Does your school give equal weight to non-academic subjects?

I am fortunate in that Sackville appreciates the importance of the creative arts in developing confidence and wellbeing. All students experience a wide range of Visual Arts, Drama, Music and Film making, both in time-tabled lessons and through extracurricular activities. My background as a professional actor, scriptwriter and film maker has been invaluable for developing the creative arts within school. I am also Director of The Curious Theatre Company which is based in Sackville’s ‘The Space’ studio theatre.

Are pupils encouraged to follow a creative career?

We encourage our students to believe that anything is possible in life and if they wish to pursue a career in the creative industries we give them our full support. Our recent careers fair had a number of alumni attending as exhibitors representing a broad range of occupations which included architectural model making, technical theatre, animation and professional music practitioners.

How does the school help to ‘broaden horizons’?

I firmly believe in exposing students to a broad range of artistic influences. We have an annual West End theatre trip and also host workshops by innovative performance companies. Each year we hold an Arts Week which embraces cross-curricular learning and culminates with a school production which this year will be an ecological piece staged outside in the school grounds; I am a great believer in utilising ‘found’ performance spaces.

What interesting careers have pupils gone on to follow?

We were delighted when former student, James Benmore, was guest of honour at our Prize Giving. James is the author of a series of novels based on Charles Dickens’ character ‘The Artful Dodger’. His third book, Dodger of the Revolution, will be published by Quercus on 22 September.

You may also like

Meet the Head

Christine Cunniffe, School Principal at LVS Ascot discusses her passion for inclusive education Tell us about LVS Ascot and why parents choose it for their youngsters. At LVS Ascot, we have a strong belief that every child can succeed. Our...

School’s Out For Summer

There’s no shortage of fun to be had during the holidays as we find out The Play’s the Thing Now in its 20th year, the award-winning Guildford Shakespeare Company are proud to offer a wide range of drama classes for...

Far Far Away

Exciting adventures outside the classroom Tanzania with Lingfield College  Trips are an integral part of the learning journey at Lingfield College and there is no doubt for some students they are the highlight of their time here. One of our...