included in their repertoire, the ability to listen; to empathise with others and to accept those who may be very different from yourself. Intuition and awareness about others and how they may behave help you to be able to read situations sensitively.

As a leader the individual needs to be able to work both at a one to one level, but also with the community as a whole: the leader dreams dreams and shapes individuals together into a group through her words and her vision.

Understand yourself in community How does this work in practice for the boarding pupil? Life in our schools is in community. From sharing a bedroom to meals taken together, evening activities and weekend sports matches, students are around each other most of the time.

The opportunities that arise in such an environment for youngsters to learn about themselves are significant. These vary from the skills of conflict resolution within a dormitory when friends fall out, to the teamwork required to draw together a house drama production.

The insight into other people is further extended when students live with those from other countries and learn what is held in common and what is not.

Such a life is different from that of the pupil attending day school who, whilst she might share many of these experiences, does not have to negotiate her way through them day by day without parental support and direction.

Boarders develop independence and learn to manage for themselves the intricacies of human interaction. With the self knowledge that comes from growing up in this world, boarding schools should, by such a definition, be the breeding ground for the next generation of leaders.

We are examples of leadership To what extent does this impact on those who work in and run boarding schools? We too are very much part of this interactive community.

We help to shape, direct and guide our young people in the ways of the world. The management of the friendship incident, the camaraderie which develops during the weekend camping expedition which we staff, the late night chats between housemistress and pupil which put the world to rights and reinforce the importance of human interaction in managing loneliness and stress – all of these in fact shape not just the young people, but the adults too.

20 • BOARDING SCHOOL The Magazine of the Boarding Schools’ Association

We help to shape, direct and guide our young people in the ways of the world.

She draws people with her, healing rifts and divisions and making the people one. She holds them together in difficult times and encourages laughter and joy at times of celebration.

She weaves together the stories of the community, binding together the past, the present and the hopes for the future.

Such a role is demanding; it tests your understanding about other people and how they behave. It requires creative and nimble responses to ever changing situations; it requires patience, energy and humility. You need to both understand other people and to understand yourself, and through such a role, you learn more about other people and more about yourself. The two are inextricably linked.

Time away The wise leader is able to step outside the community and find refreshment from other people or activities. She will take time to listen to music, watch films, read books and poetry which both take her out of herself, but also give her a chance to reflect further on human nature.

She will be able to step back from the intensity of her own community and be able to see it from a distance with fresh eyes and renewed energy.

The skills of leadership are not honed through reading a few chapters in the latest book on the subject picked up at an airport; although it might make a flight pass more quickly.

My view is that, through our boarding school environments, we can all learn, both student and adult alike, what it is to be truly human, and as Dr Senge argues, develop the potential to become great leaders.

The ‘British Music Experience’ at the London O2 Centre Boarding schools are always on the lookout for new and stimulating activities for the weekend, so when the ‘British Music Experience’ at the London O2 Centre was offered as an outing for the boarders of St Teresa’s School in Surrey, it was no surprise that girls of all ages signed up and were raring to go. They signed up expecting to learn new things about British music history and to listen to all kinds of music including their favourite bands and artists. They were also intrigued to experience the 02 centre in all its glory.

At the 02 ‘bubble’ where the exhibition is situated, we had a little difficulty with our tickets, which appeared to be dated for the wrong day, but helpful staff sorted it out and explained the novel uses the tickets could be put to within the exhibition. The girls thought that being able to save on their ticket recordings or dances that they had created in the exhibition and be able to see them at home was a great idea. It meant they could show their friends back at school who had missed out on the chance of coming on the outing.

playing real drums and electric guitars.

Some felt that the hall was too small for big groups and others were disappointed that they couldn’t take any photographs inside; some of the overseas boarders didn’t find the interactive map of the UK particularly clear or helpful.

‘It’s amazing and definitely worth visiting’

Once inside the exhibition we had some further difficulty getting the worksheets we had expected for the girls to fill in at the exhibition. A few telephone calls later they finally managed to find the worksheets and we were able to let the girls enjoy the exhibition in their own time.

The exhibition itself was a lot smaller than we had expected but there was plenty of information and interactive displays.

These were easy to use and the girls commented that the narration was loud and clear, the instructions were really clear, the touch screens were easy to control and they were all interesting. The girls’ favourite part of the exhibition was the ‘Dance the Decades’ section: they said that it was really fun and that they couldn’t wait to see it at home using their ticket to download it. They also enjoyed the ‘Gibson Interactive Studio’ where they could record themselves

Original articles on boarding issues are always welcome. If you have a story please contact:

We were particularly interested to see how the girls had found the worksheets, as we were aware that they were given to us as a trial. The girls seemed to be fairly positive about the worksheets; they were easy to understand and helpful and helped them familiarise themselves with the venue.

Actually, the boarding staff found the worksheet questions quite difficult; you really had to think about the answers, not just easily found on interactive boards or displays as at other venues for other educational visits. Great experience but probably not suitable for younger aged children.

On the journey home the girls were very positive; one said: “You can experience using different kinds of instruments and you will get to know the music history of the UK. It’s really worth going.” Others added: ‘It’s amazing and definitely worth visiting’ and ‘It’s a great place to go if you are a music lover.’

The girls enjoyed their day and that their high expectations of the exhibition were met.

