A Message From Our New Headmaster

Jeremy Hallows

Dear Old St Beghians,

This is not the first opportunity that I have had to address some of you and I shall try to avoid repetition of what I have said before. It has been a fast moving journey through this the first term on the road to the doors opening once again next September. I will say, during my visits to Newcastle (lively bunch, much mischief afoot) and Edinburgh (a surprisingly cultured gathering given that it was over the border) it felt entirely natural to highlight the importance of the role played by the Old St Beghians and their Society to date, and hopefully long into the future. When I came for interview for this post, the fact that the Society had continued through the darkest days in the school’s history showed that there was still a clear and strong attachment to the school in the hearts of the alumni and this is one further sign that there is hope for the success of the project. I have been keen to highlight to the parents who have shown interest in the school to date that their children would be joining the network afforded to OSBs. I accept that it is my duty to ensure that they are ‘of the right calibre’ to join your ranks.

So what is that calibre? As far as I can tell, the DNA of common or garden OSBs contains equal measures of candour, wisdom, bloody-mindedness, wit, kindness, stoicism, mischief, temper and talent. The essence of strong character development indeed!

We have a new management team in place, but already we have learnt much about the heritage and the provenance of the school.  Most of it seems to have been stowed away in the attic of Foundation. The chances are that if you ever lost anything in your school days, it is up there… somewhere. Whilst aspects of the life of the school have to change in order to deliver a compelling educational experience for local and international children, the outcomes, I hope, will be much the same in the way that we shape the potential and aspirations of the children through their school days. I can confirm though, that we will not be re-introducing the short trousers of yore.

You will be pleased to know that Foundation remains inhospitably cold and that the water supply is delightfully unpredictable. (I gather that the boiler which serves the building to this day was salvaged from a steamship many years ago). Sadly, these character-building experiences of your school days are, apparently, undesirable for the youth of today and so we shall set about sanitising and modernising where necessary. Hopefully, this will allow those of you who have that inclination, to berate the children for not knowing they are born when you visit the school. Nostalgia for hardship is a wonderful thing in the happiest days but it is rarely seen when the clouds gather.

You must be wearied by the growing excitement that is in every communication from the school. Well, I shall try to contain mine, this is relatively straightforward given the prosaic nature of current events. The school is filled with the sound of scaffolding being erected and electricians dismantling and reassembling the charged innards of the school. Apparently we have to remove the risk of electrical accidents and leaks in the roof too. Humbug! 

Much to my delight, we’ve had to write completely new schemes of work for every subject we plan to teach and we have had to author enough policies to keep even the most enthusiastic bureaucrat out of mischief for months. This has not, you may be surprised to hear, been an exciting experience but it has been an essential step along the way. I’ve literally just heard that apparently the Department for Education is happy with our work and so now we will be expecting a visit from Ofsted in the very near future. Just another forty-nine documents to write before they come then! When they do, they will spend two or three days looking into boiler rooms, prep rooms, risk assessments, health and safety records and all of the other glamorous stuff before giving us the tick we need in order to operate as an independent school.

When that moment comes, I might just allow myself a squeak of delight. The real reason we are here is in order to create something special for the children who join the school from September 2018. In this regard, I am going to ask for your help. There is a wonderful diversity of skill and experience within the membership of the OSB Society that I hope the new children at St Bees might have the opportunity to engage with. You just need to signal your willingness and we will keep you in our minds as we plan the detail of the programme for the years to come.

You might be interested to know that we have agreed the terms for an OSB Scholarship which recognises the importance of the link to the past. If you have secondary age children, please do contact the Admissions team to find out more.  We have also committed to offering Pioneer Scholarships for the pupils that are accepted for September 2018 before the end of February. This is an exceptional and compelling financial benefit for the families of those first children. I should note that the funds for scholarships and bursaries are limited and so when they are gone… they are gone.

Before finishing, I want to say how nice it has been to meet many of you who have made informal visits to the campus this term. Please do feel free to visit, to ask for more information or to ring that new Headmaster and set him straight. I like an argument!

It has been a remarkable experience this term. One that I knew would be unlike anything I had experienced before. I shall write soon with more news!

In the meantime, I want to thank you for reaching the end of this missive and to wish you a happy, blessed and peaceful New Year.

With every good wish,

Jeremy Hallows.

 

 

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The St Beghian Society    
St Bees School,    St Bees,    Cumbria,    CA27 0DS.

         Tel: (01946) 828093      Email: osb@stbeesschool.co.uk      Web: www.st-beghian-society.co.uk