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Headmster's Foreward
Simon Williams
Headmaster’s Foreword
There is a honeymoon period at the start of every academic ayear when there is an abundance of energy and excitement; a frisson of delight as friends of old meet up after a long summer break and new acquaintances are made.
After 18 months of restriction, isolation and deprivation this start of year has been particularly special as we appreciate what we have that much more, because we now know what it is like when we haven’t got it. That is just as true of people as it is of activities and opportunities.
I am sure conversations about ‘long Covid’ will go on for many moons, but for some staff who have been here for extraordinary lengths of time, tenures of a quarter of a century plus, the pandemic has been a catalyst for retirement and already we are missing their perennial presence. The roll of honour of such souls is legendary: Jean Millard (Biology) 34 years, Teresa Robins (one of the ‘pink ladies’) 28 years, David Robbins (Bursar) 25 years and Linda (Librarian) a mere 22 years, David Cave (English) 24 years, Al Saralis (Art) 24 years, Linda Blackman (Curriculum Support) nearly 19 years, Jane Smith (another of the ‘pink ladies’) 17 years, Gemma Heath 12 years and David five years (both Art), Charlotte Lilley (English) 12 years, Paul Shipley (Economics) nine years, Rob West (Physics) eight years, Jo Trench (Maths) six years, Peter Beard (PE) five years, Jackie Dredge (Art Technician) five years, Linda Tebb (Accounts) four years. A hugely impressive total of 244 years of contribution to Churcher’s; there is more of them and their well-deserved valedictions later on in this magazine.
Many amongst the number are hanging up their chalk dusters and gowns and are so deserving of a long and happy retirement, but just as we have found with Covid, life can be very, very unfair. On the very first day of this academic year, almost the very first day of his retirement, the most tragic news of David Cave’s death shocked everyone.
David was an English scholar and a man with extraordinary penmanship, and I sorely need his talents at this moment to do him, and the sense of loss we all feel, true justice. David was a rare combination of exceptional academic, brilliant teacher, delightful person and the most modest of souls. His passion for his subject is legendary, but his dedication to sharing that passion with those he taught unsurpassed. It may be of no surprise to hear that he was a novelist, an author, but equally it will not be unexpected that he kept that side of his life rather private. No one could ever accuse David of being a ‘trumpet blower’.
David was stoic, he just got on with it with undimmed energy and intensity whatever ‘it’ might be and that reflects so much of what went on at Churcher’s during the pandemic years. With so many reasons to say “no, it is not possible”, everyone, child and adult alike, found a way to make it happen. Orchestras may have been separated into year group bubbles or even performed as a technical embroidery of solo artists stuck in their bedrooms; expeditioners and canoeists may have not been allowed on Dartmoor or the Thames, but
it didn’t stop them taking on the challenge and walking the distances of Ten Tors or paddling the equivalent back-breaking miles of the Devizes to Westminster Canoe Marathon; sports teams may not have been able to compete against other schools but nothing was going to stop them creating internal championships; and plays may have had to be rehearsed online or from behind face-masks but the show certainly went on. Whilst the world ground to a halt and kitchen tables became classrooms, the most remarkable levels of ingenuity, innovation, inspiration and resolve abounded.
Apart from one or two Hollywood disaster movie scriptwriters, few predicted a global pandemic and those that did probably suggested the world wouldn’t cope; but the world did and this magazine provides evidence of just that at Churcher’s. Outside the classroom and in, on the school site or remotely, there is so much to celebrate about the academic year just gone, arguably more than in a normal year where life is a little more plain-sailing. As is tradition, and for completeness, this foreword needs to carry a record of academic achievement in respect to academic results. What the raw data below doesn’t show is quite how much extra was required by both teacher and student to achieve such creditable results. This chronicle is probably a poor reflection of an ‘annus horribilis’ because, despite all, it is not how many will have seen 2020-2021. Different, undoubtedly; a challenge, certainly, but a year of much accomplishment, reward and welldeserved applause, without a shadow of a doubt.
I couldn’t conclude without thinking what the most erudite and perspicacious of our Churcher’s family, David Cave, would have said about last year. No doubt he would have referred to literature, or those responsible for it, and in that sense I quote from one famous author who said, “Writing a novel is like driving a car at night. You can only see as far as your headlights, but you can make the whole trip that way”. That is how this last academic year has felt, constant adaptation to unseen twists and turns, but we have got to our destination in both good fettle and good heart.
GCSE Grade Cumulative Percentage 9 9-8 9-7 9-6 9-5 9-4 2021 30.3 56.4 79.2 93.5 99.1 100.0
A Level
Provisional Cumulative Percentage A* A*-A A*-B A*-C A*-D A*-E 2021 30.8 70.7 91.5 98.9 100.0 100.0
