Presentation of Prizes

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 prob- 5

ably those of seven or eight boys and girls of average ability whose middle

grades represented exceptional perseverance. Hard work can remove

mountains.

The General Studies 'A' level exam has now been taken, with considerable success, by three successive year-groups. It is good to see so many

sixth-formers indicating a general strength in this way. I am led to ponder the words BREADTH and NARROWNESS, which are so often bandied to and fro in discussions of our Sixth Form curriculum. It is suggested that restriction to three examined subjects in the Sixth Form is bad for the mind. If it restricts your thinking to those three subjects then I agree that it is bad. The pressing problems that this generation of sixth-formers (in this country and in the world) will have to solve over the next 3o years demand a broad spread of skills, insights and sympathies. Engineers must not only be efficient engineers but also conscious of human needs and historical traditions; businessmen need not only degrees in Business Studies — they may have to sell their goods in French and will need human perspectives as well. We cannot turn out professionals in a single skill — of science,

or communication, management, or whatever — who lack the confidence of a wide involvement with human experience or are deficient in mathematical reasoning. It's no good confining your attention to skills and studies, some of which may be out of date in five years' time.

One answer being contemplated by the Schools Council is the extension of Sixth Form study to take in not three subjects at 'A' level but five subjects, three at N or Normal ( = A) and two at F level or Further ( = i A). In other words, the idea is to impose greater breadth and less depth. This is not the time or the place to argue in detail the pros and cons of this scheme:

suffice it to say, I think that it would be mindless to jettison the 'A' level, because it is a recognised yardstick; that breadth in the sense I have in mind

is not attained at the expense of depth; that subjects can be taught and learnt

broadly or they can be taught and learnt narrowly; that we need a flexible Sixth Form choice consisting of 'A' levels and 'A' levels (all right let's

call them Ns), and that a sixth-former could choose a pattern appropriate

to him from the menu that the School could provide of, say three 'A' levels , and one N; or one 'A' and three Ns; or two 'As' and two Ns; and so on in 1,

any number of combinations. The standards attained by our sixth-formers

by way of entry to Higher Education are high. Don't let's endanger these

standards by placing our trust on an exam as yet untried.

The breadth that we should aim for is that of a wide spread of com-

petence at 16, measured at present by '0' levels; a spread of study in 'A' levels and subsidiary subjects in the sixth-form to give depth and breadth

(not one at the expense of the other). That's the framework. But I'd add a personal commitment to our studies that all of us — pupils, staff, parents — ought to be aware of . . .

a. The mind working at full stretch. The most satisfying sports are

those that stretch us to our limits. We must be prepared to be fully stretched; to develop our full powers of thinking.

2. The mind prepared to study by itself, not under the compulsion o

unremitting direction. If you are to have confidence in your own judgm you must learn to work independently. You are not parrots.