Oxford Cup 54

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).

Our sporting programme has remained as full as ever. If our major boys' games have had undistinguished results at the highest level there is, however, much strength in the various middle School teams. Concerning the girls' games I pay tribute to Wendy Newton for the very full list of Inter-School fixtures which she has organised and developed over the last few years, and hockey, netball, squash and rounders are just a few of the sports in which there is a whole range of matches. The truly coeducational spdrts activity is of course our rowing, and our oarspersons have continued to win a multiplicity of pots and other trophies at a number of regattas. Thus I believe that our games programme contributes much to the enjoyment and fulfilment, both physical and otherwise, of all our students. If there is a lack of fanaticism which detracts from our achieving the most glittering results it cannot be denied that our pupils, natural games players and others, have valuable opportunities to take part in a wide variety of sports and to gain both pleasure and good health from their involvement. Thoughts are now turning to the coming South African cricket tour. Its fund-raising has spawned two very enjoyable social events — a Sportsmen's Dinner and a Buffet Lunch addressed by the New Zealand test player, Sir Richard Hadlee. Our cricketers will be spending a few days in East London at Selborne College with which School we have had a profitable and unofficial link for five years. I myself am hoping that on a lightning visit in December I will catch up with them for a day or two.

Drama and Music

Our outstanding drama event of the year was Ian Lowe's production of Close the Coalhouse Door by Alan Plater, a splendidly gritty Geordie musical which with a large and talented cast delivered a powerful social punch. You will have heard some of our musicians an hour or so ago in the Minster and this will have given you an indication of their current strength. The year was preceded by their very successful visit to Bremen and Munster, and thoughts are now turning to the New England tour mooted for next July. I cannot leave the music without mentioning the large number of excellent concerts which Andrew Wright masterminds through the year, and surely a major highlight of these was Martin Kershaw's fine performance of the Mozart Clarinet Concerto with the School's string orchestra. C.C.F.

With a guest of honour who did his National Service in the Gordon Highlanders, a preacher who was with the Royal Hampshire Regiment and the King's African Rifles and is about to become Bishop to the Forces, and a Head Master who got as far abroad as Scotland with the Royal Artillery, I should mention that this was the year of our C.C.F. biennial inspection carried out in petrifyingly cold March weather by our local G.O.C., General Michael Walker. It is incidentally encouraging that the large majority of our boys and girls sign on and join up in the fourth year. The General's report was a great credit to Brian Jelbert, the Commanding Officer, and Al Tooms and James Bellis who respectively command the Army and Air sections. General Walker wrote this:

I am quite clear that this is a competent, well led and effective contingent in which the cadets themselves are benefiting from the many activities undertaken. These views are further reinforced by the creditable performance of the C.C.F. in District activities. I congratulate the Contingent on the outcome of the inspection. This is a most commendable report and I congratulate Major Jelbert and his team on maintaining excellent standards of administration and training.

Worship

I believe it significant that some of our most memorable School occasions this year have been in the context of our religious worship. The big Minster services are major experiences not least, Mr. Dean, because of your support and involvement and the considerable help given by the Minster staff. But of similar impact have been some of our services nearer home. I have in mind not so much the effective regular weekday Chapels but rather the quieter said Communions on Sunday evenings and particularly the three whole-School Eucharists that have been held this year. That so many of you, the School, have come forward to receive the Sacrament or a blessing is a credit to you who have made these services significant and moving. Credit is also due to our chaplain, Steven Harvey, without whom and without whose inspiration, organisation and example our tone and effectiveness as a Christian School would be much diminished.

Highlights

I could mention much more about the year but shall limit myself to a few brief passing references. I commend one of our sixth form leavers, Jeremy Corner, on his vigorous chairmanship of the Debating Society. Worthy of considerable note was the Archbishop of York's talk to the Science Society on Science and Religion. Also there has been as ever a range of holiday opportunities made possible by the generous commitment of members of staff. One such was another of John Bulcock's sixth form Sahara trips, and his brief report to me afterwards is worthy of quotation: Seventeen members of School enjoyed the highlights of Marrakesh, the splendour of the desert sunrise and a visit to Gibraltar. In the desert the group coped resiliently with the extreme temperatures (from 4 to 41 centigrade in one twenty-four hour span) and on election day endured the worst sandstorm experienced by my Sahara groups from St. Peter's. The storm quickly abated and time was allowed for sunbathing and swimming at the local oasis. Again the party distributed clothes and footwear to the Berber settlement of Meski, a gesture much appreciated.