BOARDING SCHOOL

The Editor Boarding Schools’ Association Grosvenor Gardens House 35-37 Grosvenor Gardens London SW1W 0BS Telephone 020 7798 1580 Fax 020 7798 1581 Email bsa@boarding.org.uk www.boarding.org.uk

The magazine of the

Boarding Schools’ Assoc

iation

Dancing to a different school tune

The deadline for the next edition of Boarding School (Issue No.34) is 28 August 2011 and should be sent to the Editor at the above address.

Boarding dynasties

Seven steps to boost prep school boarding History in the house • An American education Numbe r 33 • Spring Schools’

The Magazine of the Boarding

2011 •1

Association BOARDING SCHOOL

The Magazine of the Boarding Schools’ Association BOARDING SCHOOL • 21

Boarding House History

Twenty-First Century boarding schools are, as often as not, accommodated in buildings which originally had very different uses. From castles to barns and from monasteries to hospitals, much of the history of the last millennium can be traced through today’s dormitories and common rooms. In the first of a series, we feature some of them.

St Donat’s Castle dates back to the 12th century and had a number of notable owners, including William Randolph Hearst the very successful American magazine mogul. Antonin Besse purchased the castle and donated it to the governing body of Atlantic College which was founded in 1962 by German educationalist Kurt Hahn. Since its opening, over 7500 students from over 100 countries have benefited from the inspiring and innovative educational experience promoted at Atlantic College.

Possibly one of the most famous school boarding houses in the world, Round Square is one of Gordonstoun’s nine boarding houses and is home currently to 60 boys aged from 13 to 18. Its fascinating history is a curious combination of fact and fiction.

A square is a common Scottish name for a farmstead or stable building. Round Square was built about 1670.

According to legend, Sir Robert Gordon built his stables in the shape of a circle so that the devil, to whom he had reputedly sold his soul in exchange for knowledge, could not catch him in a corner. In fact, Sir Robert was actually an expert and learned mechanic, the designer of an efficient pump for the British Navy. It is more likely that the architectural influences of Italy, passed on to Sir Robert whilst a student at Padua, ‘shaped’ the Round Square.

In 1934, Kurt Hahn, taking refuge from Nazism, founded his school in Gordonstoun House and the Round Square. Used first to stable students’ horses, it has been gradually restored for use as residential and classroom accommodation. It was here, too, that seven headmasters, all committed followers of Hahn’s ideals, met with him in 1967 and adopted the name Round Square for the world-wide association which now numbers more than fifty schools.

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Dover College, founded in 1871, occupies the site and some of the buildings of the Priory of St Martin which was founded in 1120. The Refectory is the oldest Refectory still in use in the UK. The Monks used to have their meals there, just as our day and boarding pupils do today. The Priory Guest House was used as a barn after the dissolution of the monastery in 1535, before being restored and consecrated as the Dover College chapel. The 12th Century gatehouse, was in a considerable state of decay before being renovated and brought into use by the school within a few years of its foundation.

St. Martin’s Ampleforth Prep School is situated in Gilling Castle, with senior boy boarders resident on the top floor of the original castle. Thomas de Etton built, in the second half of the 14th century, the fortified manor house whose basement still forms the core of the present building. It was rebuilt in the late sixteenth century by Sir William Fairfax, who also added a staircase turret and a bay window and was responsible for the Great Chamber, completed in 1585. Remodelled again in the 18th century, this work has been attributed to Vanbrugh but was more probably by James Gibbs, the architect of St. Martins in the Fields and of the Radcliffe Camera, Oxford. The castle came into the possession of Ampleforth Abbey in 1929, whose Benedictine monks had settled across the valley thanks to the generosity of Lady Anne Fairfax, chatelaine of Gilling, when they were expelled from France during the Revolution.

The Magazine of the Boarding Schools’ Association BOARDING SCHOOL • 23

Boarding House History continued...

Of the twelve boarding houses at the King’s School, Canterbury, only six were purpose-built – between the 1860s and 2007. The other six houses formerly had a variety of uses within the precincts of the two main ecclesiastical establishments in Canterbury: the Cathedral and St Augustine’s Abbey. Meister Omers (right above) probably originated as part of the monastic buildings of the 13th century, substantially rebuilt for Cardinal Beaufort in the 1430s and 1440s. Edward IV held a Parliament here in 1470, Cardinal Coligny died here in suspicious circumstances in 1568, and the arms of Queen Elizabeth in the hall mark her visit in 1573. For nearly 400 years after the Reformation it was a canon’s house, and it became a boarding house in 1936.

Linacre (right) was originally the 12th century Prior’s chambers. After various modifications it became a canon’s house and was substantially re-modelled in the 1740s. Canon William Nelson, brother of the Admiral, was the most notable resident; Lady Hamilton certainly visited and is said to have danced on a table here! Bailey House (left above) is partly within what was the 14th century Cemetery Gate to the Abbey. The School took over this site in 1976.

Evans House is the oldest of Sedbergh School’s eight boarding ‘houses’.

Thought to date from around 1750 the attractive facade gives few clues to the wide variety of uses the building has seen. Before being home to Jock Campbell VC and England Rugby International Will Greenwood during their school days, the building was used as a bank, inn and the garage for the town fire engine. It is likely that the first official school boarders would have arrived here in 1800, among them the sons of poet William Wordsworth, one of whom immortalised his time at Sedbergh by carving his name in the panelling of the old School building.

Many of the facilities still used by the boys today date from the early twentieth century. The dining room has remained virtually unchanged for over a hundred years.

