After a Thanksgiving and Leavers’ Service in the Priory, Speech Day continued with prizegiving in the Sports Hall when the Headmaster, Philip Capes, spoke as follows:

“It does not seem that twelve months have passed since I was last standing in front of you to deliver my annual report. Before I start, I wish to welcome our two Guests of Honour for today. We have just been listening to the Rev. Canon Dr Alan Billings talk to us at the Priory Thanksgiving Service. Dr Billings is a regular contributor to Radio 4’s ‘Thought for the Day’ and you may have caught his contribution last Tuesday. His message to us today concerned ways in which our lives are influenced by circumstances and the importance of having a morality linked to Christian values; so thank you Dr Billings for sharing ‘Your Thought for the Day’ with us this morning. Stephen Henwood, our Guest Speaker and presenter of the Prizes, has had a long and distinguished career in industry. He was the Group Managing Director of International Partnerships at BAE Systems until 2006 before becoming Chairman of the NDA, the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority in 2008. We look forward to hearing him address us later on this morning.
Today for the first time, we have a group of pupils from the St. Bees Preparatory Department attending Speech Day. The decision to open a Preparatory Department was taken in the final weeks of last year’s summer term and now we have a class of fourteen pupils overseen by Ms Tori Bird, our Key Stage 2 specialist, who is ably assisted by our Australian GAP student Ellen Cheney. A week before the start of the Christmas term there was an empty classroom with no resources. However, due to Tori Bird’s hard work, an attractive room was created which soon became covered with displays of work from her young pupils as the weeks passed. We now plan to move the department on to the ground floor of School House and split the pupils into two combined year groups, creating one class of 7 and 8 year olds and another of 9 and 10 year olds. Our aim is to provide a stimulating learning environment in small classes where the individual counts, and to offer the all-round education and broad curriculum that we believe is so important for these younger pupils. By using some of the staff from the Senior School, the Prep Department has had access to weekly science lessons, language lessons in Spanish and the older ones have even undertaken a Latin course especially written for primary aged children, and I am assured that Minimus the Mouse makes Latin cool! Things have clearly changed from my day when I remember chanting mensa, mensa, mensam, mensae, mensae, mensa to my Latin teacher. We look forward to the Preparatory Department growing year-by-year in the future.
The other major initiative that has been taken forward this year is the establishment of the St. Bees Golf Academy. There has been a 9 hole links golf course at the School since 1929. Now a Golf Academy has been established and a PGA professional, Stuart Hemmings, appointed as its Director. A golf studio has been equipped with the latest digital recording technology and pupils’ driving and putting techniques can be honed without braving the Cumbrian weather. The number of pupils signing up for the Academy’s Advanced Programme, which provides students with a structured path to ensure they develop and reach their potential in this sport, continues to grow as the popularity of golf at St. Bees increases. For the first time for some years, we now have a golf fixture list with matches scheduled for this term against Barnard Castle and Chetwynde as well as a number of local clubs such as Whitehaven, Silloth and Seascale. 
The Bursar has continued to implement his school-wide building maintenance plan as funds have allowed. His first priority has been to attend to the school roofs, replacing gulleys and guttering where necessary to ensure all buildings are watertight. Scaffolding has been a regular addition to many of our buildings – School House, the swimming pool and Foundation to name just three. Buildings are now being repainted on a regular schedule with windows being replaced by double glazed units where regulations allow. The Main School Reception has been relocated to the ground floor of the Foundation building and the swimming pool has been upgraded with a new lining and heating system. The swimming pool has now been filled and heated ready for use and we are looking forward to launching a new community programme featuring lifesaving courses, aqua-fit, and a range of swimming sessions. The majority of classrooms have recently been fitted with ceiling-mounted projectors, and members of the teaching staff will be issued with laptops for classroom and administrative use after the coming half-term break. The newly appointed Deputy Head, Mr Dan Evans, will be leading a programme when he joins the staff this September to ensure this investment in ICT resources is utilised fully to enhance the teaching and learning throughout the school.
Last summer’s GCSE results, although well above the national average, did not maintain the high percentages of the past two years. The Mathematics Department kept its 100% pass record with every Fifth Former achieving a C grade or higher in GCSE Mathematics as well as a 100% pass rate in GCSE Statistics, which was taken as an additional challenge by the majority of the top set mathematicians. The Heads of all the academic departments are preparing for the new GCSE specifications which are being introduced this September. The teaching staff are also familiarising themselves with the controlled assignments which will be replacing the coursework element in many subjects as the examination boards tackle the ever increasing problem of plagiarism in coursework completed outside the classroom.
