N E W S L E T T E R - Radley College

Radley
THE
N E W S L E T T E R
| Housebuilding in Kerala | Reflections on the Remove Year at Radley |
| Design and Technology | Snapshots of Sundays at Radley |
| The Head of Mathematics | The History Society | The Rugby Club |

Housebuildi
in Kerala
In 1998 Radley organised a trip to Kerala in South India to build houses for villagers of
Mankotta Island. So successful was this that it has since become an annual event.
This year the team led by Mr Hamshaw (Oratory Prep, E Social), Mark Lau (Aldro,
and Mr Shaw consited of Oliver Arnott D Social), Daniel Lumby (Caldicott, G
(Edgeborough, H Social), Charlie Curran Social), Fred Rowe (Cothill, A Social) and
(Aldro, D Social), Alastair Hope-Morley William Summerlin (Caldicott, F Social).
(Cothill, E Social), Sebastian Knight
Under the expert supervision of our
hosts, Jai and Laila Chacko, a wonderfully
creative and exciting time is had by the
volunteers.
Hard labouring for two weeks in
post-monsoon conditions is followed by
free-ranging tours of South India.
2 THE RADLEIAN NEWSLETTER

ng
Tommy Siman reflects
on the Remove Year
at Radley
Over the past ten years more than 100
Radleians have taken advantage of this
opportunity and a total of twelve houses
have been built. In recognition of the
houses already built, the lane where they
are to be found has been renamed Radley
Road.
How does an all-boys boarding school
accommodate and entertain one hundred
and thirty, fifteen year old boys? The novelty
that came with the first year has worn off,
the cooked breakfasts
every morning
are now taken for
granted, the further
independence that
boys of this age desire
is just out of reach.
When I arrived at
Radley I was used to
asking my parents
for permission to do
things, but after my
arrival it soon became
clear that it was the
internal hierarchy of
dons and matrons
who were my new
‘guardians’. It is these
figures of authority
who deny a Remove
many of the things
that he might want
to do like going into
Oxford on a Saturday.
They are set the
task of pacifying the
rebellious nature of teenagers on a day to
day basis. The fact that Radley is by and
large a calm and upbeat/cheerful place is a
reflection of the success with which the dons
carry out their duties.
There is a great difference between the
attitudes of a Shell and a Remove. In the
Shells there is a desire to prove yourself, to
show your year and dons who you are and
what you can do. This compulsion lessens
in the Removes. There is still a will to do
well, but as your dons now know you and
you feel that you have established a good
reputation for yourself, there is less need for
this desire. Surprisingly, for me at least, it
was not difficult to re-kindle this desire in
certain subjects.
My first term of the Removes was
probably the busiest school term I’ve ever
had. I had been moved up in several sets
after the Shell summer exams and the
workload, especially in French, increased
greatly. I was also involved in the school
play, Richard III, which admittedly took up a
lot of time, but was a great experience. It was
my first time in a whole school production,
having been involved in the Shell Play With
Intent, and I could not
have enjoyed it more.
The problem I had
was fitting my work in
around the play, but
this was not particular
to me. What I also
found increasingly
difficult was fitting in
music practice. I have
three music lessons a
week and it became
very hard to find a
good time to practise.
I was working during
most central hours and
during prep I had play
rehearsals or French
Coursework drafts to
finish. By the time of
the end of term exams
I was very tired and
perhaps slightly underrevised.
As much as I
normally enjoy exam
week I was not relishing
the prospect of the Michealmas exams.
To answer my introductory question, I
think that Radley manages to entertain and
accommodate us with relative ease. There
is something for everyone; on the sports
front, you can play almost any sport you
want, which has been a major bonus during
my time, for those wishing to indulge their
thespian inclinations there is a fantastic
theatre, for musicians there is an entire
music school, there are also competitions
happening constantly and these are not
confined to any one aspect of Radley life.
The Remove year is anything but a year for
‘coasting’, there is always something that
needs doing or something that you want to
do. This means that the ethos of a Remove
develops as he advances through the year.
From a personal perspective, the Remove
year has so far encouraged my work ethic
to increase and has given me first time
experiences that I have thoroughly enjoyed.
