COMMEMORATION, 1969 HEADMASTER'S REPORT
One of the characteristics of St. Peter's, in which I take great pleasure, is that the School is deeply involved with the City of York, and I am very honoured and delighted that you, My Lord Mayor, and your Sheriff are present at this Prizegiving and Commemoration so that I can say to you how much we value our many links with the city. During these last few weeks many of our boys have participated in the York Festival which is just drawing to a close, not only as audiences but also as singers or actors. We value our close connection with the Minster; it was particularly pleasing when, earlier this term, our choir was invited to sing Evensong in the Minster. Moreover, our sixth-formers enjoy the experience of being guests and hosts at conferences with schools of York, and many of our senior boys also go out into the City on various tasks of social service in which not only can they bring practical assistance to those in need but perhaps more important, they themselves learn from contact with real problems. And I am delighted too, that Mr. Cummin is on the Council. The City of York is of a size to encourage hopes of much collaboration in education. We are within walking distance of many other schools and of the King's Manor, and I hope that it may be more and more easy in the future to share some of the facilities amongst the various schools in York; for instance, by co-operating in certain subjects for sixthformers such as Russian, or in General Studies projects. And if I may bring in the University of York at this point, to repeat what was said in Latin, in case any of you missed it, we find that the University is extremely generous and hospitable to us; only two days ago half of our sixth-formers attended a conference at the University which was devised to show them what University life and University work will entail. In the educational world outside York this has been a year full of talk and speculation. Almost a year ago the Newsom Commission published its report on the Independent Boarding Schools. We are still awaiting an official statement about it from the Government. The document was a curious one which received a uniformly bad press. There was evident disagreement among the members of the Commission as to whether the Public Schools were very good or very bad, but there was some basic agreement that the schools have a great deal to offer a national educational system, and the Commissioners based their argument on boarding need. There are many children, they argued, who need to board because, for instance, their parents live abroad or move around, or because a boy or a girl has a special aptitude and a particular boarding school can provide suitable amenities. (An example in our own case is that of the organ in Chapel. Throughout most periods of free time one can hear a boy practising on the organ.) For others boarding is a need because of difficulties at home. I believe that St. Peter's and St. Olave's are doing a good deal to help those with boarding need. Almost one-third of the boarders in our Junior School and a sixth of our Senior School boarders have parents living 7
