Innovation & Entrepreneurship
Pupils who think differently often make the greatest difference
The centenary of Alan Turing's arrival at Sherborne as a pupil is a fitting moment to launch our most ambitious new initiative. In naming our Innovation Centre after him, we celebrate not just his extraordinary contribution to the modern world, but the kind of mind that made it possible - original, unconventional, and quietly revolutionary.
The curiosity, rigour and imagination that defined Turing’s thinking are the qualities we are working to nurture in every Sherborne pupil today – qualities that have never been more relevant, or more necessary.
The Turing Innovation Centre
A dedicated building on our estate is being transformed into a purpose-built space for innovation, AI and entrepreneurship. It will house our Start-Up Studio, creative labs, an AI education hub, and a technology incubator - open to every pupil across all three schools, from the youngest children in the Prep to Sixth Formers running real companies.
This is not a space for passive learning. It is a place for building, testing, failing productively, and creating. A space where the connection between an idea and its real-world consequences is made visible every day.
The curiosity, rigour and imagination that defined Turing's thinking are the qualities we are working to nurture in every Sherborne pupil - qualities that have never been more relevant, or more necessary.
The Turing Conference
As part of the wider Sherborne Turing Project, a collaboration between the school and the town, we are launching the first in what will become an annual Turing Conference. The inaugural event brings together leading figures from industry, academia and technology, including representatives from Microsoft, BAE Systems, GCHQ, Bletchley Park and leading universities, for workshops, expert panel discussions, lectures and live demonstrations of cutting-edge technology. Themes include the future of AI, cyber security, digital innovation and the ethical questions that surround them.
Two New Directors
From 2026-27, two new Directors will lead our Innovation and Entrepreneurship focus:
| Director of Digital Innovation |
|---|
| Our AI and digital literacy curriculum will progress from Prep through to Year 13. Pupils will not simply learn about AI, they will build, train and critically evaluate AI systems, and engage seriously with the ethical questions they raise. |
| Director of Enterprise |
| Our entrepreneurship programme will run across all three schools, growing in ambition at every stage. In the Sixth Form, it culminates in pupils incorporating and trading a real company, raising seed capital from an external investor panel, and presenting at an annual Pitch Day. |
For Every Pupil, at Every Stage
Entrepreneurship and innovation thrive on difference; in thinking, in approach, in perspective. From Pre-Prep to the Upper Sixth, we will use AI to help optimise each individual's ability and potential, identifying early where any pupil may benefit from additional support and opening doors that a more standardised approach might leave closed.
This thinking will be embedded across school life and, as programmes develop, increasingly woven into the curriculum itself. It is an attitude as much as a syllabus; a deep-rooted belief that every pupil's ideas can become reality, and that a Sherborne education equips them to be a net contributor to the society around them.
Without pioneers, the world will turn but never move forward.
