Frensham Heights School

Frensham Heights School
Motto Think, Create, Explore
Established 1925
Type Independent and Sixth form college day and boarding
Headmaster Andrew Fisher
Deputy Head (academic) Rachel Burnett
Founder Edith Douglas-Hamilton
Location Rowledge
Farnham
Surrey
GU10 4EA
England
Coordinates: 51°10′38″N 0°48′41″W / 51.17714°N 0.81151°W / 51.17714; -0.81151
Local authority Surrey
DfE number 936/6038
DfE URN 125338 Tables
Students 530~
Gender Coeducational
Ages 3–18
Houses
  • Ensor,
  • Douglas
  • Nevill
  • King
Former pupils Old Frenshamians
Website www.frensham.org

Frensham Heights School is an independent school and sixth form college located in Farnham, Surrey, England, run by the registered charity, Frensham Heights Educational Trust Ltd. It was founded in 1925 and formed as part of the movement for progressive education. Unlike many HMC member schools, it has been coeducational and took both day and boarding pupils since its foundation.

Foundation and location

The school was founded by Edith Douglas-Hamilton and established under joint headmistresses, Beatrice Ensor and Isabel King. It became firmly established under the headmastership of Paul Roberts (1929–1949) and was recognised as efficient by the Ministry of Education in 1935.

It currently has students ranging from the ages of 3 to 18 years.

Based in a mock-Tudor mansion and its estate, built by the brewer Charrington in 1902, the school is located on a hill several miles away from the small town of Farnham but is actually located in the village of Frensham. Its grounds run into the village of Rowledge which is located just next to Frensham.

The headmaster

The current headmaster is Andrew Fisher, who replaced the previous headmaster Peter de Voil in 2004. Prior to becoming headmaster of Frensham Heights, Fisher was deputy headmaster at Wrekin College in Shropshire. He is known for his interest in making Frensham Heights more sports orientated, and during one end-of-year speech, the teachers hired two actors dressed as kangaroos to "kidnap" him.

Notable alumni

Ex-pupils (Old Frenshamians) include:

Ethos

Frensham Heights is often seen as a liberal school. For example, there are no mandatory school uniforms (unlike many other schools) and the dress code is broad. The school's motto, We are all members one of another, was adopted by Paul Roberts who was headmaster of Frensham Heights from 1928 to 1949.

The school's ethos revolves around the idea of mutual respect between teachers and pupils and as such, staff are referred to by their first name by pupils. The idea of individuality is also encouraged so that an individual's talents and personality are developed. Because of the belief in the importance of the individual, Frensham Heights has a very active Sixth Form Committee and School Council which play an active part in the running of the school.

While Houses do exist (Ensor, Douglas, Nevill and King) alongside termly sporting events, there is little competition between the Houses for House Points and prizes. The school encourages fair and just competitions so therefore has a sports day. Instead of a means to encourage competition and as a divisive force, the role of Houses at Frensham is to act as a socialising force once a term as each year group (7-8, 9-10, 11-13) plays a variety of House matches in a sport (football, basketball, netball or hockey). In the summer term there is a 'Sports day' in which the houses compete against each other. Aside from these events, however, houses have little impact on school life.

Projects

Frensham Heights is the site of many projects. Over recent years this has seen the construction of the award-winning highly equipped Aldridge Theatre (formerly known as the Performing Arts Centre) which is the venue for drama and dance performances as well as school notices and the 'Morning Talk' on Monday afternoons when a speaker talks about a particular topic. The school now has a new Music School and a new sixth form centre. As well as numerous studies for both day and boarder pupils, this new sixth form centre will also act as a boarding house for sixth form boarders.

Socially, the school is involved in many projects including an active School Council and much charity fund raising, currently for the Liberty Foundation in Belize. The school is also involved in World Challenge, every two years sending a group to a country to participate both in adventure and charity work. In the summer of 2009, the expedition was in India, while previous destination have included Tanzania, Chile and Costa Rica and numerous other countries. The next trip in the summer of 2013 is to Cambodia and Vietnam. Money for each expedition is raised by the students themselves and have, in recent years, included the raising of money through ice cream sales during the summer term and organising school discos, most of which being the 'Spring Fling'. Most of the money comes from the lucrative school tuck shop.

