MAKING A NICHE FOR OVERSEAS BOYS

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 218, 3 December 1927, Page 24 (Supplement)

MAKING A NICHE FOR OVERSEAS BOYS

An Australian Wh© Intends t© Invade Field ©f English Pnblic Sch©©ls . . . The St©ry of Bryanston and its Founder .. .

(Written for THE SUN by

JANE MANDER)

HOUGH the p u b 1 i c BjpEf*WsS?/i school system of EngÜBKPjTcaSi land has come in for an enormous amount of urfiDßGffvJ hostile criticism in IWrxfctßiJ recent years, from both writers and educational men, there has been no diminution in the numbers applying for entry into the schools. On the contrary the number of applicants is increasing yearly, and the big schools like Eton, Harrow, Rugby, Winchester, Westminster and Marlborough, have long waiting lists, while, for the

first two, boys have to be entered at birth. Two schools started in our day have come to he well known among a number of less conspicuous ones, Oundle and Stowe, and now another school, making a bid for fame with some Innovations, is to open in January. The

most interesting thing about this School to overseas readers will be the facts that an overseas man has organised the whole scheme, that he will: he the headmaster, one of the youngest in England, by the way, and that he i« making special provision for boys from the Dominions, for the latter have at present very little chance of getting into any big school. The whole story of how .leftrev G. Jeffreys, an Adelaide boy, has come to head an imposing list of Englishmen and others interested in the formation of a new public school, reads almost like a fairy tale, except that it has back of it a very solid combination of brains, personality and perseverence, ingredients that have a way of getting j on just as well upon the earth as in any fairy land. Mr. Jeffreys, now 30 years of age, w as born in Adelaide, South Australia, and belongs to a well-known professional family. He went to St. Peter’s College, one of the best known in Australia, and later to Melbourne University, where to took his B.Sc at Ormond College. He had been teaching only a short time when the war broke out. He enlisted and saw the war through in France without any serious injury. During the war, and while on leave in England he met the headmaster of Westminster School, a man with a flair for personality. He was so struck with the young Australian that he begged him to stay in England after the war and take a post in AVestminster. This is the sort of plum, I may say. in passing, that falls only into very special mouths. But .T. G. Jeffrey had the yearning so many exiles have after first leaving home to go back, and back to Australia he went, only to find that his horizons had widened to such an extent that he could not stay there. Before leaving England the head of Westminster had told him to write to him at once if he changed his mind and wanted to return to England, and that a post would be made for him in Westminster. These things can always be managed for the right people. So Mr. Jeffrey wrote and was told to come at once. He did so and into AVestminster he went to teach science. Like almost all colonials he was a lover of sports. He found that rowing had been neglected at Westminster; that, in fact, there was nothing that could really be called by that name. His enthusiasm and personality fired the boys to begin again. He worked up the crews, personally organised their practice, and taught them with a megaphone from a bicycle along the towing path of the Thames to such purpose that in 18 months he had made the club one of the crack rowing clubs of England. Special arrangements through the Rhodes Scholarship scheme were now made for Jeffrey to go to Oxford for

three years. He entered at Christchurch, and after taking his B.A. got a post at Radley College near Oxford, where he taught for about IS months. For some time before this the idea of having a school of his own had been working in liis mind, and all through his Oxford career he had been using his personal influence toward such a scheme. He had no difficulty in meeting the rich and influential men who might be induced to back a new school. Probably there was more difficulty in persuading them that so young a man could start one. But in an incredibly short time the scheme was got going, and once going all else followed. Fortune has favoured our ambitious young man in many ways. A little over a year ago there came into the market just the place he waft looking for, an enormous modern

mansion, extraordinarily well adapted to the needs of a school both as to its indoor and outdoor features. An option was acquired over it, and Mr. Jeffrey set about securing the financial hacking necessary to start up within a year. This has meant the raising of securities to the extent of half a million, the forming of a council, the selection of masters and staff, the adaptation of the new house and property, and an enormous amount of detail.

The new school will be known as Bryanston, taking the name of the mansion built at a cost of over a million for Lord Portman. It is most beautifully situated in Dorset, with the river Stour bounding it on one side, the rowing facilities practically part of it. It is about 20 miles from Salisbury and from Bournemouth, and the comparative mildness of its climate is something to be considered by the parents of overseas boys. The house itself was built in 1897 in a main block, with two huge wings, and its interior is suGh that hardly any structural alterations will have to be made, at least for some time to come. The grounds are perfectly lovely, covering some four hundred acres of the kind of park laud that is one of England’s glories. Besides beauty they will provide all the playing fields necessary to rival the famous ones of Eton.

Bryanston will have all the recognised features of the English public school, the religious ceremonies being those of the Church of England. But the founder, as might be expected from an overseas man, has some innovations. One of his ideas in starting his school has been to make provision for overseas boys, and a percentage

of every term’s admissions will be left open for applications from Australia, New Zealand and Africa. Later he means to introduce features in addition to a regular school curriculum, giving scope for the personal taste of boys, though no specialisation will be allowed before the Oxford and Cambridge School Certificate standard has been attained. Classes will be formed later for drawing, painting and carpentry. Music is to be a feature of the school. Photography and hobbies of all kinds will be encouraged, and the interest of masters in them will be part of the school atmosphere. Mr. Jeffrey has all sorts of ideas about making a big school more in touch with modern movements, and while none of the recognised classics will be ignored, and the common entrance examination is required of all boys, he will seek to add to these anything else that the taste of boys demands. At present the school will begin with boys of from 12b to 147 years of age. and the 50 for the first term are already booked. As fresh admissions are made a school tradition will be built up. As everyone knows, all public schools have their special uniform, that of the Eton boy being the most widely known. The Bryanson boy of the future will startle the world on summer weekdays with grey shorts, white tennis shirts, a dark blue blazer,

grey stockings and black shoos, something in the nature of a scout costume. On Sundays and in the winter his dress will he more in keeping with the climate and with convention, dark grey and dark blue predominating. All the boys will be boarders, under the usual house scheme, 50 to a house, and the management and discipline will be similar to that of other schools. But it is hoped to give this school a something different in the matter of atmosphere and spirit. The founder himself is a person of rare gifts, rare breadth, influence and charm, and he has picked his staff with his eye upon personal qualifications as much as on scholastic attainments. It is a tribute to him that several men, friends of some years’ standing, have begged to be allowed to share with him the work from the beginning, even though in some instances it means less financial return to them.

headed by the Earl of Shaftesbury, and including a long list of names famous in educational, religious, military and literary circles. Among those associated with the launching of the school is the Australian scientist, Sir William Bragg, F.R.S., a sharer with liis son of the Nobel prize a few years ago, for contributions to physics. But most of the supporters of our young Australian are Englishmen, and only those who have been here for some time can realise the difficulties that have been overcome by an “outsider” (for say what we may about it, all overseas people are outsiders at first in England) in breaking into one of the holies of holies in this conservative old country. Needless to say, it has taken much more than brains to accomplish it.