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Manton pupils say Thanks for the magic, Waylander
10:43am Thursday 17th December 2009
Pupils past and present packed into Preshute School in Manton on Friday to say farewell to headteacher James Smith, who is equally familiar to them as their leader of magic and mystery Waylander.
That’s the name he adopts when he leads the hugely successful annual drama days in the nearby West Woods for local village schools that are full of medieval role-play based around Lord of the Rings-style fantasy.
Mr Smith has taken early retirement at 55 to concentrate on a new career taking drama to village schools.
Dragons have always featured largely in his productions hence, he said, the very apt retirement gift of a limited print painting of a dragon together with a painting of Marlborough High Street.
Mr Smith is setting himself up as an independent drama advisor to schools and he still plans to run the drama day in West Woods every year. “One of the things I want to do is keep that alive,” he said.
“I want to work with children and with teachers on a creative curriculum.” Mr Smith said he believed it was increasingly difficult for teachers to find time to do this faced with all the paperwork required to provide the statistics for school league tables.
Mr Smith paid tribute to all the support he had received over his 17 years at Preshute.
He said: “The community here is a very rare one indeed because the parents are committed to the school and they share the same philosophy that the children must come first.”
Despite Mr Smith’s dislike of school league tables, Preshute has always achieved well in SATs tests and Ofsted inspections.
At Friday’s presentation, Preshute governors chairman Lorna Davies said: “James has been an inspiring leader over the past 17 years and he leaves a wonderful school as his legacy.
“It is a testament to him that there are so many ex-pupils and parents here today.”
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Preshute pupils past and present cheer headteacher James Smith as he embarks on a new career as a drama advisor
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