MEET OUR NEW HEADMASTER Last summer, Tim Haynes retired after twelve years of exceptional service to Tonbridge, ushering in a new era for the school: the James Priory era. Having provided a decade of outstanding leadership to The Portsmouth Grammar School, James joined us in September 2018, and is already heading the school with dedication and energy. Read on to find out about our new Headmaster and his vision for the school. Q: Where were you before coming to Tonbridge? I had taught at Portsmouth Grammar School which I joined initially as Head of English before becoming Head of Sixth Form. From 2008 I was fortunate enough to become Headmaster and so moved down to Portsmouth with my family, having previously lived in Petersfield within the South Downs. We thoroughly enjoyed moving into Southsea and living by the Solent. Before that, I had started my teaching career at Bradford Grammar School. I still love going back to the Yorkshire Dales and places as evocative as Salts Mill and Haworth. Q: What were your first impressions of Tonbridge as a school? I first became aware of Tonbridge through books. As a rookie English teacher, I read Jonathan Smith’s superb book, The Learning Game. I loved the interleaving of poems, especially those by Edward Thomas, with Jonathan’s insights into the dynamic of human relationships in the classroom. Knowing he was Head of English here made me curious about Tonbridge. I also love the explorer Tim Severin’s account of his extraordinary recreation of the voyage of St Brendan across the Atlantic in a coracle. Here was someone else whose story intrigued me and who had also come from 14
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Tonbridge. Add to that such great literary names as E M Forster, Vikram Seth and, from the Sciences, the wonderful Professor Norman Heatley whom I met at Oxford and only later learned just how significant his involvement had been in the development of penicillin. I’m a big fan of Keane’s song writing too. I had a picture building in my imagination of a school that had the space and time in which to nurture some really creative minds. My first actual visit to Tonbridge was much more recent. It is clearly a very beautiful school with some impressive facilities. The chapel - resurrected after that devastating fire - is stunning and probably my favourite space because it is where the whole school comes together. But the strongest impression I gained from those first exploratory visits was of a welcoming, friendly school, a community at ease with itself, but with a seriousness of purpose too. Q: What has most surprised you about Tonbridge? If I’m honest, I thought that I would find the transition from a coeducational setting to a single sex environment quite challenging, at least initially. I had not taught in a boys’ school for many years and I assumed that there would be a much harder ➻