Indeed I understand that there is now a considerable number of these desert youths decked out with their Olavite blazers.

Also new last September was the Old Peterite Commemoration weekend moved from its July position to a time when we can do our very best to welcome back our former pupils. Certainly last September's weekend was a promising start and has the potential for future development.

For several years now I have used this occasion to give parents an update on our building programme. It is now, of course, two years since the Duchess of Kent came and opened the Chilman Building which was its centrepiece. However, there have been two significant landmarks reached in this academic year just ending. Way back last September there was the official opening of the new Mathematics and Modern Languages centres by appropriately and respectively Guy Shuttleworth and Denis Hirst. The Governors' decision to implement this particular development has been fully vindicated by the splendid facilities now available in these two subject areas. Undertaken also this year has been the desperately needed rebuilding of the Chapel organ. This job was completed with marvellous expertise by Geoffrey Coffin, the York organ builder, and the new instrument, heard by many of you at Harry Bramma's inaugural recital a few weeks ago, is enhancing our services and our musical life. We are now in what has by necessity to be a fallow period of retrenchment and consolidation. We shall be starting next year gradually to tackle the renovation of the Methodist halls for music and drama, but major developments must await another day. Every Head Master has his shopping list of what next needs to be done; fortunately we are now generally well-equipped and able for the time being to make do adequately with what we already have.

Thanks

Besides attempting to give a necessarily sketchy review of the year I am fortunate in having this annual opportunity to say 'thank you'. My first thanks are to the pupils and especially those leaving us today: if we are a successful and happy School it is at least in part due to the Heads of School, the monitors and the other members of the upper sixth and the positive spirit which they engender. The teaching staff have my continuing thanks for their dedication, their time, their skill, their energy, and I would particularly single out the Housemasters who carry a big burden of both pastoral care and sheer administrative chores. Every one of them is selfless in his (and her, with Mrs. Newton and Temple this term) concern for and help with the members of his House.

I also have a number of specific 'thank you's' to make: to John Mitchell who so to speak has launched the Alcuin Library and who on retiring as Librarian will fortunately still be continuing as our archivist; to Steve Mulligan (we wish him well for his future teaching career); to Jo Craig who took over Richard Drysdale's timetable during his sabbatical; to Maria Keki (we were very lucky to secure her services in the Art department so soon after John Brown was struck down); and to Robert Clark, with us for two terms, who has been a high-powered teacher of Economics and Business Studies, unstinting of his time with his A-Level students and who has helped out in numerous areas of School life and well beyond the call of duty. Today we say goodbye to Jeremy Boardman who leaves to become Head of Physics at Fulneck School. Three years ago and fresh from his teacher training year he immediately showed outstanding classroom gifts, has secured splendid academic results, has coached and run the squash in an exemplary way and has been such a conscientious and cheerful member of the Common Room. He will surely prosper and we wish him well.

Jeremy Boardman. Robert Clark.

Sir Peter Shepherd

I cannot let this occasion pass without expressing our great gratitude to Sir Peter Shepherd, for over twenty years a member of the School's Governing Body. His contribution to our well-being has been immense, and besides much shrewd wisdom, common sense and general advice he has brought to the Governors' deliberations his great knowledge of building and construction. The School's important developments over two decades — the Sports Hall, the new Science laboratories and Design Centre, the most recent programme stemming from Appeal '89 — owe much to Sir Peter's professional vision and his dedication to the School. His retirement as a Governor is a fitting opportunity for us to show him our affection and thanks.

