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:

“I am delighted to welcome you all to St. Bees for another Speech Day and Thanksgiving Service. As many people have reminded me this will be my twelfth and the final occasion that I shall be addressing you all before I retire. First of all may I thank all those present who have kindly sent me best wishes on a speedy recovery following my fall down the Foundation stairs. As I hope that I am proving to you today, I am well on the path to recovery and hope to be back at work after the half term break. I would also like to thank the school’s Chaplain, the Reverend Clifford Swartz, who led us through the start of the day’s proceedings - the Thanksgiving Service.  His words to us this morning on the theme ‘Faith not Worry’ and his thoughts on seeking God’s Kingdom in the future will give us all, and especially the leavers, plenty to think about in the coming weeks. I would also like to welcome on your behalf our Guest of Honour this morning, Dr. Bill Frankland, who joined the school in 1926 when he was 14 years old and left four years later when he was 18. It is difficult to imaginewhat St. Bees School was like over eighty years ago, but Bill has talked to me in the past about the times new boys were rolled in dustbins around the grounds as part of an initiation ceremony! I find it difficult to imagine this kind of behaviour being tolerated today. Amazingly Bill is still working - he continues to be a leading specialist in allergies with a practice based in Harley Street, London. He celebrated his hundredth birthday in March and has since then had articles written about him in the Daily Telegraph as well as The Times and been a guest on the BBC’s One Show. He told me last night there could well be another two future performances on our TV screens. We were delighted when he agreed to be our Guest of Honour today and Bill, welcome back to your school!

In my view, education consists of two parts. The first part focuses on the academic. It is very important that our pupils perform well in the classroom. Last year the GCSE results were again strong - 72% of all our GCSE grades were B grade or higher and this becomes even more impressive when you realise that the average number of GCSE subjects passed by each St. Bees pupil in 2010/11 was 9.2 subjects.
The A level results were equally impressive and we were delighted that the percentage of A*, A and B grades once again met our target of exceeding 60%.
This year we were particularly pleased when two of our Oxbridge candidates received conditional offers, both from St. John’s College, Oxford. John Evans to read Physics and Maggie Duguid to read French and Russian. St. Bees School is proud that it spends time advising its pupils on university entrance. Besides the two pupils hoping to attend Oxford University, two further pupils have conditional offers to study medicine at the Glasgow and Manchester Schools of Medicine, and in total 63% of all our upper sixth form pupils have accepted conditional offers from universities which are members of the Russell Group. These are the universities committed to the highest levels of academic excellence in both teaching and research.

I strongly believe that for students to achieve success in their adult lives, not only do they need to do their best academically, but they also need to develop skills and interests outside the classroom through activities offered in a wide range of areas. St. Bees School not only promotes a wide extra-curricular programme, but also, due to its size, each and every pupil has the opportunity to experience that complete range of activities.

At St. Bees, all pupils have the opportunity to obtain Duke of Edinburgh Awards through the C.C.F. Over the last ten years, 223 pupils have obtained the Bronze Award, 106 pupils the Silver Award and 27 pupils the Gold Award. Having three adult children myself, all of whom hold a Gold Duke of Edinburgh Award, I know the value placed on this scheme by both universities and employers. I urge all parents to encourage their children to achieve the highest possible Award during their time at St. Bees. I would like to take the opportunity at this time to thank two members of staff who have devoted a great deal of their time to the organisation of the scheme, RSM WO1 Sandy Rogers and also Major Linda Johnston. (Linda Johnston has also been responsible for overseeing the first aid programme offered by the C.C.F.).

I also believe strongly in giving all our pupils the opportunity to develop their organisational and communication skills outside the classroom. For this reason I set up the Student Charity Committee in 2004 and each year the students choose two charities and then focus on raising funds for them. The two charities being supported by the school this academic year are the Rainbow Trust, which provides emotional and practical support to families who have a child with a life threatening or terminal illness, and the Community Advance Programme, which supports Christian communities in countries such as Pakistan. In the past, pupils have organized fashion shows and race nights and this year Hugo Graham in our upper sixth volunteered to run a Christmas quiz with the help of the Family Association. This event raised over £200 and our target this year is to be able to present each of our two chosen charities with cheques of £1500 each.  I wish to thank in particular the two members of staff who have helped oversee the pupils involved - Mr. Roger Bardsley and the Chaplain, the Reverend Clifford Swartz.

