FROM THE HEAD'S DESK:

After a Thanksgiving and Leavers’ Service in the Priory, Speech Day continued with prizegiving in the Sports Hall when the Headmaster, Philip Capes, spoke as follows:

“May I start by offering to you all a warm welcome on this special day of celebration and thanksgiving, the 2011 St. Bees School Speech Day. First of all, many thanks to Anne and Jim Baker for leading today’s Service of Thanksgiving for the school. Anne knows the Priory well having served as a curate here in St. Bees before her appointment as vicar of Eskdale. Jim and Anne are, of course, long standing ex-parents of the school, having seen all four of their boys educated here from September 1988 through to June 2004. Jim’s message to us today in his sermon asked us to consider how important education is whatever age we are. The Sermon on the Mount has many important messages for us and we shall all be thinking about what was said long after today’s proceedings are over.

After a year without a chaplain, we are looking forward to welcoming the Rev. Clifford Swartz, who will be joining the school in September as our chaplain. He will also be the new priest-in-charge for St. Bees village. Presently he is Associate Rector of Christ Church, an Anglican church in Manhattan, New York. He is married to Katie and they have four young children. The licensing service for Clifford will take place on Monday, September 5th in the Priory Church at the very start of our Christmas Term.

Our other guest of honour today is Lord Inglewood of Hutton-in-the-Forest. Lord Inglewood has been a barrister and chartered surveyor, but is now a working member of the House of Lords, serving as an elected hereditary peer since 1999. He has served two terms as a Conservative MEP in the European Parliament. He visited St. Bees School for the second time last November on the ‘Peers in Schools’ scheme to deliver to our sixth form a talk on the work carried out by the Upper Chamber of Parliament, the House of Lords. Lord Inglewood supports a variety of local organisations such as the Cumbria Wildlife Trust and the Settle-Carlisle Railway Trust and I thank him for finding time in his busy schedule to be with us today.

Before Christmas, we all experienced a spell of exceptionally cold weather with temperatures dropping way below the seasonal average. I remember driving out of St. Bees one December day with the car temperature gauge dropping rapidly as I got further from St. Bees and the warming influence of the sea. I noted that as I finally approached the outskirts of Penrith, it settled at -14 degrees centigrade. Although we experienced few significant falls of snow here at St. Bees, there were occasions when the entire senior school at break times seemed to be involved in snowball fights on the Crease and the children from the Preparatory Department spent time tobogganing down any slope they could find.

We were often the only school in the area to remain open at this time and I was especially grateful to the ground-staff, who often came in early to ensure all the pathways around school were clear of snow and ice before the pupils arrived.
The end of the summer holidays saw the publication of the year’s public examination results, and the first set of sixth form pupils who were awarded the newly introduced A* grade. Eleven pupils – approximately 1 in 4 of the year cohort – celebrated achieving at least one of the top A* grades. Joe Pearson and Oscar He were the most successful candidates, gaining A* grades in both their Mathematics and Further Mathematics A-levels. Joe Pearson is now at Warwick University studying Mathematics and Physics and Oscar He is reading Engineering at Balliol College, Oxford. At GCSE level, we were delighted with the results, especially with the 21.6% figure for A* grades. Once again there were many outstanding individual performances, Megan Bardsley’s complete set of ten A*s in all subjects deserves a special mention. This age cohort was the first to find itself analysed in government league tables under the hurriedly introduced English Baccalaureate, which only counts key core GCSE subjects. We were delighted to be the top-performing school in Copeland when the statistics for the English Baccalaureate were published. This year will be the first that pupils in the fourth form have had the option to take the GCSE (short course) examination in Religious Studies – over 60% of the year group will be sitting the module paper in the week following the half term break.

At the start of the academic year, we welcomed into the school community our youngest pupils so far when we added a Reception/Key Stage 1 class to the Preparatory Department.  Mrs. Capes has taken charge of this new class and although she initially objected to the phrase in her letter of appointment that she would have to undertake any reasonable task allocated to her by the Headmaster, she has quickly established a busy, well structured environment for learning with this age group.
There are now 28 pupils divided between three classes in the Preparatory Department led by Mr Sewill and next year we plan to enter into an agreement with a well known local provider of nursery care to open a Pre-Preparatory Department, which is likely to offer all year round care for those too young to join our Reception/Key Stage 1 class. It is planned that this will be based in Abbots Court and be known as the Rainbow Nursery at St. Bees School and be open from this coming September. If you wish to find out more or to be kept informed of developments, please do not hesitate to contact the admissions department of the school.

During the past year, the sporting facilities that we provide for golf and cricket in particular have been improved.  Behind the golf studio, a wild overgrown area which used to be known as the School House garden, has been landscaped into the Costeloe ‘Putting and Chipping’ practice area. We are very grateful to the Old St. Beghians Golf Society, which has pledged financial support for this project.

