Speech Day

The Second Careers Convention will be held in the School on Friday and Saturday, 13th and 14th March, 1964. It will follow a similar pattern to the Convention in 1962, being accompanied by an Exhibition from a wide range of representative companies and organisations, and there will also be a continuous showing of Careers Films. It is hoped that once again a large number of representatives of potential employers will be present during the Convention, so that boys and parents can discuss careers problems with them on an informal basis.

At the Prize-giving, held in the Clifton Cinema on Saturday, 27th July, the prizes were presented by John Ratter, Esq., C.B.E. (O.P.). The Commemoration Sermon was preached on the Sunday by the Rev. D. V. Hewitt (O.P.). The Head Master's Report is presented below.

HEAD MASTER'S REPORT

Although the principal object in the minds of the boys, masters, Governors, parents, old boys and other friends of the School gathered together here this morning is to review the past year and generally to take stock, it would be unnatural for us not to give some thought to the future of our school. Much, indeed, is being said and written in these days about the future of Independent Public Schools, and each school will surely have to consider how best it can continue to make its own peculiar contribution towards the educational needs of the country. There are no two Public Schools with exactly the same problems and aims; in fact the only feature common to all Independent Public Schools is their independence. I am sure I am right in saying that we, at St. Peter's, have always had a clear picture in mind of the type of school we ought to have; and in that connection there are three special points I would like to make:

First, although over two-thirds of our boys are boarders and are drawn from near and far, we hope we shall always be considered a School of York and not just a school in York. The presence on the platform here with us this morning of the Lord Mayor and the Sheriff of York does, we feel, emphasise the bond between School and City. I can assure you, my Lord Mayor, that the fact that our boys can, during their years at St. Peter's, imbibe something of the great history and rich heritage of York is often a very substantial reason for a parent's choice of School.

Secondly, we have our own Preparatory School from which all our day boys and nearly one-half of our boarders are drawn. Admission to St. Olave's, as to St. Peter's, is by examination, and one of the main advantages of having our own 'Preparatory School is that entry at eleven provides no problem. We can cater for the parent who thinks in terms of the Primary-Secondary age division as well as those of the PreparatoryPublic School groups. In general, of course, we prefer a boy to have spent four or five years in our own or some other Preparatory School before coming to St. Peter's, but in some cases this is not possible, and it will certainly not 'be if there is to be any substantial link between State and Public Schools. No responsible body would ever suggest transfers

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from Grammar Schools to Independent Schools at thirteen. Might I here emphasise, if indeed such emphasis is necessary, that we value very much our close connection with many independent Preparatory Schools, and as far as entry is concerned, we try to do the same for them as for St. Olave's. If a Head Master assures me, when a boy is eleven, that he has good prospects of reaching our standard in the C.E.E. in two year's time, a definite place is reserved for that boy. If, on the other hand, the prospects are doubtful, both parent and school have been warned two years ahead. I have much evidence that this is appreciated by both Head Masters and Schools.

The third point I would mention in describing the main features of our School is the day boy, and especially the day boarder side. St. Peter's is organised and administered as a boarding school, but the day boys form a very important part of the community, and most of them are prepared to grasp the many opportunities necessarily available for a residential school.

Briefly, and bearing in mind particularly the three points I have made, we look to the future with confidence that our School will be ready and able to meet any demands that are made upon it, and that applies whether one considers the future of Independent Schools as a social, or political, or economic, or merely educational problem, or as a combination of some or all of these. The only change we would have to resist would be to coeducation—although in point of fact the outlook at St. Peter's is not entirely monastic!

Last year I said something on the subject of University entry. There are still many parents who feel that if •their son does not get a place at Oxford or Cambridge he is a relative failure, and if he does not get into

any other University an absolute failure. This, of course, is complete rubbish, and indeed, what is concerning some of us is not so much getting a boy into a University as in training him to have the ability to stay there when he arrives and to benefit fully from everything University life offers. Some boys are not temperamentally suited to the close study which is absolutely essential in these days at a University, and there are many such boys who should be directed towards other and different methods of training for the careers they have in mind. The failure rate at the Universities is still disquietingly high and it appears •that the gap between school and university is often difficult to bridge. Sometimes we think that the teaching of examination technique can be successful at the expense of real educational training, but whatever the reasons in individual cases it is incumbent upon both schools and universities to make the transfer from one to the other less difficult for our boys.

One thing is certain. An ambition—whether parental or school—to push a boy into a type of training for which he is not suited, can have disastrous results from which he may never recover. In these days of competition in every field and of rising examination standards, the boys of today are subjected to strain and worries far greater that was the case in our youth. While we must certainly not protect them from the necessity to work hard, it is surely our duty to guide them into careers in which they have the ability to succeed and at the same time to live a full life unfettered by the spectre of failure.

I would like to turn now to one or two points connected with the school curriculum. Last year I mentioned the introduction of further general courses in our VIth forms in order to widen the general educational 5