Sachin Patel (Class of 2001)

Sachin has two memories of his time at Reddiford. 

First, the underlying satisfaction of being treated like an adult—even if you were a naïve, pint-sized chatterbox as I was! In an era when primary-school children are infantilised and frequently subjected to the most banal classroom experiments, it’s comforting to know there’s a corner of Middlesex where academic success is taken seriously, the foundations of learning are secured, and young people are brought into contact with the genuinely exciting bits of education (science lab explosions and the like). All of which left my classmates and I with the savoir-faire to make the most of the opportunities we had.

Second, Reddiford made me truly appreciate having been exposed to another language from such an early age. Learning French at primary school was an exercise in tough love, thanks to the inimitable Mrs. Soares-Smith, but we were very lucky to gain an outward-thinking worldview—and in an age like ours, that kind of liberalism and open-mindedness serves us well.