Commemoration 2018
Commemoration 2018: the Head Master’s address A few weeks ago, I met an elderly Old Peterite, who had returned to the school for a reunion event - an anniversary drinks do. After a while in general conversation, he detached himself from the gathering and shuffled down the corridor. Following him down, I found the old chap in a reverie of nostalgic recollection in the Chapel. We fell into conversation. He had left St Peter’s in 1948 aged 18, he told me, and he then began reminiscing, in hushed tones, about various antics he was involved in at school. He remembered the other boys in his class; the games coaches and teachers; the matches won and lost. It was when he came to describe his housemaster that his eyes welled up. This was a saintly figure in his memory. Someone who had shaped and guided him. After an appreciative silence, I ventured a question. “So, who was the Head Master when you were here?”. He stopped to think. A long pause followed. Finally, the response came: “Head Master…?” he said. “Yes…. I suppose we must have had one”. [Canon Chancellor, the Right Honourable, the Lord Mayor of York; The Lady Mayoress; Deputy Lieutenant; Superintendent; Sheriff Consort; the Sheriff of York; governors and honoured guests, pupils, staff, parents, and friends: thank you all for gathering on this special day of Commemoration and PrizeGiving.]
It is a matter of historical record that the first three Head Masters of St Peter’s were Saints. Literally. St Paulinus; St James the Deacon; St Wilfrid. Now, that’s a pretty tough benchmark to set. And, let’s be honest, it’s been downhill all the way since then! Head Masters are always going to fall short. Or be forgotten. This invaluable certainty has helped me to keep my feet firmly on the ground. “In spite of the fact that schools are not very easy to work in these days of stress, I think I may confidently affirm that in every way this is the most successful year which I have had the good fortune to review”. Not my words, but those of my predecessor, Head Master Sam Toyne, in the Commemoration Address that he gave 100 years ago on St Peter’s Day, the 29th June 1918. As I begin my final commemoration address as Head Master of St Peter’s, one hundred years on, I believe that I can truthfully say exactly the same. In Sam Toyne’s day, the School comprised just under 250 boys, almost all of them boarders. Today, we look after 1,100 girls and boys from the age of 2 to 18. The success that we enjoy and celebrate today is as diverse as the school community itself. As a school, the vision we created is to be a happy, thriving 3-18 co-educational day and boarding school community that combines a classical, high quality, all-round education with a forward-looking and exciting approach to learning. We try to live by our seven values: seven qualities that are truly universal, but that spring from the deep source of the Christian faith. The inclusive pastoral tone of the school is of critical importance in ensuring that each child feels valued for the individual that they are, so that they can grow and develop in confidence. This is surely the most complex time in the history of human civilization in which to grow up. We continue to work hard to achieve a balance between challenge and care. Making sensible decisions at a time when the mind and body are in a state of rampant civil unrest is far from easy. Children will make mistakes. There will be disasters as well as triumphs. As educators, we must aim to blend sympathetic understanding with firm and certain guidance. A wise person observed that success has many parents, but failure is an orphan. This no longer holds true. Nowadays, we promote the notion that we learn more from our mistakes than we do from our triumphs. Failure is thus best understood as a teacher, and not an undertaker; disappointment the architect of happiness.
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The Peterite 2017-2018
