COMMEMORATION HEADMASTER'S REPORT, JULY, 1968 On this my first Speech Day, I do not propose to say much about the ' e. Newsom Report, the publication of which is due in about ten days' tun Already we have been drenched by leaks from this document, but none of us really knows for certain what it contains. No further speculation from me, therefore, except to say that St. Peter's was visited by two of the Commissioners last term—Ash Wednesday, to be precise. (I wonder if the date was ominous). They expressed interest in all departments of the School, particularly in our range of entry—interestingly wide, I think—and in the courses that we offered the less academic pupil. They hinted that C.S.E. courses would benefit some of our "0" level borderline candidates, a suggestion that my colleagues and I take very seriously. They also seemed to be pleasantly surprised by the lack of starchiness that prevails in the School. Whatever the report may recommend, I am convinced that St. Peter's, with its links with the City and the Minster and the Ridings, and at the same time its majority of boarders, will continue to offer something important and socially cohesive for the foreseeable future. What that something is I hope will be made clear by implication as I report on this last year. This is a time of educational ferment, not only as regards the organisation of schools but also in respect of teaching methods. To put it crudely, the old emphases were on austere rows of desks, prescribed rules, formal grammar, much learning by heart and listening; the new emphases are on the discoveries made by the student himself, rather than those foisted on him, on his own experience, on a freer, more relaxed atmosphere, on collaboration in projects, and, above all, on doing. Hence the exciting developments in the New Maths. teaching (where no boy is ever given an answer, but has to work it out for himself), in the Nuffield Science courses (where a boy learns principles from his own open-ended experiments), in audio-visual techniques of language teaching, in project and dramatic work in English—and so on. This is an exciting time for us in the schools—I for one would want to be nowhere else. At St. Peter's we are committed to many of these new approaches, but we do not swallow every innovation uncritically. We do a fair amount of Nuffield Science; for instance, every boy in his last two years at St. Olave's and his first in St. Peter's learns Nuffield Physics, some of which will continue to "0" level. Some of the new apparatus for this course, incidentally, has been made by boys in our IlIrd form in the workshops, and it is hoped that more can be produced in this economic and educational way. For some time we have provided S.M.P. courses in the New Maths. up to "0" level; this year 1st year specialists of all subjects have been using the University of York's computer, thus gaining an opportunity to write simple programmes. We are extremely grateful to the University for their perMission and encouragement in this and in so many departments. Our Senior Classics Master, Mr. Croft, who spent a term at Emmanuel College, Cambridge on a Schoolmaster Fellowship, worked on an experimental Nuffield approach to Latin. And so on. I will not run through every subject. Let me sum it up by saying that the new approaches are transforming the school lesson, the
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