Facilities

The school now has a fully functioning music centre including the Sixth Form Centre. The Aldridge Theatre is the Frensham venue for drama activities, with external theatre companies sometimes performing there. The school also has a Photography Suite, Sports Hall, Dance Studio and 'Outdoor Education' facilities. It also has a new sixth form centre for both day and boarding students, it is slightly separated from the rest of the school in order for the school to compete with other colleges.

An outdoor theatre is currently under construction and an outdoor classroom was completed before Christmas 2011.

Extracurricular activities

Extracurricular activities (ECAs) are a large part of Frensham life and all students from year 7 to year 13 are required to take part in at least some ECAs each week. For years 7-11, the minimum number of ECAs per week is three while in sixth form, the minimum is only two. There is a wide variety of extracurricular activities run both at lunchtime and after school and occur every day (including Saturday mornings when things like Saturday Photography and a Ballistics ECA take place.). Examples of ECAs include swimming (in the summer term), five-a-side football, photography, chess, badminton, cooking, fashion and textiles, critical thinking, yoga, meditation, card games to name only a few. Individual teams and music, dance or drama groups also have ECAs running outside of lesson times which often occur after school (such as Cantamus and the wood wind group). Different ECAs are for different year groups while some are for all years; for example, critical thinking, yoga and meditation is mostly for the older years.

The ECAs available vary from year to year and from term to term (the latter due to variations in weather) and as such, new ECAs may be introduced. For instance, at the start of the 2011/2012 Academic year, an Italian ECA was begun which may continue to GCSE level. Also in 2011/2012 there were Enterprise and Statistics ECAs where students could gain IGCSE qualifications.

Sport

Despite being a somewhat small school, Frensham Heights hosts several sports teams in various fields of sport and played at all age ranges. These include common sports such as Rugby, football, hockey, basketball, netball and cricket. Taking part in sport each week is compulsory until year 13 when students can opt to use the time usually allocated to sport for extra revision and study, although this is only allowed if a student attends a sport ECA. Although not being renowned for its sport, the under 16 boy's football team has reached the quarter final of the ISFA cup, a national trophy for small independent schools.

Between year 7 and year 11, there are two sessions of sport each week, while only one for the sixth form. From year 11 upwards, students can choose which sport to do each term with options being basketball, football, table tennis, hockey and golf, as well as swimming, tennis and rounders during the summer. Prior to year 11, students partake in sports including rugby, basketball, hockey and football and athletics, rounders and swimming in the summer term but have no choice in which the activity occurs.

Outdoor education

As a subsidiary to sport, outdoor education (or simply 'outdoor-ed') is compulsory for all students between year 7 and year 11. Different from sport in that it does not stress athletic qualities, instead it encourages teamwork, co-operation, individual courage and leadership, ideals which reflect the school's ethos.

Outdoor ed typically involves team-building activities in the woods including activities such as climbing 'Jacob's Ladder' and a high ropes challenge near the Sports Hall. The school runs regular Outdoor Education trips to places such as a climbing trip to Dartmoor and to Harrison's Rocks in Kent. The school also runs the Duke of Edinburgh award at all levels.

The school has recently introduced weekly Forest Schools sessions for all pupils in the First School; Nursery to Year Three.

Frensham has a solid year 11 Rugby team as well, last year being undefeated in all of the matches.

Academic performance

Frensham Heights came 258th in the Sunday Times table of the top 500 independent schools in 2008. In the 2009 rankings, the school was placed 347th.[3]

References

  1. ↑ 'Obituaries: Charlotte Hough: children's book illustrator, The Times, 7 January 2009.
  2. ↑ MEMBERS OF PARLIAMENT IN MAIDENBOWER, CRAWLEY, WEST SUSSEX. Publisher: TheArgus.co.uk Retrieved: 11 April 2014.
  3. ↑ The Times 2009 League Tables

External links

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