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THE SCHOOL
HEADMASTER'S LETTER
Schools, like any institution or organisation, must constantly
evolve as they seek to improve and develop in what is an
increasingly competitive world. The challenge for King’s is to
ensure that development is not at the expense of the core
educational philosophy that has stood the test of almost five
hundred years. Inevitably, when a new Headmaster takes over
the reins there is a period of uncertainty for all members of the
school community but, hopefully, I have demonstrated in my
first eight months that while I have many plans and ambitions
for King’s, I have no intention of “throwing the baby out with
the bath water”.
The mutually encouraging and supportive ethos that runs
through every aspect of life at King’s is very special, and it is
something that is lacking in too many of our schools - both in
the independent and maintained sectors. When a school has
such an ethos, it inevitably enables each individual boy and
girl to grow intellectually, emotionally, and spiritually – that is
something of which we can all feel justifiably proud. I am
indebted to my 31 predecessors (although it may be 32 or 33 as
there is some uncertainty about the exact number of
Headmasters between 1519 and 1550!), for bringing the school
to where it is today, but now it is time for the next phase of the
journey.
Not only have the staff, pupils, and parents had to get used to a
new Headmaster, but, just to stir the “pot of change” even
more, our new Director of Studies, Anton Kok, has already
shown himself to be a man of vision and boundless energy.
Only a matter of days into my first term, I was extremely proud
to welcome the Countess of Wessex to King’s. As I am sure
many of you are aware, she was accompanied by her father,
your President, and we were delighted by the amount of time
she spent talking to pupils in a variety of lessons before
opening the newly refurbished Norton Library. At the same
time, she unveiled a wonderful portrait of Air Chief Marshal Sir
Peter Squire, our new Senior Warden. This portrait, a most
generous gift from the Old Brutonian Association to the school,
hangs in a prominent position in the new library, and I would
like to encourage Old Brutonians, whenever they are next in
the area, to visit the school to see both the new library and the
portrait that hangs so proudly within it.
The new library has provided a new impetus to the need to give
a greater priority to the way in which sixth formers use their
private study time. I have made no secret of the fact that we
need to raise the academic expectations of all Brutonians, and
the library has a key role to play. Sixth formers have now to
earn the right to use the library in their study periods (these
periods were formerly known as “duds”!) by achieving good
assessment grades. Without such grades, they have to go to
supervised study periods in a classroom – how things have
changed!
All good schools, especially boarding schools, must be built on
three very strong foundation legs, which are often described as
the “tripos of success” – the cultural dimension of the school,
sport, and the academic/intellectual life of the school. Quite
simply, we must aim for excellence in all three. Academically,
as I have already said, we have work to do, but that is already
happening and, I believe, there are exciting times ahead. In
sport, as ever, we continue to achieve considerable success, the
1st XV winning nine of their twelve matches. The girls’ netball
teams have just enjoyed their most successful season since the
school went fully co-educational in 1997, and I have also been
very impressed by our achievements in a range of other sports
such as football and badminton, which take place outside the
normal ‘games time’.
In my first eight months I have been incredibly impressed by
the cultural richness of life here at King’s. The school play just
before Christmas was a stunningly good modern interpretation
of “Twelfth Night”. The Easter term saw Old House take centre
stage with a Glynn Jenkins play, “Murder in the Mess”, which
was of such quality that it could easily have been a school
production, never mind a house play. Drama is an area that
has developed very rapidly in recent years (there are regularly
12 to 15 productions of varying size throughout a typical school
year), and I believe we could establish King’s as a centre of
excellence for drama in the years ahead. To that end, we are
about to appoint our first Theatre Technician to manage the
Fitzjames Theatre on a more professional basis.
Music has enjoyed an exceptionally good year, with a huge
range of concerts and soirees, but the stars of the show have,
without doubt, been the King’s Jazz Band who are now
performing at a level that has simply not been reached before.
The King’s Jazz Evening is rapidly becoming a high profile
event in the town, never mind the school, and this year it was
stunningly good – you could easily have been at a top quality
jazz club in the West End!
Just to add a little more excitement to my first year at King’s,
we were inspected by the Commission for Social Care Inspection
(CSCI) during the Easter Term. CSCI have the responsibility for
the inspection of the welfare arrangements for boarding pupils
in all boarding schools in England. The inspection was very
thorough and, as a school, we were assessed against the 52
National Boarding Standards (each with many sub-sections)
that came into force in 2002. As part of the inspection process,
all the boarders were asked to complete a detailed
questionnaire about their life at King’s. As you would expect,
King’s satisfies most of the boarding standards: 47 out of the 52
standards actually apply to us, and of those, the inspectors
judged that 37 standards were fully met by the school (this is
very encouraging given that many schools, including some
rather well known boarding schools, have struggled to get past
30 on their first CSCI inspection). One particular aspect of the
inspection report focused on bullying – in their questionnaires,
81.5% of our pupils reported that they have never, or have
hardly ever, been bullied. The Lead Inspector commented that
this was one of the highest and most encouraging figures ever
recorded in a school in the West of England.
We have much to be proud of here at King’s, but there is much
to be done to maintain the cycle of continuous improvement.
Not long after my appointment, it was mentioned, in passing,
that I would thoroughly enjoy being Headmaster of what is
“the best kept secret in Somerset” – my reply was quite simple:
“I have never been very good at keeping secrets ….!”
Nigel Lashbrook
38 OLD BRUTONIAN ASSOCIATION NEWSLETTER 2005