Our Upper Sixth, however, celebrated record success in their A levels with just under 70% of all the grades achieved being one of the top two grades, either an A or B grade. All the pupils who were holding conditional offers for places at Cambridge University achieved the grades required and so James Barwise is now at Trinity Hall reading Theology, Anna Bushby at Peterhouse reading Classics, and Bethanie Crayston reading Natural Sciences at Clare. A further three of this year’s Upper Sixth are holding Oxbridge offers, one at Oxford, Jocky Kung at Lady Margaret Hall for Chemistry, and two at Cambridge, Laurence Gribble for Asian and Middle Eastern Studies at Trinity and Chris Sharman for Veterinary Science at Robinson College. We wish these last three pupils along with the remainder of the Upper Sixth and the Fifth Form every success in this summer’s examinations, which have already started. Last year for a school of this size, we had a high number of students applying to read medicine at university. We were delighted when all six pupils received offers from medical schools and even more delighted when they all gained the high grades necessary for entry – so congratulations to Christina Downham, Sophie Ironside, Lucy Johnston, Harriet Lamb, Sarah Webster and Zafran Zahid, who are all now coming to the end of their first year of medical studies.
Buried among this week’s news, which has been dominated with stories concerning MPs’ expense claims, there were several reports on recently published research which had found that many young people in the UK today are spending a disproportionate amount of their day either on-line, watching television, or on games’ consoles. According to this research a high percentage of 5-16 year-old children spend up to six hours daily during term-time in this way. An education at St. Bees clearly offers an alternative to this worrying lifestyle trend as we aim to develop the interests and talents of all our pupils and to introduce them to a wide variety of educational and recreational extra-curricular activities. The school’s aims have recently been reviewed and redefined into four main bullet points. The first aim, as you would expect for a school, relates specifically to the learning achieved in the classroom. We aim to stimulate learning and develop independence and curiosity of mind so that pupils can achieve their best academically. The next three aims all focus on offering each child an education in the broadest sense of the word. We aim to allow pupils to participate in a wide range of extra-curricular activities that challenge them to excel. We aim to develop leadership skills as well as emotional and spiritual intelligence, so that through their words and actions they leave St. Bees equipped for life in a dynamic, fluid and changing world; and finally we aim to encourage pupils to value the opportunity they have in life, to use their talents and to have confidence in their own abilities for the benefit of society. I am now going to highlight briefly some of the many activities open to our pupils which support the latter set of quoted aims.
Firstly for Sixth Form pupils, Young Enterprise offers the opportunity for students to set up and run their own company – this year the company, formed and named ‘Green Feet’, has been very successful selling a range of products that has included hand-warmers, calendars, recipe books and products made out of recycled goods such as washing machines and shopping trolleys. Preparing presentations, attending weekly board meetings, ensuring the availability of stock as well as the compilation of accurate financial accounts – all of these activities provide valuable learning experiences for the pupils involved in running the company.
Or they might become participants in The Engineering Education Scheme where real life, six-month, industry-related projects are offered to teams of up to four Lower Sixth students. St. Bees has had two teams competing this year working on solutions to engineering problems posed by the local nuclear industry.
Or they might become members of the School Charity Committee, which is run by senior pupils. The committee, which has representatives from all five Houses, decides at the beginning of each academic year which charities the school should raise money for over the next three terms. This year they have been very active raising over £2750 for the Wasdale Mountain Rescue team and the school Rungwe-Tanzania Link. Pupils are given the opportunity to propose and organise events and this year has seen Celia Jackson, with the help of Lucy Bushby and Hannah Barry, organize a ‘St. Bees has Talent’ competition. Laurence Gribble ran a Race Night and Aleks Valkov set up a hand car wash outside my house two weekends ago. All these students, besides raising significant sums of money for charity, have learnt a great deal by being given the opportunity to bring to fruition their proposed ideas with the minimum of assistance and supervision from staff.
