Commemoration Day was held on 14th July. The Preacher was the Headmaster. The Old Peterite Annual General Meeting and the Annual Dinner were held later in the day. We acknowledge with gratitude the gift of £I,000 for the School Appeal from Mr. J. S. Cooper, former Master in Charge of St. Olave's.
PRESENTATION OF PRIZES 7th October, 1978 The Chair was taken by Sir Donald Barron, Vice Chairman of the Board of Governors and the prizes were distributed by Professor Peter SwinnertonDyer, F.R.S., Master of St. Catharine's College, Cambridge. The Headmaster started his report by reviewing the broad field of extracurricular activities and the sporting achievements before turning to academic matters: We tend to measure our academic activity by the results of external written exams at the ages of 16 + and 18 +. These exams provide a reasonably objective yardstick. I would not ascribe to the G.C.E. marksheets the authority of the tablets of the law. The exercise of mind in a written exam is a small part of our engagement with each subject. General standards fluctuate; some subjects shift their emphasis (Economics and Geography are more mathematical than five years ago); occasionally a subject is marked one year with inexplicable severity or generosity. But all that said, I approve of the centrality of these written exams based on memory, because they demand not merely recognistion of concepts but mastery of them. You can only be said to have grasped a subject when you can actively reproduce it in your own words. I can report at '0' level a fairly encouraging picture with an overall pass-rate of 76% of the papers attempted, and impressive results in English, Maths and the Sciences. Languages present a special difficulty, it seems, for us : apart from our top sets in Latin and French it appears that the grappling with the grammar and idiom of foreign languages induces a defeatism in many of you. By determination and concentration, we could overcome that defeatism, as evidently occurred in the study of the Classics last year, when the second Latin set showed a vast increase in the pass-rate. What about proving it can be done in French ? Incidentally, the loci% pass-rate in Greek Civilisation is remarkable, and reminds us of our pedagogic loss in Mr. Duncan; he has poured much enthusiasm and labour into this course and this result speaks volumes. The 'A' level results were the best I have known at St. Peter's. 83% of papers attempted were passed, 2o% at a top grade. The high standards that have obtained on the Maths and Sciences were upheld. No one failed any of the foreign languages attempted, and the English subjects, including some candidates without academic pretensions, showed the splendid results of responsive industry. And let me say unequivocally that while some of the scholars produced spectacular results (one character six grade As and another five), the results which were the greatest achievements were prob5