Tommy Siman, Abingdon Prep and H Social
THE RADLEIAN NEWSLETTER 3
THE RADLEIAN NEWSLETTER 3

DES
TECHN &S N
The Design Technology Department at Radley is widely respected amongst its public
and prep school peers. Competitor schools come here to look at how it is done, while Will
Matthews the D.T. Head of Department has been an independent consultant to others.
Large numbers of boys choose to
take the subject to GCSE (ranging from
48 to 60 in recent years in each year
group) and to A level (last summer 18
boys took A level DT); many comparable
schools struggle to attract boys to
examinable DT. The results are part of
the attraction at Radley; in 2008 17/18
boys got an A grade at A level, and 89%
got A*/A at GCSE. Boys know that they
will be directed and taught very well,
and that they will have a great deal of
fun in the process, for Will Matthews
encourages innovation, cutting edge
technology, and a pride in a really
professional product.
Typically, Radleians like to Design
and manufacture products that are
sharp, dangerous or fast (but it is a
boys’ school). We have one of the best
equipped workshops and Electronics
labs in the country in which we can
help students turn their dreams/
cognitive models into reality. Short of a
nuclear submarine, most products can
be designed and manufactured on site.
We regularly are told by ex-students
that they stand comparison with, or are
better than, the ones they go on to use at
University.
Walking through the Sewell Centre,
visitors see few finished products – this
is good! We want boys to design and
manufacture products that they are proud
of, that they take home the instant they
finish them. This pride in their work is
something we hope will stay with them
for the rest of their working lives.
Radley as a result has a large presence
in the world of Design and Technology.
We have old boys who work or have
worked for Seymour Powell, James
Dyson, and many other world renowned
consultancies around the globe. They are
involved in designing and manufacturing
everything from luxury cruise ships to
space ships, from Jamie Oliver’s interior
4 THE RADLEIAN NEWSLETTER

IGN
OLOGY
design work to large public Architectural
projects.
Design and Technology at Radley
is concerned with designing and
manufacturing products which can be
tested and evaluated in use. Designing
and manufacturing is a practical activity
that encourages imaginative thought and
promotes enquiry. Boys apply scientific,
mathematical, aesthetic and economic
principles whilst developing technical
skills to produce quality solutions. The
products are tangible and have a clear
purpose and function. They involve the
use of appropriate materials, selected
for a particular purpose and are of such
quality as to be efficient in use and
capable of being tested against specific
criteria.
An important feature of Design and
Technology is that it makes immediate
and practical use of knowledge and
skills from other subjects. It is linked
with Art and Design, Mathematics and
Science. The GCSE, AS and A2 courses
in Product Design force students to
draw from their own knowledge and
experience of all subject areas – from
Art all the way through to Physics.
They bring their knowledge and
understanding both in a practical and
theoretical manner to solve a problem –
working in the area that best suites them
along the line from artist to scientist.
The new A level has a strong emphasis
on commercial viability which gives
rise to exciting possibilities of links with
Economics and Business Studies.
Good quality learning means that
pupils at Radley continuously use and
extend their knowledge, understanding
and skills as they design and make
products. They show curiosity in the
investigation of the capabilities of
different materials and use an increasing
range of techniques, processes and
resources with confidence, showing
creativity in designing products to
meet particular human needs. They are
prepared to persevere in the organising,
planning and making of their products,
evaluating them at each stage and testing
them fairly against objective criteria and
are able to work both independently
and as part of a team. The photos
accompanying this piece illustrate the
quality of what boys achieve.
