Sevenoaks School

The Sevenoaks School is an English, mixed and independent boarding school , located in the center of Sevenoaks , Kent , United Kingdom .

description

Founded in 1432, it is the oldest general education school in England. It is attended by almost 1,000 day and boarding school students between the ages of 11 and 18, around a third of whom are boarding school students. The students come from over 35 countries.

The school campus is a 40,468.5 m² site adjacent to Knole Park and is about half an hour from London. The number of girls and boys is balanced. The current headmistress is Katy Ricks.

As a visionary and innovative institution, it also enjoys an excellent reputation internationally. She is a leader in education and has been a pioneer for international students since the 1960s. Sevenoaks encourages its students to take advantage of all opportunities it offers. Despite the emphasis on internationality and innovation, it retains its strong ties to the local community and some of its historical traditions such as the Sevenoaks Festival or concerts during the lunch break. These traditions date back to the 1960s.

In 1999 it hit the headlines because it became the first significant school in England to convert almost entirely from the A-level to the International Baccalaureate (IB). She is a member of the G20 School group.

history

In 1432, William Sevenoke founded the school as part of his last will and testament. Classical education for boys from the city was intended, free from church institutions.

The school consisted of small buildings around the city (even outside the city in the 1730s) until a permanent school building was built in 1730 according to the plans of Lord Burlington, a friend of the then headmaster Elijah Fenton.

In 1884, James Birkett was hired as headmaster. Birkett's vision was to make Sevenoaks a first class school. He started his innovations by reducing the number of places for students from the city and expanding the boarding school. When he retired in the 1890s, the school had over 100 boys. His model was continued by George Heslop, who set the maximum number of 134 boys at the time. After him came GA Garrod. In 1919 Mrs. Garrod, the headmaster's wife, opened a new school for younger boys.

In 1924 James Higgs-Walker became the new headmaster. Higgs-Walker introduced day schools, expanded school sports and extracurricular activities and managed the enormous expansion of the school with the help of the best donor since its founder, Charles Plumptre Johnson, who served as a governor from 1913-1923 and president from 1923 to his Served death in 1938. Together with his brother Edward, he gave the school many gifts:

the flagpole (1924)
Thornhill House (1924) (now Johnson's House)
Johnson's Hall (1936) (now Johnson's Library)
the sanatorium (1938)
Park Grange and the surrounding estate (1946)

Higgs-Walker ran the school until he was replaced by LC Taylor in 1956.

Academic achievement

The school achieved excellent results particularly in the academic field. Thanks to the reassessment of the international baccalaureate by the UCAS , Sevenoaks is consistently at the top of the national school table. According to the Times table , it ranked 1st in the UK for A-Level and IB schools in 2007 with an average of 618.9 UCAS points per student. Even The Independent put the Sevenoaks School in 2004 based on UCAS points on the first place. The Financial Times placed her in 2nd place in their table with an FT score of 1.18. In 2008, nine students achieved the maximum number of 45 points in the IB. Overall, only 72 out of 35,000 students achieved this mark worldwide.

Facilities

The facilities are mostly modern and only three buildings were built before the 20th century - the "Old School House" (built in the early 18th century and supposedly designed by Lord Burlington), the "Old Gymnasium" and "Cottage Blocks" ( both late 19th century).

The school also has a comprehensive library (The Johnson Library) with over 25,000 books in the "Old Assembly Hall" from the 1930s, an athletics track, an indoor tennis center, an auditorium (The Aisher Hall) and a theater (Sackville Theater ).

On March 10, 2005, a £ 9 million sports center ("Sennocke Center") opened with three tennis courts, squash courts, a huge sports hall, swimming pool, dance studio, and fitness center and includes a climbing wall.

The main campus is close to the center of Sevenoaks, spanned by Tonbridge Road.

Residential houses

There are a total of seven residential buildings:

School House (1432 ), boys' house
Johnsons (1924) , boys house
Park Grange (1946) , Girls' House
International Center (1964) , boys' house
Girls 'International House (1983) , girls' house
Sennocke (1985) , Girls' House
Lambards , boys and girls house

Knole Run

Every January the school organizes the annual Knole Run, a 9.5 km cross-country run in the boarding school's park. School teams from all over England compete in this run, which is often carried out despite the mud and rain. The record holder is Ollie Freeman, an English triathlete who attended Tonbridge School until 2004.

The run became known as the school's unofficial off-road race. Participating schools come from all over the country, Scotland and occasionally from abroad such as Parma (Italy). There is also a Knole run for younger students, which usually takes place in early December.

Further leisure options

The school is also very well known in sailing circles. She is consistently one of the best teams in the world at school level, but she also often beats university teams. A sailing team from the school recently won the Rondar Shield for International Schools Team Racing and the English team competition.

The main sports for boys are rugby , soccer and cricket , but cross-country, hockey, athletics, tennis, swimming, golf and water polo are also offered.

In addition, there are opportunities for students to take part in a theater group, take lessons in numerous instruments or take part in art courses (film, photography, sculpture).