COMMEMORATION THE HEAD MASTER'S SPEECH Sick as a parrot I find myself this morning in a position similar to that of the great Italian conjurer Giacomelli. Perhaps you are unable to recall him. Giacomelli worked on the big liner SS Italia and entertained the first-class passengers with sleight of hand and tricks of one sort or another. Part of his act was a parrot, a rather ill-disciplined bird, who used to sit on his shoulder. Sometimes it would give away Giacomelli's tricks. It would say, "Watch his left hand, watch his left hand," and so you will gather that Giacomelli and his parrot had an interesting relationship which lasted until that sad day when the SS Italia foundered and Giacomelli and the parrot ended up in the sea clutching the same piece of wreckage. Giacomelli looked at the parrot and the parrot looked at Giacomelli and neither said a word, and the sun went down and that was the first day. The second day found them still clinging to the wreckage. Giacomelli looked at the parrot and the parrot looked at Giacomelli; neither of them said a word and that was the second day. On the third day the sun came up. Giacomelli was still clinging to the wreckage and so was the parrot, and the parrot looked at Giacomelli and said, "I give up. What did you do with the ship?" There are at least two morals for me to draw from this story. One is that the reports from Head Masters at annual prize-givings are not occasions for illusions; they are opportunities for a realistic appraisal of the School year that is ending and of the matters of importance, educational in the widest sense, to which attention should be drawn on and on which comment is deserved. A second inference is that Head Masters, like Giacomelli, are not immune to scrutiny and assessment, and speech days are one of those times in the year when they should properly display an element of humility in the presence of those to whom they rightly defer. Our Guests Today is in one sense a tale of two cities. We have the Lord Mayor of York, our First Citizen, and the Civic Party once again with us. It is an honour to welcome you, Lord Mayor. I hope that it is not impertinent for me to mention that you and I are old acquaintances since we met at 7.15 each morning for two or more years in the newsagent's opposite Bootham Grange. We all wish you very well for the year of office which lies ahead for you. It is a tale of two cities in that York and London have together special and unique traditions and responsibilities concerning their respective lord mayoralties. Sir Alexander Graham, last year's Lord Mayor of London, has his links with York both in this respect and in his honorary membership of the Company of Merchant Adventurers. Particularly significant too is his long
association with that great London guild the Mercers' Company whose Master he was nine years ago. The Mercers have through the centuries been a great patron of education. With his School governorships Sir Alexander has a wealth of knowledge about establishments such as ours. Wearing yet another hat he is by profession an insurance broker and Deputy Chairman of The Frizzell Group. He is a man of the widest experience in both City, educational and public life. It is a privilege to have him and Lady Graham with us today, and we much look forward to hearing him address us later in our proceedings. Our other guest, the Bishop of Sherborne, was in a sense opening batsman this morning and can now relax in the pavilion having had a good innings and having made a good score. It is both relevant and a great pleasure to have him and his wife with us. It is relevant in that as the Archbishop of Canterbury's adviser to the Headmasters' Conference he has a special insight into schools such as ours with their close and historic associations with the Church of England and with their active and continuing traditions of Christian worship and observance. Bishop John is also a special guest for me and my wife personally: as Domestic Chaplain to the Archbishop of Canterbury twenty years ago he was, at least at weekends, our next-door neighbour in the Precincts at Canterbury and would escort the Archbishop when on occasions he paid evening visits to my boarding house. He is an old friend from those distant days and it has been a privilege for all of us to have heard his sermon. Results I said a few moments ago that speech days were not occasions for harbouring illusions. While the School magazine will record the facts and figures of another busy and successful year it is nonetheless appropriate for me to touch on some of those recent achievements which deserve special mention. The academic year 1991/2 has been the year, perhaps only the first, of newspaper School league tables. In theory and in principle we Head Masters do not think that such educational pecking orders are, in the 1066 And All That phrase, a good thing. The fact is that Schools and their strengths are infinitely more than what is revealed by positions in a table of raw A-Level results. Having said that I suspect that all of us here were pleased by our recent high standing in the lists produced by the Daily Telegraph and the Financial Times. Our ALevel performance last summer was exceptionally good, a big compliment to both teachers and taught, and I cannot disguise my delight that of the 500 Schools surveyed in the FT we came third of the top ten co-educational Schools and 56th in the full 500 list, far and away ahead of all other North Yorkshire Schools (53 places above the next and 146 above the one after that).