THE RADLEIAN NEWSLETTER
5

at Ra
Rowley Edwar
Hugo Walker practises his death in Richard III
The Swimming Pool Inflatable
Alexander Wright puts the finishing touches
to his Go-Kart in the DT centre
Snaps
of Su
Nick Gubbins in the Art Department
The St. John’s Smith Square Concert
6 THE RADLEIAN NEWSLETTER
The Inter-Social Swimming Gala

ds plays a floodlit game of Lacrosse
Peter Sansom, Poet in Residence
Rehearsals for the Duruflé Requiem
hots
The College Firework Display
ndays
dley
Sub-Aqua in the Swimming Pool
Archie Stirling on the Golf Course
Adam Bolton at the Oxford Mail Cross Country Race
THE RADLEIAN NEWSLETTER 7

GARRY WISEMAN
HEAD OF MATHEMATICS
Very few heads of department in any
school in the land have done the job for
a quarter of a century, but 2009 is Garry
Wiseman’s 25th year as Head of Maths at
Radley. In that time he has had the chance
to move on into Senior Management, but
has chosen to stay at Radley doing what
he loves best. Over that period he has
established himself as a doyen of Maths
teachers.
It has been no ordinary tenure for
he has shown considerable powers of
stamina and resilience across the years
as successive governments tampered
with exams, and external demands have
changed. There has never been a question
of Garry Wiseman passively occupying the
position, for he has been in the vanguard
of the radical managerial change that has
occurred in the best schools. There, heads
of department have taken responsibility
for leading their teaching teams, and for
the results of the pupils in their subject
areas. Heads of department a generation
ago might be the ablest practitioners in
the subject, but the role didn’t extend
much beyond cherry picking the best
sets to teach themselves, choosing the
syllabuses and ensuring the exam entries
were accurately and promptly completed.
Part of Radley’s success has been to
develop heads of department who have
taken on responsibility for inducting new
teachers, seeking to improve the teaching
performance of all the team, closely
monitoring all the boys that pass through
the department and, for everyone, setting
high expectations of what can be achieved
with hard work. Outstanding results
– from boys of widely differing abilities –
have followed.
Garry Wiseman has epitomised
the approach. He has taken infinite
care to establish contacts so that able
young Oxbridge graduates are attracted
into teaching at Radley, where they are
helped to learn their craft, establish good
classroom discipline, share materials and
teaching ideas, and gain the confidence to
go off and run departments themselves.
The professional standards he sets are
high and unremitting, but he understands
the importance of rewards and treats; the
department’s parties have a great deal of
style, good food and fine wine. He also
understands that young teachers in a
boarding school should be encouraged
to be all round schoolmasters, and they
have indeed contributed markedly on
the games field, in Socials, in running
societies. He has led the way in this, subtutoring
in a Social, running the 2nd VIII
and masterminding 5th XI Hockey and
Stonewall, (Radley’s 5th and 6th Rugby
XVs) with the lightest of touches, and
organising and personifying the role of
Sixth Form Form Mastering.
How to measure the success of
this department team so painstakingly
accumulated, and shaped, over a number
of years? Firstly, in the way the boys
have responded to being driven to
exceed expectations from Y9 (the Shells)
onwards. Boys are entered for IGCSE as
soon as possible, and by the 5th Form
many have taken, and achieved high
grades in, AS Maths. Each year in the
6th Form Single Maths attracts c50-60
boys in a year group of 125-130; in recent
years, and even more impressively, the
number of Further Mathematicians has
risen, this year in 6.1 to 24. This includes a
sizeable percentage of the whole country’s
Triple Maths entry, and a telling tribute to
Garry Wiseman’s ambitions for his boys.
At the end of it all, they have performed
outstandingly: in the A level results from
2008, the 56 Single Maths candidates
achieved 76% A grade, 98.2% A/B. In
Further Maths the 25 candidates achieved
88.2% A grade. While nationally Maths
entries have diminished, Radley has
emphatically bucked the trend. Nor does
it end there: Radley 6th Formers continue
on to read Maths and Natural Sciences
at Cambridge, to score highly in Maths
Olympiads and – like John Morton who
left in 1997 – to become Oxbridge Fellows
in their turn.
His secret is his energy and
enthusiasm which infects others; so, large
numbers of boys routinely attend the
voluntary Maths Society on a Monday
evening at 9.05pm to hear a don or a boy
give a paper on a particular mathematical
enthusiasm. So, too, the intense pride
in his department and in the subject
he evinces which rubs off on boys and
adults alike. Thus, he writes best selling
textbooks or is invited to inspect Maths
departments in other HMC schools
as a sort of trouble shooter. It is this
continually renewed enthusiasm for his
subject, the desire to share it with pupils
and colleagues, which have kept him
fresh for a quarter of a century and which
makes us confident that he will celebrate
an extraordinary 35th anniversary running
Radley’s Maths Department before he
eventually retires.
