Sevenoaks School

Academic

(I)GCSE results: In 2015 over 94% of the GCSE, IGCSE and Sevenoaks School Certificate examinations taken by the 152 candidates were awarded A* or A grades. Over a third of the year-group gained ten A*s or more each, and 131 students gained 9 or more A* or A grades. All but seventeen results out of 1580 examinations were grade B or above. In Years 10 and 11, all students pursue the school's own certificated and UCAS-approved qualification in English Literature. IB results: In 2015 the average IB Diploma score at Sevenoaks School was 39.2 points (ten points above the world average). Thirteen students achieved the maximum 45 points, with 19 securing 44 points and another 22 securing 43 points.

Facilities

Three buildings were constructed for the school prior to the 20th century – Old School (formerly School House, which was built with the Almshouses in the early 18th century in the Palladian style and designed by Lord Burlington), the old Assembly Hall (1890) now part of the Swanzy Block, and the Cottage Block (late 19th century). Additional early buildings, previously private houses, include Park Grange (mid-19th century), Girls International House (c1700), Claridge House (18th century), Manor House (late 18th century) and Temple House (1884).

In the April 2010, a new 13-million pound performing arts centre, The Space, was opened on the school campus. The Space was designed by Tim Ronalds Architects with Price & Myers acting as consulting engineers and has won several awards: the Commercial & Public Access category in the 2010 Wood Awards, Best Education Building in the 2010 Brick Awards, and an RIBA Award (South East Region) in 2011. It was also nominated for Best Public Building award of the 2012 Kent Design Awards.

History

Founded in 1432 by William Sevenoke as a part of his last will and testament, the school was intended to give a classical education to boys from the town, free of church constrictions. Sevenoke's will also provided for almshouses for poor men and women. Sevenoaks School is one of the oldest lay foundations in England. Sevenoke was Mayor of London and, as a friend of Henry V, may have been influenced by the MP for Shropshire and King's pleader, David Holbache, who founded Oswestry in 1407. According to William Lambarde and Richard Johnson (Nine Worthies of London), Sevenoke was a foundling, whose decision to establish the school and almshouses may have been inspired by his early history.

In 1560, in response to a petition by Ralph Bosville and Sevenoaks parishioners, Elizabeth I issued letters patent incorporating the school, giving it the right to use her name, and changing its governance. A seal was issued bearing Bosville's initials and the motto Servire Deo Regnari Est. Ralph Bosville was Clerk of the Court of Wards and Liveries, a JP and owner of the Manor of Bradbourne near Sevenoaks, and under the conditions of the letters patent, he and his heirs were to serve on the governing body as long as they lived in Kent. He has been described as the school's 'second founder'. Supporting the letters patent, statues and ordinances were issued in 1574 and a private Act of Parliament passed in 1597. The school also received a number of bequests during the sixteenth century and during this period was brought to wider attention by William Lambarde's A Perambulation of Kent (1576).

The school is thought to have been initially housed in small buildings near the present site, before a school house was built. Rebuilding took place in 1631, under the supervision of Thomas Pett. It was again rebuilt in 1724, to the designs of Lord Burlington, a friend of the headmaster of the time, Elijah Fenton. Building work was completed in 1732. During this period the Master and scholars were housed outside the town.

The school remained small until the late 19th century. School records show that between 1716 and 1748, under the headmastership of the Revd Simpson, school numbers dropped from 'a great many scholars' to only four boys. Simpson resigned and was replaced by Edward Holme, a distant relative of Sir Richard Burton. By 1778 there were around 60 pupils, and the same is indicated in the School Inquiry Commission of 1868.

