EDUCATION CORNER PODCAST
EDUCATION CORNER PODCAST INTERVIEW WITH PRINCIPAL
Mr. Kevin Doble FROM BROOMWOOD, CLAPHAM
Mr. Kevin Doble speaks about the recent merge of the Broomwood schools enhancing cohesion and synergy for both the children and parents. He also discusses points of entry and the importance of children being allowed to play, make mistakes and develop resilience (alongside meeting academic standards) to be able to thrive at secondary school and flourish as young people. Please tell us a little about yourself and your career to date?
Thank you for having me on! I trained as a lawyer; I did a postgraduate degree in Business Management in Johannesburg, South Africa, and was thrust into the giddy world of banking, which was not for me. So, after having endured that for a small period of time, I was lured over to England to join a prep school and coach some hockey and cricket, which I thought would be a marvellous idea for six months before I went back into a “proper job”. That was about 30 years ago. I didn’t go back, and instead was dragged through a PGCE through the Roehampton Institute—which was absolutely brilliant—focusing on secondary English. Since 26 | EDUCATION CHOICES MAGAZINE | W I N T E R 2 02 2
then, I have worked predominantly in the south of England, almost exclusively in prep schools. I taught A Level English for a brief period of time. It has been one heck of a ride. All the schools I’ve worked at have been boarding schools, except for the two most recent ones, so I’m very much used to what I’d call the broader “prep school experience”, but certainly in the last two schools in which I’ve worked—Shrewsbury House, where I was head for 11 years, and subsequently, here, as Principal of the Broomwood group. The schools are as close as you’re likely to get to boarding schools, without beds. So, it has been quite an eclectic journey, but I have absolutely no regrets and am very much looking forward to each new day, which is probably likely to be as unpredictable as the previous one. What do you feel you have been able to contribute, from the experiences that you’ve had, to the Broomwood schools in your role as Principal?
One of the targets I was given by Katherine Colquhoun and Sir Malcom Colquhoun was to find
