Sherfield School

Sherfield School
Motto "Ad Vitam Paramus"
Established 2004 (2004)
Type Independent day & boarding
Head Master Nick Brain
Location Sherfield on Loddon
Hampshire
RG27 0HU
England
DfE URN 134769 Tables
Gender Coeducational
Ages 3 months–18 years
Website School website

Sherfield School is a coeducational independent day & boarding school, with nursery, pre-prep, prep and senior departments serving pupils aged 3 months to 18 years. The school is located at old Sherfield Manor in Sherfield on Loddon in the English county of Hampshire and set in 76 acres of parkland. It is a school of over 400 pupils which offers day education as well as weekly and flexible boarding and was founded in 2004 by GEMS Education owned by Indian billionaire Sunny Varkey.

Until 2003 the site was the location of the North Foreland Lodge girls boarding school, founded in 1909;[1] and settled at old Sherfield Manor in 1947.

Sherfield School - Buckfield House

History

The Sherfield Manor House site has a long history stretching back to the 12th Century AD and the medieval period. In the early 12th century it was part of the manor of Odiham, but was granted by Henry II to his Marshall, William FitzAdelm sometime prior to 1167 AD.[2] This created the manor of Sherfield Upon Loddon; it is assumed that William Fitz Aldelm built the first manor house subsequently.[2]

For the next several hundred years, the manor of Sherfield Upon Loddon passed between various noble families (including the Marquis of Winchester and later the Duke of Wellington).[3] Archer Lodge was built on the Sherfield Manor house site in the 16th Century and was the residence of Paynton Pigott Stainsby Conant – a wealthy landowner.[2] Some 300 years later (in 1870) this was demolished by John Bramston Stane, who erected a new house in the regal Victorian style, called Buckfield, in the middle of a wood of the same name.[2] In 1880 the site was renamed to Sherfield Manor and by 1897 had been further encased and extended.[3]

The Liddell family became holders of the manor house in 1908. They were the last family in the manor house to host courts responsible for jurisdiction over minor offences, local administration and the regulation and customs of the Sherfield Upon Loddon manor.[3] Their son, John Aidan Liddell won both the Military Cross and the Victoria Cross for bravery. The latter was won as a pilot in the Royal Flying Corps, but its occasion was also to lead to Captain Liddell's death from the injuries he suffered.[3]

Educational History

In 1947 (following its use as a military hospital in the Second World War) the Sherfield Manor site was purchased and operated by North Foreland Lodge, a girls' boarding school previously based in North Foreland, Kent. The buildings on the site were then extended over the years to a size in excess of 125,000 sq ft (11,600 m2) with the site also including nine residential units.[3] The North Foreland Lodge girls' boarding school used this site as a school from 1947 until 2003. In 2001-2002 the prestigious Gordonstoun School of Scotland sought to acquire the school with the support of some of the North Foreland Lodge governors,[4] and the success of this bid was announced in March 2002, when it was revealed that a new prep school was to be built within the school grounds and that North Foreland would continue as a girls-only senior school. The Gems Education group relaunched the site as Sherfield School in September 2004, operating as a co-educational day school for children aged two to nineteen. The site has continued to be developed and refurbished by Gems Education and the new Sherfield School has become a successful independent school within Hampshire and the south-east of England. Recently, a boarding house was installed to provide proper facilities to students who board. This has promoted numerous international students from places such as China, Spain and Mexico to come to the school. The boarding house is known as Archer's Lodge.

List of Headteachers

  • James Murphy O'Connor (Headmaster), 2004 - 2009 (End of Contract) (Oxon) [5]
  • Dr. Pat Preedy (Executive Principal), 2004 - 2012 (End of Contract) (adjunct professor, John Curtin University) [6]
  • Richard Jaine (Head Master), 2012 - 2017 (End of Contract) (MA, PGCE) [7]
  • Nick Fisher (Head Master), 2017 - 2018 (BSc, PGCE, MSc, MA)
  • Christopher James-Roll, (Acting Head Master) 2018 - 2019
  • Nick Brain, (Head Master) 2018 -

References

  1. ↑ Journal of Education, vol. 31 (Oxford University Press, 1909), p. 176
  2. 1 2 3 4 Parishes: Sherfield-upon-Loddon, A History of the County of Hampshire: Volume 4 (1911), pp. 103–108. URL: http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=56759 Date accessed: 19 September 2012
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 Richard Garfield, Noble and rich history of Sherfield Manor, Basingstoke Gazette (26 March 2009). URL: http://www.basingstokegazette.co.uk/memories/4235680.Noble_and_rich_history_of_Sherfield_Manor/ Date accessed: 19 September 2012
  4. ↑ Wendy Wallace, 'Independents' Day' in The Times (London), issue 68291 dated 22 January 2005, pp. 30–31
  5. ↑ This Is Bristol, Tuesday, 22 September 2009. URL: http://www.thisisbristol.co.uk/Meet-heads-James-Murphy-O-Connor-Prior-Park-College-Bath/story-11272659-detail/story.html) Date accessed: 24 September 2012
  6. ↑ Emily Roberts, Heading off for a new challenge, Basingstoke Gazette, 15 March 2012. URL: http://www.basingstokegazette.co.uk/news/9591821.Heading_off_for_a_new_challenge___/ Date accessed: 24 September 2012
  7. ↑ Independent Schools Magazine, March 2012. URL: http://www.independentschoolsmagazine.co.uk/resources/March+Web.pdf. Date accessed: 24 September 2012

Coordinates: 51°18′32″N 1°1′26″W / 51.30889°N 1.02389°W / 51.30889; -1.02389

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