8 THE RADLEIAN NEWSLETTER

THE
HISTORY SOCIETY
‘Let me top you up before you head downstairs. You’ve only had one glass.’ So ends
another delicious dinner in Common Room, our visiting speaker politely declining our
offer but putting aside the glass to return to it later, before he or she delivers an engaging,
often entertaining, always informative lecture to a group of upper school boys. Such is the
hospitality for which Radley is well known, and many a burgeoning friendship has been
cemented in such style.
While one function of the History
Society is to prepare interested and able
boys for university entry (the History
Reading Group, a forum for the discussion
of complex historical ideas and events,
meets weekly), another equally important
function of the Society – indeed one of
the traditions of the Society – has been to
welcome guest speakers to the College. It is
a great privilege for those of us who teach
and live at Radley to welcome so many
esteemed and interesting specialists in the
field, all of whom speak to the boys on a
chosen topic, often with flair and wit, and
who provide an insight into a topic (usually
but not always related to the boys’ A Level
History courses) which we are unable to
provide. Some are engaged in pioneering
research, all are invested with alarming
degrees of enthusiasm; and their lectures
provide a forum for stimulating historical
debate and discussion. Part of the appeal
for the boys is, I’m sure, being able to put a
face to a name and to meet the ‘authority’
(as the guest speaker is described to the boys
on a Monday morning and whose name
features in all their essays); another appeal
is, however, knowing that opportunities like
this do not come up very often and that not
every school is as lucky to be able to draw on
such wide contacts and connections.
Many of our guest speakers have visited
the school several times. Only this year,
we have been joined again by Professor
Eric Evans, who enthusiastically compared
the women’s suffrage movement with the
Chartist movement of sixty years earlier
(did the women learn any lessons?), and by
Professor Jeremy Black who spoke about
power and control within the Nazi State.
And only last year we had the great privilege
of welcoming back to Radley Lord Hurd
who spoke to the boys about Robert Peel,
the subject of his latest biography (‘the
man on the man!’ as one of my colleagues
excitedly exclaimed ). New faces have also
been welcomed to the College this year:
Glenn Richardson from St Mary’s University
College in Surrey who talked about the
Reformation in Europe and in England;
Professor Lucy Riall of Birkbeck College,
London, who gave a fascinating lecture about
Garibaldi’s celebrity status in the nineteenth
century; and Professor Rana Mitter of Oxford
University who spoke about Chairman Mao,
his early life and political ideas. Andrew
Roberts, one of the country’s leading
biographers and military historians has
spoken three times here. It has been a great
pleasure to welcome them all to the College,
and to share their insights.
Such has often been the quality of
the talks that a number of boys have been
encouraged to look further into the topics
that they have heard discussed. ‘I didn’t
know that….’ or ‘Was that really the case?’
or ‘Did you agree with him, Miss?’ are often
starting points in my lesson the following
day. It is always refreshing to see how many
of our sixth formers voluntarily attend these
lectures and all who do come along are highly
appreciative. Of course, we have insisted that
some lectures are compulsory (they tie in so
well with the courses the boys are studying)
and all who attend take home an interesting
fact to include in their next essay.
Andrew Roberts, Biographer and
Military Historian
While primarily a society run for sixth
form students, we are not exclusive; we
have also welcomed guest speakers in the
past to talk to boys in our lower school.
Only last September, Richard Thorpe, an
authority on British twentieth century
political history, spoke to our Fifth Form
on the Suez Crisis, providing a vast quantity
of useful information which many of the
boys incorporated into their coursework
assignments. Richard has for a long time
been a friend of Radley, coming to numerous
first-rate school productions in the theatre,
as well as providing invaluable academic
assistance in the form of articles and useful
contacts for members the Department.
