EDUCATION CORNER PODCAST
EDUCATION CORNER PODCAST INTERVIEW WITH HEAD
Mrs. Pippa Smithson FROM THE ROYAL SCHOOL, SURREY weekly and full-term boarding, as well as day. We all really like that combination. We think that the day pupils benefit from the slightly longer day, the extraacademic support, the activities after school. We are only 30 minutes from Haslemere, straight into London, so it doesn’t take long to get into the action! You currently have a project with the Prep School onto the same site as the Senior School by September 2023. Why have you decided to do this and what do you feel the benefits are going to be of having the whole school on site?
Mrs. Pippa Smithson speaks about their new Prep School building (which is on site with the Senior School), the advantages of being affiliated to the United Learning Group, preparing their children to be ‘future ready’ and how her role as an inspector for British Schools Overseas gives her a global appreciation of education. Could you tell us a little bit about The Royal School, Pippa?
The Royal School, Haslemere is a co-educational school. We are an all-through school, from Reception right through to Upper Sixth. Currently we are on two sites, but we will be on one site next September 2023. We have boarding and day students. We can sleep up to about 90 boarders, and we offer flexi, 3 4 | EDUCATION CHOICES MAGAZINE | AU T U M N 2 02 2
We are really looking forward to the whole school being on site, although we are an ‘all-through school’, being separate has meant that we have had to be incredibly organised to get the Prep and Senior School students together for things like leadership opportunities. In Year 7 everyone is quite excited to be in Senior School, but by Year 8 people can seem a little lost, so we think it is good to get the Prep School involved with them so that they have some leadership opportunities, making the transition from Prep School to Senior School smoother. We have also got people who teach in both sectors of the school. For example, our art specialist is very happy teaching across both of those sectors. From the perspective of the teaching, the expertise our Prep School gets is from teachers who teach in the Senior School up to A Level. These are two of the great gains that the school will get by becoming one. Stoatley Hall is a beautiful building, and I think that having a really inspiring surrounding makes all the difference to children’s learning. The fact that the building is slightly separate to the Senior School allows for easy collaboration, whilst also letting the Prep students feel that they are graduating into the Senior School when they move. Can you tell me a little bit more about the