In 1884 the governors appointed Daniel Birkett as headmaster. It was Birkett's vision to elevate the school's status to that of a First Grade Classical School. He started this revolution, reducing the number of free places to the townfolk and expanding boarding. When he resigned in the 1890s the school had over 100 boys. Birkett's revolution was continued by George Heslop who increased the size to a peak of 134 boys, although numbers dropped towards the end of the First World War (during which 350 Old Sennockians enlisted). Geoffrey Garrod followed Heslop in 1919. In the same year, the headmaster's wife, Mrs Garrod, started a new school for younger boys; Sevenoaks Prep School started with six pupils in the school Cottage Block. An element of selection entered the admissions process in the early 1920s.

James Higgs-Walker succeeded Garrod in 1924. Higgs-Walker, or "Jimmy" as he was known by the boys, started a revolution at the school with the introduction of day houses, the expansion of school sports and extracurricular activities and the vast expansion of the school with the help of the school's greatest benefactor since the founder, Charles Plumptre Johnson (or C.P.J.), who served as a governor from 1913 to 1923 and chairman from 1923 to his death in 1938. Johnson donated many gifts to the school with his brother, Edward: *The Flagpole, 1924, *Thornhill, 1924 (Johnson's House), *Johnson's Hall, 1936 (Now Johnson's Library), *The Sanitorium, 1938, *Park Grange and the surrounding estate, 1946

Higgs-Walker led the school until 1956 when he was succeeded by L.C. (Kim) Taylor. Taylor's headship was something of a 'golden age', when the school became more prominent nationally through Taylor's introduction of a number of innovative teaching methodologies, "Mr. Taylor, the Headmaster,has built so successfully on the work of his predecessor that in the ten years he has been at Sevenoaks it has changed from an old-established minor public school ... into an experimental outpost of the Headmasters' Conference'.

Amongst Taylor's innovations were:

The Voluntary Service Unit. Pupils were engaged in a variety of activities outside the school: visiting the elderly, giving assistance to the disabled, working with the mentally handicapped in local institutions, hearing children read in local primary schools, etc.

The International Centre. This innovation made the school one of the first to actively seek pupils from overseas, for the sixth form years. The IC functioned as one of the school's several boarding houses, and included British as well as overseas students.

Predicament, Experience, Belief (PEB). Geography, History and Religious Studies were integrated into PEB, which stressed the relationships between environment, human history and the spiritual response; for example, the deserts of the Middle East might be studied, followed by the rise of Islam and the Arab Empire.

Mathematics. The school was a pioneer in the introduction of the 'The New Maths', an approach to teaching the subject which made it less abstract, and more engaging for pupils. The school adopted the textbooks and examination regime of the School Mathematics Project(SMP) which had been pioneered at a number of other private schools.

English. Traditional grammar, textual analysis, and the classical canon were dropped and replaced with teaching that focused on more everyday language sources, contemporary literature and creative writing.

Art. A focus on contemporary art, which taught through a series of themed projects aimed at allowing the expression of creativity. The traditional systematic teaching of drawing skills was dropped, although new skills added for those who chose to specialise could work in ceramics and silk-screen printing.

Technology. The Technical Activities Centre was the 'jewel in the crown'; the most genuinely innovative of Taylor's projects, getting the school numerous television appearances for the boys' inventions during the 1960s. A series of technical skills courses were offered in mechanics and electronics; those who completed these could then go on to construct their own machines. An after-school club (Vista) enabled boys to experiment with constructing a wide variety of devices, including early computational devices.

Wednesday Eight. The final period of every Wednesday was set aside for the sixth form to attend lectures, usually with a current affairs theme. Run by Casey McCann, a flamboyant teacher of economics, a remarkable number of public figures visited the school and were often rigorously grilled. They included trade union leaders such as Ray Buckton (ASLEF), Hugh Scanlon (AEU), boxer Henry Cooper and astronomer Patrick Moore.

In 1968 Taylor was succeeded by Michael Hinton who was himself succeeded by Alan Tammadge in 1971.

In 1976, the school first admitted girls and moved from begin a single-sex school to a co-educational one.

In literature

Notable students and alumni

Former pupils are known as "Old Sennockians".

Royalty

Other