And more recently, we had the pleasure of
welcoming David Faber, author of ‘Munich:
the 1938 Appeasement Crisis’ and grandson
of Harold Macmillan, to speak on the
topic of his book. He spoke with infectious
enthusiasm for his subject and had us
all enthralled. Boys from all year groups
attended and, I’m sure, went away having
learnt a great deal more about the issues.
We were all, I’m ashamed to say, slightly
embarrassed at not knowing that a Nazi flag
had been flown over Cardiff town hall in
1938; all of us were flummoxed when David
showed us the photograph. The conversation
flowed for a good hour afterwards in
Common Room.
As our 6.1 Historians shortly begin to
consider their university applications, and
as the 6.2s prepare for their A Level exams, I
am sure that for all there will be at least one
nugget of information gleaned in History
Society lectures that will prove to be of
worth. And we can look forward this year
and next to welcoming many more esteemed
guest speakers to the College to continue
the tradition. All who have visited Radley
have commented on the boys’ enthusiasm
and interest, and all have fine words to say
about the welcome they received. There
have been some hair-raising journeys on
the A34 and around the Oxford ring road
as I rush in order to make the train or bus
connection for the speaker’s return journey
but this hasn’t put any of them off coming
back; next time they will opt to stay in one
of the guest rooms. And it will mean that we
can spend a little longer over that last glass of
port in Common Room before retiring for
the evening.
Theresa Scammell Jackson, Head of History
THE RADLEIAN NEWSLETTER 9

THE RUG
For the first 35 years of its life Radley played its own Radley Football, a game like soccer with a Rugby
pack and Rugby offside. In time, as opponents adopted either Association, or Rugby, football rules, it
became harder to find matches, and 50-a-side fixtures within Radley palled. After a 30 year dalliance with
Association Football, the college in 1912 adopted Rugby Union; over the subsequent century or so Radley has
produced unbeaten sides, 4 full internationals as well as a current England Saxons player, and 2 members
of the World Sevens Champions’ team in 1993 including captain Andrew Harriman and Chris Sheasby, both
full caps. It has also produced a steady stream of Oxford and Cambridge Blues, in 1983 having 4 ORs in the
Varsity Match. Radley is one of the strongest Rugby playing schools judged by its demanding fixture list,
by the fact that it can turn out 22 XVs on a Saturday (and does v. Tonbridge and Harrow), and that 80%
of matches are won, and by the impressive commitment of Common Room, 42 dons coaching teams, and
5 others refereeing matches, throughout the Michaelmas Term. This article reflects the fortunes of Radley
RUFC in the 2008 season from the top, the Bigside 1st XV, through the middle years (the Colts 1st XV) and
on to the base of the pyramid, the Midgets teams, and Midgets 5, 6 and 7 in particular, boys fresh from Prep
School, where we start with Iain Campbell and Simon Hall, the two dons in charge, reflecting:
MIDGETS 5-7
In the Michaelmas term one of the
few things that absolutely all the Shell
boys must do is Rugby. At the base of the
pyramid, whose apex is the giddy height
of Bigside, is the Midgets 3rd game, the
group of 60 or so boys who train next to
the vertiginous height of the Bigside posts.
In recent seasons there have been enough
boys to put out even a 7th XV, while the
5ths and 6ths coaches have had the luxury
of a large number of really rather good
players with whom to work, as opposition
schools have often found to their cost. In
most weeks the troops are out five times,
whatever the weather, and this is by far
the longest term. This is a lot of contact
time, so a sense of fun from everyone is
an absolute prerequisite. During those
long four months a thirteen year old can
transform physically into a big, hairy
10 THE RADLEIAN NEWSLETTER
10 THE RADLEIAN NEWSLETTER
adolescent. With the right conditions a side
can also transform from a rather diffident,
even work-shy set of boys resplendent
in gleaming red and white shirts into a
relatively hard-bitten, grimy, competitive
squad with rehearsed moves and eight or
nine games under their belts. Over the last
ten years a great many boys have gone on
from these humble beginnings to blossom
into seriously good rugby players higher up
the school, with three in recent memory,
Jethro Marriage, Bertie Russell and George
Cooke-Yarborough, who have made it right
to the very top of the pyramid, coming full
circle geographically to the Midgets 7ths’
training neighbours, Bigside themselves.
