Prize Giving 2010: The Headmaster's Annual Review

Mr Chairman, Mr Vagdia, Members of the Bablake community,

May I too extend a very warm welcome to our annual celebration of achievement and progress.The year 2009-10 was not exceptional in providing a rich harvest of successes, but I am always staggered by the sheer variety and sparkle of our young people’s talents. I’m sorry, parents, but it’s the ground floor which is dazzling me, although I suppose you can take some of the credit! They are all different, they never cease to amaze and surprise us, and we can share their excitement when they both meet and outstrip our expectations.

Yes, we can be again be proud of the statistics, but they actually tell the passive onlooker little about the vibrancy and care which make our community so special, or about the pride which we all share as its members.

But before we hear about some of last year’s highlights, it’s perhaps helpful to pause for a few moments as we consider what we’re trying to achieve, and also a little bit about how government helps or hinders us.

What’s our ‘core business’? Well, it must be the development of young people into successful and responsible and, hopefully, happy adulthood. Teaching, learning and guidance or support are the principal cornerstones of our community, and perhaps our greatest joy is seeing our leavers embark as generous, well-rounded and confident people on the next stage of their lives. I should also add that the leavers’ last day is also a day when many a tear is shed, mostly by staff!

School shouldn’t be comfortable and easy, for we actually grow most through challenge, adventure and mistakes. Children need to be nurtured, but they also need to be taken out of their comfort zone. The mantra at the beginning of the new school year has been expectations and opportunities. As staff we must have the highest expectations of learning, self-motivation, intellectual curiosity, as well as conduct, consideration and appearance. Aspiration comes through inspiration, and then determination and perspiration ensure ultimate success. Those sitting in front of me are not primarily here through brilliance, but because they reached for the stars and then put in the necessary hard graft to get there. And we know that those who underachieve are those who expect success served up to them, who think it’ll be all right on the night. In an age of instant gratification, when so much is available at the touch of a button or the click of a mouse, we risk, as adults, cocooning our young people so that they never have personally to grapple or struggle in order to excel.

And what about that word ‘risk’? It’s pretty institutionally unfashionable. Everything has to be carefully measured and monitored, so that accidents or mistakes don’t happen – because there’s no such thing as an accident! We now spend far too much time on ensuring that we comply as a school with almost 130 regulations, the majority relating to safe recruitment of staff. We have to phone up referees to ask them whether it really was them who signed and sent a reference. A retired member of staff who hasn’t set foot in school for 3 months but returns to help with some teaching or invigilation has to undergo a full criminal record check, and, unless we remember to ask him or her in for a cup of coffee within the next three months, will have to be checked out again. Interestingly, this doesn’t apply to mothers on maternity leave – I suppose because they’re far too busy to get up to any mischief. We conduct countless risk assessments to govern every department and activity in school, as well as off-site visits. I’m reminded of a primary school which allowed children a few years ago to make an ice-slide on the playground before school. It allowed them to have some fun, until (you guessed) one had an accident and broke his arm. The school was found negligent, but won their appeal when common sense prevailed. Lord Denning, Master of the Rolls at the time, spouted some Shakespeare and summed up by saying that children had to learn to take risks, and that there was no safer place in the land to learn such lessons than the school playground. We, of course, stayed open in last winter’s snow, helped by our tractor and ample supplies of grit, whilst many of the local state schools remained closed for days, petrified that children would slip on the uncleared ice. Remaining with the theme of health and safety, I remember that my brother most annoyingly had an incredible and quite invincible conker; he soaked it regularly in vinegar, and I couldn’t believe how such a gnarled and beaten-up remnant of a chestnut could actually remain on its string and shatter its opponents time and time again. I don’t recall the number of its victims before it finally disintegrated, but it was certainly far more that a ‘hundreder’. Whatever happened to those amazing conker-fights!

Well, do we detect a slight change of heart in government? The fact that the DCSF (that memorable Department for Children Schools and Families) has reverted to being the Department for Education must surely be progress. Some of the more ridiculous aspects of safeguarding have been scrapped, including that monumental waste of money and effort, Contact Point. Mr Gove wants a return to a more knowledge-based education – but not too soon, please, as staff are still coping with the introduction of new AS, new A2 and new GCSE specifications. He wants us to embrace the spirit of ‘The Dangerous Book for Boys’, although it’s a shame he omits to mention ‘The Daring Book for Girls’. Whilst there will be no return to assisted places, and the new government is unlikely to favour independent schools, perhaps, at least, there’ll be less meddling and we’ll be left to get on with what we’re best at: and that, of course, is the ‘core business’ of providing an excellent, well-rounded education for our young people.

I’m now going to enlist the help of some of those well-rounded young people.I gathered them together on Friday, and said that I needed their assistance, as people soon got bored of listening to me. I wasn’t expecting one of them to agree (Chris), but I suppose I asked for it! I’ve set them the challenge of each distilling a highlight of their choice from last year into 45 seconds! So, as they make their way onto the stage, I shall introduce them. We have: Rory Kenney-Herbert in the Second Year; Aron Sood in the Third Year; Katie Carlson in the Fourth Year, Beth Rowland in the Fifth Year, Rebecca Appleton in the Lower Sixth and Chris Starkey, one of our Senior Prefects in the Upper Sixth. And Mr West, I don’t think you can count this as part of my speech, so please pause the stop-watch for the staff sweep-stake!

