Spotlight on a School

From marshmallows around the fire to theatre and painting, Sherborne Prep offers pupils a ‘happy place’, writes Richard Pyman.

Written for Independent Schools Management Plus Magazine.

“And all were as happy as happy can be With the Quangle Wangle Quee.” So sang Edward Lear.

As you all remember, the Quangle Wangle was lonely until his friends came to live on his hat. After that, all was amazing. If ever there was a further advertisement for society, or rather the perils of its enforced absence, the past eighteen months has offered it.

If you don’t agree, come to SPS School at eight o’clock one morning, and observe the tsunami of joy and positivity that skips through the gates. The children are rejoicing in each other’s company, thrilled that the normality of music and art and drama and sport have all miraculously returned. Thank heavens.

And happiness and gladness are the central themes of SPS. It’s off to a flying start by being in a beautiful place, the Abbey bells a stone’s throw away, the honey-coloured stone of Sherborne all around. It is nestled between Sherborne School and Sherborne Girls, a community which offers an exceptional range of challenge and fun at a very high level. But place is less important than people.

“The art lessons are filled with a creative buzz, a place where beauty can thrive.”

Let’s dive in and start with those who love art at SPS: if you had seen the exhibition put on by the students of the charismatic teacher Fernando Velazquez last summer, you would have been amazed, not just by the standard, but by the breadth of inclusion and enthusiasm. The art lessons are filled with a creative buzz, a place where beauty can thrive.

“For many of our students, expression in paint is their greatest joy,” says Fernando. As he does so, another child rushes up waving a picture of a landscape: “Mr V, Mr V,” they shout, probably unaware either of the extraordinary reputation of their teacher as a modern painter, or of the distinguished lineage of the name they have abbreviated! For some children, traditional learning, especially the emphasis on the written

word, is a chore, or, worse, a worry. Here, however, there is an exceptional learning support team. They don’t just do what every other wonderful professional in this critical area does — they look at the knot from every possible angle until they see how it may be undone.

“Learning support teachers look at the knot from every possible angle until they see how it may be undone.”

“We have had some fabulous joys,” says Briony Harris, head of learning support, “Children full of creative flair, with such interesting stories to tell, but unable to demonstrate it on paper. By finding the right toolkit to adequately express themselves, they have banished the frustration and thus many of them have gone on to shine at senior schools and into the great outside world. What a huge privilege it is to have played a part at such a critical time.” SPS is justifiably proud of its record with the highest academic attainers: over the past four years, thirty-one students have achieved academic scholarships. A wideranging enrichment programme is offered to all examinees, the focus being on the scholarship candidates in the early part of the year and the Common Entrance in the second. Early evenings or mornings will find year eight students relishing the challenge the exams offer, joining small groups in preparation. Head of humanities Janine Gates runs an inspiring course training highly analytical historians; the science labs are filled with ambition, fostering, among other things, a seemingly high percentage of aspiring medics.

“A veritable tented village is going up on the front lawn for the ‘Big Camp Out’” There is a very high percentage taking Latin from year six. “Over 50 per cent of our students go to Sherborne School or Sherborne Girls,” says Natalie Bone, the new head, “both of which are highly academically ambitious. Canford, King’s Bruton, Bryanston, Winchester, Cheltenham Ladies and Marlborough are also common destinations. We seek to prepare the children for the demanding academic regime these schools offer.”

As I write this, a veritable tented village is going up on the front lawn in preparation for the “Big Camp Out”. Dan Chiappa-Patching, head of boarding, lays on an understandably hugely popular night for scores of children. They arrive in the late afternoon, pitch camp, have a barbecue supper, roast marshmallows round a fire, camp the night and wake up to a big breakfast. Dan’s incredible enthusiasm and tireless energy convey in foot high letters the key message: this is a time of happiness. “For the boarders, we seek to have a community like an extended family. At weekends, people are often mentally tired, so we switch off, walk the hills, have a hot chocolate and re-charge the batteries.” Dan is too modest to say that his own batteries seldom have the luxury of a re-charge, but his immense positivity is joy to all around.

In the aftermath of recent theatre-less times, exceptional actor and head of drama Vicki Green has six shows in the year ahead; the joy of being back on the stage is a blessing. She has directed some memorable performances in recent years, often in cahoots with the music department, led with panache by Yvonne Fawbert.

“I love the children to take ownership of their performance, to feel that it is their triumph.”

Vicki is rightly proud of the inclusive nature she has created, every child in the school performs in a production, each year. Time in the school year is tight, with shows frequently being put together. This year Christmas Past, Christmas Present and Christmas Future will magically be conjured up in two evenings.

“I love the children to take ownership of their performance, to feel that it is their triumph,” says Vicki. Over the past three years, some Year 8 students have performed Shakespeare in the open air: a two hour Hamlet, with horses, was a high achievement for thirteen year olds, as was a Romeo and Juliet shot in lockdown in many beautiful gardens.

SPS is now part of the Sherborne School Group: “The chance to use some of the group theatres and performance spaces has already been transformative,” says Yvonne, whose multitudinous ensembles, trios, quartets, vocal groups, choirs and orchestras ensure that there is always fantastic music resounding round the school.

It is impossible to cover the ground comprehensively in so short a time; sport is managed with a wonderful emphasis on inclusion, the boys and girls playing together where possible. There have been some astonishing successes in girls’ hockey and the cricketers are in good hands with ex-England Test player Laura Harper on the staff.

“The joy at being back at full throttle outweighs by a distance the last lingerings of the pandemic’s constraints.”

The school has its own special yard game, “Four Square”, played from years three to eight in breaktimes. The pastoral side is meticulously managed by Annie Gent, living and promoting the school’s “Dragon Values”, with kindness at the centre. The school motto- “not for ourselves alone”- captures this, as does Joe Biden’s encouragement not to “show me an example of your power, but the power of your example”.

One of Annie’s fellow PSHE teachers came to the school after a successful career in both the army and business, another after a spell teaching in Africa. They bring a fabulously broad perspective.

Maybe you are beginning to see the picture: the school echoes with laughter and we certainly fill Kipling’s unforgiving minute with sixty-seconds’ worth of distance run. Natalie Bone, formerly head of Sidcot, former dressage international, inherits a powerful springboard as she takes over the reins. The joy at being back at full throttle outweighs by a distance the last lingerings of the pandemic’s constraints.

We are back together. Hooray. Edward Lear is right — home learning was far from gay. More fundamentally, the world is far from gay. A small school, however ambitious, cannot eclipse the fears of famine or war, or cool the planet back down. But it can, most certainly, hold these cares at bay for its students, and offer them a happy place in which they can have fun, and achieve their very best. That is what SPS does, and what it will continue to do.