We speak to Alastair Speers, Headmaster of Sandroyd School, to find out more about the school’s history and how they prepare children for the next stage in their school career.
Alastair Speers, Headmaster of Sandroyd School
1. How long have you been at the school"
I have been Headmaster since September 2016. I am married to Alice who teaches English. We live on site, together with our two young girls, and are both fully involved in all aspects of life at Sandroyd.
2. Can you tell us a little bit about the history of the school"
Sandroyd was founded in 1888 by the Reverend L H Wellesley Wesley. Initially based at Sandroyd House in Cobham, it was a small coaching establishment for boys who were due to go to Eton.
By 1939, when the situation in Europe was looking bleak, the owner and Headmaster, moved the school to Rushmore House, in Salisbury, owned at the time by the Pitt-Rivers? family but which had been vacant for some years. In March 1939, a short lease was negotiated and when war came, the parents were all sent telegrams instructing them to take their sons to Waterloo Station instead of to Cobham. Rushmore House has been Sandroyd?s home ever since that time. In 1967 the Governors were in a position to purchase the school outright for the princely sum of £25,000!
More recently Sandroyd opened its doors to day boys in 1995 and welcomed girls for the first time in September 2004. That same term heralded the opening of the pre-prep school, The Walled Garden....