Or they could set their sights on meeting the requirements for a Duke of Edinburgh Award at Bronze, Silver or Gold level. Every year more and more pupils achieve these respected Duke of Edinburgh Awards – so far over the past three terms 26 Bronze, 22 Silver and 8 Gold medals have been presented through the CCF.
Or they could participate in the Outdoor Pursuits programme being offered by the school’s two specialist instructors – Richard Butler and Ian Carter. The school now has six kayaks and water activities are offered far more frequently as a consequence. The appointment of a new Physics teacher for September with the necessary qualifications should see the climbing wall in the Sports Hall being offered once more as a regular after school activity.
Or they could get involved in the work of the House or school Councils which meet regularly once or twice a term to discuss issues which are of particular concern to the student body.
As well as the activities I have just mentioned, and I do not have time to list them all, there have been the usual programmes put on by the Sports, Music and Drama departments.
The standard of Drama and Music has been exceptionally high over the past twelve months. No one who saw the Sound of Music summer production will forget it for all the right reasons – the acting, singing and music all came together to give us a most enjoyable and entertaining production. The costumes of the Von Trapp family will remain etched in my mind for a long time to come. This was followed by a Lower School production of six tales from the Arabian Nights, the traditional Sixth Form pantomime of Forest Chump, and finally ten very experienced actors gave excellent performances in this year’s senior play - "A Streetcar Named Desire" by Tennessee Williams.
Fringe Week, which finished a fortnight ago, was another highlight of this year, when all the musicians and thespians of the school community are given the opportunity to entertain us over breaks and lunchtimes. Who will forget the catering staff’s rendition of selected scenes from ‘The Rocky Horror Show’ or the Modern Language Department’s putting on a demonstration of Salsa dancing with the help of Laurence Gribble and Felix Castrillon, our Spanish Assistant?
On the games front, the number of sports in which we have produced competitive teams this year is 21 – an excellent achievement considering we are only a small school of 300 pupils. I am not going to name all 21 sports but they include the traditional sports for St. Bees of Rugby and Hockey as well as Basketball, Cross-Country, Fives, Badminton, Squash to name just five more. The athletics season has started well with the school winning four gold and one bronze medal at the recently held Northern Independent Schools Athletics Championships in Gateshead. Andrew Hughes took the rarely won double gold in the Inter Boys 100 and 200 metres; Anthony Armstrong took gold in the junior boys High Jump, and is currently just 2cms from achieving the English Schools Championships national entry standard of 1m 72cms. Kythe Dearden rounded off a great event for our sprinters by winning gold in the Junior Girls 200 metres, and not to be left out, athletics’ captain, Chris Sharman, won a bronze medal in the Senior Boys Javelin. Other notable sporting successes include the senior Basketball team finishing as runners-up in the recent County Championships in Penrith, having achieved an unbeaten run in their regular season.
I hope I have given you some idea of the breadth of opportunity that has been and will continue to be available at St. Bees to ensure that our pupils will not end up spending a disproportionate amount of their day linked to the television set or their computer.
There have been several staff changes during the academic year.  At the end of the Christmas term, Renee Dickson left us after her term of coaching the hockey sides. She also provided valuable support to the Preparatory Department in the short time that she spent with us. Sean and Kathy Morrison also moved on to pastures new, leaving Grindal House after five and a half years to take up their new boarding responsibilities at the Montana Institute in Zugerberg, Switzerland.  Sean Morrison is the Institute’s new Director of Boarding.  Many congratulations are also due to the Morrisons on the birth of their first child, Judah Daniel, shortly after their arrival in Switzerland. The young Morrison is apparently enjoying being pushed around in a pram on snow skis! John Rowlands also left at the end of the Christmas term having given loyal service to St. Bees School for over thirty years. During this time he took on a wide range of responsibilities besides his teaching commitments. He taught French and Adventure Training and through this latter subject, in particular, he inspired in many of his pupils a love for the outdoors and activities such as hill-walking and climbing. He also spent just over seven years resident with his family on School House as the Housemaster and finally over the past ten years he has served the school as one of its Deputy Heads.