Every pupil has the chance to involve themselves in at least one dramatic production a year and St. Bees School is lucky to have a talented and committed Head of Drama in Jon Mellor. Since last year’s Speech Day, productions have included Eliot’s ‘Murder in the Cathedral’ produced by Jeff Evans in the Priory; Bolt’s ‘The Thwarting of Baron Bolligrew’, this year’s junior play jointly produced by Jo Wilson and Jon Mellor; the sixth form pantomime ‘Dracula - Out for the Count’; and finally at the end of last term for the senior play, Ayckbourn’s ‘A Chorus of Disapproval’. These last two productions were directed by Jon Mellor. We must also not forget the three performances put on by the Prep. Department, 'Joseph and his Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat', which finished at the end of the last year’s summer term and, of course, the first Nativity production put on by the youngest pupils in the Prep. Department. So you can see there are plenty of opportunities for pupils of all ages to involve themselves in dramatic activities of some kind. Although many staff give freely of their time to help with these productions, I would, at this time, especially like to thank Wendy Mellor for all the help she has willingly given Jon in all school productions, particularly with the provision of costumes, and also for her input into the curriculum in two specific areas, PSHE and English, as this year she will be retiring from the classroom.

The musical life of the school has always been strong under the leadership of the Director of Music. Throughout my time at St. Bees, this position has been held by Hugh Turpin. Performances by the Choir, whom we heard singing delightfully earlier this morning, the Orchestra and the Wind Band and also by individual musicians on their chosen specific instruments have always played an important part in the extra-curricular life at St. Bees and are welcomed at the termly concerts in the Priory, the lunchtime concerts for pupils and staff in the Memorial Hall, at the religious services or just at events like Fringe Week, where musicians, in particular, entertain the school community. This morning I have asked one of the younger members of the senior school to sing to us to show you the kind of talent we have here at St. Bees. Please welcome Francesca Merlo, a Year 10 Fourth Form pupil who gained a Singing Grade 6 with Distinction this last March.

A high percentage of our younger pupils take individual musical lessons on a wide variety of instruments. In my opinion part of any child’s education should involve receiving lessons on at least one musical instrument. I remember my father stating he would pay for lessons on the bagpipes, but I ended up learning the cornet!

Sport is another important extra-curricular pastime for many of our pupils. As usual there have been plenty of opportunities to participate in the school’s main sports of rugby and hockey. The most successful teams this year have been the U15 hockey XI and perhaps the U13 rugby XV team, which had to be picked from a pool of only 18 eligible boys! Golf continues to thrive with more and more pupils opting to have individual coaching lessons with Stuart Hemmings, the school’s PGA coach. St. Bees School’s golfing facilities continue to grow and this afternoon the Costeloe Short Game Area will be officially opened by one of our senior OSB golf stalwarts, Alec MacCaig. Other individual achievements in sport have included Harriet MacRae qualifying for the second year to complete in the English Schools’ National Cross Country Championships; Jonty Styles captaining the county’s U14 hockey team and being selected to play for the U14 county cricket team this summer; and finally the following were medal winners at the Northern Independent Schools’ Athletic Championships, Harriet MacRae (again), who was awarded a silver medal in the 1500m; Ciaron Newland, who was also awarded silver in the hurdles; Tom Wright, who was awarded bronze in the 1500m; and the inter-girls’ relay team consisting of Sarah Beattie, Julieanne Thompson, Lydia Davies and Dani Lewis, who won bronze in the relay race. This does not include the success the school achieved in the County Combined Athletics Event Championship held very early this summer term. Finally I must mention again Tom Wright of our fourth form, who has been selected as a Torch Bearer for the Olympic Torch Relay. His leg takes place in the Ambleside area on Thursday June 21st.

There are many other activities that pupils can become involved in, especially for those in the sixth form, when we start to focus on developing the leadership and team qualities of our pupils. The Young Enterprise Group’s company, ‘Best of British’, whose managing director this year was Lucy Bushby, won the prize for being the best company in West Cumbria. The Shares4Schools Group came 5th out of 54 schools when they increased a portfolio of £1500 of shares by 15% during the past academic year, and the Engineering Education Scheme Group of six lower sixth pupils successfully worked on a project to design a canopy structure for a bank of compressors for Jacobs Engineering based at Westlakes.

Put all these activities with the ESU Debating and Public Speaking competitions, the recent History trip to Germany, and last summer’s South Africa rugby and hockey tour, and perhaps you can start to understand why we strongly believe that participation in just a fraction of this educational programme results in our pupils being exceptionally well prepared for the next stage of their lives.
 