John Brown

Today is also the occasion for me to pay public tribute to John Brown. Thirty-eight years in the service of the School, twelve years as a St. Olave's boarding Housemaster (with Peggy's fine partnership and help), and ten years Head of the Art Department. I looked up his file the other day. In his letter of application written in 1954 to John Dronfield he said this: "I believe that art education must be related to life; it must be the stimulation of curiosity, discovery, understanding of the interdependence of thinking,, feeling and behaving personally and collectively, and growing from this the promotion of that self-confidence which always comes from what has been understood". He has lived up to that youthful testament: a truly natural teacher, an inspirer of the young, a most versatile artist (sculpting, painting, ceramics, metal work, plastics, stage design and much else) and above all a cultivated and warm-hearted person. He has shown courage and determination in defeating his illness and in his steady return to better health. Today we not only acknowledge his great St. Peter's career but also thank him for the piece of his sculpture which he has presented to us. We give him our warm good wishes for a long, happy and fulfilled retirement.

The Government

I now turn to the final part of this annual report, commenting briefly on a variety of matters that have claimed my attention in the last twelve months. Not the least of these was the political situation, the approach of the General Election and the prospect of a Labour government. Labour held out no threats of our immediate demise, and indeed even the proposal to end our charitable status did not appear in its manifesto. However, its tax plans would have severely affected our prospective and current parents most of whom meet the fees with considerable family sacrifice from their disposable incomes, and there was no ambiguity about Labour's plans to phase out the government assisted places scheme. This would have been a bitter blow; it would have limited our ability with 140 such places in St. Olave's and St. Peter's to offer education to children from poorer homes and would have meant our pupils being drawn from backgrounds more socially and financially exclusive. An essential element in our make-up — boys and girls from all sorts of homes, rich and poor alike — would have been removed; and a tradition going back decades, indeed centuries, of this School providing an education for those less socially fortunate would have been destroyed. This political threat did not materialise, but I quickly add that complacency has not replaced concern: the challenges and opportunities of the current fluid national educational scene do not permit us to sit back on our laurels. Continuing Conservative administrations, the prospect of more grant-maintained Schools, the developing National Curriculum, the reforms that will surely come one day to 16-19 education and much else dictate that we must be alert to change, ready to adapt and anxious to improve.

Take for example our continuing response to the National Curriculum. I spoke at length about this last year. Suffice it to say now that our Middle School science teaching will necessarily and desirably be adhering to its requirements and that we are keeping an eye, a wary eye, on the testing procedures proposed at Key Stage 3 (the end of our third form year) knowing that as an independent School we have the option to test or not to test.

Pupil Numbers

Another area of concern for any independent School Head Master is pupil numbers and, for Schools such as ours, boarding demand. Sir Winston Churchill may have been right when he said, "Headmasters have powers at their disposal with which prime ministers have never yet been invested". Also we are in a different age from 1930 when the Head Master of the day somewhat disdainfully wrote in what then constituted the St. Peter's prospectus, "The Head Master is at liberty to see parents on the first day of the term and on Tuesdays 2-4". We feel somewhat more vulnerable than. Churchill's definition would suggest, and we are nowadays more conscious of our customers, our markets and our recruiting strategies than sixty years ago. Fortunately St. Peter's has, as perhaps has the City of York, ridden the recession (although I do not underestimate the burden of our high fees, necessary though they are). We have healthy and encouraging competition for our Senior and Junior School places, and this helps to ensure an educational standard which puts high priority on academic excellence. We are also managing to buck the national trend of decline in boarding, and our overall boarding numbers in September should be greater than this year's. This is of considerable significance: so much of what we value at St. Peter's is subtly related to our positive boarding and day pupil mix — our games, our music, our Christian traditions, our successful scholarship and study, our happy and purposive atmosphere. Our flexible boarding arrangements and our improving accommodation benefit not only our boarders but also our day pupils. We work hard, and successfully, at preserving and strengthening this pattern.

The Children Act

Related to boarding has been our involvement with the consequences of the Children Act 1989 which lays a statutory duty on local authority social service departments to inspect our arrangements. I welcome this, and only benefit has and can come from this review of our boarding care: access for pupils to telephones and to outside advice, some privacy, high standards of accommodation and food, satisfactory fire drill procedures, understanding medical care and suitable training and induction for those members of staff involved in residential duties. These inspections are currently being carried out in the Houses, and I am fairly confident that it will be confirmed that our boarders form a community which is generally relaxed, ordered, positive and content.

