HEADMASTER’S SPEECH DAY ADDRESS
Distinguished guests, members of the School Council, parents, staff and boys of The Southport School – it is my great pleasure to address you this Speech Day, the final academic day of the 114th year of The Southport School. DEMOCRACY AT TSS
There are two main themes in my talk today: moral reasoning and evolutionary psychology. I actually started off some months ago thinking about democracy as a Speech Day theme and that led to an interest in moral reasoning. Both topics are clearly linked to our Learning to Lead programs, as they have to do with an understanding of self and an understanding of others; knowing how to make decisions that are sound and just; and helping our boys to become better leaders, better community members and better global citizens. Democracy at TSS is about the power of the students. It is about valuing the voice of the students; and ensuring their overall views are heard, and that those views contribute to our decision-making.
GREG WAIN
Headmaster
At TSS the students have the major say in the leadership positions of School Captain, Vice-Captain, Head Day Boy Prefect, Head Boarder Prefect, the Foundation Prefects, House Captains, Foundation Wardens and also the elected members of the Year Group Leadership Teams. The five Year Group Leadership Teams meet with me and other Executive staff regularly and are consulted on significant school decisions. In the past two years the Year Group Leadership Teams have debated and decided in favour of random drug testing; rewritten the diligence rubrics for the boys’ diligence grades on their reports; and been key players in designing and approving the Primus Octoginta list – the public listing of the top 80 academic students in each Year Group, in groups of 10 in alphabetical order. Further, our Ideal Teacher model for teacher improvement, which is also a performance pay model to recognise and reward outstanding teaching, is primarily driven by the boys through student quantitative surveys and focus groups of students who meet with me to qualitatively explore positive aspects and any areas for improvement. The teachers genuinely appreciate the detailed feedback, and it places the boys in a very powerful position. Basically they are setting the teachers’ above-award pay, and that does not happen in most schools. The boys are also consulted by me when staff apply for positions such as Housemaster, Deans and Head of Department. So at TSS the boys are effectively ‘major players’ in the running of the school. It is a big responsibility and one the boys take very seriously and carefully. For any democracy to work well there must be high-level moral and rational thinking by those involved. Late last year, Harvard University philosopher Joshua Greene wrote a book
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THE SOUTHPORT SCHOOL SOUTHPORTONIAN 2014
