Review of the Year

Below we print extracts from the Headmaster's Speech:

Good School

I want to consider with you this morning what constitutes a good School and how well we at St. Peter's measure up to such a definition. Dickens's Dotheboys Hall surely will not suffice. I quote from Nicholas Nickleby:

Terms twenty guineas per annum. No extras. No vacations and diet unparalleled.

How appropriate then is this, coined by a fairly influential member of the English 'new right' at a recent Anglo-American seminar?:

A good School is a School that a lot of parents send their children to. For him and from his political standpoint no further qualification was required. Alternatively we can go to Evelyn Waugh in his novel Decline and Fall. Do you remember Paul Pennyfeather seeking a teaching job at the scholastic agency and receiving this advice: "We class Schools, you see, into four grades.

Leading School, First-rate School, Good School and School. Frankly," said Mr. Levy, "School is pretty bad."

Some of you may recall Sir Osbert SitwelPs Who's Who entry: 'Educated in the holidays from Eton'. I trust that our pupils get more from us than that! Indeed each year we make an effort to find out by inviting the parents of those recently left to complete a questionnaire. We ask them to grade from 5 (very good) to 1 (very poor) and comment on what we consider are twelve important aspects of the School: quality of teaching, teaching facilities, individual academic care, individual pastoral care, boarding house accommodation, day house accommodation, careers and higher education advice, sports programme and opportunities, sports facilities, cultural opportunities, cultural facilities and finally other extra-curricular opportunities.

Teaching

First, then, quality of teaching. Generally our parents rate it highly. 'Consistent very high standards in all subjects'; 'Without doubt the School's strongest asset': these are typical comments. I believe that our examination results last summer also bear testimony to this, with record A-Level and G.C.S.E. scores. For example at A-Level three pupils each gained six A grades and three more each gained five A grades. The Department of Education league tables put us at the top of the list in North Yorkshire and the Daily Mail, by some remarkable arithmetic which I neither questioned nor fully understood, made us the eighth best School in the country. But the league tables do not tell the whole story and make no acknowledgment of 'added value'. The fact is that we are not a School (nor is St. Olave's) with impossibly high entrance hurdles. Yet despite this our teachers, who deserve our thanks and congratulations, have the skills both to inspire the most able and also to bring on those for whom the academic challenge is the more daunting. Three further matters are also worthy of mention in considering our teaching quality. The first concerns our Art (and I shall have more to say about art facilities in a moment). The comments made by our A-Level Art examiner last summer are worthy of quotation:

I felt that as an individual I would like to pass on my congratulations to the School and in particular your Art Department. The standard of the work and in particular the enterprise and initiative shown by candidates was a joy to behold. I can only hope that I am selected to visit your centre again.

Staff

Secondly we are constantly reviewing our teaching provision, and in September we shall be increasing our staffing in Economics and Business Studies, introducing Spanish as a sixth form G.C.S.E. option and, with the appointment of Mr. Mike Jones as Head of Information Technology, ensuring that the most modern practice and cross-curricular advice are available in this important and expanding area. Finally it is appropriate here to pay tribute to those members of staff leaving us this term and to wish them well: Sandra Fox (for two years our Head of Economics and Business Studies), Robert Jeffs (returning to the University of York to study for a further degree) and Nona Blenkin who has not only been a stalwart of our History Department but also, as sometime Warden of Alcuin and then resident assistant in Dronfield, has given fine service to the girls' boarding side. Gary Lawrence, an excellent teacher of Biology and active and successful in our games coaching programme, has gained well-deserved promotion as he takes over his own department at Repton. Keith Pemberton warrants much more than a passing mention after forty years' fine service to the music of first the Junior and then the Senior School. Others can speak more authoritatively than I on threequarters of his long career here, but I pay tribute to his musical gifts, his selflessness, his humour, his generosity of spirit and his companionableness. We hope to see him and Jean often at things musical and non-musical in the years to come and wish them both a long and very happy retirement.

