What Makes a Great School? An Interview with Sedbergh’s Headmaster Robin Pyper
When Sedbergh’s new Headmaster, Robin Pyper, first came to visit the School, it felt both new and familiar.
“I was fortunate,” he reflects. “I had friends and former colleagues who were Old Sedberghians, so I knew quite a bit about the school before I arrived, and then a very thorough transition period. My overriding first impression was a sense of community and togetherness – not just on the school site, but extending out to former teachers and, very importantly, the OS community, who have made me feel incredibly welcome.”
Asked to describe the culture and character of the School, he chooses a single word: spirit. “The spirit of Sedbergh is really important to me and my colleagues, and to the pupils as well. The spirit of adventure, the spirit of community, and the spirit of service to others.”
For Robin, those values sit above individual measures of achievement. Academic results, sporting success and performances on stage all matter, but “the character of the individuals is most important. Our pupils are not just in it for themselves. Their ambition – and quite rightly so – is to go and make a positive difference.”
A distinctive place
One of the many things that has struck Robin since arriving at Sedbergh is its extraordinary surroundings.
“It’s not just the big view of Winder behind me,” he says. “There are so many pockets and different angles as you walk around campus and through the town, where you pick up on small, different views. I walk around with a smile on my face – particularly when the sun is shining, but also when the weather is bad, that adds a different atmosphere to the place.”
Having recently read Michael Raw’s ’Tis the Hills that Stood Around Us, Robin was reminded just how deeply Sedbergh’s identity is connected to the great outdoors.
“The School has always been clear about getting pupils out into the natural environment. We’re very fortunate – there’s no organisation of our size with quite the same natural resources.”
He also sees something distinctive in Sedbergh’s location: remote enough to feel removed from the pressures of city life, but close enough to the M6 to remain connected to the wider world.
“We’ve benefited a lot from having friends and family calling through and visiting. And it’s lovely to see people coming back to their old school and reconnecting with us.”
That sense of connection extends to through the School community. Robin describes Sedbergh as a “very straightforward place”, where people value one another for who they are.
“People just get on with each other. They appreciate each other’s strengths and their weaknesses as well, and they support each other. And that really binds us together.”
A depth and breadth of educational experience
Robin’s path into teaching was perhaps inevitable. His father was a headmaster, and his school friends spent a lot of time teasing him about the likelihood of him following the same route.
“They used to tell me that the only thing I was ever going to do was be a teacher,” he laughs. “So I said, ‘No, I’m going to buck the trend.’ I tried working in another industry, and I think it lasted about eight months until I realised that the place I am happiest is in schools.”
He deliberately chose a very different environment for university, moving from the small, close-knit community of his school to the “almost total opposite”: city life at Leeds University, where he studied sports science and physiology.
He then began a career that has given him insight into a range of schools, roles and communities, spanning Bloxham School in Oxfordshire, Merchiston Castle School in Edinburgh, Lord Wandsworth College in Hampshire and Dollar Academy in Scotland. Along the way, he completed his teacher training through Warwick University and a Master’s in Educational Leadership at the University of Exeter.
“I’ve picked up experiences from all those different schools, which has been really valuable in informing how I want to do things here,” he says. “Ultimately, the reason I went into teaching is because I love spending time with young people. They constantly inspire me. They constantly surprise me.”
Influences and inspiration
When asked who has influenced him most as an educator, Robin begins with a name some Sedberghians will recognise: Kurt Hahn, founder of Gordonstoun School. Hahn’s emphasis on adventure, leadership and service resonates strongly with Robin.
“Yes, we are here to support pupils to get outstanding exam results. But school is so much more than that. It’s the broader education that underpins everything, which is of the utmost importance.”
His own schooldays also shaped his thinking. He remembers a Housemaster whose encouragement has stayed with him.
“Mr Devey believed in me. He told me I had potential, that I would get it right. I’ve carried that with me. We all make mistakes; it’s not the mistake that defines us, but how we respond. That belief in young people and the power they have to change the world is something I try to impart to every pupil I work with.”
His father, also a Headmaster, provided an early lesson in leadership.
“I learnt a lot from observing how he went about things, that it’s not about status or title. It is all about rolling your sleeves up, getting stuck in, and doing the best for other people that you possibly can do.”
That same sense of perspective is reinforced by his own family, who keep him grounded.
“My wife, my two girls, and also probably less so at the moment, Baby Digby, who is about three months old, so he’s probably influencing me less, apart from with a lack of sleep! But my family are also very, very influential.”
Leadership without heroics
So what does a typical day as Headmaster look like? His smile implies that “typical” might be the wrong word.
“My role is not to be a heroic leader who tries to do everything myself. It’s to support other people to lead in the best possible way, to build capacity, to ask challenging questions to see if we’re doing the right thing.”
For all the demands of a senior role, Robin is determined to stay connected to the young people at Sedbergh’s heart.
“I will always make time for the young people in our care. That might be saying good morning to them as they leave assembly, but equally it might be because a pupil has come to ask for a meeting because they’ve got a new initiative that they want to introduce within School. I’m always supportive of those ideas and try to push them through.”
It is these everyday interactions that remain one of the most rewarding parts of the job.
“Young people are a constant source of inspiration. I take great pleasure in supporting young people through challenges, because it is when they are challenged that they learn most about themselves. They become a better version of themselves, and then we know, as they go on through life, they’re going to take those experiences with them.”
What makes a great school – and a great teacher?
For Robin, a great school begins with something simple and non-negotiable: children need to be safe, happy and cared for. Without that essential foundation, young people cannot fully access their education.
“So community and relationships are at the bedrock of everything that we do, and they mean so much to us. We work very hard on them.”
When it comes to great teachers, Robin believes there is no single model. Their greatest strength, particularly in an age of AI, is the human connection they create.
“Teachers come in all different shapes and sizes, and I think this is one of our strengths when we’re talking about the rise of AI. I don’t think teachers can be replaced by digitisation or automation because we need that difference of interaction to connect with different people.”
That connection begins with genuinely enjoying working with young people. “We don’t do it for the money. We don’t do it for the holidays! We do it because we love supporting young people and seeing them move forward. And if you ask any teacher at Sedbergh why they do it, it is for that reason. That is why people go above and beyond day in day out to support the young people here.”
It is the young people themselves who make teaching so rewarding: their energy, diversity and unpredictability mean that no two days – or even two lessons – are ever quite the same.
“The vibrancy, the energy, the difference of opinion, the diversity that comes with it – those things are so exciting. Even if you’re teaching the same lesson for the fourth time that week, it is totally different because of the pupils that you are working with. All those variables within that classroom are amazing, and that makes teaching such a special experience.”
Beyond the classroom
For Robin, a full and rounded education is inseparable from academic success. “Good results are a byproduct of inspiring teaching and learning in the broadest sense. It’s not just what happens in the classroom. It’s every interaction – walking to and from assembly, life in the boarding house, on the sports field, in the recital hall.”
What matters most is what pupils carry with them when they leave: the School’s core values of humility, ambition, resilience and kindness, an understanding of community, and a sense of responsibility towards others.
“Some schools talk about values but you don’t feel them lived out. Here, it’s different. You feel them, day in day out, in pupils and staff. Leaving with those values, an understanding of community – ‘once a Sedberghian, always a Sedberghian’ – and a strong sense of service to others: that’s what matters.”
You can watch the full interview with Robin here: