From the Headmaster:

After a Thanksgiving and Leavers’ service in the Priory, Speech Day continued with prize-giving in the sports hall.
The Headmaster’s address (slightly abridged) follows:

Pupils of St Bees School, Professor Sir James Underwood and Lady Underwood, Chairman of Governors, parents and friends.
There is no doubt that the greatest feature of St Bees School is not our wonderful location, nor our superb buildings, not the incredibly supportive parents prepared to make great sacrifices to send children here and not even the wonderfully dedicated staff but in fact our pupils. I always have and always will believe that at this very special school we have amazingly talented pupils. Along with all the other facts that I’ve just mentioned they join together to create this most spectacular thing known as the St Bees School community and that is what we come together to celebrate today.

We started this year with quite a bang as we received the examination results in August showing that our Upper Sixth pupils had managed to secure the most outstanding set of results for some significant time at the school. An eye-watering 43% of all A level examinations taken were awarded the top marks of A* or A. 95% of all examinations taken were awarded between an A* and a C grade. The result of these magnificent grades was that our leavers were confidently able to take up their places at many of the leading universities in this country and abroad. In fact the statistic that I am most proud of is that 95% of our pupils were successful in gaining entry to their first choice of university.

Mark Twain popularised the saying in ‘Chapters from My Autobiography’, “Figures often beguile me,” he wrote, “particularly when I have the arranging of them myself”; in which case the remark attributed to Disraeli would often apply with justice and force: “There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics.” Having been involved in the running of schools for several years now, I am incredibly cynical of the whole system of league tables and educational statistics. I feel they represent a very small picture of the achievements of our pupils and take into account no recognition of the pastoral care, extra-curricular opportunities and wider life-skills that schools like ours provide in abundance. The crux of the problem, as I see it, is that schools are such diverse and complex places that it simply isn't possible to reduce the good we do to a set of numbers. And even if the figures suggest one school is doing better than another, they offer no insight as to why. 

However, whilst I absolutely stand by this view, when these statistics show you at the top of the league tables not only for Cumbria, but as the leading co-educational boarding school in the North-West, then maybe we can allow ourselves a chance to celebrate!

At GCSE we were again highly successful with a magnificent 100% pass rate and again 43% of our pupils securing grades of A* or A in their examinations. Later on in our proceedings we will have a chance to celebrate the achievements of three of our pupils, Dani Lewis, Amelia Tyson and James Brookes, who were successful in gaining a clean sweep of A* and A grades, achieving between them 26 A* and 10 A grades.

All of these outstanding results are a great tribute to the hard work and dedication of our pupils and their teachers and the families who have supported them during their time at St Bees School. Of course what these sorts of statistics don’t show are the many pupils at the school who achieve equally impressive results by scoring the much coveted C grade in a subject in which they have battled hard for two years. Many of our pupils were successful in gaining significantly higher results than they might have expected according to our baseline models and I am incredibly proud to celebrate all of their achievements.

At least during my tenure as Headmaster, St Bees School will never become an examination factory. Of course we will always strive to enable our pupils to maximise and often exceed their potential and achieve the best results possible, but we will do that within an environment where they are still able to take leading roles on the sports field, stage, concert hall, deep in mud on a CCF expedition, out on the fells and in supporting magnificent charitable projects both locally and internationally. As members of the St Bees community, I want our pupils to feel that they have access to a wide range of exciting opportunities both within and beyond the classroom, and to be able to share in the adventure of learning together with other likeminded people, talented and dedicated staff, supportive parents and a vast network of former pupils. This is a powerful combination and one which I believe is the key to success. In the words of John Donne, “No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main.”

The St Bees journey begins now in our flourishing Prep department. It is a constant source of pleasure to see the youngest children in the school going about their business, using the facilities, comfortable in their surroundings and very much a part of the school community.
  
