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SPEECH DAY HEAD MASTER's ADDRESS VOL. CXXXI NO.27 June 8, 2019

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SPEECH DAY HEAD MASTER's ADDRESS VOL. CXXXI NO.27 June 8, 2019 THE HARROVIAN VOL. CXXXI NO.27 June 8, 2019 we begin to think of the academic year turning, this one SPEECH DAY finding its conclusion and looking ahead to the one to come. “Great Partnerships”, 25 May Thinking of the future I have been delighted to hear from boys who have been coming into my study in the mornings to be Twelfth Night: Viola and Sebastian, William Shakespeare awarded their Head Master’s Send Ups about their plans for Benjamin Davies, The Grove, Freddie Heffer, Elmfield their Harrow lives, the subjects they want to study, the projects and challenges they want to tackle and how they are seeking to ‘Two are Better than One’, Ecclesiastes 4, Theodore Seely, make use of the Harrow opportunities. Such forward thinking is The Head Master’s invigorating and uplifting. In a time of looking to the horizon it is important to pay recognition to those colleagues who will Churchill and Europe Winston Churchill, Kit Akinluyi, The be leaving us at the end of this term and year. Head Master’s, Harry Lemprière-Johnston, Druries Love is like the wild rose-briar, Emily Bronte, Tom Santini, The Park Don Quixote ‘Windmills’, Miguel de Cervantes, Hamish Dicketts, Elmfield, Henry Empson, The Grove, Columbus Mason, The Head Master’s Blackadder Goes Forth Richard Curtis & Ben Elton, Max Evans-Tovey, Druries, Ben Elton Archie Ross, The Knoll Sonnet 116 William Shakespeare Jonny Kajoba, Lyon’s HEAD MASTER’S ADDRESS Mr Simon Page, 1987 Art, his own painting and drawing, Speech Room, 25 May the intensity of observation in his sketching have been intrinsic parts of our cultural life as his work has been exhibited in Art The Worshipful, The Mayor, Councillor Nitin Parekh; My Schools and the Old Speech Room Gallery. He has worked Lord, Professors, Ladies and Gentlemen, Chairman, Governors, closely with Harrow boys enabling them to understand their Parents, Friends and Prize Winners, a warm welcome to you attributes and aspirations to express themselves in visual media, on Speech Day 2019. a patient and kindly mentor he became Head of Painting in 2007, We have benefited from his artistic interpretation of life on the Hill and beyond it. Mr Martin Stead, 1989 English, he has a passion for literature and is unembarrassed for the rigour and energy he brings to masterful exposition in the form room, quietly he is a poet in his own right and still less well-known a narrowboat enthusiast, a schoolmaster who upholds all the best of our values, and is capable, loyal and adaptable, in his day he commanded the CCF almost as a solo mission of him instructing all the Remove year group single-handed, something that should have been a ticketed event I would have thought, he is still Colonel Stead on Monday afternoons, in addition to devoted tutoring, he has run variously cross country, shooting, sailing, debating and martial arts Dr Christopher O’Mahony our Director of IT, under his Thank you to the boys who performed for us this morning, tenure, IT at Harrow undergone revolutionary change. He has and to Mr Cross for preparing them, a superb rendition of well been instrumental in ensuring that the School has struck the known and loved passages under the theme of Great Partnerships judicious balance between being leaders in the field and at the and in welcoming you Mayor we thank you for choosing to same time, not adopting every expensive fad. The remarkably join us this morning, we are honoured and know that this is successful implementation of the Surface project is testament visible sign of the ever closer working, the partnership between to this. He has navigated the School through the introduction of Harrow School and the schools and community organisations in GDPR legislation. Despite his reminders at every opportunity its vicinity, which goes from strength to strength - something of Australian sporting successes he will be sorely missed and that I will mention a little more later on. we wish him God speed as he returns to Australia this summer. In the middle of the Summer term as we are now, with Keith Metcalfe – Graduate of Downing College, Cambridge and exams fully underway many boys doing GCSEs and A level Golf blue joined Harrow in 2000 as a teacher of Geography. He June 8, 2019 T H E H A R R O V I A N also coached soccer, rugby, golf and cross-country. He became My own old school, Manchester Grammar, would have had Head of Geography from September 2004 and was awarded governors and a chairman but I was completely unaware of them Chartered Geographer by Royal Geographical Society in July so, as a callow new beak, I needed to know about the Provost 2007. He was the first House Master of Lyon’s before joining the so I asked, much like my lunch-time