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Most of the boarders at Lavant House have their rooms at the very top of a building that has been in existence for nearly three hundred years.

The oldest part of the house dates from the early eighteenth century but was greatly altered following the purchase of the house by the Third Duke of Richmond in 1791. The reworked house was left, for life, to Henriette Anne Le Clerc, the illegitimate daughter of the Third Duke, after his death in 1806, who was described by the papers of the time as ‘a lady of fashion’. The rooms now inhabited by the boarders (below) are, in the main, those that were inhabited

by Henriette’s servants although a few of the senior boarders use rooms that would had been the main bedchambers when she lived there.

After several owners, in 1952 the house was sold to Commander and Mrs. Green who founded Lavant House School.

Park House at Lord Wandsworth College, currently a girls’ boarding house, started its life as a much more utilitarian structure. In the early days of the school’s history pupils worked on the farm as well as at their lessons. The nineteenth century barn was used for storing hay and animals in the winter months and the picture (right) shows a couple of pupils taking part in their farming activity. In 1951 the barn had its first conversion to provide prep space, changing rooms and recreational facilities for Sutton House, one of the boys’ boarding houses, and it remained this way until 1999 when it underwent a third transformation to become the focal building of a new girls’ boarding house.

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Boarding House History continued...

Fleeing Napoleon in 1794, the Jesuit school founded in 1593 for the education of English Catholic boys, was offered the derelict and decayed mansion of Stonyhurst Hall in Lancashire as a temporary refuge until such time as it was safe to return to the continent.

The building and estate had been inherited through marriage by the Weld family of Lulworth in Dorset.

The head of the Weld family was a former pupil of the school at St Omer, and his sons were being educated at the school in Liège.

Building of the original seventeenth century mansion was abandoned, because of crippling fines imposed on the Catholic family, prompting Oliver Cromwell, during his overnight stay in August 1648 on the eve of decisive victory at the Battle of Preston, to declare that it was the ‘finest half-house he had seen’.

The asymmetry of the unfinished house is demonstrated in a watercolour of the old West Front

by Turner (right above), painted shortly after the building became a school.

The College has since become vastly expanded and the second floor of the original house is now fully occupied by the study bedrooms of some of the College’s Sixth Form girls. One is equipped with a still-accessible priest’s hiding place, a legacy from the persecution that prevailed when the mansion was being built.

The manor house which is now largely the boys’ boarding accommodation for Winchester House prep school has a past which can be traced back to the Magna Carta; the rebel barons met in the manor house in May 1215 prior to the signing of the Magna Carta. The manor house and estate then became the property of the Egerton family and from 1847 until 1915 remained a hunting lodge. It then had a brief period as a girls school (St Edith’s); eventually Winchester House moved from Kent to Brackley towards the end of the First World War to escape the threat of Zeppelin attacks.

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The original site of Slindon House was the medieval residence of the Archbishops of Canterbury. The present Tudor structure, owned by the Kempes in 16th and 17th Centuries, passed to the Earls of Newburgh in the 18th and 19th Century when it was a bolt hole for Roman Catholics. Indeed, there was a secret chapel/ priests hole on site.

St Leonards, Fife, widely believed to have been the inspiration for Malory Towers, was founded in 1877 and contains many buildings of historical significance, including Queen Mary’s Library, which was used as a preferred place of lodging by Mary Queen of Scots - her bedroom is still on display.

The School is bounded by the medieval walls of the former St Andrews Abbey, and there is speculation that the grounds may at one point have included a nine hole golf course designed by Old Tom Morris.

Next issue: Literary and other historical associations The Magazine of the Boarding Schools’ Association BOARDING SCHOOL • 27

An American education BSA National Director HILARY MORIARTY was impressed by what she saw on visits to two US boarding schools.

Escorted round the vast campus of Phillips Exeter Academy on a freezing New Hampshire day in December, I was struck by the easy, bantering relationship which Dean of Students Dan Morrissey had with every single student we encountered. To a girl wearing a white fur hat with fake horns emerging from it, ‘Hey – love the lid!’ and in answer to a cheery, ‘How you doin’ Sir?’ an equally cheery, ‘I’m OK – I’m livin’ the dream!’

When I was invited to the American Boarding Schools annual conference in Baltimore in December 2010, I resolved to add to my trip visits to two American boarding schools. One would be Phillips Exeter Academy, which I had heard described by someone who should know as ‘Probably the best boarding school in the world,’ the other, very different, Tabor Academy in Marion, Massachusetts.

The visits were, you may say, an education.

Dan Morrissey’s rapport with students is in part due to his practice of knowing the names and faces of all 340 new pupils, selected from the 2,581 applicants in the year I visited, before they step foot in school. ‘We know in January who they will be – I have time!’ he asserts.

students self-discipline and a willingness to engage eagerly and energetically with both their peers and their instructors.

Dr Morissey told me that the school has the advantage of having used the tables for 80 years – they take some getting used to. Staff now applying to Phillips, for instance, do so knowing what the school expects, which is not that they will stand at the front of the class and deliver wisdom. Indeed, he referred to his own early days and how in an effort to get pupils to take responsibility for their own learning rather than waiting for him to deliver, he would sit with his back to the table. (Readers may be interested to know that Witley Jones, furniture maker and exhibitor at BSA conferences, displays photographs of a comparable product.)

One of the big differences in American schools appeared to be – perhaps unsurprisingly – money.