Whilst reading up on recent government changes to the work in our early years’ class, I decided to look for the word ‘fun’. To my delight the search engine reported it had found several hundred references, the only problem was each time I found the word fun it was closely followed by the word ‘ding’! But here at St Bees, our Prep Department know not only how to work hard but also how to have fun. Here are just a few highlights of the things which they have enjoyed this year:
Learned to play a musical instrument taster day with the Music Department.
They have watched the Whitehaven stage of cycling’s Tour of Britain - in the rain!
Had a visit from former Head Boy, Chris Sharman, to explain about his career as a vet.
Celebrated World Book Day by dressing up as their favourite character - lots of Harry Potter look-alikes!
Enjoyed a talk from the Owl Trust after which they discovered there are barn owls behind the Whitelaw building. Real owls in the Prep – just like Hogwarts! Then the highlight of the day as they examined owl poo to see what owls eat!
A magnificent Christmas Nativity Play.
The annual Christmas Crafts Event – glue and glitter, cutting and sticking. Fun for all the family. And Carol singing, too.
A visit to see the Mayor of Whitehaven.
A visit to Morgan Sindall's site in Whitehaven, where they are building new offices for Sellafield. In return they built the prep an outside hutch for Rory, the Prep Rabbit!
Baking activities with Madame Mouette – Mother's Day cupcakes and Father's day pizza-themed cookies.
Pancake tossing in the school grounds.
Art on the beach, PE on the beach, walks on the beach, ice cream on the beach. Any excuse to go to the beach!
A stunning music recital – where they showed off their instrument skills – piano, clarinet, guitar followed by some wonderful singing. 
Sporting activities against other schools in the Copeland cluster – Football, Hockey, Tri Golf, Cross Country, gymnastics and netball.
Planting seeds as part of the Morrisons’ ‘Gardening for Schools’ initiative.
Then finally earlier this week, the annual two-day adventure training residential visit featuring ghyll scrambling, rock climbing, canoeing and some lovely nature walks.

This year has seen a number of exciting developments on the site. Over the course of last summer we completely renovated the Fox Music School and spent a considerable amount of money equipping it with new resources. We now have a state of the art Apple Mac computer studio, running recording and composition software, which enables our pupils to create their own music and to record their pieces.

Following the floods there was a great deal of damage caused to our Home Economics room; but every cloud has a silver lining, and again last summer, we were able to completely refit this facility and create a bright and welcoming place where under the expert guidance of Mrs Evans, our budding Jamie Olivers and Mary Berrys can create their culinary masterpieces.

I reported last year on the developments at Grindal House, and extensive work has been carried out to all four boarding houses over the course of this year to continue to provide our boarders with the best facilities possible. Due to a growing interest in boarding, this summer will see further work undertaken with additional bed spaces being added to Bega House.

Thanks to the artistic eye of Mr Midwood and the support of the Bursar, I’m delighted to say that we have made significant strides in brightening up the school with fresh colourful paintwork all around the site and what a difference it has made.

Outside the buildings we invested heavily in doing some serious work to help with the drainage of the Crease and I’m thrilled to say that for the most part this has been highly successful and combined with the care and attention of our ground staff led by David Lamb, our pitches have been in excellent condition. To complement this, we also decided that it was time to put some much needed effort into preserving our historic pavilion. Built in 1893 there was no doubt that it was showing its age, and through the care and expertise of our maintenance staff, we have been able to transform it back to its former glory. I am looking forward to welcoming Mrs Joan Lees, widow of distinguished former Headmaster, Geoffrey Lees, to officially open this fine facility in his name on Old St Beghians’ Day this September.

Another area of development this year has seen us actively engaging with a whole host of local junior schools organising special days to offer them a taste of life at St Bees School and offering our pupils a chance to show their amazing leadership credentials. The fact that attendance at our Open Days has shot through the roof, shows that there is real interest in the school as a serious choice for local parents. This year we had more people applying for entry into our First Form than we could accept, a position we haven’t been in for many years.

I’m also delighted that we have been engaging much more with the local community, getting involved and supporting local events. We are very fortunate to have excellent links with St Bees Priory and I am very grateful to the wardens for all their support in allowing us to use this magnificent building. The Chaplain was keen to appoint a ministry associate this year and it has been a real joy to welcome Mr Ben Shires to the staff, sharing a role between our two organisations and contributing enormously and with real energy to both. It was also a pleasure to be able to share in the service of confirmation earlier this year. One of the major schemes I am most proud of, is our association with Rosehill Theatre. Their Director, Richard Elder, has a great vision for Rosehill and through a creative partnership with the theatre as part of the ‘Rosehill on the Road’ programme we have been able to host two magnificent concerts here at the school and the Priory featuring world famous performers, Paul Lewis on the Piano and the Ellias String Quartet. This summer will also see us collaborating in bringing the National Youth Choir’s training Choir to St Bees for their summer residential featuring concerts from the Choir, Tenor Nicky Spence and the Crioch Quartet.
 
With advancements in technology, it has never been more important for us to ensure that we have the best IT facilities we can provide for our pupils. It is fair to say that we have a large task ahead of us as investment in this area has not really kept pace with change. However, I am delighted that the governors have agreed to a significant investment in IT over the forthcoming years. We have started with completely replacing the server systems in the school. A little like the engine in a car, you can’t see anything from the outside but you certainly notice the difference once you get started. This has been an enormous job and not without its fair share of difficulties. Despite meticulous planning, introducing twenty-first century technology to historic listed buildings was never going to be easy. I am very grateful to the staff, pupils and parents for their patience as we have undertaken this task.  We have also managed to start a rolling replacement of computers throughout the site, giving our pupils much faster access to the variety of programs that they use every day. We continue to grapple with the issue of introducing wi-fi to the school and I’m delighted to report that this system is being launched today.
 