Equally valued, however, are the novices
or apparent non-games-players who
have represented the College in just one
match in their school careers. Thanks to
sympathetic coaching and selection in
most seasons nearly every boy in the year
achieves this feat.
COLTS I
Niall Murphy, Tutor of K Social, has
presided over a very successful campaign
with the Colts (Under 16) XV, and he
writes:
Two summers ago after lengthy
discussions with Richard Greed (Master
i/c Rugby) on tour in New Zealand I
decided to step down from being Bigside
backs’ coach and coach Junior Colts. The
idea was that I should try and engender
more continuity in the style of play
required to succeed at 1st XV level. The
boys had to be the decision-makers –
they decided whether to run or to kick,
and improvisation was the key tactical
idea. Pierre Villepreux, that wonderful
coach of Toulouse and France, once
suggested that you should “Attack where
the defence is not”. It meant a wholesale
improvement of individual skills for all
the boys. All players were expected to
pass out of the tackle, off-load as much as
possible, run into space and keep the ball
alive at all times – whatever the weather.
It resulted in a tremendously successful
season as JC1, with only one match being
lost to Oundle.
The next year the task was made
easier by the fact that the entire coaching
staff moved up with the same group of

BY CLUB
boys to Colts 1, and were joined by Tony
Jackson as a forwards’ coach. The coaches
felt it was important to blood new players
before they made the transition to Bigside,
and indeed Patrick de Courcy played a
couple of games at the end of the season
for the 1st XV. The Colts year group of 4
XVs also only lost four matches in total and
that was an enormous credit to all the boys
in the Vth Form, and to the fast, mobile,
skillful ‘French’ philosophy of the coaches.
All four Colts teams would attack from
anywhere, whether deep in their own 22 or
not. Opposition parents and referees were
always complimenting the boys on their
ability to play such an attacking style of
rugby, with such success.
The Colts 1 squad that finished the
2008 season unbeaten contained several
boys who had come from lower teams in
the JC year: Alex Low came from JC4 the
year before, as did Tom Ward, and Adam
Bolton was a JC3 regular the previous
season. Andrew Tinsley, was a Remove, but
easily adapted to the attacking style and
the skills required. This was exactly what I
had hoped to achieve – the emergence of
fresh talent from nominally lower teams.
The captain and vice-captain for two years
running were Andrew Barrie and Danny
Brownlee; they provided pace, attacking
verve, defensive stability and excellent
leadership.
THE 1 ST XV
And so to the 1st XV, Bigside, of which
Richard Greed, Master i/c for the last 15
seasons writes:
Rugby at 1st XV level is about
creating an environment in which a
team can flourish and building upon the
core skills of players who have benefited
from some excellent coaching as they
have progressed through the school. It
means communicating a vision of how
you want the game to be played and the
players understanding what is expected
from them. Rugby, after all, is a simple
game and it is about doing the ‘simple
things well’. Vital foundations are laid on
pre-season training camps, and 38 boys
spent an intensive week in Italy working
hard on positional and core skills as well
as game strategies. Many of the players
had also benefited from a three-week
tour to New Zealand the previous season
and therefore we entered the 2008 season
with high hopes.
Underpinning everything is the
vital ingredient of the team dynamic.
It is in the tough matches when the
loyalty, support, endurance, discipline
and camaraderie are tested and the 2008
team, led by the inspirational leadership
of Jack Hibbs, had those qualities in
an abundance – the generally positive
atmosphere that the boys generated
as a group translated into a season of
immense pleasure and enjoyment.
The 1st XV playing circuit is
remarkably competitive and there are
few ‘soft’ games. The season was a highly
successful one with only 3 of 12 matches
being lost. Two of those games were
lost in the opening three matches but
rugby seasons are about key moments
and the team came of age in our fourth
match against Warwick. Losing 7-3,
and deep into injury time, Radley
were pressing hard on the line against
ferocious Warwick defence. One mistake
would lead to defeat. Discipline was kept
and we played through the phases and
moved the ball at the right moment to
our right-winger who just had the space
to squeeze in at the corner to clinch
victory – that is when you have no regrets
about the number of man-hours invested
in this beautiful game. That moment
and that win gave the team self-belief
and confidence. Every training session
was completed with a passion, players
driving themselves in the quest for selfimprovement
and, in doing so, they created
something both magical and memorable.