We have also entered into a partnership with the English Cricket Board to establish facilities at the school for a Cricket Academy, which will provide top class training and practice facilities for our pupils and other promising young cricketers in the community. Just over £100 000 has been invested in new nets and lighting in the sports hall plus the rebuilding of the outside nets in front of the P.E. and Games office. Our next project involves renovation of the climbing wall in the sports hall and once again the school is grateful for the financial support it has received from the Old St. Beghians Society 200 Club and the Family Association.

One of the life skills which St. Bees promotes strongly is the development of self-confidence. This is often achieved by actively encouraging our pupils to participate in one of the many productions that the Drama department organises throughout the year. Since last Speech Day, the following productions have been performed at the school: in June 2010 ‘Cold Comfort Farm’, based on the novel by Stella Gibbons, and in October 2010 ‘Cider with Rosie’ was presented in the round by the lower forms of the senior school.

In December 2010 the St. Bees’ version of the pantomime ‘Aladdin’ was staged by the sixth form on the salad room stage and finally the senior play ‘The Crucible’ by Arthur Miller was performed, in the round in March. In addition Purcell’s Opera ‘Dido and Aeneas’ was performed by the girls’ choir, Gaudeamus, at the Spring Music Concert in the Priory and, of course, we cannot forget the ‘Joseph and his Amazing Technicolour Dream Coat’ performances which the preparatory department has delighted us with in three parts over the year. The other skills which an education at St. Bees promotes are self discipline, having the confidence to say ‘no’, learning through making mistakes, self knowledge and, especially as they move up into the sixth form, independent learning and leadership skills.

In my opinion, one of the most worthwhile activities that St. Bees School offers is the Duke of Edinburgh Award Scheme. Each year an increasing number of our pupils develop the skills that I have just listed through participating in the scheme.
This academic year our pupils have achieved 24 Bronze awards and 12 Silver Awards and we have six pupils who just have to complete one final section before they qualify for the very prestigious Gold Award. All three of my children possess the Gold Award and it has without doubt helped all of them as they have moved on to university and then into the world of work. The Duke of Edinburgh Award Scheme is recognised across the globe and is a qualification accepted and valued by most employers. Winners of the award have demonstrated that they possess many of the skills valued by employers whatever professional career they choose to follow, and I know our pupils will find the award beneficial long after they have left education and entered the very competitive market place of employment.

Involvement in the School Council or the House Charity Representatives’ Committee allows many of our pupils a chance to develop their leadership skills. Organising fund raising events such as the successful Race Night or the Charity Car Wash not only raised over £4500 this year for the charities being supported by the school, but also gave a significant number of pupils the opportunity to hone their communication and organisational skills in particular. I shall not forget the meeting when I foolishly agreed to dye my hair red for the whole of Red Nose Day if the school could raise sponsorship money of £500. Jonathan Reid and Hugo Graham conducted an enthusiastic campaign and unfortunately raised the sum concerned! This resulted in my dressing in a cut-away bin liner on the morning of Red Nose Day and then placing myself in the garden while my wife sprayed on non-permanent red hair dye. She was not impressed with the results so she added red lipstick to my eyebrows to enhance the overall effect!

As usual pupils have been given the opportunity to participate in a wide range of competitions and challenges such as Young Enterprise, Share4Schools, ESU Public Speaking and Debating, the Engineering Education Scheme and the Times Spelling Bee competition – all these enable pupils to develop their team-working skills. Mathematics Challenges and the National Cipher Competition allow pupils to achieve individual recognition.  John Evans came 12th in the whole country in the National Cipher Competition and won a Gold Award in the British AS Physics Olympiad. He should be very proud of these achievements. This year we had some notable successes in the Liverpool University Maths Society Challenge. Frank Ye was a runner-up in the individual competition, with Wade Li and Mindy Zhang achieving runner-up positions in the team competition. We shall be asking Lord Inglewood to present them with their prizes from this competition at the relevant point in today’s proceedings.
 
Sport also allows pupils to enjoy success. Besides the individual sporting achievements of our pupils that I shall mention, one of the most successful team sides this year was the Boys’ Rugby Sevens 1st team, coached by Andrew Keep. The team had an impressive season and although luck did not always go their way, we were delighted when they won the Keswick plate for being runners-up in the main competition. We must also not forget the school’s golf team, who now have an impressive fixture list. They particularly relished their victory over the Sedbergh team after Speech Day in 2010. Now to individual successes. Five students gained medal success at the Northern Independent Schools’ Championships held at Gateshead earlier this month – two bronze, two silver, and a gold for Kythe Dearden, who won the 300m in the intermediate girls’ event.  Harriet MacRae represented Cumbria Junior Girls in the English Schools’ National Cross Country Championships and last weekend Sarah Beattie competed in the Royal Windsor Horse Show for the North of England Team that finished in 6th position overall. Anthony Armstrong, a talented all round athlete, is county champion in Combined Events (the octathlon) and will be competing in the Inter Counties event at the end of June. Finally, Jackson Holliday has been chosen to represent the North West at squash for his age group and Jonty Styles is representing his county at cricket.

