Antonia Lee
Antonia Lee, the new head teacher at Winchester House School in Brackley, talks to Business Times about the ‘honour’ of helping a young person to be the best they can be.
Winchester House School in Brackley is celebrating the arrival of new head Antonia Lee.
Antonia joins Winchester House from St Helen’s School, London, where she was head of the Prep School and has taught pupils aged three to 18 in all boys, all girls and co-educational schools.
She is a huge sports fan – particularly cricket, rugby and netball, is passionate about the performing arts and is a keen hiker.
“For me, teaching isn’t just a job, it’s a vocation. I am utterly obsessed about education,” Antonia said. “In fact, if you were to ask my mum, she would say she knew that I was going to be a teacher when she saw me at five years old desperately trying to teach my two-year-old sister to read.
“Throughout my career, working with children has given me so much energy and enthusiasm, a real joie de vivre, and it is always the deepest honour to help a young person find out who they are and help them on their journey to become the very best version of themselves.”
Winchester House, which is part of The Stowe Group, has a deserved reputation as a happy, high-achieving, all-round Prep School. “I fell in love with Winchester House the moment I arrived on a cold, blustery day last year,” said Antonia. “The rain was pouring and all I could hear was a group of small children singing a rather brilliant interpretation of ‘What shall we do with a drunken sailor’.
“Having followed the singing, I found this group of pupils who were completely committed to their performance, singing the song to their own actions and dance. They were finding such joy and pride in performing to an audience of one (their teacher).”
Antonia, who took up her post in January, believes that co-curricular learning is as an important part of the Prep School sector, a vital component in a successful education for a child.
“The facilities at Winchester House and Stowe offer an extraordinary platform for the programme and I am already in awe of the variety of activities on offer,” Antonia said. “It is a programme where pupils can develop their passions and joys in life, as well as learning soft skills and a confidence that can be taken into the classroom and, as they grow, into the workplace.
“I’m well aware that families will be trusting us with their most precious possession for a number of years,” she said. “I will work tirelessly to ensure that their child will be known personally at the school and be given every opportunity to thrive in all areas of school life, via an exciting and dynamic co-curricular programme and a cutting-edge, creative curriculum.”