That kind of individual attention at the start is sustained in school by the class size, which is no more than 14. While small classes are commonplace in Britain for GCSE and A level classes, it is surely unusual for them to be that small for all classes. Class size is dictated by the table at which tuition takes place. Anthony Seldon, Master of Wellington College, has been inspired by the Harkness tables which the Phillips Exeter uses and which are an unusual product of that American phenomenon, endowment.

In 1930, philanthropist Edward Harkness asked that the school use a substantial donation he had made to transform classes from the kind in which he himself had been largely ignored in his school days to one in which students ‘could sit around a table with a teacher who would talk to them and instruct them by a sort of tutorial or conference method, where each student would feel encouraged to speak up.’ Since the arrival of the ‘Harkness tables’, this has been the principal mode of instruction. Learning at Exeter is a co-operative enterprise.

Classes are collaborative and contributions are expected; a cardinal sin for a Phillips student is to come to class ill-prepared and unable to contribute. The method requires from the 28 • BOARDING SCHOOL The Magazine of the Boarding Schools’ Association

Houses for boarders at Phillips were very like their English counterparts, though it was interesting to find that the school had had same-sex couples as houseparents from the mid 1990s – ‘I think we were ahead of the game there,’ said Dr Morrissey.

One of the big differences in American schools appeared to be – perhaps unsurprisingly – money. Phillips Exeter has had considerable financial benefit from an alumnus who, many years ago, was on the losing football team in the match with Phillips Andover in his final year, and swore he would make the Exeter academy the best, so that such defeats never happened again.

One building after another bore his name.

Much of what the school can supply for its pupils is a simple consequence of 62 per cent of its annual running costs coming from endowment and annual giving. In this country I have seen some fine school magazines; I have not yet encountered a weekly student newspaper, such as would be commonplace in universities. The office of ‘The Exonian’ was larger and better equipped than either of those I worked in at two universities. In the week of my visit, the latest edition of the broadsheet paper was eight pages long, with a six page ‘Exeter Life’ supplement.

A hot topic was a proposal to reduce the number of Saturday classes and extend the school year by two weeks. The level of student engagement in the proposals, and the paper’s coverage of them, were equally impressive.

Equally interesting was a piece asking plaintively why the school’s food over a parents’ visiting weekend should ‘transform

The theatre at Tabor Academy

Hilary Moriarty with Jay Strand, Principal of Tabor Academy

The Magazine of the Boarding Schools’ Association BOARDING SCHOOL • 29

An American education continued from institutional food to fine cuisine. . .we see this as a dishonest charade meant to convince visitors that our meals are significantly better than we make them out to be.’ The writer did say later that ‘The food, after all, is far from terrible. . .’ but she was very sure that making it better for visiting parents was expensive and unnecessary.

Tabor Academy is on the coast, specialises in marine biology, and does not have the reputation for extremely high academic standards on entry which Phillips Exeter has, though – as so often the case in British boarding schools – its students achieve excellent exit grades. Indeed, its philosophy is clear about wanting to help pupils of all abilities achieve their potential.

in boats, competing in English rowing competitions as well as those in the US. British schools can be very proud of their sports facilities, but few will have an ice hockey rink. Not only is this a great extra sport for the curriculum, it can also help with college applications: a skilled ice hockey goalie is a real prize for a top flight university. I lost count of the basketball courts and squash courts available to students, and the chapel would have served a small town and the theatre was better appointed than many in our major towns.

British schools can be very proud of their sports facilities, but few will have an ice hockey rink.

Fund raising at Tabor has bought them a marine centre complete with sea-water being pumped in to feed the marine creatures which floated in floor to ceiling tanks in the halls rather like the inhabitants of a deep sea nightmare – fish tanks I can take; jelly fish a foot long are another, no matter how decorative. Here in several laboratories, pupils study nautical science and oceanography, and also how to be a marine pilot, a talent which comes in handy when they get their turn on the school’s schooner, Tabor Boy, which is regularly crewed by student research groups in the Caribbean. As a school right at the water’s edge, tucked in behind Cape Cod, Tabor is very big Tabor Ice Rink

Tabor Academy

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Tabor’s programme for its international students is particularly impressive – check out its website and perhaps gather some tips. Indeed, the school has had Japanese students since 1879, so it should be good at integrating international students who must feel the warmth of its welcome long before they arrive.

I am well aware that mine was the shortest of visits to the world of American boarding schools, that I saw only two schools, both on the East Coast, both superbly equipped for staff and students alike. And there is no doubt that none of what I saw would be possible without money of which most British schools can only dream. But I do believe the time will come when we have to follow the American pattern of seeing our alumni as benefactors and contributors to the future A Harkness table at Phillips Exeter

Tabor Chapel

of the schools which propelled them to successful lives. The American schools, like those in Australia, now compete with us in the burgeoning international market. Boarding schools in all three countries perceive international students as the most likely to swell our boarding numbers in the immediate future. They will come not so much because of the education we all offer as because attending one of our schools almost guarantees them a fluency in, and command of, the English language which will assure their future in the multi-national world of the twenty first century.

The library at Phillips Exeter

Britain may have the history, and it is terribly important that we should not let the future of boarding drift away to American and Australia.

But the American and Australian schools are increasingly attractive. If there has been in recent years an ‘arms race’ among rival schools in Britain, vying with each other to offer more of the ‘wow!’

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Barley House | Sopers Road | Cuffley | Hertfordshire | EN6 4RY t 01707 876555 | f 01707 872882 e info@bainesdesign.co.uk | w www.bainesdesign.co.uk The Magazine of the Boarding Schools’ Association BOARDING SCHOOL • 31

Co-educational houses: The next step in boarding?

Does the logic of co-education point to mixed boarding houses? James Jones, house parent in Bromsgrove School’s mixed Housman Hall, thinks it may.

There must have been a quizzical look on my face as I was interviewed for a position in Bromsgrove School’s co-educational boarding house because the one of the first things that the assistant head said was “I know it is unusual but it really works!”

That was my introduction to the idea of a sixth form boarding house which contained boys and girls and now, after two years in the house, of which I am now the housemaster, I find myself saying the same thing to people when I explain how our community at Housman Hall is organised. And, in all honesty, what I was told that day was not only true – I would go further: not only does it work but it represents the next step in boarding.

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The organisation of boarding houses is changing. A few years ago this magazine highlighted the increasing trend towards sixth form boarding houses; this development has continued as more and more schools are looking to create living arrangements where the sixth form can be given additional independence. As a result of my experience in Housman Hall at Bromsgrove School, where boys and girls can opt for a mixed boarding house, I am convinced that in the future more schools will look to the advantages this arrangement offers pupils when thinking about how to structure boarding accommodation.

A co-educational boarding house creates a community which reflects more completely the future world in which

pupils will move into after leaving school, one in which males and females live, work and socialise with each other without being separated by gender. This was the aim of Bromsgrove’s headmaster Christopher Edwards when he purchased the former Perry Hall Hotel in 2005. Having seen some pupils emerge from single-sex education and admit that they really did not know how to behave around the opposite sex, even at the age of 18, he thought the opportunity to create and environment in which male and female pupils would have the opportunity to interact with each other beyond the formal environment of the class room was too good to miss. It’s now six years since embarking on this venture and he is able to reflect on the period as a total success.

The are frequent reports of how young people can struggle to adapt to life at university and find themselves almost helpless when they enter the real world. Although there is some undue pessimism about the fate of young people trying to cope with the independence of living away from home, it is surely true that spending their sixth form years in a co-educational boarding house offers a unique pre-university experience for those who want it.

Boys and girls study, eat and socialise together in shared common space and in doing so avoid the staid clichés which are so often attached to the behaviour of boys and girls when separated by gender.

changing world. Living cheek by jowl with each other, spending time helping to maintain the house and organise events together, pupils in Housman Hall really gain an advantage in learning about the opposite sex. Talking to them confirms this: many admit that living surrounded by both boys and girls has given them increased confidence, allowed them to develop lasting friendships and has helped to moderate their behaviour in a way they may not have done in a single-sex house. The advantages they identify are, in the main, precisely those which the school hoped would be achieved by setting up the house, highlighting the feeling that they are being introduced gently into the “real” world within the comfort and security of being cared for.

Although our experience of establishing a co-ed house has been overwhelmingly positive, a decision to structure boarding in this way does involve tackling certain questions and issues. However, far from being insurmountable, properly approached they again provide another opportunity in furthering the social and emotional development of young adults.

First, it goes without saying that the separation of sleeping, washing and Although our experience of establishing changing areas has to be maintained. a co-ed house has been overwhelmingly Here schools adopt a variety of techniques from coded and palm positive, a decision to structure boarding recognition doors to CCTV in areas in this way does involve tackling certain where the sexes divide. The layout questions and issues. and geography of the building can help greatly in this: at Housman the Managing a co-educational boarding two distinct wings, male and female, house is an eye-opening opportunity and must be one of the lead off in different directions helping to clearly define those most fulfilling jobs in education. The mix of the sexes helps to parts of the house to which one or the other of the sexes are create the family atmosphere which all boarding house parents not permitted access. hope to achieve. It is wonderful to see how open, friendly As important as these management strategies is the and accommodating they are in this environment. They have communication of expectations to pupils and parents. A golden to learn to live with a greater variety of interests and tastes, rule is made clear to pupils that you must never go on to the they have to share common space and learn to compromise corridor of pupils of the opposite sex, They are also made aware over issues such as what will be on the television, which house that these rules are there for their own protection and the events should be organised and how the house will celebrate maintenance of their community. In discussing these rules with special occasions. pupils one is struck by the maturity with which they appreciate It also helps to break down their own gender assumptions and them; not only are they accepted and understood but pupils preconceived ideas; the pool table, ever-present in boys’ houses have made it clear that they fully understand there can be but conspicuous by its absence in many girls’ houses, is used no other way to ensure that the community in which they equally by the male and female members of the house and turns thrive can be maintained. By involving them and discussing out to be a fantastic way for pupils to interact and bond. Small the importance of these rules, pupils in Housman are able to examples like this may appear minor differences in behaviour demonstrate their maturity and a co-operative approach to the but they all help to form young people who no longer see being management of their boarding house. a boy or a girl as the deciding factor in how they behave. These Despite the success of co-educational boarding at Housman skills and attributes are vital in the modern world and the Hall, Bromsgrove, which has pupils aged from seven to 18, still workforce which these young people will soon be entering. recognises the place of more traditional arrangements and for Proponents of co-education frequently point to the social skills most pupils the sexes are housed separately. Most important, and the personal and emotional development of pupils as its living in a mixed sex boarding house is recognised as a choice for major advantage over single-sex education. But even within a pupils who wish to experience a different way of life. Although co-educational school, the boarding house plays a particularly I was not here when the school took the brave decision to step important role in enhancing the education of young people. into this new venture, I am certainly glad they did. It certainly The classroom and the extra-curricular programme can only go has opened my eyes to a new aspect of boarding and one which so far in educating pupils in the life skills required in rapidlymay well be the future for other schools.

