Henry Morris – The Life & Legacy

Henry Morris – The Life & Legacy was a project which took place at Sawston Village College in the school’s 80th anniversary year.  The project was supported by the National Lottery through the Heritage Lottery Fund.

The project looked at the life and legacy of the school’s visionary founder, Henry Morris. Described as ‘educator extraordinary’, Henry Morris established the concept of the village college, of which Sawston was the first in the world. Sawston Village College was opened by the then Prince of Wales on 30 October 1930, with the Prince planting a tree to mark the occasion. 80 years on, the school planted another tree as part of this project and to commemorate that opening. The school had footage of the original tree planting and by filming the recreation had the basis for making a film about the life and legacy of Henry Morris.

The project was led and managed by the Year 11 Pupil Forum, and project sessions took place after school at the Cinema Club, where young people worked with project partners from The Henry Morris Memorial Trust to research the life of Henry Morris. David Farnell from the Trust was particularly helpful in sharing his insights.

Young people also worked with professional filmmaker Peter Harmer and his team from Stories – Projects in Film to produce the film.  You can watch the film below.  A book about the project was also made and is also shown below.  If you would like any further information about this project, please get in touch.