COMMEMORATION However, the achievements, even if touched on only briefly, cannot lightly be dismissed. There were our outstanding A-Level results last summer with a 93% pass rate and 65% of them at A, B and C grades. There were the nine successful Oxbridge candidates and the significandy improved G.C.S.E. record. Highlights of our sports programme have been the continuing success of the Boat Club, of the boys' and girls' tennis, of the girls' hockey and netball and the boys' squash; the Rugby tour of Portugal was worthwhile and enjoyable; and I am pleased that fencing is once again part of our options list. Two very intense and powerful plays have been produced — Ian Lowe's Dragons and Antony Dunn's Resurrection. The musicians have given us some splendid singing and playing in both me Minster and the Chapel, and a whole series of concerts through the year augurs well for the Choir and Band tour of Germany later this summer. A glance back dirough my diary and files has reminded me of other particular areas and activities (the list that follows is necessarily selective): Comic Relief Day when me School thought (incorrecdy) tiiat I was going to remove my trousers in Chapel, the various meetings of our Amnesty International Group, our links at both pupil and staff level wim Selborne College in South Africa, die major Barry Daniel Fund Award to Matiiew Sumpton and Marc Mitchell for their coming trans-Africa expedition, the participation of Ann Hodgson and Charles Barlow in me north-east Schools' party to India and die continuing work of our voluntary service unit. Concerning mis last it was very gratifying for me to receive a letter from York City Charities thanking us for our help with die residents of Fotiiergill Homes during die February snow. The letter ended, "It must be said mat die association witii St. Peter's is most highly valued, and die many benefits which we enjoy through it are greatly appreciated. Indeed, die way community service is taught and also practised at St. Peter's is something of which you should be justly proud".
CARDINAL HUME
Cardinal Basil Hume preached the Sermon in die Service at the Minster, which provided a memorable finale to the School year. After the Service, Cardinal Hume blessed the memorial plaques in the ante-chapel. These record the heroism of two Old Peterites martyred at the beginning of the seventeenth century: John Mitchell gives details of their lives in his "Forgotten Fame" article on page 86.
THE HEAD MASTER'S SPEECH
One or two otiier diary items of this last year: a farewell retirement party for Stan Shirreffs, our laundry manager, and John Hall, our head groundsman, after many years' fine service on the School's behalf; and inservice sessions for teaching staff which have covered such relevant matters as die role of die educational psychologist, alcohol and young people, and child abuse. If my review of the year has been botii brief and sketchy it is because I wish to spend a short time sharing with you my reflections on a number of matters which have been at die forefront of my concerns during tiiis academic year. They are our current development programme; things academic including die National Curriculum, technology and the future of A-Levels; die importance of our boarding provision as an integral part of die School's life; and my so-to-speak constituencies of parents, staff and pupils.
Below we print extracts from the Head Master's Commemoration Address. Review of the Year There is an old Chinese proverb which states that the brain will only absorb what the seat will endure, and I use this rubric as a guide on these occasions not to bore you with too many details of this year's successes: scholarships gained, matches won, concerts performed and so on. These are more than adequately reported in the School magazine, and I wish to leave time this morning in order to share with you some of the concerns that have claimed much of my thoughts and attention over the last twelve months. 2