Facilities

I now turn to our teaching facilities, also rated generally good by our leavers' parents. In recent years we

have made significant improvements to them: consider our science laboratories, our mathematics and modern languages centres, the Alcuin Library, our departmental areas for Geography and History. Last year's purchase of Linton Lodge and the imminent exodus of boarders from School House have given us the exciting opportunity for further developments which will be in place by September: a much-needed and expanded Art Department (with incidentally the new and additional appointment of an artist-in-residence), a proper base for the English Department above the pavilion, a group of designated rooms for our Economics, Business Studies and Politics. These are just a sample of what this acquisition will have allowed us to achieve. Care

The next two sections of the questionnaire concern individual academic and pastoral care. Again our parents assess this as 'good'. As an independent School we ultimately stand or fall by the quality of our attention to our pupils as individuals — both in and out of the classroom. We have the task of ensuring that their academic results are the best possible and that our responsibility towards each boy and girl cannot be bettered. The pastoral aspect of this we achieve through our house and tutorial systems. I shall spare the blushes of particular members of staff, but comments such as "certain teachers have been absolutely outstanding in their ability, dedication, energy and creativity" or "pastoral care in his House was superb" or "excellent monitoring/support system in place" suggest that we are on the right lines. Our standards of care on the day side will be further improved by the setting up in September of a new Day House under Peter Northfield. This will result in smaller pupil numbers in each House and less overcrowding in common rooms and studies. Two members of staff do deserve special mention in this context: David Hughes giving up Queen's after seven years has frequently been singled out in our surveys for the care and encouragement which he has given his charges; and John Bulcock, four years Housemaster of Temple and ten of The Manor, deserves with his wife Anne our generous thanks for selfless dedication after a decade of very effective and thorough boarding house responsibilities. Thank you, David. Thank you, John and Anne.

Accommodation

The next part of the survey is concerned with the standard of boarding house accommodation. Much progress has been made here in recent years. Our two girls' Houses, Dronfield and Rise, now offer a high degree of relatively uncrowded comfort. Carpeting and new furniture in all Houses have created a less institutional atmosphere. The move of boy boarders to Linton Lodge will not only provide for better educational 'plant' in the very heart of the School but will also give those transferring to their new House in St. Peter's Grove a territory very much their own and accommodation and facilities of the highest standard. I cannot emphasise too much the very positive significance of this particular purchase in the development of our boarding provision and of our other facilities.

Day House accommodation does not fare so well in parental estimates. I regret this, and we are striving to make improvements. Parents will appreciate our dilemma here: we want very good House facilities for our day pupils as well as for our boarders, but there must necessarily be a limit to the allocation and provision of resources which by the nature of things are only fully used at particular points in the School day. However, the new day house in School House will, as I have said already, ease pressures all round and the rats-in-the-maze syndrome will be significantly corrected by this particular improvement.

Careers

One of our questionnaire heads concerns careers and higher education advice which some parents consider not to be comprehensive enough. I plead a number of factors in mitigation: necessarily the main thrust of our Careers Department's efforts is concerned with the next stage of education after School, and this is a scene of such complexity and variety that it would be wrong of us to be offering too categoric advice; also pupils are more relaxed than their parents here, and while it would be comforting for parents to know that their son or daughter wished to study a particular university course and then enter a particular profession, the son or daughter concerned (and I speak from personal experience) is usually less willing to look so far ahead and is often not anxious to close off various future options too prematurely. Thus with regard to our Careers Department we are not exactly on a hiding to nothing but it is nonetheless hard to satisfy everybody's expectations. However, that said, you will be interested to know of two very constructive developments which will be effected next year. Firstly the Careers Department will be moving centre-stage and occupying the suite of rooms currently the Temple studies. This will, both symbolically and actually, indicate the importance which we place on providing good careers and higher education advice. Secondly Dick Hubbard and I have devised a careers proforma to be filled in annually by each pupil, and this information, monitored by tutors and counter-signed by parents, will alert the Careers Department to any individual problems and be a tangible device to remind pupils and parents alike of the comprehensive careers service which we have available and which we want to offer.

Sport

The next two questionnaire sections are concerned with our sports programme, opportunities and facilities. All these factors score high marks. What we give our pupils in this area is fortunately far from Kipling's image of "flannelled fools at the wicket and the muddied oafs at the goal". I will not bore you with lists of matches won and lost and individual performances achieved. Worthy of note, however, is the strength of our boys' and girls' team games, the popularity of the rowing club and its successes, the huge variety of other games and sports on offer and overall the positive spirit and enthusiasm shown by all our participants and by the many staff who devote so much time to this flourishing side of our School life. The remarkable fact is that we achieve so much without an overabundance of facilities and fields (sadly, as yet no all-weather surface) but with skilful use and exploitation of what we possess. Our record in this area is surely strong.

