F U L L E R I A N 2 0 1 7 - 1 8 local proud Sewell & Gardner are delighted to support Watford Boys Grammar School and proud to be part of the local community. Our mission is to keep people at the heart of the property market and we do this by offering a service which is all about you. When you combine this with our years of experience locally, you get something special. That’s why over 60% of our business comes from referrals and recommendations. If you are considering a move in Watford or the surrounding area then we would love to help. Simply give us a call on 01923 252505 or email [email protected] to find out more about how we can help get you moving. Simply because we care more The Fullerian 2017-18 Headmaster’s Notes 2 Art 68 CONTENTSSchool Life 8 Sport 74 English & Drama 28 Staff Leavers 93 Trips & Exchanges 37 School Prizes 96 Music 60 Editor: G Aitken Design: Many thanks to John Dunne. Thank you very much to all those who helped with the production of this year’s Fullerian. Watford Grammar School for Boys Rickmansworth Road, Watford WD18 7JF. Telephone: 01923 208900 Fax: 01923 208901 E-mail: [email protected] Website: www.watfordboys.org Twitter: @WBGSExcellence Thank You The Headmaster, governors and staff of Watford Grammar School for Boys would like to thank the parents, alumni, friends and organisations who have supported the school during the year. Gifts of time, expertise and money to the school continue to make a real difference to the education of our students. Friends of Watford Grammar School for Boys Watford Fuller Foundation The Old Fullerians’ Association All parental donors to the school Affinity Water Opro AECOM Young Engineers Pabulum Ash Logistics Limited SETPOINT Eaton Synergy Construction and Property Engineering Development Trust Consultants Ltd Howard Wilson Dr Tasmin Little Laing O’Rourke Thames Water Leonardo Tuskar Construction Services Ltd Mapac Wohl Reach Out Lab Met Coaches Young Enterprise THE FULLERIAN 2017-18 1 HEADMASTER’S NOTES “Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbour. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.” hese words, often attributed to Mark Twain, Harry Rée was parachuted into Occupied France in 1943 to but almost certainly written by someone else, work alongside the French Resistance to fight the Nazis. Operating represent a fine maxim for life. One of the most under the code name ‘Cesar’ and the assumed identity of Henri exciting aspects of a career in education is the Rehman, an itinerant watchmaker, Reé was a brilliant saboteur. knowledge that we have been charged with the His invention of what became known as blackmail sabotage at wonderful task of preparing young people for the Peugeot works at Sochaux has assumed textbook status in Tthose adventures to come. As educators, we have extraordinary the literature of subversion. The peacetime car factory was busily influence, with the capacity to help equip our students with the engaged producing arms for the Luftwaffe and Wehrmacht. Harry courage, curiosity and determination to explore the world and Rée went to see Roger Peugeot who ran the works and suggested engage in meaningful and productive ways with our 7.6 billion he cooperate with internal sabotage in return for an agreement fellow travellers. with the RAF to call off attacks on the plant – attacks that were I am often reminded of this whenever I meet with Old costing civilian lives. The subsequent explosions within the Boys who will invariably attribute their successes to the sound factory destroyed a 600 ton press vital in the construction of tank foundation and values developed at Watford Grammar School turrets and doubtless saved many lives in the process. for Boys. The men who attended the school in the 1950s and However, not all operations were as successful and some early 60s remember one influential man with extraordinary of the stories could have provided source material for ‘Allo Allo’ levels of fondness – their Headmaster, Harry Rée – it is in his – particularly since Harry’s French was coloured by a Mancunian memory and in recognition of his many fine values that we will accent, reminiscent of Allo Allo’s ‘English’ French Policeman be naming our new school House when the school expands to – Officer Crabtree. One day, Harry and a young Frenchman on admit one further form of entry in September. their bikes caught up with a petrol tanker – any petrol was Harry Rée was certainly a man who was wont to explore, clearly going to be for the Germans so this was a legitimate dream and discover, but most importantly, to encourage this target. All they had to do was follow it without being noticed spirit of adventure in his own students. In particular, he sought till it was going uphill and open the taps at the back to drain to encourage others to pursue as wide a range of interests as the petrol out onto the road. They managed it, cycling at top possible, and to take nothing at face value – to always have an speed, lungs bursting, opened the taps …. and were covered in open mind and question your own world view at all times as slurry from a manure tank. They fell off their bikes into the ditch, either the facts or your understanding changes. This is of course overcome with excrement and laughter. increasingly difficult in our current world where we are at risk of Harry Rée was never keen to romanticise his work as a settling into our own echo chambers of discourse. spy. He recalls a French industrialist saying ‘You won’t like going At the start of the Second World War, Harry Rée was a back to being a schoolmaster after this!’ Harry’s response was French teacher at Beckenham and Penge Grammar School and ‘On the contrary, to get back to something constructive instead was therefore exempt from service in the Military as teaching of blowing things up all the time will be a joy!’ was a ‘reserved occupation.’ However, at that time Harry Rée Of course, that was what he returned to – first as a was a pacifist and conscientious objector, so he registered as teacher at Bradford Grammar School and then as Headmaster one as a matter of principle. It is therefore somewhat ironic of Watford Grammar School for Boys in 1951. In his interview, that just a few years later, by the age of 31, Harry was a war he was asked what he thought was the main quality he would hero, with a DSO, OBE, Croix de Guerre, and Medaille de la look for when appointing staff. When reminiscing, he said that Resistance. He changed his mind because his contemporaries ‘an angel at that moment came and sat on the tip of my tongue, were getting killed and he couldn’t see how he could stand because I said, ‘generosity, in the widest sense of the term.’ A apart; particularly since his father was part Jewish and it was wonderful answer and he got the job! becoming increasingly clear that pacifism was no match for the Here are his first impressions of the school when he brutality of Hitler’s regime and its oppression of minorities. arrived in 1951: ‘It was an incredibly good school. It was an 2 THE FULLERIAN 2017-18 ordinary state school, of course. But the staff were quite exceptional … I’ve always liked school teachers. But they were very conscientious. Very successful. There was a lovely atmosphere in the school. The teaching was very good and the Paul Shearring staff were terrific in the amount of time they gave to the boys.’ Much has changed in education and in Watford Boys in the quintessential the 67 years since those impressions were formed, some of ‘Watford Boy’ which Harry Rée would surely rail against, but I suspect that he would still recognise those essential attributes amongst our aul Shearring is leaving the governing staff today. The teachers at Watford Boys are truly exceptional body of Watford Boys after an extremely and their dedication and generosity is evident to all and has successful decade in post as Chair helped to shape the lives of many generations of boys. It is my of Governors. Whilst treasuring and hope that this generosity of spirit is one that will be emulated sustaining core values and traditional by all of our students as they head out on their many and practices, he has led the school through various adventures in life. Pa period of significant change in the educational Our boys can and will set the course for the world in landscape. He was instrumental in securing the years to come. They will be the pioneers of new medicine, of benefits of early conversion to academy status in 2010 oceanography, geopolitics and our understanding of humanity and he was quick to seize the opportunities presented itself through art, literature and music. They will be the by the expansion of the school in recent years, with inventors, the computer programmers and engineers to build all of the capital grants that have followed. Most new infrastructure and they will help to correct the errors importantly, Paul’s lifelong passion for the school has of previous generations, whilst undoubtedly making some underpinned his approach to governance throughout mistakes themselves along the way to store up for the next. – a passion rivalled only by his love for family and The cycle is relentless and invigorating.