o o the Abingdonian o august 2000 o The Abingdonian August 2000 0 Volume XXIII No. 1 (Issue 304) 0 My heartfelt thanks go ta those pupils and colleagues who have helped with this magazine. I must express my special gratitude to E. Macdonald 5PW and G. Smith 3BJLS, whose fine phatographs once again grace the pages of the magazine, 0 despite my having failed to 0 thank them last year. All photographs of pupil artwork were taken by NWH. Illustrations of sport do not necessarily show the team 0 whose article they accompany. All prizes are recorded within 0 the House reports, rather than as a separate list. " The volume numbering of the 0 magazine started from the first issue in the Nineteenth Century, but has never been consistent; volunies have va ried from two issues (in Volume XXI) to thirty- a four issues (in Volume V). In an attempt to restore order to this 0 confusing situation, I have begun a new Volume (XXIII) and intend that there should be six issues in a volume from now on. SH (Editor) If you would Iike to subscribe to The Abingdonian, please contact the Editor at the School address. The Abingdonian was printed by UNiSKill, in Witney, Oxfordshire, telephone (01865) 883655, facsimile (01865) 881244. D 'Landscape', oil on board, by w. Smith VUFH Inspection the Headmaster traces Paul Revere may have been witless with fright as he this group ploughed through a vast range of topics, the course of the galloped into Lexington, Massachusetts, on that commenting and advising as they did so. Their work inspection process, famous night in 1775, shouting the warning that, cleared a way, in turn, for the massive compilation culminating in the according to American myth, opened the War of entitled "School Inspection Details", which had to be extremely favourable Independence: "The British are coming!" But at least produced in compliance with meticulously defined verdict given at the end he had the advantage ofa sense ofurgeney, ofreal and requirements before the inspection team could start of inspection week in present danger, an advantage which I did not enjoy work. Much of"SID" owed its form - and its quality, November 1999 when passing on the news in 1993 that we would be which greatly impressed the inspectors - to TJK, but inspected in the academic year 1999-2000. numerous members of staff contributed, and certain However, we had time to get our act together. key strategic documents had to be the products ofthe First, land various other key figures were trained and Headmaster's pen and approved by the Governors. qualified as inspectors and went off to terrify other The fateful year itse!f began in purposeful style, schools in order to learn how to avoid being terrified with a staff training day in January, led by Mr. Roy in our turn. Systems of appraisal, assessment and Haygarth, HMC Inspection Co-ordinator, the repotting were overhauled. Colleagues were tasked to ultimate pundit. Discussions followed about the shape produce handbooks, codes and schemes of work, ofthe inspecting team; it mattered that we were to be which they churned out with varying degrees of inspected both as a boarding school, and as a senior enthusiasm and urgeney. Administrative struetures school with junior school attached. Our designated were clarified, consolidated, and cast into reams of Lead Inspector, Mr. Brian FitzGerald, made his first state!y prose which will be of the utmost interest to contact with us in April. Matters such as the future historians (whether they be!ieve what they read inspection timetable, arrangements for the inspectors' or not will be another matter). The edifice ofpastoral accommodation, and liaison and communication, care which had been painfully constructed over the were discussed and setded with mercifully litde previous decade and a half was extended upwards, difficulty. Taken simply as an exercise in logistics, it sideways and downwards, re-plumbed and re-wired. was a substantial proposition: seventeen senior profes­ And I looked, increasingly anxiously, for another job, sionals had to be housed, fed, provided with fully but failed to find one. equipped working spaces and support, and moved At least, that was how it could have seemed to an around our complex, split-site campus for five days unkind observer. In reality, all these were processes during which they were going to work, in most cases, o which had been going on for ever, even if some of berween about seven each morning until midnight or them received a fillip from the realization that later. Not for nothing did those of us who were judgment was beginning to 100m. Abingdon's never­ experienced inspectors drill home the message that ending pursuit ofexcellence was simply focused down attention to our visitors' needs was to be understood as on to objectives more sharply defined by inspection a matter ofprudence as weil as courtesy. requirements and criteria. Schools are not required, or