The confidence was plain to see as
victory after victory followed including the
suffocation of a strong Marlborough team
7-12 and the free flowing rugby which saw
us dismantle a highly competent Oundle
team 7-43; indeed, there we came as close
as possible to achieving our playing vision.
We played a dynamic faster game with
an emphasis on achieving width that would
unleash the devastating running skills of
our outside backs (such as Ed Barry, Tom
Atkinson and Giles Bromley-Martin) to
attack the space in the wide channels. The
telling statistic was the fact that, during
our season, the backs scored 85% points
including a remarkable hat-trick against
Oundle. The forwards gave the team a
dynamic platform from which to play our
THE RADLEIAN NEWSLETTER 11 11

expansive rugby and mention must go
to Alex Gordon Lennox who dominated
the line-out with his impeccable sense
of timing and athletic grace.
At all levels, then, Radley Rugby
is in rude health; quite as important
as having talented and trainable boys
is the presence in the Common Room
of skilled and dedicated teaching dons
as the contributions above attest. It is
thanks to them that one of the great
sights at Radley is that of the pitches on a
Saturday afternoon with 10 matches and
300 boys purposefully competitive.
Freddie Tapner (Second Prefect)
LUDGROVE, AND F SOCIAL
It was around this time five years ago that
I started to tire of Prep School. Now this is
not to say that I hadn’t had a good time (quite
the contrary in fact), but more the fact that I
needed a change, and thankfully Radley was
beckoning for my arrival in only six months’
time. The change was exactly what the doctor
ordered: the sudden extra freedom, being
treated more like a grown-up and the larger
year group are just some of the excitements I
remember from all those years ago.
I have been fortunate enough to be
involved in many aspects of Radley life,
including College Play productions such as
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, A Few
Good Men and most recently Shakespeare’s
Richard III. Not only were all of these huge
fun, but also the quality of the Drama
Department ensured that these productions
were far more than schoolboys prancing
around on a stage. The lack of AS Levels in
the VI.1 year left Ben Sheen (C Social) and
me enough time to direct the Shell Play,
With Intent - quite what the Shells must have
thought when they saw they were landed with
us for their first play I’m not sure!
Music has played a large part of my
time here also – the tours and the concerts
have always been events to look forward
to. I’ve enjoyed playing and singing in the
ensembles the most - from little things like
the Percussion Ensemble to larger groups like
the Choir, all are fun to be involved in. As I
type we are preparing for Paris - I’m trying
not to think about the 4:30am start...
radleians
I have been one of the Senior Editors of
the Chronicle for several years - the task of
organising articles, commissioning reviews
and editing the final copy are all part of the
job, but the reward is great when you see
that something which you have produced is
being read by 600 boys. Trying to get others
to meet deadlines can be a nightmare though;
I now sympathise with dons on that subject!
The writing is hugely enjoyable: I think this is
one of the aspects I will miss most come July.
Whilst all of the facilities and results at
Radley speak for themselves, the thing which
I have found most valuable about my time at
school is boarding. I count myself incredibly
fortunate to be able to sleep, work and play
all at school, and I think that it is this which
has produced many binding friendships. The
fact that the dons also live on campus adds to
the community feel of the place – my Form
Master will often invite our form round for
drinks or supper, which is always huge fun.
As I reread this piece, I’ve noticed that
I’ve over-used the word fun. But there’s
just no other word for it - barely a lesson/
rehearsal/meeting goes past without some
form of laughter and enjoyment. There’s no
doubt that Radley is hard work – with so
many commitments it is always going to be
– but I can honestly say that I have enjoyed
every second of my time here. The only
problem I have is that, unlike Prep School, I
suspect I’ll never tire of Radley life…
12 THE RADLEY NEWSLETTER Website: www.radley.org.uk . Admissions enquiries: 01235 543174 . admissions@radley.org.uk