Dorset, Somerset &amp; Bristol

<figure class="wp-block-image size-full"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" width="1500" height="1000" src="https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/dorsetsomerset/wp-content/uploads/sites/8/2025/09/00-milton-abbey-james-Watson-portrait-outside-3H.jpg" alt="James Watson headmaster of Milton Abbey School Dorset" class="wp-image-112227" srcset="https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/dorsetsomerset/wp-content/uploads/sites/8/2025/09/00-milton-abbey-james-Watson-portrait-outside-3H.jpg 1500w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/dorsetsomerset/wp-content/uploads/sites/8/2025/09/00-milton-abbey-james-Watson-portrait-outside-3H-800x533.jpg 800w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/dorsetsomerset/wp-content/uploads/sites/8/2025/09/00-milton-abbey-james-Watson-portrait-outside-3H-1000x667.jpg 1000w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/dorsetsomerset/wp-content/uploads/sites/8/2025/09/00-milton-abbey-james-Watson-portrait-outside-3H-400x267.jpg 400w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/dorsetsomerset/wp-content/uploads/sites/8/2025/09/00-milton-abbey-james-Watson-portrait-outside-3H-768x512.jpg 768w" sizes="(max-width: 1500px) 100vw, 1500px" /></figure>



How long you have been at the school?



Six years. I joined as a history teacher, then Head of Learning Development, then Deputy Head, and have been in the hot seat now for two years.



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



It’s a Pandora&#8217;s Box in there – do you really want to look inside? OK then&#8230; a message about choosing dates for the parent fashion trip to Paris (a copy of our annual student fashion curriculum trip demanded by our PTA – ‘why should the kids hog all the fun?’). A complaint from a pupil about the Wi-Fi being switched off too early in the evening. It’s encouraging that he feels he can complain to me I guess. The spam that we all get in life, from suppliers of all kinds of tat.



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



The only truly full boarding school in England to offer both academic and vocational qualifications. Small by choice, inclusive by design, with superb support for the individual, in a breathtaking natural setting.



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



I’d like to say some dashing, blockbuster hero but as a history teacher, I like accuracy so they need to be shortish, out of shape and grey haired. Can I get away with Tom Cruise with a tummy and some hair dye?



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



A little bit for a slide into the swimming pool (I’m sure the sports department won’t thank me for that), and then the rest on more bursaries. Bursaries make the biggest impact on the life and culture of an independent school.



Describe your own childhood school days



I was very lucky to be sent to top independent schools. My pre-prep and prep days were stuffed with interesting lessons, great friends, sport, trips and fun. In my senior years I morphed into a fairly typical teenager, and I often didn’t see the point of my school and its very traditional get-top-grades-in-your-exams-or-else system. I also became rather self-conscious and gave up drama, which had been a passion as a child. Things perked up with the focus of A-levels and the relative freedom of Sixth Form. I try to use my experience at school to inform my guidance of our students now. It’s easy to forget how hard being a teenager is. Once the angst was gone I absolutely loved university.



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



‘Unfulfilled potential’ was a common refrain in my teenage years, and those teachers were sadly not wrong. I was a ‘coaster,’ trying hard to keep my head down and cruise through school life. I implore our students now not to make my mistake.



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



Too many to mention. I was lucky to have a range of intelligent, creative and thoughtful teachers throughout my school days.



Best and worst subject at school?&nbsp;



Best: art, although I ditched it after GCSE as someone told me it wasn’t a serious enough subject for university entrance. How I wish I could get in a time machine and tell 16-year-old me not to listen to such nonsense. I also loved history, classics and economics, which were my A-levels.



Worst: computing. In those days it was BBC computers and floppy disks, with lots of touch typing. I can still hear our teacher intoning, ‘J-Y-J, J-H-J, J-Y-J,’ as we stabbed away at the keys. On a sunny afternoon there was nothing worse.



Where did you go to uni?



<figure class="wp-block-image size-full"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" width="1500" height="1002" src="https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/dorsetsomerset/wp-content/uploads/sites/8/2025/09/architecture-road-skyline-hill-town-view-815242-pxhere.com_.jpg" alt="Edinburgh from PxHere" class="wp-image-112234" srcset="https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/dorsetsomerset/wp-content/uploads/sites/8/2025/09/architecture-road-skyline-hill-town-view-815242-pxhere.com_.jpg 1500w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/dorsetsomerset/wp-content/uploads/sites/8/2025/09/architecture-road-skyline-hill-town-view-815242-pxhere.com_-800x534.jpg 800w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/dorsetsomerset/wp-content/uploads/sites/8/2025/09/architecture-road-skyline-hill-town-view-815242-pxhere.com_-1000x668.jpg 1000w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/dorsetsomerset/wp-content/uploads/sites/8/2025/09/architecture-road-skyline-hill-town-view-815242-pxhere.com_-400x267.jpg 400w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/dorsetsomerset/wp-content/uploads/sites/8/2025/09/architecture-road-skyline-hill-town-view-815242-pxhere.com_-768x513.jpg 768w" sizes="(max-width: 1500px) 100vw, 1500px" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Edinburgh from PxHere</figcaption></figure>



Edinburgh University. It’s a wonderful city to be a student in, full of history, culture and bonhomie.



What did you study?



Classical Archaeology (all the fun stuff – Romans, Phoenicians, Etruscans, Egyptians etc). I then went on to study accountancy at Deloitte, which was quite a change.



What was your high and low of student life?



High: meeting my wife and many lifelong friends. Low: running out of money every term too soon before the end. It eventually taught one how to budget, if nothing else.



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



I’ve tried many jobs, including 12 years in finance after graduation, but teaching is my thing. If I couldn’t be Headmaster, I’d return to the classroom and the sports pitch – history and economics, with cricket and hockey, are my favourites. And I’d happily teach art, agriculture or hospitality if they let me (but they should not let me&#8230;)



Describe what’s on your work desk…



A history of Milton Abbey that an Old Boy sent me, a huge new speaker for music and several cups of tea.



And what’s in the top drawer?



The ‘if I get hit by a bus’ folder, emergency chocolate and a dog whistle.



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



<figure class="wp-block-image size-full"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" width="1500" height="749" src="https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/dorsetsomerset/wp-content/uploads/sites/8/2025/09/Collage_Fotor.jpg" alt="books" class="wp-image-112231" srcset="https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/dorsetsomerset/wp-content/uploads/sites/8/2025/09/Collage_Fotor.jpg 1500w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/dorsetsomerset/wp-content/uploads/sites/8/2025/09/Collage_Fotor-800x399.jpg 800w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/dorsetsomerset/wp-content/uploads/sites/8/2025/09/Collage_Fotor-1000x499.jpg 1000w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/dorsetsomerset/wp-content/uploads/sites/8/2025/09/Collage_Fotor-400x200.jpg 400w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/dorsetsomerset/wp-content/uploads/sites/8/2025/09/Collage_Fotor-768x383.jpg 768w" sizes="(max-width: 1500px) 100vw, 1500px" /></figure>



Childhood – Charlotte’s Web by E.B. White. Uni – The Old Man and the Sea, by Ernest Hemingway. Now – biographies are my thing at the moment. I have just read one about Aldous Huxley, the Victorian writer and thinker, which was illuminating.



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



Our culture and ski trip to Japan two years ago was eye-opening for everyone. It felt indulgent to travel so far but after Covid we decided we needed a big trip.



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



For teenagers: play – Fawlty Towers. Originally a TV series but now on stage in London and hilariously funny; book – anything by John Wyndham, The Day of the Triffids, being his most famous. Sci-fi at its best. Film – The Right Stuff, an epic-historical-drama of the original NASA astronauts, which shows what humans can achieve when they put their minds to it.



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



I think they spend more time hiding from me! If I needed R&amp;R, a walk in the woods to St Cat’s chapel, on the hill above school, and where King Athelstan is said to have had his dream which led to the founding of Milton Abbey, is just the tonic.



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



Pink Floyd&#8217;s We Don’t Need No Education. An odd choice for a Headmaster perhaps, but Milton Abbey has always kicked against the banality of much of the traditional education system. We do not believe in children being ‘just another brick in the wall.’



What advice would you give to your younger self?



Take art A-level.



And your current students?



Try everything on offer at school. ‘Unfulfilled potential’ is a terrible epitaph to have.



<a href="https://www.miltonabbey.co.uk/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Milton Abbey</a>,&nbsp;is a co-ed boarding school for 13-18 year olds deep in the Dorset countryside, not far from Blandford Forum, offering a tailor-made approach to learning and one of the widest ranges of traditional and vocational courses in the independent sector. <a href="https://dorsetsomerset.muddystilettos.co.uk/kids/school-reviews/milton-abbey-school-nr-blandford-forum/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Read our review</a>; book a place on one of their <a href="https://www.miltonabbey.co.uk/Admissions/Open-Days.aspx" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">upcoming Open Days</a>.

Head’s Up: Muddy meets James Watson of Milton Abbey School, Milton Abbas, near Blandford Forum

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