The town of Sherborne in the county of Dorset has a rich and ancient heritage. This was the seat of Alfred the Great, the first royal patron of learning in England’s island story. Aptly, therefore, Sherborne also became home to a notable boys’ school, which shared the town’s name and was later known as the King’s School.

As an independent boarding school for boys, Sherborne is comparable, in character, heritage and performance, with England’s best known public schools – Eton, Harrow, Winchester, all famous for the leaders of men they sent out into the world. Yet Sherborne, down in the West Country, has kept a lower profile and some would say a less elitist stance than its ancient peers. Its rounded approach to a boy’s education is, for many, more in step with the co-educational independent schools of today. At Sherborne it is called “Education for Life.”

Its enlightened Head Master brought in a new director to improve Sherborne’s profile and, with the help of brandstory, she did. Together they defined the school’s competitive edge and set about finding its true brand story.

Exploration revealed that many parents who preferred single-sex, boarding school education (the hallmark of older schools) also sought a more contemporary approach to their boys’ personal development. Further, they noted that Sherborne offered creative resources to complement its academic strengths, practical support and career counselling to match fine sports facilities and pastoral care. Sherborne’s vision could have been drawn on a blackboard: IQ + EQ = 360°.

Happily, in Sherborne’s vaults was uncovered a perfect symbol of its rounded approach. This started life as a governor’s doodle, in the margins of his notes at a governors’ meeting in 1558 (the year of Queen Elizabeth I’s accession). Its design reflected the school’s earlier, formal instatement, under the aegis of King Edward VI, in 1550 and was adopted as the Governors’ Seal. Known colloquially as the Sherborne Penny, the seal represented the school’s rich heritage in perfectly rounded form.

The story of the Sherborne Penny is now told in the school’s new identity, website and all its branded communications. As such, it has set the seal on a time of optimism and prosperity for the school. In the teeth of recession, pupil numbers are increasing and its story is successfully exported as far as Sherborne’s new Qatar extension in the Gulf.

Sherborne delivers its promise: an education for life. In this, as with its brand story, every penny counts.