New and improved facilities are hugely important as we seek to develop and we are constantly looking at opportunities to benefit our pupils as funds allow. At the same time, we continue to work assiduously at what I think of as the fundamentals, the essential virtues if you like, of any school with aspirations to excellence, above all in teaching and learning. Over the last two years we have made significant developments in ensuring that we provide the best possible opportunities both inside and beyond the classroom for our pupils. You will have seen many new initiatives introduced as we seek to address the points raised in our inspection report. New policies and procedures have been implemented and there has been a great deal of change. I must, at this point, pay tribute to the staff for stepping up to the challenge of what has been a remarkable time of change for them. Winston Churchill said, “to improve is to change, to be perfect is to change often”. Well I’m not sure we’re perfect but I am hugely grateful to all my colleagues in embracing swift change as we have sought to take St Bees forward. I am fortunate to be able to work with people who are teachers of children not just of subjects. The art of being a teacher, and believe me it is an art form, risks being lost in a maze of narrowly focussed and misdirected political gimmicks, which Mr Gove tells us will drive up academic standards. I believe passionately that outstanding pastoral care has to be at the very heart of any school community. Mr Gove would have us label our children as learners, data sets or perhaps even mobile profit centres and I really do fear that we risk children losing their identity as individuals in a data-driven swamp.

Ladies and Gentlemen, this is a special day for many who will be leaving St Bees School either today or at the end of this term. Schools are places that never stand still but that doesn’t make the process of saying goodbye to pupils and staff we have known so well any easier.

I’d like to start with our Upper Sixth leavers. For many this is the end of a seven year journey and for others a much briefer two year one through St Bees School, and I know that I can honestly say that we will miss you just as much as I hope you will miss us. We have been truly blessed with a quite remarkable set of pupils in the Upper Sixth this year and they have led the school magnificently. Under the watchful eye and unflappable exterior calm of Thomas George and the encouraging and relentless cheerfulness of Julieanne Thompson, our Upper Sixth have set an extraordinarily high standard. I’m sure that all my colleagues on the staff would agree that it has been a privilege to work with them. It is testament to the mutual respect shared between the staff and pupils at the school that we were all able to enjoy some wonderfully inspirational end of year pranks as the Upper Sixth said farewell in style. I have to say as a Headmaster the last few days with any Upper Sixth are always filled with trepidation, what will they do, who will they upset, how will I ever calm the Bursar down when they……!
Well, 1,000 cups of water were removed from the corridors, 933 balloons from the PE centre, 500 metres of cling film was retrieved from various parts of the school, including the inevitable toilet seats, 38 chairs were removed from the temporary fort that was once the sixth form common room, twenty classroom and toilet name plates were returned to their rightful places in Foundation and eight posters of me as the newly appointed Professor Dumble-Davies were found around the school, as it had been transformed into “Hogwarts up North” complete with our very own dementors hanging out of the sixth form common room windows – causing much bemusement on the faces of a visiting local history group that afternoon; but not perhaps so much confusion as the sight of two goldfish who had to be rescued from the water coolers and one UKIP sign proudly displayed at the main entrance! At the end of the day we were still smiling and much fun was enjoyed by all, not least the Third and Fourth Form pupils who helped members of the SMT to fill the Sixth Form’s cars with the 933 balloons from the PE Centre!

As our leavers move on from here this afternoon I’d just like to ask you to keep in mind that your life must never be reduced to what is on your CV, or what job you have, or how much money you earn. Please don’t ever forget that the many opportunities that your parents, teachers and friends have laboured - and often sacrificed – to give you are nobody’s God-given right. Perhaps one of the biggest challenges you will face in this fast-paced world is not falling into the trap of taking things for granted. As you set out on your journey, I’d urge you to keep the words of the Irish writer, James Joyce, in mind. He referred to life’s ‘epiphanies’, those magical moments when you recognise just how rich and meaningful even the most unlikely experience can be. Whatever the results of the summer are, I am convinced that each and every one of you has a magnificent future ahead and I can assure you that all of us at St Bees School will be here for you.
 
Of course it is not just members of our Upper Sixth that are leaving; sadly this time of the year also sees us inevitably saying farewell to a number of members of staff.  I am faced with the momentous task of wishing two Welsh giants of the St Bees Common Room all the best as they hang up their rugby boots and CCF uniform respectively and head for life at a slightly slower pace.