encouraged, to put on Inspection is, unavoidably, an intrusive business, special shows for inspection, doing things that they and even the best may fee! threatened by it. The surest would not normally do. However, there can be no antidote is the confidence born of thorough objection to a programme which ensures that preparation, but there is value, also, to be derived from important parts of the School's ordinary offering are a sense of team solidarity and the realization that all not under-~alued or omitted simply through an are equally engaged in an operation for which credit accident of the calendar. Chape!, music, drama and (or blame) will be fairly shared. Working parties were games were thus allowed to adjust their normal set up to examine the implications of inspection as routines so as to give the inspectors a sight of what they would affect the MCR, the non-teaching staff could be described as normal. Similar considerations were briefed about what to expect and invited to make applied to the planning of activities by housemasters, contributions, and in due course the boys themse!ves and the organization ofteaching programmes by heads were alerted to what was going on. of department; the inspection was to be a family To ensure that nothing was overlooked, a snapshot rather than a group photograph, but it would committee was established at the beginning of the be legitimate to ensure that most of the family were Michae!mas Term 1997, under the chairmanship of around and doing things when the moment came. DJD, with abrief to carry out a review of all the A fair judgment on the School's activity must take the Abingdonian School's working practices in the light of published account of the extent to which it does, or does not, page 2 inspection requirements. Over the ensuing months, fulfil the expectations of its clients, the parents. So a questionnaire was organized, and arrangements made inspection were lulled, as a result, into anitudes more "Landscape", for its return under confidential cover to the Lead relaxed than they had originally intended, but any oU on board, Inspector. The response rate - almost precisely fifty fears which an anxious Headmaster might have by N. Moffatt VUEF per cent, a quarter of all respondents offering more developed on that account were proven unnecessary. than the minimum of comment - was regarded as The dimax, and termination, of every inspection healthily high. is aoverbal report made by the full team of inspectors The countdown went on. A formal preliminary to the Headmaster in the presence of the Governors, visit by the Lead Inspector in mid-September and such members ofthe Senior ManagementTeam as produced few problems and much in the way of he invites to share the experience. This is often reassurance (Upper Field Pavilion had been destroyed considered co be a rather problematic meeting; by fire during the previous night). The Headmaster's unavoidably lengthy, one-sided (the Headmaster may personal statement for SID was finalized, after many only intervene to point out errors of fact, if such revisions, in late September; it felt uncomfortably like occur), and formal. Ir is preceded by private meetings an apologia pro vita SM. October, and the first half of between individual inspectors and heads of November, passed amid blizzards of paper, most of department, which give a dear enough indication which settled into orderly drifts, as heads of about rhe general drift ofthe report. However, whole­ department communicated with their respective school issues, bound to be of concern co senior inspectors, and TJK placed his computer under management, are reserved for the plenary session; an 0 imminent danger of overload as he generated more adverse verdiet on the School's overall regime rnight and more statistics about examination performances have to be endured in stoical silence. (decidedly high) in relation to the pupils' measured Abingdon's report, however, did not come from abilities (generally sound). the usual mould; its opening statement - "This is an And then "The Inspectors are corning!". But still excellent school, with many strengths and few there was no melodrama. Months of careful weaknesses" - used language which inspectors are preparation paid off; arrangements worked smoothly; trained to avoid, except in the rarest of cases, as everybody performed up to, or perhaps even a linie indicative ofpeaks of attainment which few could be beyond, the highest expectations; the inspectors expected to scale. Had we, then, scaled such peaks? As themselves proved as delightfully amiable as they were the stately sentences rolled on, it became dear that we unfailingly scrupulous. An enormous amount were, indeed, thought to have achieved the heights. depends, in such episodes, on the tone set by the I would have been happy just to float away at that leader; Brian FitzGerald was the very soul ofcourresy, moment.