The Magazine of the Boarding Schools’ Association BOARDING SCHOOL • 33

New Boarding Developments

Sixth tense

PAUL SPENCER ELLIS, Headmaster of the Royal Alexandra and Albert School, recalls the nail-biting conclusion to the school’s project to add two brand new sixth form boarding houses.

“...two new sixth form boarding annexes that had just been completed at a cost of £3.4 million pounds.” But what stories and how many hours of work it conceals!”

The statement sounded so simple: “On November 10th, 2010 Nick Gibb, Schools Minister (pictured above with pupils), visited the School to address senior pupils and staff and formally to open the two new sixth form boarding annexes that had just been completed at a cost of £3.4 million pounds.” But what stories and how many hours of work it conceals!

In September 2007 our Ofsted boarding report pointed out what we already knew very well about Gatton Hall, our sixth form boarding house: “Clearly this is unsatisfactory given the age of the students”. At the same time, but coincidentally, the DCSF (as it was called then) launched the snappily titled “Standards and Diversity Capital Fund” with one “strand” of funding for capital costs for maintained boarding schools.

So far so lucky.

This state boarding school is centred on a Palladian mansion in Gatton Park, a 270 acre estate ornamented by three lakes and a serpentine which was Lancelot “Capability” Brown’s first contract for landscape work. In short a beautiful ..... planning permission nightmare.

Over the last few years we have done quite a bit of building, but this project was much larger and could also have a major visual impact as we are at the top of a hill and surrounded by National Trust land.

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Early 2008 flew by in a flurry of selecting architects – the “beauty contest” lasted a full day – and then preparing an initial presentation to the Council planning committee on the whole site and which parts would be protected and where developments were proposed.

There were four closing dates for bids - the ends of March, June, September and December 2008. March was going to be impossible as, once we had selected architects, we needed costings for the capital bid and they depended upon plans which were, in turn, dependant upon planning permission.

Heads may claim, in private, that they are not responsible for all the actions of their governors. The same is apparently true of senior planning officers and their planning committees. We have an unremarkable tree which the senior planning officer dismissed as unimportant. Being a cautious man, however, he then got the council’s tree expert in to look at it and take photos of it before recommending that it was not worth the protection which would have blocked planning permission for one of the two proposed new blocks. Then the planning committee undertook a site visit, fell collectively in love with the above-mentioned tree and scuppered plans for one of the two proposed new boarding blocks.

We hurriedly changed the application to place one of the new blocks in a location that our planning consultant said was bound to be turned down as it created a dreadful, huge intrusion in the landscape. It was accepted without a murmur.

The capital bid went in at the end of June and, most efficiently, we had a letter telling us we had been awarded £2.4 million in autumn 2008.

Going out to tender, examining and comparing the tenders received, clarifying details of each tender was an efficient and highly organised process which was partly derailed by the references received for the shortlisted contractors – inevitably the most competitive main contractor had poor references.

The weather in early 2009 was not kind to us and by the summer term we were six weeks behind – not great when one block is due for handover in mid-July and the other in midAugust. Meanwhile I was pleased as punch at having recruited increased boarding numbers enough so that we could not house all boarders without this extra accommodation....

A deal was stuck with the builders whereby they concentrated all their men on finishing Alexandra House for the start of term and the maintenance team finished moving the furniture into the house at lunchtime on Sunday prior to the arrival of boarders that afternoon.

That was the girls’ block in use, so what about the boys? I have heard boarding schools claim that their accommodation rivals some hotels. We went one better and The Reigate Manor Hotel – AA three star rated – became an extra boarding house for the first four weeks of term.

Our last Ofsted boarding inspection was on 17th September 2007, which meant that, if the three year cycle was observed....... But by the end of September we were out of the Reigate Manor Hotel and no sign of Ofsted.

And have we learned from this experience? Not sure really. We are about to submit an application for planning permission for another 46 boarding places for sixth formers.

The deadlines are tight but we expect boarding numbers to grow by 25 to 30 next September and the same again in September 2012 so we may need to talk to the Reigate Manor Hotel again !

Postscript: Our funding bid contained the following: The School currently has 50 Foundationers on free places funded by the School’s own charitable Foundation and other charitable trusts as well as a small number of children funded by Local Authorities.

The Board of Management of the School’s charitable trust has resolved that if boarding beds can be increased by 38 thus providing greater economies of scale, they will fund an increase in Foundationer places from 50 to 65 by September 2012.

I am happy to report that we are now up to 58 Foundationers and have interviewed another ten candidates to join us in September 2010.

The Magazine of the Boarding Schools’ Association BOARDING SCHOOL • 35

New Boarding Developments

Seaford College, near Petworth, has embraced the latest in new building techniques and technology in its quest to provide the perfect boarding house for the 21st century.

Flat-pack boarding as The innovative and eco-friendly boys’ boarding house, currently taking shape in a former Elizabethan walled garden at Seaford College, has been brought to the UK from Germany, courtesy of Chichester builders W. Stirland Ltd., who specialise in the energy-saving STREIF buildings.