Huw Lewis joined St Bees School in 1989 from a large London comprehensive and there can be no doubting the influence he has had on literally thousands of young St Beghians. It is a little known fact that Huw was a former premier rugby player for Blackheath, competed as an international hurdler and indeed ran in the first London Marathon back in 1981. I suppose given that this was 33 years ago we can forgive him for the fact that he now chooses to cycle the incredibly long distance of 200 yards from the PE centre to the Common Room!

During his time at the school, Huw was the Housemaster of School House and took the role very seriously taking care, at one point, of no less than 92 boys from eleven different countries. He took it as a personal mission to introduce many of them to the mysterious game of rugby for the first time; his wife Chris remembers fondly many a young man from a far flung corner of the globe returning to the house cold and covered in mud thus affirming in their mind the fact that the Brits were indeed a crazy bunch.  He has led many sports’ tours across continents from South Africa to Sri Lanka, Paris to Pontypridd and, when not leading the tours, he was often busy running the ever popular ski trips.

Huw took the then School House pantomime to new heights re-writing the scripts in order to find every opportunity to mention sheep. One thing that all his former charges remember is his early morning greeting of ‘Morning Boys! Glorious Day!!’ This cheerful early morning call didn’t always sit well with adolescent youths on a cold dark Cumbrian morning, but it is what they had inscribed on a commemorative plate when he stepped down from duties on house.

Huw was responsible, along with Hugh Turpin, for starting the tradition of Fringe Week at the school and giving us a time of wonderful music echoing around the corridors. One of his favourite phrases will continue to live on at the school, displayed proudly on the sports notice board for all to see - ‘Modesty in Victory, Dignity in Defeat’. In many respects, it is the values enshrined in these words that sum up Huw. His legacy to St Bees will be in having given to countless pupils a deep love for sport regardless of ability.
 
Moving on to fellow Welshman Jeff Evans, here is another long serving member of the common room. Jeff joined St Bees six years after Huw from Mill Hill School in London. Many of you will know that Mill Hill and St Bees have historic links going back to a time when Mill Hill were evacuated here during the Second World War. Indeed they had their field-centre close to here in the village of Dent, and it was on trips to the Western Lakes that Jeff fell in love with the area, writing in his letter of application to the then Headmaster that he felt he wasn’t really a ‘metropolitan type’. Prior to being at Mill Hill, Jeff had been Head of English at Radley College and Canford School. Writing in his reference for Jeff, the former warden of Radley commented, ‘I believe Mr Evans to be a very good all round schoolmaster whose wide range of talents would fit him well for the post of Head of Department at such a distinguished school as St Bees.’ Well as they say, the rest was history and Jeff has certainly lived up to and exceeded the sentiments expressed in his reference.
 
It would be true to say that Jeff has certain traditions and perhaps even some may say peculiarities and he is certainly a creature of habit, believing strongly that whatever the clock may say, it is never the afternoon until a gentleman has had his luncheon. Renowned for not holding back on his thoughts, Jeff is someone who calls a spade a spade or perhaps even a shovel!  Jeff has worked closely with many colleagues in helping to present drama of an extremely high standard and this was evidenced earlier this year in producing a captivating performance of Shakespeare’s Comedy of Errors. He is also not afraid to tread the boards himself and who could forget his performance last summer as the Priest in the Art of Coarse Acting?

Never happier than when out with the CCF, Jeff has worn his uniform proudly since 1976 when he was first commissioned whilst at Canford School. Sharing a love for the phrase, ‘You stupid boy’, Lt Col Evans would sometimes be referred to as St Bees own version of Captain Mainwaring. Jeff has been our Contingent Commander here since 2004 and has given countless numbers of cadets many wonderful opportunities. He was responsible for helping to introduce the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award into the CCF, and as we know, this is now a jewel in the school’s crown. In 2006 he was awarded the Platinum Award for Volunteers and this was followed by the Lord Lieutenant’s Certificate in 2008. He has trained and guided many staff through the intricacies of the CCF and led countless camps at various locations across the country. Unsurprisingly, Jeff’s leadership of the contingent was highly regarded during our most recent inspection by Air Commodore Quigley. Whilst he leaves the CCF in the incredibly capable hands of Linda Johnston as Contingent Commander, there is no doubt that we will certainly miss his presence on the parade ground and in the classroom.

I would like to record my thanks to both Huw and Jeff for such long and distinguished service to the school and would ask you to join me in wishing them well.

The Headmaster’s speech continued at length and can be read in its entirety by clicking here.
Any OSBs who cannot access the internet and who would like a hard copy of the speech may contact the OSB office and request a copy to be sent to them – Editor.

 

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