Speech Day

The Chief Guest at Commemoration on 23rd July was J. E. C. Hill, Esq., 0.P., the Master of Balliol College, Oxford. The Headmaster's and Mr. Hill's speeches are printed below.

At the Commemoration Service on Sunday, 24th July, the preacher was the Rt. Rev. M. H. Harland, Lord Bishop of Durham, also an Old Peterite.

During the holidays Mr. B. Allen, Mr. G. M. Austin and Mr. A. J. Riley all got married. We offer to them and their wives our congratulations and all best wishes for the future.

HEADMASTER'S REPORT

I should like to begin by adding my welcome in a more familiar language to Mr. Christopher Hill and emphasising the great pleasure we all feel at the presence of yet another Old Peterite who has attained an honoured place among the leading academic personalities of the world today. We were, incidentally, very interested to read in The Times, after our Latin Oration had gone to press, of yet another honour you have attained in your election to a Fellowship of the British Academy.

May I also welcome you, my Lord Mayor, the Lady Mayoress, the Sheriff and the Sheriff's Lady, to our Prizegiving, and express our great satisfaction that you have been able to find time to honour the School in this way. Incidentally, we may perhaps be permitted to comment at this stage that any gap there ever was between the School and the City has now been adequately bridged !

I mentioned in my report last year the continued happy relationship we had with the City and the fact that for many years we have been privileged to assist to some extent in the education of local boys. I do not think it is necessary for me to say very much about the Public Schools' Commission, which is to look into the future of Independent Education and particularly the so-called "Public Schools", since we have already, on many occasions, expressed our willingness, and indeed our anxiety to serve the City and country in any way we may be asked to do, so long as we are given the freedom to develop along modern lines. We should be only too pleased to welcome here any members of the Commission who would like to investigate our aims and activities.

With the completion of the footbridge, our major building programme, for which an appeal was launched, has now been virtually completed, but we shall never be able to sit back and must continue to develop to meet modern requirements. During the coming summer vacation we are carrying out several minor building operations which will result in the addition of two larger classrooms for the School, and at the same time provide better accommodation both for the masters, who have been satisfied with so little for so long, and the administration connected with the issue of books and stationery.

I am glad to be able to report that the swimming bath has come up to all expectations and proved to be a very valuable asset during the past year. It is pleasing too to know that so many of our parents and friends have found the holiday club useful and enjoyable, and I hope the membership of this will be extended in the coming year. 2

The question of rising costs and fees in general is a source of constant anxiety to the Governors, and I am sure they would wish to express to parents their regret at the necessity for the increase to become operative next term. It is always hoped that new fees can remain static for a year or two, but as everyone will appreciate, the matter does not rest in our hands. We shall continue to take parents and prospective parents into our confidence as may be necessary, and shall only make further revisions in fees when it is evident that it is necessary. I am sure our parents would not wish us to lower our educational standards in an attempt to curb expenditure, and we do not intend to depart from our policy of making our fees completely inclusive.

I mentioned in my report last year that we are arranging to abandon the short two-year course to "0" level, and our plans for this will be completed by September next year. Instead every boy will take three years to "0" level, and the system of "setting" which is already operative in the IVth and Vth forms, will be carried down to the IIIrd forms, which incidentally next term will be the successors of the forms we have for years called "Shell". Thus, the revised system, which incidentally is being followed by most schools, will not result in the cleverer boys reaching a lower standard than at present, and will make things very much easier from the point of view of University entry. The situation at the moment is that some of our boys leave school after only four years and one term, when in some cases they have obtained places at Oxford or Cambridge, but are very often not sufficiently mature at that stage. There will be a number of boys in this category at the end of next term, and I hope that both the boys and their parents will consider the individual advice we shall give them before deciding to leave prematurely. There is, I feel, a good deal to be said for a period between school and university, but this should come after the end of the full five-year course at school, when a boy has reached greater maturity both in his work and general development.

There are two things I would like to say about the work of the School : the first relates to the tutor system introduced during the year. The purpose of this is to give a boy, on entry to Transitus and the VIth forms, the attention of one master who is available to advise him on his timetable, the allocation of his working time to his various subjects, and in general to begin that difficult operation—the transformation from schoolboy to student. This is in addition to the services to the boy of his Housemaster, Careers Master and Headmaster, and we have found it to be working well in cases where the boy is prepared to co-operate. I look forward to an extension of the use of this system in the coming year, when everyone concerned will have become more alive to its potentialities.

