Sherborne Preparatory School


Sherborne Preparatory School is a non-selective coeducational preparatory school in the town of Sherborne, Dorset in southern England. It is not officially affiliated with Sherborne School, located just down the street, although they once shared the same campus and many boys transfer to the secondary school after finishing at the prep school. Pupils generally go on to other independent schools around the county, mainly the nearby Sherborne School and Sherborne Girls as well as other schools in South West England.

History

Sherborne Prep was founded in 1858 by Reverend A C Clapin, who was a housemaster at Sherborne School. The Headmaster Hugo Harper had asked him to establish a junior house at the school to educate younger boys. The school outgrew its premises over the next few decades. In 1885, it moved out to its own premises and became a fully independent preparatory school. It became coeducational during the 1970s, following a trend set by many previously single-sex independent schools. Until 1998, it was privately run before being turned over to a charitable trust.
Approximately half the leavers go on to Sherborne School and Sherborne Girls, and the prep school has very close ties with the senior schools. Other children go on to a very wide range of senior schools, including Eton, Winchester, Cheltenham Ladies, Radley, Marlborough, Bryanston, Canford.

Core values

The school has six core values: kindness, perseverance, awareness, generosity, honesty, and independence.

Nursery

Taking children from the age of 2 to 4 years old, the Nursery facility is located within the grounds of Sherborne Prep with sessions starting at 8.15am and finishing at 3.45 with an option to stay until 5 in the Pre-Prep facility.

Pre-Prep

From Reception to Year 2, children are taught a broad curriculum, including languages, music, IT, sport and swimming is taught by subject specialists. At Year 1 the children begin Inspire Maths, a Singapore approach to teaching Maths. Languages are taught using the communicative approach. Reception children also have lessons in conversational Italian.
All Pre-Prep children take part in some form of physical activity every day including aerobics, gymnastics, tennis, hockey, netball, rounders, football, tag rugby and athletics. In addition, there are a lunchtime clubs including dance and ballet, golf and tennis coaching.
Music specialists introduce the children to music theory and composition. In addition there are numerous music clubs, including choir, strings group and recorder club.
Extra-curricular clubs are offered both at lunch times and after school between 3.45pm and 5pm

Prep

From Year 3 to 8, Sherborne Prep is a stand-alone prep school but with links to Sherborne School and Sherborne Girls' School. Each year approximately 50% of our pupils go on to these two senior schools. Other children go on to other senior schools, which have included: Blundell's, Bryanston, Canford, Charterhouse, Cheltenham Ladies College, Clayesmore, Downside, Eton, Godolphin, King's Bruton, King's College Taunton, Kings Canterbury, Leweston, Marlborough, Milton Abbey, Monkton Combe, Oundle, Queen's College Taunton, Radley, Rugby, Taunton and Winchester.
Sherborne Prep is a non-selective school and is one of the leading independent schools in the South West with a 100% success record at Common Entrance and, on average, over 40% of pupils go on to a variety of senior schools with a scholarship or award. Scholarships may be academic, sport, music, art, drama or DT depending on the chosen school.

Boarding

Full, Weekly and Flexi Boarding is offered from Year 3 upwards. The boarding house is located within the centre of the school and is a co-ed facility with girls and boys sharing joint common rooms.

Music

Music is part of the curriculum lessons, which include music theory, a history of music, and biographies of renowned musicians and composers. There is a range of choirs, ensembles and Sherborne Prep provides most of the choristers for the Abbey Choir. Children who have reached Grade 5 or above can audition for the Joint Senior Schools Sinfonia

Facilities

The campus is made up of one main building containing the Prep Classrooms, an Art Room, ICT Suite, Assembly and Dining Hall, Music Rooms and Sports Hall. The Boarding House is contained within this building. Science and DT are in a separate building, as is the Pre-Prep and Nursery Facility. The grounds also contain a playground, pond dipping area, an Astro Turf, 2 x netball courts and a large sports field. For Rugby, Hockey and Rounders, Sherborne Prep also uses the Sherborne School pitches.

Literary figures

The school has a distinguished literary history, with a number of prominent writers attending the school, most notably John Cowper Powys and Louis MacNeice.

Houses

The school has four houses; Normans, Greeks, Trojans and Romans.

Historical abuse allegations

Sherborne Prep featured in an ITV documentary with broadcaster and journalist Alex Renton in February 2018. Three survivors of child abuse spoke about their experience of Robin Lindsay who practised abuse across three decades or more while headmaster at the school. The MP for West Dorset, Rt Hon Sir Oliver Letwin, has supported calls for an inquiry into the handling of the allegations by the police and authorities. In April 2018 Dorset's Police and Crime Commissioner ruled out an inquiry saying he did not believe a new inquiry would "further justice". A 1993 by Dorset Social Services was released by Dorset County Council in April 2018 following a Freedom of Information request by Somerset Live. The report confirmed that the Department for Education and police department had records regarding complaints about Lindsay's behaviour towards boarders in 1974, 1982, 1985 and 1986. The report raised questions regarding his suitability as headmaster, yet despite this Lindsay remained in post for another five years. A later report in 1997 said to be "damning in the extreme" was lost or destroyed. He was banned from teaching in 1998 by the Department for Education which found him to be a ‘fixated paedophile’.
A teacher at the school went to the police in 1985 to report allegations of abuse by Lindsay. He also approached the Independent Association of Preparatory Schools. But the chair at the time, Robin Peverett, did not assist, and according to reports in Devon Live the teacher was “warned off and threatened”. Peverett, headmaster of Dulwich Preparatory School until his retirement in 1990, later admitted nine counts of indecent assault on girls and a boy aged 11 to 13 between 1969 and 1978 and received an 18-month suspended sentence.
The School was approached by IISCA in November 2018 to confirm and provide information across a number of lines of inquiry under the Closed Schools Inquiry, which it did both willingly and openly. IISCA recognised that despite having the same name, that the School under investigation was owned by a proprietorial Headmaster, Mr Robin Lindsay, and is now closed. The current School, despite having the same name is a registered charity. It is a different organisation to that which existed prior to 1998: It is an entirely different legal, financial and governance entity. The Governing Board believe that it is important to be transparent and support the Inquiry with any information that it has. As a consequence, the School applied to be a core participant. Having done so, the Inquiry recognised that the School is a different entity to the one that existed when the allegations took place, and to date there has been no information that the School has been able to provide.
On 5 October 2018 it was announced by IICSA the Independent Inquiry into Child Sex Abuse, that Sherborne Prep would be one of the schools investigated within the Residential Schools Investigation.