Dorset, Somerset &amp; Bristol

<figure class="wp-block-image size-full"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" width="1000" height="714" src="https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/dorsetsomerset/wp-content/uploads/sites/8/2020/06/John-PT-003.jpg" alt="Leweston" class="wp-image-42406" srcset="https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/dorsetsomerset/wp-content/uploads/sites/8/2020/06/John-PT-003.jpg 1000w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/dorsetsomerset/wp-content/uploads/sites/8/2020/06/John-PT-003-300x214.jpg 300w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/dorsetsomerset/wp-content/uploads/sites/8/2020/06/John-PT-003-700x500.jpg 700w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/dorsetsomerset/wp-content/uploads/sites/8/2020/06/John-PT-003-150x107.jpg 150w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/dorsetsomerset/wp-content/uploads/sites/8/2020/06/John-PT-003-768x548.jpg 768w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/dorsetsomerset/wp-content/uploads/sites/8/2020/06/John-PT-003-735x525.jpg 735w" sizes="(max-width: 1000px) 100vw, 1000px" /></figure>



How long you have been at the school?&nbsp;



Five years.



What are the top three things to tackle in your inbox? 



Visit requests from parents, essay on Russian Revolution from Year 12, plans for our French/History trip to Paris.&nbsp;



30 second elevator pitch for your school – sell it! &nbsp;



Leweston is the sort of school that you always wanted schools to be. We are a strong community with a wide breadth of opportunity that belies our size. Perfectly formed to recognise each child as an individual, we have expert staff who will guide, form and celebrate the successes while helping each child to learn from setbacks and to never give up on themselves.&nbsp;&nbsp;



Who would you like to star as you in a movie of your life?



Alan Rickman.



You’ve been given a £1m donation for the school, what will you spend it on? &nbsp;



Continuing to develop the children’s valuable opportunities and experiences.&nbsp;



Describe your own childhood school days&nbsp;



I enjoyed boarding school, but spent a lot of time thinking about how I could escape it.&nbsp;&nbsp;



What was the common theme of your school reports? &nbsp;



Poor handwriting and worse jokes.



Favourite/worst teachers at your childhood school and why?&nbsp;



Mr Scarboro, an outstanding history teacher and enormous fun!&nbsp;Mr C, a maths teacher who embodied all that is wrong about how to deal with children.&nbsp;&nbsp;



Best and worst subject at school? &nbsp;



Best – history, worst – physics.



Where did you go to uni and what did you study?&nbsp;



London for History and War Studies.&nbsp;



What was your high and low of student life?&nbsp;



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Highest was knowing I made the right choice between a Fray Bentos pie that was out of date and a tin of cat food. The lowest was living with the knowledge of that choice.



If you weren’t a Head, what would you be?&nbsp;



An arable farmer with my two spaniels, Arthur and Charles.&nbsp;



Describe what’s on your work desk…&nbsp;



Aside from the usual, a copy of Das Schloss by Kafka, a photograph of Charles de Gaulle and a mug with my dogs’ pictures on.&nbsp;&nbsp;



And what’s in the top drawer?&nbsp;



Keys to everything in the school, loose change for charity donations, a stone jaguar mask gift from Mexico.&nbsp;&nbsp;



What’s the best school trip (childhood or current) you’ve ever been on? &nbsp;



Remove trip to the battlefields in 1991 – it was moving and fascinating.&nbsp;



If you want to hide from the kids and staff for half an hour, where do you go?  &nbsp;



The Riding Academy to talk to the horses!&nbsp;



Tell us your favourite books – in childhood, uni and now&nbsp;



<figure class="wp-block-image size-full"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" width="1500" height="843" src="https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/dorsetsomerset/wp-content/uploads/sites/8/2025/07/Heads-UP-leweston.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-109975" srcset="https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/dorsetsomerset/wp-content/uploads/sites/8/2025/07/Heads-UP-leweston.jpg 1500w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/dorsetsomerset/wp-content/uploads/sites/8/2025/07/Heads-UP-leweston-800x450.jpg 800w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/dorsetsomerset/wp-content/uploads/sites/8/2025/07/Heads-UP-leweston-1000x562.jpg 1000w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/dorsetsomerset/wp-content/uploads/sites/8/2025/07/Heads-UP-leweston-400x225.jpg 400w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/dorsetsomerset/wp-content/uploads/sites/8/2025/07/Heads-UP-leweston-768x432.jpg 768w" sizes="(max-width: 1500px) 100vw, 1500px" /></figure>



Childhood – Lord of the Rings; university – Flashman at the Charge; now- Michael Howard’s The Franco-Prussian War.



The song you sing at full volume when everyone’s gone home?&nbsp;&nbsp;



AC/DC&#8217;s Thunderstruck.



What play, book and film should be on every child’s cultural bucket list?&nbsp;&nbsp;



The Merchant of Venice, &nbsp;Plato’s Republic&nbsp;and A Bridge too Far.



What advice would you give to your younger self?&nbsp;



Listen more than you speak.&nbsp;



And your current students?&nbsp;



Spend more time with your family and friends than you do on your screen.



<a href="https://www.leweston.co.uk/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Leweston</a>&nbsp;is a co-ed, day and boarding school for children aged&nbsp;3 months to 18 years, three miles south of Sherborne in Dorset. Read our reviews of the <a href="https://dorsetsomerset.muddystilettos.co.uk/kids/leweston-school-sherborne/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Senior School</a> (book a<a href="https://info.leweston.co.uk/book-a-visit-senior" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"> visit</a>) and the <a href="https://dorsetsomerset.muddystilettos.co.uk/kids/school-reviews/leweston-prep-nursery-sherborne/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Prep &amp; Nursery</a> (book a <a href="https://info.leweston.co.uk/book-a-visit-prep" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">visit</a>).

Head’s Up: Muddy meets John Paget-Tomlinson of Leweston School, near Sherborne

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