JOHN SM1THERMAN, schools master and TA colonel, Master of Arts, and Croix de Guerre, looked across the spacious grounds of Woolverstone Hall, near Ipswich. "Sometimes I call it 'Smitherman’s Folly'," he said. The words were meant as a modest joke, for Woolverstone Hall, the LCC's pioneer boarding school, is one of the great achievements of Mr Smitherman’s life. He was the first headmaster when it opened eight years ago amid of chorus of criticism and some derision. Contending with every kind of difficulty - economic, social, academic - he has worked to make a dream a reality.

Today visitors to Woolverstone will see evidence of his success when Sir Isaac Hayward, Leader of the LCC, opens three new blocks at the school. Mr Smitherman started with 45 boys and a staff of nine. Today he has 350 pupils and a staff of 22. Parents now ask about a place for their boys at least two years before the admission age of 11. Quietly, Mr Smitherman recalled the early days of the struggle to create a new tradition in English education. At those first meetings of the Parents Association for instance, when doctor fathers met dockers or colonel met pastry cook, things were not very easy. But all has turned out well. "We have succeeded in creating a classless society which incidentally is also international, for we have boys from many different European countries as well as from the Far East," said Mr Smitherman.

When Woolverstone was opened, people for miles around persisted in thinking that it was really a special type of school for boys whose parents did not want them at home. They were slow to accept it as the LCC's "public school."

Today, the school's blue cap and wolf's head badge is respected throughout Suffolk, for the boys travel all over the county carrying its good name with them and a big reputation for prowess in a wide variety of sports. On the academic side, they have won 25 university places in three years. Touring the up-to-date classrooms and laboratories, I could well understand Woolverstone's success. In the assembly hall, Nigel Fletcher, whose home is in Lewisham, was practising a Handel flute sonata with the music master, Mr Merlin Channon. Nige, who shows brilliant promise, wants to be a professional flautist when he leaves school. “We sing and play a lot of Bach." said Mr Channon, speaking of the school's choir and orchestra of 70, which recently performed the St John Passion. In contrast, three boys were working on aircraft models. They were Alan Musson, 12 (St Pancras), Peter Emberson, 12 (Forest Hill), and David Baily, 13 (Maida Vale).

Typical of the staff in devotion to its welfare is Miss Mary McNeill ("Auntie Mucky" to the boys), matron of Orwell House, who has a "family" of 64, each of whom changes shirt and socks twice a week. "I have to chase them like other boys. but they're very good really," she said. On the River Orwell, which flows near the grounds, boys of the school yachting club excel in handling their fleet of 13 craft and have won race trophies. "These London boys have a sharp eye for the points in a sheet of water," said their Master of Sailing, Mr Malcolm Poole, who has sailed the river since he was himself a boy in short breeches. Recreational activities range from archery to infra-red photography and the syllabus from Greek to Physics.

Mr Smitherman, who was educated at St Dunstan's, Lewisham, looked at the handsome new buildings - a teaching block, and two new houses - and said slowly: "In another ten years, with time to enlarge our traditions and growing prestige, WHS will be quite a place." Yet another modest understatement!