Although more expensive at the outset, like all energysaving devices, running costs of the boarding house are expected to work out significantly less in the long term, after which cost savings will be apparent year on year.

The boarding house, comprising two linked boarding blocks will accommodate 120 pupils and eight members of staff, was purpose-made by STREIF GmbH, in their factory near Cologne, and brought to the UK on the back of 35 trucks.

Resembling some massive flat-pack furniture project, the workforce from Stirlands, together with experts from Germany, had the building assembled and looking virtually complete in just over three weeks!

This proved a particularly valuable benefit, having been delivered in October, when the UK found itself beset by blizzards and heavy snow just six weeks later.

Headmaster Toby Mullins explained: “The severe winter weather would have meant serious delays on a conventional build. However, the workmen were A wide range of able to continue inside the building, completing the woodwork, plastering, painting and environmental and all the finishing touches, until the ecological surveys were weather improved.

heating than a comparable, traditionally constructed building, resulting in significant long term energy savings for the College.

undertaken on site before W Stirland Ltd are specialists in working with STREIF, having planning consent was sought constructed a number of and the finished building buildings with them over the The two-winged two-storey boarding past two years, most recently, a will be completed in subtlyhouse cost £2.85m and will be ready for primary school in Tunbridge Wells occupation in April. toned materials in order – the first school ever to be built in the UK using this system.

The finished product will not look dissimilar to blend in with to traditionally built boarding houses, the W. Stirland director Shaun Stirland said: the landscape. difference with this being that it arrived in Britain “These buildings are highly sustainable “Once the temperature rose and the wind and rains abated, they were able to turn their attention to the exterior.”

in eight-metre lengths – “a bit like a large Lego house” – and will have taken considerably less time to complete.

The STREIF system is of a much higher quality than traditionallyconstructed buildings and significantly more sustainable in terms of the materials used. Because of the buildings’ thermal efficiency, an impressive 22% less energy will be required for 36 • BOARDING SCHOOL The Magazine of the Boarding Schools’ Association

and manufactured using high precision engineering. They are thermally more efficient than traditional construction methods and very robust.

They are also extremely quick to erect, enabling our clients to start using their new buildings much earlier than if the construction method was of masonry or some of the other offsite manufactured solutions.”

Seaford goes green Seaford College has been working with Stirlands for a number of years, as well as with the local authority, to ensure that the development is fully in keeping with the landscape of Lavington Park and the school’s energy-saving ethos.

A wide range of environmental and ecological surveys were undertaken on site before planning consent was sought and the finished building will be completed in subtlytoned materials in order to blend in with the landscape.

The boarding house is the latest in a long line of infrastructure investment by Seaford College. A state-of-the-art maths and science block were opened in 2005 followed by an attractive new music school a year later, created in the mansion’s former stable block. The College was under pressure to provide a new boys’ boarding house, as student numbers continued to increase.

Mr Mullins said: “We waited until we were sure we had exactly the right building which would serve the College well for many years to come. We have been gradually improving the College infrastructure but this is by far the most exciting project to date and something which is quite innovative in the UK. “I am confident we have made the right choice and that this new development will be a huge hit with the occupants! Our boarders are already buzzing with excitement at the prospect of moving in after Easter.”

Following completion of the boarding house, work will get underway on replacement of some of the school’s ageing staff houses and the creation of a new sports centre and indoor swimming pool.

Originally a private residence, the Mansion House at Lavington Park is in an area of outstanding natural beauty and has been home to the College since 1946.

For further information, visit www.seaford.org or www.stirland.co.uk

The Magazine of the Boarding Schools’ Association BOARDING SCHOOL • 37

New Boarding Developments

Sherborne International College expands its boarding

T he newly built house, which cost £1.5 million, is a part of plans to enrol more girls into the college

38 • BOARDING SCHOOL The Magazine of the Boarding Schools’ Association

Sherborne International College opened its fifth boarding house in January. The new house, designed to accommodate 22 girls, with a resident house mistress, and a resident assistant, increases the bed spaces at the school for girls by 50 per cent.

College principal Dr Christopher Greenfield, said: “Since 1977 the international college has been the gateway into the UK education system for large numbers of school children from overseas. The newly built house, which cost £1.5 million, is a part of our plans to enrol more girls into the college”.

Sherborne International College attracts boys and girls from all over the world who usually spend one or two years in its specialist environment. The syllabus offered at the college is almost identical to the syllabus offered for the appropriate age groups in traditional British schools, but it works in very small class groups (maximum eight), and all its teachers (of all subjects) also have to have an EFL qualification.

Each year around 120 students leave the International College to join traditional boarding schools, mainly in the south of England.

Distinguished old scholars include King Mswati III of Swaziland, the current Crown Prince of Qatar, Sheikh Thamin Al Thani, and Princess Marie Gabrielle of Luxemburg.

The house has been named “Mowat House”, in honour of Ralph and Diane Mowat who worked at the College between 1980 and 1997. Ralph was the principal, and his wife ran the summer and other short programmes at the college. Very sadly they died within three months of each other in 2008.

Diane Mowat

Ralph Mowat

The house has been built on the College’s Westcott campus, where there is already one house for girls, and another house for junior boys. A formal opening of the house is planned for June. It is hoped that members of the Mowats’ families will be able to be present.

