With the demise of the Christmas Holidays, Ewell Castle’s hierarchy has been dramatically reshuffled owing to the resignation of previous Principal, Mr Peter Harris, who was offered a similar role in his previous school located in Sheffield. Mr Harris joined the school in January 2014 and with the help of his deputy, Mr Stephen Bromley, ushered in a number of changes during his tenure. Arguably the pinnacle of these changes was the building of a new music pavilion on the Ewell Castle site.

Our new Principal, Mr Silas Edmonds, was the acting Principal of Surbiton High before his appointment as Principal of Ewell Castle having worked at Surbiton High for 11 years, mostly as the Head of Senior School with experience teaching English to pupils from Year 6 to Year 13. He currently finds time to teach Year 9 English. 

Due to his recent appointment and subsequent busy schedule, I was surprised to discover that I had the unique opportunity to interview him on his first official day with pupils. 

A mere day after New Year’s Day, the teachers formally met Mr Edmonds who was impressed with the teachers during the meeting. He admitted that he enjoyed the “sense of fun and happiness from the school and the personal approach” that the teachers take with pupils. This combines with the relatively small scale of the School to ensure that it operates like a family. Mr Edmonds asserted that he “wants the staff and pupils to look forward to every day at School.”

When asked about the incorporation of technology within school as was a focus in the previous establishment, Mr Edmonds stated that “technology is a tool to be used but becomes a problem when the tool becomes too big a part of the individual’s experience, to the detriment of everything else.” He is a firm believer that technology should be balanced so that traditional values are still seen but that technology should be an enhancer to education. He quoted technology such as the ‘Show My Homework’ application and search browsers employed by Ewell Castle as aiding in education.

He is also a strong believer in recognising achievement and rewarding effort and hard work rather than focusing on behaviour deemed ‘bad’ instead. He maintains that pupils should not be embarrassed by doing well but rather be seen as an inspiration to others. However, individuals that inhibit learning must be brought back within clear boundaries. He said that “some people need a bit of tough love whereas others are intrinsically motivated.” 

With the aforementioned previous administration’s music pavilion, I asked Mr Edmonds if he had any plans for redevelopment in the School due to the increase in pupil numbers in the younger years. He stated that the School may face challenges for space in the future, but that plans are under consideration to redevelop parts of the site including the retro-fitting of the Science labs with new equipment.

As a school, Ewell Castle has grown significantly, owing to the increasing appeal posited by the previous administration and some believe that the population is growing at an unsustainable pace. I asked Mr Edmonds if he had plans to more selectively choose new pupils at the School to which he replied that there are no plans for an increase in selectiveness in Ewell Castle as there are many selective schools in the area and that “part of the School’s ethos is that we take a broad range of students.”
He assured me that the focus would be placed on enabling different pathways for students of all abilities and that Ewell Castle enables a very high range of education while allowing co-curricular activities amongst others. On the concerns about overpopulation, Mr Edmonds added that a cap may have to be placed on pupil numbers in “2-3 years” should the School’s current popularity and momentum increase even further.

Ewell Castle looks forward to many years with Mr Edmonds and is pleased to welcome him to the faculty.