THE PETERITE Vol. XLIX
FEBRUARY, 1957
No. 344
EDITORIAL When the news leaked out in the course of the term (to be confirmed officially at the final assembly) that the Head Master had been granted leave of absence and would enjoy the first term of 1957 as a "Sabbatical" term, there was universal approval of the Governors' generosity and wisdom in initiating the idea. This is not the occasion for an appraisal of the great work that Mr. Dronfield has done for St. Peter's during his Headmastership, and we would merely remark that the term's rest (we almost wrote "enforced rest", since we suspect that Mr. Dronfield's first reaction to the proposal was only mildly enthusiastic) will come as a well-deserved reward for twenty years' selfless and unremitting devotion to the well-being of the School. Mr. Dronfield left York on the 20th January and, after a round of visits in the south of England, is to sail from Southampton on the "Capetown Castle", on 7th February, for South Africa. In the hope that he will be able to read these lines before he embarks we wish him "bon voyage" and an enjoyable and restful holiday. While we are confident that Mr. Burgess, who will be Acting Head Master for the term, will enjoy the wholehear ted co-operation of all—particularly of the other members of the Staff—in maintaining the high standard of efficiency in the administration of the School to which we have grown accustomed, we shall none the less welcome Mr. Dronfield's return in April. We hope that he will come back to us refreshed and reinvigorated to face the many years of service which he has yet to give to St. Peter's. * * * The gratifying "bag" of Open Scholarships in December comes as the hoped-for fulfilment of the promise made by the record number of State Scholarships gained in July last. The details of the awards are given elsewhere in our pages. We congratulate in particular C. W. Jose on his Open Scholarship in Classics at Worcester College, Oxford, and E. C. Sedman whose Major Scholarship in Natural Sciences at Trinity College, Cambridge, set the seal on a quite remarkable level of achievement on the Science side of our VIth Form work. Mr. Robinson and his colleagues of the Science Staff deserve our gratitude. At the time of writing other results from our Open Scholarship entrants remain to come in, but in any event the year 1956-1957 must rank as the "annus mirabilis" of our Upper VIth work.
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