Celebrating 50 years
2026 marks a golden milestone in Herne Hill School’s history. For 50 years, we have focused exclusively on developing children to their best potential, launching them on a trajectory of happy, healthy and balanced lives. It’s time to say thank you and celebrate!Thank you for our 50 years…
…to every pupil whose future we have had the privilege to shape!
…to their parents for working with us so collaboratively to that end and entrusting us with this huge responsibility.
… to all our current and former staff for your love, care and dedication. You have always been the School’s greatest asset, creating that special friendly, happy, family-feel environment in which young children thrive best.
… and to our founders, Phyll Bennett and Chris Ratsey, along with their husbands Garry and David, for having started it all in 1976! We are grateful for your enduring foundational gifts.
Two short videos featuring our founders
To reminisce on the School’s 50-year journey, we invite you to watch two short videos featuring Phyll and Chris.
In the first, our Director Dominik Magyar reflects on the School’s foundational pillars and how these have informed the present. If you are inspired by the lines from Kahlil Gibran’s beautiful poem “On Children”, you can find it on our Aims, ethos and safeguarding page.
In the second film, Phyll and Chris return to the School in November 2025 and share how it all began.
Our foundations of 50 years
Our Director Dominik Magyar reflects on the School’s foundational values and ethos.
How it all started
Herne Hill School’s founders Phyll Bennett and Chris Ratsey return to the School and explore how it all began.
Our Golden Anniversary Open Day: A day full of love, gratitude and celebration
Herne Hill School celebrated its 50th anniversary with a memorable Open Day on Saturday 16 May, bringing together pupils, parents, staff and friends from across all five decades of the School’s history. The event welcomed hundreds of visitors, with guests revisiting classrooms, exploring archive displays and reconnecting with ‘old’ friends and colleagues.
A special exhibition in the Oak building showcased photographs, costumes and footage from past productions, while current pupils’ “golden threads” displays celebrated the School’s values and community spirit.
Gatherings in Oak Hall united past and present directors, headteachers, staff, parents and pupils view a specially composed anniversary song, a celebratory rap and the much-loved Herne Hill School song, creating a joyful afternoon of reflection, nostalgia and celebration.
The photos below were taken on the day by Laurie Castelli, photographer ‘extraordinaire’ and parent of a current Year 1 child.
50th Anniversary Song
A highlight of the Golden Anniversary Open Day was jointly watching the film of the Key Stage 1 children singing the special 50th anniversary song, composed by former Director of Music Carles Jimenez, with lyrics by former teacher Claire Peters.
Willow Message Tree
We are grateful to two former talented parents, artist Sam Barnett (best known for his portrait of King Charles III) and Alex Miller, for having designed and created a beautiful willow sculpture for our Golden Anniversary Open Day.
It featured prominently in our playground on the day and enabled every visitor to share a congratulatory or memory message to Herne Hill School on its 50th anniversary. Thank you, Sam and Alex, for the golden opportunity you gave everyone to reflect on the School’s contributions to their lives.
The Story of Us and Golden Threads
When we planned the celebrations for our golden anniversary year, it was essential that our children could engage meaningfully with this historic milestone. To that end, we defined our school-wide topics for the spring and summer terms 2026 to be The Story of Us and Golden Threads, respectively.
Under these topics, the children were able to develop a good sense of the world they live in as well as timelines and the value of communities. This and more was explored through discussions in the classrooms and in assemblies as well as numerous cross-curricular activities such as creating displays throughout the school, learning and performing our special 50th Anniversary Song and a historical rap, contributing to the Collaborative Woodwork Mural (see below) as well as dressing up and dancing enthusiastically on the Back to 1976 celebration day on 15 May.
Even the BBC helped celebrate that day with Lauren Laverne interviewing on BBC Radio 6 Music our Assistant Head of Kindergarten Cathy Curran, who had assembled our 1976 playlist.
Collaborative Woodwork Mural
Art in all its expressive forms and community collaborations have always been important hallmarks at Herne Hill School. It was therefore only fitting that two of our wonderful Teaching Assistants, Sharon Neish and Brandon Gallent, who also hold the roles of Art and Woodwork Coordinator, respectively, jointly led a collaborative woodwork mural project.
The design features our Grade II listed Vicarage and highlights our majestic oak tree – a central and much‑loved feature in our playground. Every current pupil and member of staff contributed their individually painted wooden oak leaf, which when assembled resulted in the beautiful overall artwork now displayed in our playground.
