Curious, Creative and Courageous: Meet Isaac, a Boarder at Sedbergh Prep
In this interview, we meet Isaac, a 10-year-old full boarder from a military family, who thrives in our close-knit community where pastoral care and encouragement go hand in hand. Isaac flourishes in the strong routines, warmth and sense of belonging found in his boarding house — a true home-from-home where he feels part of one big family.
Whether he’s designing in the DT workshop, laughing over a favourite book, or racing to sign up for swimming during evening activities, Isaac throws himself into school life with curiosity and enthusiasm. Honest, thoughtful and full of character, he shares what boarding is really like, why he loves hands-on learning and how he quickly found his place at Sedbergh.
Honest, thoughtful and wonderfully down to earth, Isaac shares what boarding life is really like, why he loves hands-on learning, and how he’s settling into life at Sedbergh. His story is a reminder that at Prep, every child is known, encouraged and supported — and that learning doesn’t just happen in the classroom.
“In DT you get to go hands on… I’m very good at doing little fiddly things. I don’t know why!”
Joy in learning; my favourite book character and movie
My favourite lesson is either art or DT. You just get to express yourself without using words. And then in DT you just get to go hands on, so you get to do all these different things and develop your hands, if you know what I mean about that. It’s just very hands-on and it’s really good. For some reason I’m very good at doing little fiddly things. I don’t know why.
“I love learning by doing. DT is brilliant — hands on, creative and fun.”
Do you know want you’d like to be in the future?
In the past I’ve wanted to be many, many different things; an astronaut, a painter, an artist, a sculptor, all those sorts of hands-on jobs. But currently I’m not really sure what I want to be in the future.
My favourite book character and movie…
My favourite character in a book is probably Dexter Proctor, who is a character from one of my all time favourite book authors. Adam Kay. And he’s a really funny character who does loads of very funny things in the book.
I like facts, but then I like movies and books to be funny as well, so factual and funny, which is my type of movie, which I really like. My favourite movie is probably minions. My favourite minion is Bob; he’s really small and he’s really cute and he’s very funny. He’s a very funny character. So you can sort of see what his characteristics are through the way he acts.
Boarding life and friendships
I am a boarder because this school is very, very good. So when I came to look around it, I said, “I want to board”, and my parents went, okay. I live an hour and a half away, so coming every morning and every night would be too much. So I decided to board and I don’t regret it.
“I said, ‘I want to board,’ and my parents said OK — and I don’t regret it.”
So when you came around that day, what really stood out in your mind?
I feel I’ve settled into boarding quite well because everyone there has just been so kind and so welcoming. Literally everyone has been really, really kind and helpful. The boarding staff especially are very nice, very kind, and they’re just very, very nice and kind and helpful, and they get you everywhere you need to be on time and yeah, they’re really nice kind.
“Everyone has been so kind and so welcoming. Literally everyone.”
Getting me to be able to know where everything is, know where I have to go at what time in the mornings and evenings. I’d say I’d settled in really well because everyone’s just been really helpful.
The only thing I think I was the tiniest bit worried about was finding my way around the boarding house. The boys’ boarding house is a maze and to get from one end of the boarding house to the other and find the different rooms inside the boarding house was not easy. I was not worried about making friends because when I came for my taster, I already made friends with some of the boarders and some of the day pupils. So I wasn’t really worried.
The morning routine I don’t think is too different from a day pupils morning routine. You get woken up, you get dressed, you go to breakfast, you brush your teeth, you go to school. Perfect. It’s just what you would do at home.
My favourite part of the boarding day is once we finish prep and we get to go and do our activities. The activities are always something really fun and great. The best thing I’ve done so far for activities is swimming, because swimming is one of my absolute favourite things to do. So, when swimming was one of the activities, I signed up for it immediately.
Which of the ways of the wolf have you practiced today?
They’re all really important to work on. I think I work on creativity the most, but then I work on all the others equally as well.
Quick fire questions!
Dogs or cats?
Cats. I have two cats; Ava and Digby. They’re both black and white, but digby is more black than white and Ava is more white than black.
Vegetables or salad?
Salad.
Maths or science?
Science. Especially chemical reactions.
Singing or dancing?
Dancing.