The second point on which I wanted to say a word relates to work in conjunction with out-of-school activities. I shall shortly be giving a brief review of the school games and other activities and in each one of these activities we feel it is our duty to create the conditions for teams or groups to do as well as possible. There is no excuse for shoddy games any more than shoddy work, but I am becoming increasingly worried by the demands made, particularly on older boys, in the matter of these activities. I am hoping, for example, to relieve some of the most senior boys of some of their daily responsibilities so that they will have more time to devote to their work, and as far as games are concerned, we shall to some extent be restricting school matches and functions which interfere with a boy's work, bearing in mind that, after all, the real purpose of playing games is to ensure a balance between physical and academic training. I have said 3

before from this platform that one of my difficulties, and indeed one of the pleasanter ones, is to restrain the over-enthusiastic master in the organisation of his particular game or other activity and at the same time to give nil,. every encouragement and support. It is inevitably only the Headmaster who can—or must try to—see the whole picture.

To turn now to some curriculum changes, we have this year seen the first year of the introduction of the New Mathematics, and next year our boys will be taking "0" levels in this subject. Both boys and masters are to be congratulated on the way this new project has been tackled, and we should not have embarked upon this project had we not been completely satisfied that it will be to the benefit of mathematics teaching and learning in general.

We are in close touch with current trends in the teaching of Modern Languages, and particularly of French, and in this and other respects we have to thank the University of York for the facilities they have offered and the support they have given us. The audio-visual system, which was started this year in St. Olave's in J.4, will be extended next year to the J.3's, so that a boy will be able to familiarise himself with French sounds and words before he begins the more formal study of the subject in J.4. Mr. Craven also has in mind extensions of this system in various parts of the Senior School and in other languages.

Although we are not at present making any major changes in our Science syllabus, all our Science masters are studying very carefully the proposals for Nuffield Science, and it may be that in a year or two we shall go some way towards carrying these theories into operation.

Careers advisory work is becoming more and more oriented towards advice about further education. This advice ranges from choice of University and course of study, through choice of Technical College to education on the job, that is, the combination of education with apprenticeship or similar form of training. Two years ago the School became one of the early members of C.R.A.C. (the Careers Research and Advisory Centre) and this body is now producing very valuable comparative information which has been virtually unobtainable in the past. Some examples of their publications can be seen in our Careers Room and special mention should be made of the University Course Comparison pamphlets, which are of immense value in guiding the potential University student and those who are trying to help him.

We held our third Careers Convention in March, when we once again gave up a day and a half to giving concentrated careers information. We are very grateful to the large number of people who gave up so much of their time to this venture, either as speakers or by attending the exhibition and being prepared to talk to all and sundry. It is impressive that so many employers are prepared to help in this way, without putting any pressure on boys to join their organisations. In fact all those who came seemed to regard an occasion like this as providing them with an opportunity to take part in the process of education in the widest sense.

House and School Drama have again had a vigorous year and involved the practical as well as the acting abilities of a large number of boys in the various productions. After a break of three years the School Drama Society returned to Shakespeare, and found in "Henry IV—Part I" a suitable challenge for a sound team; and deserving of special mention are Furey's "Hal", Clegg's "Falstaff" and Thirlwell's "Henry". One cannot pass over a brief report on the play without mentioning Crombie's excellent stage work and the assistance he received from Grayson and others.

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There have been several House Plays performed during the year, but these, of course, necessarily have to be limited since the time available is not great.

Next term the Drama Society will combine with the Music Society for the biennial opera, which is to be "The Pirates of Penzance".

The time is coming round again for another Science Exhibition, and this is being arranged for the end of next Easter term, the dates being Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday of Easter week.

We have to say goodbye to Mr. E. K. Robinson this term. Mr. Robinson came here on his appointment as Senior Science Master twentyone years ago, and many generations of boys have good reason to be grateful to him for his devoted service to them and to the School. Mr. Robinson, through his obvious sincerity and integrity, has exerted a considerable influence over us all and we can assure him that he takes with him into his retirement our best thanks and good wishes for a long and happy retirement. We hope that, living as he will continue to do in York, he will not cut himself off from school affairs, and will still be a familiar figure among us.

Many Societies continue to flourish both at School and House level, the chief being the Debating Society, the Science Society and the Music Society, with the Young Farmers' Club and Photographic Society continuing to interest the specialists.

