I attended Barrow Hills from 1983 through to 1988, so from the age of 8. The Headmaster at the time was Father Adrian Cadwallader.
After Barrow Hills I went on to study at St George’s College in Weybridge for my GCSEs, and then moved on to Churcher’s College in Petersfield to do my A-Levels.
My first experience of Barrow Hills was the drive up outside the front of the main school building. Which was so huge and imposing and impressive to 8 year old me. I’m turning up with a brand new uniform on, which was obviously ever so slightly too big in every way (we had to travel in our uniforms, which was strange and new). My entire belongings in a huge trunk, I was met at the doors and taken upstairs. It was all very overwhelming at first.
I boarded from the age of 8; my dad was in the forces at the time, and we were moving around reasonably regularly so coming to Barrow Hills was engineered to give me a stable education. The excitement of a new adventure paired with that awful homesick feeling that myself and most new pupils used to have, was the first thing that hit you as you walk through the main doors. At the age of 8 it is a huge shift to be suddenly living at school, in a dormitory, with a load of new people, and I think personally it was slightly trickier because I was joining a cohort where lots of pupils already knew each other because they’d been at school together already. Very quickly though you settle in, and I remember there being some fantastic teachers who would help and support. Mr Leon was great, Miss Preece, Brother Michael, and there are probably others that I can’t remember. Once settled in, it really did become one great big adventure, and I do have fond memories of my time at Barrow Hills.
It’s hard to pinpoint one thing that was enjoyable, but I guess more than anything it was the journey, the adventure, the sense of independence. Looking back there were some great times; I really enjoyed the sports side of the school, and it was great to be able to throw myself into the various sports. I remember playing an awful lot of rugby which was a real joy, and incredibly competitive against other schools. Mr Green ran the Rugby team, and I was pretty much an ever present throughout my time at Barrow Hills. I wonder if there are any old black and white team photos on the walls in the school still – it would be interesting to see. Above all, I think the weekends were the best bit about school life, as it was then that we got to really adventure in the school grounds, and doing loads of cool stuff and outings with the teachers. I remember plenty of trips out with Miss Preece in her Morris Minor Traveller, or with Mr Leon and his Peugeot estate, truly great times.
There are loads of memories I have of Barrow Hills, like the smell of the swimming pool (which is probably long gone) but there was an outdoor pool with an inflatable bubble over it. Playing croquet on the lawns out by the fish ponds, and the school dinners (which were actually really good). I also remember a good few dramatic moments while at school: the big storm of 1987 was one such event. The storm was really bad and those of us that were boarding were in the school at the time, so many trees fell that night. We ended up stranded in the school for about a week, which in itself became a huge adventure. We effectively spent that week working away with the staff that were overnight staff to clear the fallen trees and debris, that was a very exciting time.
I also remember one night where we had to evacuate the school, because there was actually a real fire, so we all had to grab our bundles (every night we had to put our uniform into a bundle by our bedsides in a very specific way in case of an emergency, think of it like a parcel tied together with your school tie around your jumper, everything else inside). That was incredibly dramatic, and I remember Brother Michael being the hero of the hour as he had actually tackled the blaze head on with the fire extinguishers and managed to prevent any serious devastation to the school. There are loads of memories though: our English teacher Mr McLean, who was a pretty good aim with bits of chalk; Mr Green was a super teacher and a hard taskmaster at rugby, but I used to love playing for him. My house mistress was Mrs Clarke who I ended up having a great relationship with, and I ended up being House Captain in my final year. Barrow Hills really was full of adventures though, and I’ve missed a load of other teachers who were standouts, but my years there were great times.
Barrow Hills gave me a great grounding, instilled me with confidence, brought the best out of me, definitely helped me become a stronger person, and instilled the importance of being part of a team in me. It is a part of my life that I do look back on incredibly fondly, even though it is so very many years ago.
After school I went to University in Liverpool, but engineering wasn’t for me, so I opted for a change and ended up getting into the videogame industry, where initially I started as a tester in games. And I’ve been working in the games industry now for 28 years. In that time, I’ve been really lucky to work on some amazing games, and had some incredible adventures, I progressed to the point of being a Game Director, and heading up a studio. Anyone that plays videogames may well have played something that I was involved with, so pretty much any of the LEGO videogames, LEGO Batman, LEGO Marvel, LEGO Harry Potter for example, I’d have had a hand in those. Games that I have worked on have won BAFTAs, and I’ve been lucky enough to receive an honorary fellowship and an honorary doctorate for services to videogames. To complete the circle, I think back to some of my memories at Barrow Hills, where us boarders would sit around of an evening playing games on an Amiga or Spectrum, and realise that ultimately those evenings probably led me to my career now.