Last year two members of the lower sixth spoke of their involvement in two of the activities that I have already mentioned, Ben Greene on the Duke of Edinburgh Award Scheme and Joshua Oldham on the Shares4Schools competition. This year I have asked two of our international scholars to talk about their experiences at St. Bees.  Maddy Hicks is our present ESU (English Speaking Union) Scholar. She has already completed her education in Virginia and has been following a programme of AS levels at St. Bees in Mathematics, Further Mathematics, Physics and Spanish before returning to continue her studies at college in the USA. Nick Patrascu is a pupil from Romania, who is spending a year at St. Bees as an HMC East European Scholar. Nick is studying Business Studies, Economics, EAL and History for a year before continuing his academic work back home in Romania. Between these two short presentations, Sam Grunsell will sing ‘Over the Rainbow’, a song many of you will recognise from the film, The Wizard of Oz.

As usual at this time of year we shall be saying farewell to a number of members of staff. Charline De Vettor and Maria Josefa Gascon (known to us as Pepa) leave us in a few weeks’ time, having served the school well as this year’s French and Spanish teaching assistants. At the end of term we shall also be saying goodbye to the resident tutors on School and Grindal Houses. Daniel Sweeney, who besides being the resident tutor on Grindal, has assisted as an additional EAL teacher in the International Centre and David Vondruska, who is here with us from the Czech Republic on the HMC Training and Work Experience Scheme, and has been based in the Games/PE Department as well as acting as the resident tutor on School House.
At the end of this current term, Jean Skeen from the Mathematics and Learning Support Departments retires.  Jean started teaching Mathematics part-time at St. Bees in the late nineties and her contribution through 1:1 tutoring in Mathematics in the Learning Support Department has ensured that many students have achieved that all important pass grade in GCSE Mathematics. We wish her a long and happy retirement.

I am also announcing today that Helen Gascoyne, our Director of Marketing and Development, has resigned for personal reasons and will be leaving St. Bees School at the end of this term in July. We are very grateful for all that she has done for the school over the past two years and wish her and her family every happiness for the future. Jane Hawley, our Registrar, will be taking over the running of the Admissions and Marketing Office on Helen Gascoyne’s departure, with the guidance and full support of the senior management team.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank all of the staff, both teaching and support, for all their hard work over the past academic year and especially for the effort that all of them have put in to ensure the smooth running of the school, in particular when they had to travel in when conditions were so bad at the end of the Christmas term. I wish to add my special thanks to the members of the senior management team, particularly to my deputy, Dan Evans, and to my PA, Emma Graham, who never complains whatever crosses her desk, but just gets on with the task in hand. This year I have also valued the contribution that all the teaching staff have made in helping to cover for members of staff who have been absent from school due to injury or long term illness. I am especially grateful to Cameron Miller, Andrew Keep and Wendy Mellor for taking on classes in the English and PE/Games departments.

I also want to use this occasion to thank the Family Association for all their contributions to the life of the school, from helping to serve refreshments at plays and concerts to running social events such as the fireworks display last November and, of course, we eagerly await this afternoon’s event, ‘Proms on the Crease’. We hope the whole St. Bees’ community, school and village will gather in the Memorial Hall and marquee to listen to a wide variety of live music.

For the past 400 years there has been a school at St. Bees providing a unique education for its students, initially for secondary-aged boys of the locality, but now for both boys and girls of all ages from four to eighteen years of age. We focus not only on the academic education of our students, but also on encouraging our pupils to become polite, well balanced and confident adults who will leave St. Bees ably prepared for a successful future in today’s ever-changing world.
 
One of the highlights of the last academic year was the granting of the Freedom of Copeland Borough to the school’s CCF to celebrate the anniversary of 150 years of cadets. Apparently the cadets can now march through Copeland with drums beating and bayonets fixed to their rifles while driving their flock of sheep down the main street unhindered by council officials! I wonder what reaction they would provoke if they exercised their rights in this age of political correctness and health and safety?

However, here at St. Bees we relish the challenges ahead as we continue to take the school forward as the best independent school in the North West. I hope you enjoy the rest of the day.

Good morning to you all.”