Some 70 members of the school form the Scout Group, and the programme of the Group has covered a wide range of outdoor and indoor activities. The outstanding event of the year has, however, been the announcement this term of the special changes which are to be made in the Scout Movement over the next few years. Inevitably, the uniform changes have received most press publicity, but none-the-less, there are many other more important changes which we feel will revitalise the Movement and make it fit in more easily to the modern environment.

The C.C.F., now well re-established as a voluntary body, has had a good year, and I am glad to know that the Summer Camp lists are very satisfactory. The Contingent earned—and received—an excellent report on the annual inspection. There are so many ramifications of C.C.F. syllabus, training and interests nowadays that there is something for every taste.

The Duke of Edinburgh Award Scheme has now been in operation here for nearly four years, and at present there are about 70 boys participating, and a few are approaching the Gold standard. Next term we hope to give actual service to the Police, Fire Brigade, Civil Defence, R.S.P.C.A., and in doing so to utilise the training received from these bodies.

Considering the fact that we only devote one term to our rugger, we can mark the past season as a very successful one. It the first half we lost several matches disappointingly by narrow margins, but ended with convincing victories over both Ampleforth and Worksop; the victory over Ampleforth by 16—nil, being the largest margin since 1926.

We were also much encouraged by the bumper year enjoyed by our senior Colts, who won all their matches and finished by securing 157 points against 20.

Many old boys will be interested to hear that Mr. Jeffs' school at Dumbarton is bringing down a team to play us next term.

The Athletics season, short as it inevitably must be, proved more than usually successful. This activity is invaluable since it involves every boy 5

in the School, and during the three weeks thousands of miles were run by the 400 boys, some of them in very fast times. On Sports Day four new school records were established, the most outstanding of which was T. B. Ward's quarter of a mile in 54 secs.

Our tradition for a high standard of cricket happily continues unchecked.

Unhappily our Centenary Match against Durham most disappointingly had to be abandoned without a ball being bowled, but it did not prevent us from holding the celebration dinner in the evening.

As I have mentioned earlier, the Swimming Bath has been a great success, and as was expected, there has been a tremendous improvement in the standard of swimming. There is now no non-swimmer in the School, and the numbers of Life Saving Society awards and Personal Survival awards have increased greatly. The School Swimming teams have also acquitted themselves well and are already able to hold their own with schools having a long-standing swimming tradition.

Boating has kept some 115 boys occupied during the past two terms, and continues to be a most valuable alternative to cricket. It is not, in general, possible for a boy to take up boating until his third year. The Boat Club repeated last year's success in the Head of the Ouse, the 1st VIII beating six crews in the Senior Division to win by 22 secs., while of the twelve crews in the Schools' IV's event, St. Peter's has 5 of the 1st six. The 1st VIII went on to row in the Schools' Head of the River at Putney, coming 21st out of 125 crews, and the fastest crew north of the Thames.

The Squash team has had an outstanding season, and for the second year in succession were undefeated in all school matches. The highlight of the season was undoubtedly the three-day tour in the south of England, where we beat all four of our opponents, namely, Brighton College, Hurstpierpoint, Tonbridge and Worksop. This is the more pleasing since Brighton College, undefeated until then, was considered the best team in the south.

These results all reflect great credit on the Captain for the last two years, R. D. Harding, who, together with a partner from London University, reached the final of the Lonsdale Cup. Vooght, our first-string, is also worthy of special mention, and although he was unable to enter for the Grisdale Cup, he retained his Northumberland Junior Championship for the third time.

Hockey suffered the oft repeated fate of being largely spoilt by bad weather. Out of ten 1st XI matches, three were won, three lost and four cancelled.

An outstanding so-called "Minor" sport success registered during the year was J. Pawson's Fencing success in winning the Schoolboys' Foil Championship in London, a trophy, incidentally, won for Harrow by Sir Winston Churchill in 1882.

PRIZE LIST

NORMAN CROMBIE MEMORIAL PRIZE

STEPHENSON PRIZE FOR GREEK WHYTEHEAD MEMORIAL PRIZES FOR DIVINITY:

Senior ... Junior ... ... G. F. Hardman ... A. M. Bowie

DEAN OF YORK'S PRIZES FOR LATIN PROSE: VIth Form Below VIth A. M. Bowie J. R. Lund

THE B.M.A. PRIZE FOR SCIENCE M. J. T. Carr

TOYNE EUROPEAN HISTORY PRIZE D. R. Waller

SIR LUMLEY DODSWORTH ESSAY PRIZE ... J. R. W. Thirlwell

THE OLD PETERITE CLUB READING PRIZES: VIth Form Below VIth J. R. W. Thirlwell P. J. G. C. Bleach

YORKSHIRE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY'S PRIZE...