The Magazine of the Boarding Schools’ Association BOARDING SCHOOL • 39

After being asked by some of her charges to choose names more manageable for their fellow-boarders, HELENE COMPAIN HOLT, housemistress and head of languages at Tettenhall College, Wolverhampton, reflects on the questions of identity the request raised.

What’s in a I often draw parallels between my first visit to Britain when I was 14 – put on a plane sobbing by my parents to attend a language course – and the new boarders who sometimes arrive in England for the first time. But I know that I had it easier.

Nothing can fully prepare a teenager for the cultural shock of arriving in Wolverhampton from Hanoi.

As much as we, as staff, are prepared to be sensitive to linguistic and cultural differences, most of us have never encountered the exhilarating, sometimes debilitating feeling of being thrown into an entirely new culture. New words, faces, foods, smells, places, noises and routine. After the German reunification, a friend of mine from East Berlin admitted to being more surprised by the new smells and noises of the West than by anything else.

So powerful is a name that when it is wrongly spelt or pronounced or worse if a teacher forgets a pupil’s name, the line of communication is broken.

When we leave all of that familiar landscape behind to pursue a new life in England, what remains is one’s first name. It defines us, it gives a sense of continuity like the one thing which has not changed from home to England. Certainly the accent is bound to differ, but overall it remains recognizable.

Try as I may, I cannot imagine arriving somewhere and not being able to read my name, or recognize it when I hear it, so, too often when some of my pupils do not answer their name, I cannot help

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but deplore their lack of social skills. So powerful is a name that when it is wrongly spelt or pronounced or worse if a teacher forgets a pupil’s name, the line of communication is broken.

Furthermore, choosing a new name symbolizes making a new start, it is the first step towards embracing another culture.

Trusting your housemistress to help you choose a name is like holding a hand towards them.

So I feel very privileged to be entrusted by a boarder to select a name for them. Many questions came to my mind when I had to find two English-sounding names for two new girls: do we keep the same initial, do we retain the Chinese or Vietnamese nature of the name? Do I try to find a name with a meaning based on the first impression I have of my new boarder? Could I suggest a name which has some link with their home country?

Should it have a religious connotation?

I had all those questions in mind when choosing the name Frederic to replace Phuc Nguyen Hoang and Lilly to replace

name?

Furthermore, choosing a new name symbolizes making a new start, it is the first step towards embracing another culture.

Tu Xun when they arrived from Vietnam. Lydia was chosen to replace Ruolan Tao which would have been unpronounceable for a non-Mandarin speaker.

The three of them seem happy, responding well to their new identity and sometimes they ask me: how did we choose that name, Miss?

The Magazine of the Boarding Schools’ Association BOARDING SCHOOL • 41

Learning to give a hoot

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“It’s very satisfying work, knowing you’ve trained a bird to feed, and owls are incredibly interesting birds – you learn something new every day”

At just over six months old, Raja is the youngest recruit to Lancaster Royal Grammar School, an all-boys state day and boarding school in Lancashire. He has made excellent progress since his arrival at the school, despite being kept outdoors in all weathers and fed on a diet of small animals...

Raja is a Bengal eagle owl who was hatched at the nearby Turbary Woods Owl and Bird Sanctuary. He is housed in a purpose-built aviary in the grounds of one of the school’s three boarding houses and is being hand-reared by 15-yearold boarder Ruaidhri Johnston (pictured). Having been born in captivity, Raja cannot be released into the wild. But Ruaidhri, with the help of fellow boarders and staff at the school, is doing a great job of looking after him and staff at the sanctuary offer continual support and advice. The boys and staff have adapted a communal garden to accommodate a flying field; they have trained Raja to fly ‘to the glove’ and continue to help him develop social skills.

Ruaidhri, a weekly boarder at School House, feeds and flies Raja during his lunch break. He said: “I’ve always been interested in birds. After I saw some owls at a show, I decided to get involved and to help out at the sanctuary at weekends and whenever I can. It’s very satisfying work, knowing you’ve trained a bird to feed, and owls are incredibly interesting birds – you learn something new every day”.

But Raja is not the only avian resident of School House. Their outdoor chicken coup is home to no fewer than 12 chickens, four turkeys and one duck. They have recently been joined by Colin the cockatiel, who was found on the school’s cricket field.

Despite requests to police and local press, Colin’s owners have not yet reclaimed him.

How has School House acquired so many birds? Jonny Millatt, Head of School House, explains: “When School House opened in 2008, we were keen to ensure that we made it as environmentally-friendly as possible. We had already installed solar panels to heat the showers and ground source heat pumps for under-floor heating. We decided to keep chickens as well, not only to give the boarders hands-on experience in animal care (they take it in turns to feed and water the hens) but to provide them with free-range eggs daily and to show them how we can generate less food waste in the boarding house, by feeding the chickens leftovers. A grant from the Get Green with Schools project funded not only the chicken coop and a webcam (which shows life in the chicken coop on a TV monitor in the boarding house) but paid for us to plant 100 indigenous trees in the grounds of the house.”

He goes on: “Since then, our bird collection has grown, with the arrival of Raja. His aviary was built thanks to a Green Partnership Award, which helps community groups, including schools, improve their local environment. These projects have brought the boys a wide range of interesting experiences in caring for wildlife and more importantly, have made them more aware of how to make our environment more sustainable for the future.”

The Magazine of the Boarding Schools’ Association BOARDING SCHOOL • 43

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03/08/2010 12:29

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