Educational Establishments


Sevenoaks School


Pitches are ‘old school’ no longer


A few years ago, the school report might have read: superb academic record and at the forefront of classroom innovation, yet a bit of an under achiever when it comes to sport and outdoor facilities. Neville Johnson finds out how a major revision exercise has transformed what a school is now offering on the playing field


F


ounded in 1432 by William Sevenoke, a friend of Henry VI, Sevenoaks School is an independent co-educational day and boarding school with over


1,000 students. It is set, as are its sports fields, in a delightful 100-acre campus bang up against the world-renowned Knole Park with the Tudor splendour of Knole House in clear view.


The school is consistently near the top of the charts when it comes to exam achievements, and it is perhaps best known as a pioneer in this country for offering IB (International Baccalaureate), described as the gold standard in international university qualification, to 6th form students. It rightly has an unrivalled reputation as a centre of academic excellence at secondary school level and it’s no surprise that there are pupils


“


from over forty countries studying there. The school has ten grass winter pitches


and three cricket pitches, plus two all- weather pitches and a running track. Taking the hit parade analogy a step


further, the school’s sporting prowess is a fast riser, shooting from 30th to 8th, according to the latest annual survey conducted by School Sports magazine into independent schools’ results on the pitch. Action by the grounds team, and in particular a major pitch renovation scheme, are in no small way recognised as the underlying reason for this. I talked first to Senior Groundsman Dave


Feaver, who’s been at Sevenoaks for eleven years, and seen a big change in pitch maintenance there and the way the school values them. “When I first came here, we had mowers


When I first came here, we had mowers to cut the grass, marking equipment, an old set of chain harrows and a hand roller, but not too much else. Methods were very much old school


PC JUNE/JULY 2017 I 77


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