Salvete

of the school; and to our excellent and committed Board of Governors, led expertly by the Chairman, Bill Woolley.

This year’s team of monitors has fully merited the honour of donning the blue gowns. Led with character and humility by our two excellent Heads of School, Ben and Sally and their highly capable deputies, Izzy and James, they have been a terrific team and done the school proud.

Our young are living in an age of unprecedented possibility. Our children carry the burdens of their own dreams and expectations; and the challenges of great competition. They are surrounded by choice and dazzling evidence of progress. But, as a civilisation, humankind still has so many things yet to get right. As educated people, they know that our world is also a place of unprecedented inequality, benighted with events of malevolent darkness: the radicalisation of young Muslims; the use of child soldiers; the desperate economy of human trafficking; the global reality of disadvantage, disease, hunger and fear. Together with all young educated men and women, our leavers carry the weighty burden of striving to right the wrongs that still prevail in our world.

Western culture consistently mistakes perfection for wholeness. Living with a sense of obligation to others, however this finds expression, is one of the virtues of a St Peter’s education. I hope that our pupils learn that the ultimate joys in life are moral joys; that the ultimate virtues are Eulogy Virtues.

The virtues that illuminate our youngsters must be bright enough to guide them on life-paths that are not simply about selfsatisfaction and the amassing of riches and experiences. The light of their Eulogy Virtues must shine even more brightly than the lesser light of their CV Virtues, impressive though those may be. We need their light to seek out the darker places and make them brighter.

800 years on from the signing of the Magna Carta - the ‘big charter’ between King John and his restless Barons - what is the charter that we make between those who are in positions of power and influence and those who need to be guided and cared for? What is the charter between the old and the young, between the educator and the educated, between the leader and the led? I fervently hope that the pupils of this fine school, which is, as you know, older even than the Magna Carta, have entered into a charter with themselves and with the world they are about they enter as young adults: a charter to improve themselves and the world around them.

I wish all our leavers every happiness and success. Even more fervently I hope that, as they pursue their goals in life, they will live in ways that are true to their deeper selves. May their minds grow in wisdom. May they carry all of life’s burdens with lightness of heart, with a sense of service and, above all, with hope.

Mr Leo Winkley Head Master

The Friends of St Peter’s (FOSP)

All parents are Friends of St Peter’s, but it is managed by a committee of volunteer parents familiarly known as ‘FOSP-ers’. This year the committee was the largest ever with 17 parents plus Justine Williams as staff representative and Mr Winkley as President.

The aims of the Committee are to provide a friendly face for all parents, new and old, to help at school social events (we are the people in the blue satin FOSP sashes) and to raise funds to help with internal school projects.

As usual the FOSP committee calendar started off with boarders’ parents’ tea at the beginning of the Christmas term where we managed to acquire our fi rst new volunteer of the year, Deborah Lockett – always particularly good to get a boarding parent on board! And, for the fi rst time, we also helped at the parents’ Open Day.

The AGM in September saw the handover of the chairmanship to me from Kate Fordy. Kate did a fantastic job in growing the committee in 2013/14 both in numbers and funds. Sian Fraser stepped down, having served her four years, including being Chairman in 2012/13.

The Christmas Concerts were very successful, with the help of the drinks, food and raffl e tables being located in the new foyer, delicious canapés from the catering department, and some innovative raffl e prizes including a large free-range duck, a generous Barnitts’ voucher and afternoon tea at Burythorpe Hall (co-owned by Eric Clapton). Half of the raffl e proceeds went to the Music School with the other half to FOSP coffers.

In the Easter term, Stargazing 2015 was slightly dampened by the weather – overcast with gale force winds – which meant that all outside activities had to be abandoned. Attendance was still high, the Memorial Hall was full for the lecture, and everyone enjoyed all the exhibits down at St Olave’s. Mr Morris and the Physics department kindly donated a telescope and appropriate books for the raffl e.

In February the committee met to discuss the support of school projects through internal bids co-ordinated by Justine Williams. The committee supported the purchase of a pair of debating trophies for the junior and senior Debating competitions, a quiz buzzer for the St Peter’s Challenge, a remote-controlled drone camera; stopwatches for the Swimming department and a cox box for the school’s Boat Club.

The Summer term involved FOSP help at the Induction Morning in June and led to four new volunteers for the 2015/2016 committee: Jean Maguire (Grove), Helen Wilson (Temple), Nicky Calvert

(Dronfi eld) and Vicky Hobson (Grove). The Cabaret Concerts were as wonderful as ever. The Sound of Music theme gave the committee the chance to dress as nuns or to show off the FOSP’s blue satin sashes with the rest of the team in white. The bar team did a tremendous job in keeping parents and guests suitably refreshed and the raffl e team raised over £1,000 – half of which went to support the Music School’s trip to Paris.

As always the standard of the performances by the pupils was amazing. In particular, the Choir’s rendition of the Sound of Music medley was outstanding and, for anyone listening, summed up what St Peter’s is all about – our children, their potential and our hope for the future.

My grateful thanks to Julie Cranston (Secretary), Tracy Walker (Treasurer), Andy Elliott, Kate Fordy, and Maggie Langford who all step down this year each having served three or four years on the committee. My thanks too to Karen Burdass, Wendy Chapman, Sue Corner, Sara Esler, Rachel Leedham, Deborah Lockett, Julie McLeish, Catherine Tannahill and Shelagh Turvill for all their help this year and, fi nally, I wish my successor, Gill Pycock, all the best as Chairman for 2015-16.

Mrs Caron Guffogg (Chairman 2014/15)

Salvete

Miss Laura Pearson

Miss Pearson was born in England and spent the fi rst few years of her life in Rye – in a windmill, no less – but moved at the age of seven to Nelson, New Zealand. After attending a ‘slightly old-fashioned girls’ school’ in Nelson, she began studying for a Law degree at the University of Wellington before deciding that it was ‘too boring’ and making the decision of switching to a double-major degree in Art History and English, with a smattering of Classics.

She says that she has been engaged ‘forever’, and tells me that her most interesting job was working in a gallery (‘well, I thought it was interesting’). She tells me that her family were actually originally from York!

Upon being asked about what attracted her to St Peter’s, she answers that it has the ‘right balance’ of things that she looks for, including a good level of history, the right atmosphere or a ‘vibrancy’ to the community , and the fact that the school is slap bang in the middle of town! Miss Pearson seems to fi nd the proximity of the city useful because she tells me how, at previous schools where she has taught, one had to ‘store up tins for winter’. What strikes her most about St Peter’s is that the pupils are independent and have many interests outside the school.

She insists that she is ‘the most boring person in the universe’ but amongst her interests are ceramic collecting (‘rock and roll!’ she laughs) and her dog, Dotty, who, I am told, is a ‘rare-breed Glen of Imaal terrier’ and gets her name from the character Dot Peerybingle in the Charles Dickens novella The Cricket on the Hearth. She can also bend her elbow backwards, a ‘party trick’ of hers.

I wish Miss Pearson many happy and successful years within the English corridors of St Peter’s.

Concetta Scrimshaw, LVI

Miss Alicia Matts

Miss Matts joined us in September 2014, and has already become a valuable addition to the school, both academically and in co- curricular activities. Not only does she teach History of Art to the sixth form and Classics to the third and fourth form, but she also