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 <strong>Old</strong> <strong>Brutonian</strong> <strong>Association</strong> to the school, hangs in a prominent position in the new library, and I would like to encourage <strong>Old</strong> <strong>Brutonian</strong>s, 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 <strong>Brutonian</strong>s, 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 <strong>Old</strong> 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
Two views of the refurbished Norton Library OLD BRUTONIAN ASSOCIATION NEWSLETTER 2005 39
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