Final Reflection

Finally, this morning I want to share with you what was for me one of the highlights of this academic year: an address given to us Head Masters at our annual conference in Cambridge by George Steiner, a Fellow of Churchill College and Professor of English and Comparative Literature at the University of Geneva. It was a stimulating, disturbing and yet satisfying experience. His condemnation of the English education system was seering. "Why", he asked, "has Britain now a system of Schools which produces neither brain surgeons nor plumbers, whereas France and Germany have Schools explicitly aimed at different levels of objectives and abilities?" "The British sixteen year-old", he continued, "is now joining and has been joining for some years a sub-literate and sub-numerate under-class. A leprosy of emptiness and of recurrent rage marks him and her. Drugged by television on a small island now more saturated than any other, he and she have been literally, and it is an ugly word but it is a powerful word, they have been literally trashed."

He then went on to quote this statistic: for the 18-19 age group, 68% of all young Germans are still being fully educated, 57% of French young men and women, 19% in Britain. What then we may ask of all the recent educational reforms and initiatives? Steiner believes that what is emerging is a politics of education and not a policy. It is politics, he considers, which week by week fuels the education debate and changes the proposals: a policy on the other hand is a vision.

What, dare I ask, should that vision be and how near to it or how far from it are we at this School? What are the broad requirements in educating the next generation? Let me suggest a few.

First of all there has to be the cultivation of versatility: tomorrow's men and women may each follow several careers. Then there is scientific and technological awareness, problem-solving in its widest interpretation. There should be skills of communication, written and oral and in English and foreign languages. Then we must educate for increasing amounts of leisure time which automation and information technology are creating: hence a good reason for our programme of sports and arts. We should be stimulating a culture that is not totally trivial and commercially exploitative: the ability in other words to discriminate critically and not to be overwhelmed and governed by the media. There must also be a component that goes beyond health education and PSE and which touches on the practical considerations of human relationships, the responsibilities of parenthood and what makes families work. Lastly there has to be a spiritual dimension, education sowing seeds of wisdom besides implanting knowledge and skills: here lies the importance of literature and history in communicating a wider human perspective and the importance too of exposure to corporate worship and notions of high standards of personal responsibility and a genuine concern for the needs of others. This I know is a fairly tough prescription, but I hope that there is something at least of these requirements in what this School is attempting to achieve.

I said at the start that Speech Day reports are not occasions for illusions or obfuscations. They are not occasions either, with the long summer holiday beckoning, for gloom and doom. Steiner managed to end his grim indictment of the English system of education on a paradoxical if not an optimistic note. Despite our failings as a nation he reminded us that we have been spared the dark substance of Europe's history: for a very long time no real religious wars, no battle on English soil since Sedgemoor, no Fascism, no Nazism, no ideological massacres, no death camps. Instead a tradition of tolerance, of parliamentary safeguards and, despite current worries, legal scruples and public safety; a society in which political disagreements coexist with a consensus of mutual acceptance.

These advantages are not though a prescription for self-satisfaction and resistance to change. We cannot be complacent with English education in general or with the work and purpose of this School in particular. England is no longer a sceptred isle in a silver sea, nor is St. Peter's a comfortable retreat from modern society's demands and pressures. Yet there is in both our national heritage and in our School something precious which in spite of all the urgent challenges is worthy of our respect and our preservation. If this is something of a paradox then forgive me; I leave it with you. Here is how George Steiner left it; he ended his address in these terms: In 1989-90 the Government of Great Britain spent £55.2 million on military bands. This is £3.6 million more than the total it spent on libraries, museums, galleries and historical buildings. How utterly scandalous! Or is it? For these military bands, you see, played in the parks where old people and children and passing clerks tapped their feet to tunes which have in them, believe me (for I was brought up in Germany to the other tunes), less hatred, less triumphalism, less ideology than any in Europe. Perhaps that investment was after all the right one.