In April, Dr. Tony Winzor left to become the new Head of Hunter Hall, an independent preparatory school located just outside Penrith. Throughout his time at St. Bees he was an inspirational Physics teacher to several generations of pupils. He was always fully involved in the all-round education offered by the school, both inside and outside of the classroom, – being the Director of Studies before taking on a Deputy Head role, advising pupils on careers and higher education, refereeing and coaching a range of sports from Rugby and Cricket to Fives, running the Engineering Education Scheme as well as serving on boarding houses if the need arose – he even took over School House for a term in the 1980s, and this only mentions a few of the responsibilities that he has undertaken while at St. Bees. I am delighted Tony has been able to join us today – I am sure you will join me in congratulating him on his promotion and wishing him well in his new position. 
At the end of this term, Daniel Boian, here on the HMC East European Training and Work Experience Scheme, returns to Romania, Elodie Laniepce, the French Assistant, returns to France and Maruska Mikova, this year’s Artist-in-Residence, returns to the Czech Republic. Joel Finnis, who has spent his sabbatical year with us based in the PE and Games Department coaching the school rugby and cricket sides, returns with his family to Australia. Tori Bird will also be leaving the school at the end of this term. Although Tori has very much enjoyed establishing the new Preparatory Department, she has found it difficult to settle in West Cumbria with her two young boys, so she has reluctantly decided to relocate to be nearer friends and family. 
Finally it has only been in the past couple of days that Helen Miller has decided to leave St. Bees at the end of this term after loyally serving the school for the past twenty four years in a number of capacities: first as the Head’s personal secretary, then as Registrar and finally in her present role as Director of Marketing and Admissions. I wish to thank Helen for everything she has done for the school during her time here. Besides the roles that I have already mentioned, Helen has always been willing to give up her time to support a wide range of school activities as well as volunteering on numerous occasions to take on additional responsibilities, such as leading the annual, school skiing holiday, teaching the Sixth Form the rudimentary skills of ballroom dancing and, of course, organising the numerous School Balls – the last one being the successful Autumn Ball, which was held last September. 
I am sure you will join me in wishing all the staff moving on, and especially Helen Miller, every success for the future.
Two weeks ago the school had a full ISI Inspection with a team of six inspectors spending four days here. They observed and graded over 50 lessons covering all age groups, scrutinised the written work of a selection of pupils and interviewed a cross-section of students and staff.  At the end of the week, oral feedback was given to Governors and senior staff, and we are expecting a draft, written-report to be given to the school by the end of May. Once the final report is available, a copy will be sent to every parent. However throughout the week that the Inspectors were here, they continually commented on the very positive relationships they observed, not only between pupil and pupil and pupil and members of the teaching staff, but also between pupils and the support staff. We are very lucky at St. Bees to have a dedicated staff, both on the teaching and support side, serving the needs of all of our students.
I would like to take this opportunity to thank all the staff of St. Bees School for all the work they have undertaken, whether in the classroom or outside of it, educating your children over the past academic year.
I would also like to thank all the parents and friends of the school, and Joyce Jennings in particular, who are involved in the work of the St. Bees’ Family Association as it is now known. Their support at school functions, especially when they are providing the refreshments, the chocolate brownies are becoming a definite incentive to attend, is much appreciated. The group are putting on more of their own events – from last summer’s Hog Roast and Ceilidh to celebrate the 425th birthday of the school’s foundation, to the Christmas wine tasting and the sixties and seventies disco. Full details of the St. Bees’ Family Association as well as the remaining events planned for this term are on the yellow sheets you should have found included in your programme.
Ten days ago I was attending the 60th Annual Branch Dinner in Bristol of the West of England Branch of the St. Beghian Society, where I was seated alongside Dr. Bill Frankland, who was reminiscing about his days as a pupil at St. Bees in the late 1920s. He was talking fondly of his time at the school, and although he is now 97, he is still working as an allergy specialist from his rooms in Harley Street. He says working keeps him young! As you would expect, things have changed at St. Bees since Bill was at the school. For example, we do not allow the senior boys to place the junior boys in dustbins and roll them around the school grounds – however he was convinced the education that he had received at St. Bees over eighty years ago had prepared him well for the rest of his life. As we state in one of the newly defined aims I quoted earlier, we strive at St. Bees to equip our pupils for life in a dynamic, fluid and changing world.  Bill Frankland is certainly a testament to this. 
The academic year 2008/9 has been a busy and eventful year for St. Bees School.  When we start the new academic year in September, we will strive to meet those four publically stated aims for the school as we work towards our vision of becoming the best small independent school in the north west.

Thank you for listening and enjoy the rest of the day.”