Culture

Two further headings concern things cultural — opportunities and facilities. Again your approval rating for these is high. Our music, heard in the Minster this morning, speaks for itself. Certainly as far as our choir is concerned Coleridge's lines do not apply:

Swans sing before they die — 'twere no bad thing

Should certain persons die before they sing.

This time last year we were bidding the Choir and Band farewell on their North American tour which was a huge success and a great credit to Andrew Wright and his colleagues. Today we give our good wishes to the Chamber Choir who are off next week to Gibraltar and southern Spain. Already there is a gleam in Andrew's eye as he looks towards eastern Europe and considers plans for a year hence. There have been some fine musical occasions during the year: Britten's St. Nicolas, Carlo Curley's organ recital, the Easter Term wind concert (with a total of 120 ft. of French horn tubing in use during one piece) and Keith Pemberton's farewell evening four weeks ago which was particularly memorable. On the drama side Ian Lowe gave us last December a clutch of plays with large casts and a School theme, and we hope that next Christmas after a few years' lapse a musical will once again be die main production. One parent in responding to the questionnaire asked why with such excellent facilities there were so few opportunities for drama and added that surely there were pupils motivated enough to organise House plays and entertainments. This deserves a comment from me. First of all our facilities are not yet excellent, and I am glad that at least we have the means to begin the task adequately of renovating our music and drama centre in the Methodist halls. Secondly, there are in a School, two-thirds of whose students are day pupils and where our sport and music programmes are so ambitious, a shortage of slots left for play rehearsals. Thirdly, despite these hindrances, I would welcome more pupil initiatives in putting on House plays and concerts in spite of all the many other commitments without our crowded School schedule.

The last questionnaire heading is as follows: other extra-curricular opportunities (C.C.F., voluntary service, etc.)- Both these two activities flourish, and the cadet contingent was highly praised after its biennial inspection. Brigadier Marchant Smith's report concluded:

It is very clear that St. Peter's C.C.F. is a thriving and well-run contingent. Major Jelbert and his officers should take much satisfaction from their achievements.

Support for other extra-curricular activities not surprisingly waxes and wanes: the Amnestry group flourishes; the Mountain and Outdoor Club has a full programme both in term and holiday time; I expect a revival in the Chess Club next year and enthusiasm for debating is likely to continue; and holiday expeditions (thanks to the input of staff) have not only included rugger and choir tours but also a sixth form Greek trip, winter and spring hill-walking, ski-ing in France and our exchange with a School near Dijon. Our Army and Air sections are off to camp next week; a tour of First World War battlefields is being undertaken this summer; and a School party to Italy is being planned for next Easter.

These then have been my reflections on our parents' estimation of us. Have I actually managed in these observations to define what is the essence of a good School? Last autumn Eric Bolton, former Senior Chief Inspector of Schools and now Professor of Teacher Education at London University's Institute of Education addressed those of us attending the Headmasters' Conference. He offered us this prescription:

A good School is one that has high expectations of itself and its pupils; is staffed by good teachers knowledgeable about what they are teaching and accessible to pupils and parents; is a challenging, structured and supportive social institution; is orderly and well-disciplined without being restrictive and repressive; and is perceived by pupils and parents to be doing its job well.

No Headmaster should be smugly satisfied with what his School is achieving but I do hope that, while aware of our shortcomings and further needs, we would deserve from Evelyn Waugh's scholastic agents a better classification than just 'School'. Two recent testimonials give us heart. The first was sent me by a recent leaver who wrote:

St. Peter's was an invaluable experience and most importantly I believe that elsewhere I would not have been given the opportunities or the motivation to fulfil my academic and sporting potential — this is what I am grateful to St. Peter's for.

The second came from a parent:

We sent you a shy gauche girl with few social skills and lacking confidence. At eighteen she has emerged as a confident articulate young woman of whom I am very proud. The friendships she made, the team spirit engendered and the strong affection she feels for the School will stay with her forever.

The address at the service in the Minster was given by Dr. Donald English, one of Britain's foremost Churchmen. Known to all Radio Four Listeners for his contributions to the Today programme's Thought for the Day, he is also Chairman of the World Methodist Council.

Our Guest of Honour at Prizegiving was the distinguished soldier Major-General Patrick Cordingley, who was awarded the Distinguished Service Order for his courage and leadership as commander of the 7th Armoured Brigade during Operation Desert Storm.