questioner in the House, SMT in 2014, he started as Head of Malvern College this term. the senior-most member of Masters’ Room, the Mr Halliday Not leaving the School but changing roles at the end of of his day, what the Provost did, to which he said very dourly this term after significant and valued tenure, Mr Todd will be “Nothing”. “Oh,” I replied, “so what does the Vice-Provost moving on from Head of History, our longest serving Head of do?” “He helps”. This reminded me, and I say this gingerly Subject, which he has guided through educational reforms, to be with a former post-holder on our Governors, of an interview Director Super-Curriculum and Mr Ridgway will come out of I had once heard on the Today programme when during some Druries after ten years as House Master, where his kind patient particularly painful defence cuts John Simpson asked a senior understanding of the boys in his care will be something that Admiral “Why do we need a First Sea Lord?”, to which was all who have been in the House will reflect on appreciatively. made the answer, “Someone has to tell the Second Sea Lord what to do”. So what are Governors really all about? I could illustrate it with a little story. Two senior teachers are flying high in a self- inflated hot air balloon and realize they are lost and not quite in control. They see a person on the ground, so they navigate the balloon to where they can speak to them. They yell down, “Can you help us – we’re lost?” The person on the ground replies, “Yes I can help, you’re in a hot air balloon, about two hundred feet off the ground, heading south, at pace.” One of the people in the balloon replies to the person on the ground, “You must be a Governor. You gave us precise and professional information that is accurate but doesn’t solve our problem.” The Governor on the ground shouts up to the people in the balloon, “You must be in teaching.” They holler back, “Yes, but how I stand before you and speak this morning as your new, did you know?” The governor replies says, “Well, you’re in fresh out of the Amazon carton Head Master with scarcely the same situation you were in before you talked to me, but five weeks under my gown and hood, it is great to be back now it’s my fault.” Chairman and Governors present on behalf and I am delighted to be on the Hill with Madeleine and our of all the Foundation I would like to take this opportunity to children. Being back, it unmistakably gives you the vector for thank you. The real answer to the question of what you do is looking forward, as well as a sense of reflection, perspective to be incredibly indulgent with your time, share your wisdom and a measure of familiarity, but I think more than anything, judiciously and to show the greatest generosity of spirit: I am it is a secure platform to look to the future and to embrace grateful. the significant challenges optimistically which face us as a School, nation and planet. Being on the Hill is so incredibly energising and compelling, it is the privilege and honour of my professional life to work in this unparalleled setting with superb Masters and Harrovians, it imbues you with great courage to strive to be the best and indeed take the initiative educationally and socially. I have been quite bowled-over by the extent of the warm welcomes this term and indeed this sense of rapport, acceptance and fellow-feeling has never been warmer than in the Houses where I have been pleased to each lunch. You have asked me many things at lunches and I fear my answers have gone on too long and I have forgotten the unwritten rule that the meal can’t progress ‘til the guest has finished eating, and I have been faced with munching very quickly having talked too long in answer to your questions so And what of that future I have mentioned? We are preparing that plates can be cleared and activities joined. You have wanted a no-assumptions curriculum review, to ensure that while the to know if I will actually change anything, what my views on right qualifications are delivered at the right time to enable the different sports are and how I see Harrow’s future. At some boys to passport successfully from one educational stage to point during these conversations someone around the table will the next, that they are also equipped for 21st-century working: normally say something like “Do you teach?” to which I have to have the vision to work up a project that solves a problem, to say “Regrettably, No, I am doing a few Fifth Form revision to build a team, manage the venture, lead the people, pass sessions, but perhaps I will teach fully next year”, in response, on authority, enable, fail, regroup, showing resilience and as quick as a whip comes the follow-up, “So if you’re not adaptability of all kinds, and deliver the project and then go teaching, what do you actually do all day?” The last time this on to seek the next one.
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