THE FRANK PICK PRIZE FOR DESIGN

THE PRIZE FOR ARCHITECTURE

ATKINSON PRIZE FOR RUSSIAN

THE JACK BRITTAIN MEMORIAL PRIZES FOR C. J. Swiers

M. G. Day

T. B. Ward

J. R. W. Thirlwell

MIDDLE SCHOOL ESSAY:

IVth Forms ...

Shells

MODERN LANGUAGES PRIZES: French German

PHYSICS ESSAY PRIZE

CHEMISTRY PRIZE

BIOLOGY PRIZE

GEOGRAPHY PRIZE (Below the VIth)

Music PRIZES: Keyboard Instrumental

ART PRIZE ...

GENERAL KNOWLEDGE PRIZES: VIth Form and Transitus Vth Forms ... IVth Forms and Shells

HANDICRAFTS PRIZE ... ... J. Fender ... R. D. MacLeod

J. D. B. Hargreaves D. R. Waller

A. G. Slater

J. C. Willcock

A. G. Bird

D. P. Turnbull

... 0. G. Hodgson ... S. Mackinder

... P. H. N. Turner

... R. W. J. Dingwall ... B. Lack ... P. W. Dacey

... H. J. Robinson

Vth FORMS

IV ALPHA IVA IVB IV MODERN

U. SHELL A. L. SHELL A. SHELL B.

FORM PRIZES

R. F. Davies

J J. Nutter

A. Scaife

R. S. Johnson •• • D. Pollard •• • M. J. Black •• • J. R. Williamson • • • A. P. Beckingham •• • R. D. MacLeod •• • G. V. Fisher •• • A. P. Pollard

A SUMMARY OF THE SPEECH OF THE CHIEF GUEST J. C. HILL, Esq., O.P.

Mr. Hill referred to the eerie feeling he had on returning to his old school 35 years after leaving it as a boy. It was, he said, a "terrifying and odd experience" to find the roles reversed and he could only recall with comfort that he could not remember a word said at any of the speech days he had attended as a boy. He would, he said, fall into the habit of past pupils and reminisce.

He touched on an early incident in his past, where he had been unable to arrange a rendezvous with a girl-friend because she could not decipher his handwriting. The acquisition of a typewriter he offered as the first piece of advice to the present generation at St. Peter's. Mr. Hill recalled how in his day the most famous Old Peteries had been Alcuin, Guy Fawkes and Dick Turpin and how he had hoped to emulate them "even if Alcuin seemed a bit dull".

Mr. Hill maintained that schooldays were unlikely to be the happiest of one's life, because he considered the process of maturing and growing-up to be "unpleasant and difficult". School helped to thicken the skin and to render one less sensitive to the even harder shocks and difficulties one would experience in later life.

He described the previous Headmaster, S. M. Toyne Esq., as having had one of the most profound influences on his life, in that he had inculcated a "complete scepticism" in him. He had learned to have no automatic respect for his elders and certainly none for himself. Mr. Hill said that the most important thing in life was to "do what you want—if you are quite sure What it is you want". It was important to do things not merely because it was the accepted thing, but out of a conviction that it was the right and logical thing to do. He cited the idea of going to University as one which needed to be examined in the light of the individual's real needs.

As Milton said, "A man can be a heretic in the truth", meaning that if the truth was not one's own conviction, then even the most orthodox views were not "true", were not "your own truths". It was better, Mr. Hill said, to be wrong for the right reasons than vice versa. All the people whom he admired had been rebels, nonconformists and heretics—not for its own sake, but because they had "thought things out and stuck to it". He deplored the stuffed-shirts Who circumscribed their views within the limits of what they thought socially acceptable.

To parents Mr. Hill offered the advice that children had always wanted to outrage their elders and that long hair was only the expression in the sixties of the same feeling that produced dirty flannel trousers and leather patches in the thirties. Parents must keep in touch with the rebellious spirit of the young and encourage them to work out their own solutions to the many problems which the parents' generation had left them.

MR. E. K. ROBINSON

We are sorry to have to record the retirement of Mr. E. K. Robinson, who has been Senior Science Master since he came to us to fill this post in September, 1944. From the very beginning of his tenure of this office, Mr. Robinson tackled his work with determination and enthusiasm, and indeed, in war-time conditions, both these qualities were more than usually essential.