This week we sit down with Adam Larby, Head of The King’s School, Tudor House.
Adam Larby is the son of immigrants – a mother of Chinese heritage and a British father – who came to Australia and settled their young family in Sydney’s eastern suburbs. Adam’s childhood was a pretty good one, Coogee beach down the road and a great education at some of Sydney’s best schools including senior years at The Scot’s College.
If podcasts were a visual medium you would see how his eyes light up when he speaks about his adventures at Glengarry (Scots bush campus where students in Year 9 spend half a year) and as he points out it was in it’s early days and not the sophisticated set up it is today.
Anyway this episode is not about Scots, but it was here that Adam discovered boarding and spent time during his senior years as a weekly boarder and then on to a gap year in Canada at one of their most renown boarding schools.
Once he returned, the obligatory degree in Arts at Sydney Uni – where generations of students who aren’t quite sure what they want to do or be have gone before him. But for Adam, whose connections to his school remained strong, he decided that a career in education was going to light his fire so to speak.
His love for education and wide open spaces have now come together and he is the newish’ Head of The King’s School, Tudor House campus. A preparatory day and boarding school for boys and girls from across Australia and overseas.
Prep boarding is not common in Australia, in fact Tudor House is one of only a couple that offer dedicated primary aged boarding.
I really wanted to know what it’s like for kids that live away from home from such a young age, and why parents choose that. Adam takes us through a day in the life of a Tudorian and of course we chat about the history of Tudor House – how the school came to be connected with The King’s School and the reasons behind the schools’ decision to go co-ed in the past few years.
Kids do thrive here – it sounds idyllic. Everything you could possibly imagine ! I wanted to know more about Tudor House and preparatory boarding and that’s why I lined up this interview with Adam.
Enjoy.