(Contributions were then delivered by the pupils listed above.)

Well done and thank you. They are stunning ambassadors for the school, who represent just a fraction of all the talent before me, and who are clearly making the most of opportunities and expectations. (Although it’s interesting to note that none of their highlights relate to doing any work!)

I’m now going to follow them by spending just a few moments indulging in my own choice of highlights, in no particular order:

Pupils again won prestigious Gold Crest Awards, with Lauren James (who joined us for the Sixth Form) coming runner-up in the national awards for her project on Bees and their identification by DNA; bees proved quite lucrative for her, for she was not only given a medal, but also a £500 cash prize! We were national finalists in the British Professional Women’s Public Speaking Competition, the Business and Accounting Skills Education Competition and the Junior Maths Challenge. Student journalism flourished, and the new online Squash magazine won a regional prize. The Art and Design Technology summer exhibitions were particularly stunning: many of us would have willingly given a home to Arkwright Scholar Adam Rogozinski’s beautiful patio table which had originally been delivered to school as a huge lump of iroko hardwood. We thrilled to the playing and singing at the Easter Concert in the Main Hall, which culminated in Vivaldi’s Gloria. The House Drama Festival showed the house system at its best with Shell to Sixth Formers working in perfect synergy and in mutual encouragement and friendship. Duke of Edinburgh has continued to thrive, with over 230 participants, and the CCF, as we have heard, enjoyed a successful biennial inspection, with cadets unflinching as the rain poured down during the final parade. James Faulkner, then a Third Year, climbed 5700m up Mt Kilimajaro for the NSPCC, whilst others of us puffed our way around the Bablake Mile for Sport Relief in an array of colourful costumes! We are currently unbeaten in the Coventry Cup Cricket finals (with one still to play); in the U14 game, cousins Matthew Clements and Dominic Rae shared a partnership of 292 not out, with Matthew scoring 202, and Dominic the balance. Our U16 and U19 netball teams won through to the West Midlands Finals, whilst the U15s won the Coventry Schools Tournament, scoring 80 and conceding only 7. I enjoyed seeing jaws drop at the sight of our new Fitness Suite, Climbing Wall and Dance Studio, all of which have been a tremendous asset to our sports programme. Numerous city, county, regional and national representative honours have been won in a variety of sports. Visits and expeditions at home and abroad included equally snowy trips to Russia for History and North Wales for Geography, as well as hockey and rugby tours for the boys. And the Headmaster visited China to establish links and to interview some prospective pupils; the first three have recently begun in our Lower Sixth, and I hope that we shall soon be organising a visit to the Suzhou Industrial Park Number 2 Middle School – and please don’t judge it by its exciting and imaginative name!

Well, we couldn’t possibly cover every aspect of school life tonight, and I hope you are kept pretty well informed via the website and newsletters. As a staff, both teachers and support staff, we are all committed to extending these life-enriching opportunities, and we saw the retirement this year of three highly esteemed colleagues, who between them devoted 77 years of their lives to serving the school:

Mrs Patricia Tatum was a professional singer before becoming a teacher, and joined Bablake in 1991. As well as being a source of great inspiration through her Music teaching and her direction of the school’s choirs, she was Head of Middle School from 1999, and her pastoral encouragement, guidance and professionalism were hugely valued.

Mr Rob Dougall was a pupil at Bablake between 1962 and 1969. He returned in 1989, and besides being a truly inspirational English teacher, was in charge of swimming and life-guard training, as well being Assistant Head of Sixth Form since 1995 and an incredibly talented photographer.

Mr Andrew McConaghy came to Bablake directly from teacher-training in 1973. His outstanding History teaching and organisational skills soon earned him promotion, and he rose to become Director of Studies in 1992. In this role, he played a major part in both academic and curricular development at Bablake. Never without a sense of humour, he texted us in the middle of our Senior Management Meeting on 1 September, to say how much he was enjoying a coffee and pain au chocolat in France.

Others whom I would like to thank are: Mrs Brenda Wood and Mrs Mandy Reed (who continues to work in the Junior School), and, from the Support Staff, Mrs Patricia Thomas, Mr Stuart Slater, Mr Jonty Boddington and Mrs Chrissie Waddington.

So, please join with me in thanking not only those mentioned, but all our staff for their dedication and service.

And thank you too to the Governors for their ongoing and passionate support of our school, and to you, the parents, for joining us in this unpredictable but hugely rewarding enterprise of nurturing the young people before me.

It now gives me great pleasure to introduce our guest of honour, Mr Dhiran Vagdia.

As you have read in your programme, Mr Vagdia has enjoyed a fascinating and varied career since leaving Bablake, and he is remembered with great respect by some of his teachers who are seated in the auditorium. Such is the respect for him that they have failed entirely to share any embarrassing moments with me! So, Mr Vagdia, you are spared that tonight!

However, as one always does, I did google you. There was much concerning your role as Chair of the West Midlands Royal Institute of British Architects, including a reference to you staking a claim for David Dimbleby’s crown, as you chaired a lively debate in the run-up to the Election. There was a Facebook page featuring you in the Coventry Fun Run – but I couldn’t view it because you were filtered! There was another article about guerrilla tactics, one entitled ‘Let the Force be with you’ and a third called ‘Architects are out to turn heads’. That certainly leaves this head intrigued! You are very welcome tonight, and we look forward to your speech.