As usual at this time of year we shall be saying farewell to our two French and Spanish language assistants, Isabelle Cazals and Luisiana Fernandez Bustamante. However, Isabelle will be returning for a second year at St. Bees in September. At the end of term we shall also be saying goodbye to the resident tutors on School and Grindal Houses. Christopher Greenlees, who besides being the resident tutor on School House, has assisted in the International Centre and the Learning Support Department, and Peter Karacsony, who is here from Romania on the HMC Training and Work Experience Scheme, and has been based in the Games/PE Department. His basketball skills have been especially appreciated by the boarding community and he has also acted as the resident tutor on Grindal House. We wish both Christopher and Peter every success for their futures.

At the end of this current year, beside myself, an additional three members of the teaching staff will be leaving. Helen Capes joined the Preparatory Department two years ago in September 2010. As an experienced early years’ teacher, she set up a new classroom for Reception and Key Stage One pupils, and so St. Bees School was then able to educate boys and girls from the age of four up to eighteen. The only thing that Helen balked at was signing a letter of appointment that included the clause, “I agree to undertake any reasonable request issued by the Headmaster”! While discussing leaving staff, we must also not forget that Penny Lynch, who joined us in September 2009 and who taught Class 2 in the Preparatory Department, has decided to become a full-time mother and so she will not be returning after her year’s maternity leave as Ryan looks forward to celebrating his first birthday.
 
Belinda Lavin Campo joined the Modern Foreign Language Department at St. Bees School in September 2008 to teach Spanish. She has achieved excellent Spanish results at both A and GCSE levels and we wish her the very best as she moves with her partner further south. Caroline Dearden was appointed by Janet Pickering in September 1999 as a Geography and Games/PE teacher as well as to be the Housemistress on Lonsdale House.  She ran Lonsdale for four years until the arrival of Jane Malan.
As the majority of you know I shall be retiring at the end of this term. I have been privileged to have held the post of Headmaster of St. Bees School for the past twelve years. Things have changed as you would expect as we live in an ever-changing world. Early on after my appointment there was a new telephone system; then a school management system (known as Schoolbase) and website were introduced. A new sixth form centre and reception area were also quickly established and, of course, the Preparatory Department was opened in September 2008; and now St. Bees, through the recently established Rainbow Nursery on Abbots Court, can provide an education for all ages of children – young and old.  There have been challenges to face as well - the phasing out of the assisted places scheme, the outbreak of foot and mouth disease in 2001, and the concerns about the spread of the SARS virus and the more recent fears about Bird Flu.

Throughout my time in the teaching profession I have never experienced a boring day. Two events I still remember well even though they occurred over thirty years ago. I was learning to drive an Army four-ton lorry when the school’s O.C. asked me if I would like a cup of tea. Having concentrated for a long time on driving safely such a large vehicle, as it demanded double de-clutching before its gears could be changed, I readily agreed. Imagine my concern when he took out a primus stove, lit it and then placed a kettle over the top of it between his legs! The second incident involved playing for the staff cricket team. The Headmaster, who had appointed me and was very proud of his cricketing prowess, was bowled out first ball by the school’s 1st XI captain. There was a deadly silence and the Headmaster, who had addressed an assembly earlier in that very day on the subject that the umpire/referee is always right and their decision must always be respected, shouted out “I am the Headmaster and I shall decide when I am out!” Unsurprisingly he went on to score an unbeaten 75!  You can perhaps understand now why I often focus on ‘health and safety’ issues and I believe it is imperative that the Head of any school sets a good example!

I would like to take this opportunity to thank on your behalf all of the staff, both teaching and support, for all their hard work over the past academic year. I wish to add my special thanks to all the members of the Senior Management Team and as this is my last Speech Day, I hope you will forgive me if I thank them all by name -  Dan Evans, my Deputy Head, Gordon Stokes, the Bursar, Jane Hawley, the school’s Admissions’ Officer and Director of Marketing, Jane Dyer, the Senior Teacher, and Jane Malan, the Senior HM of the Boarding Staff.  Their support over the past two years in particular has been much appreciated.

I would also like to thank all the Governors who have provided me with support during my time as Headmaster. I wish to include in this report my thanks to all those involved in the work of the Family Association and the OSB Association - both associations which, during my time here, have supported the work of the school. This year especially their contributions to the refurbishment of the climbing wall in the Sports Hall have resulted in the activity of climbing being reintroduced into the extra-curricular programme. I would like to thank Pat Creighton, who has been setting up flower stands for Speech Days and other main school events for the past 27 years. I must record my thanks for all the wonderful flower arrangements she has put together, especially during my time as Headmaster here.

Another individual whose work cannot be praised highly enough is that of my PA Emma Graham. Her efficiency and good humour plus her efforts in my office and with the public examinations that she organizes are appreciated by everyone who comes into contact with her. Many thanks, Emma, from everyone - even from those who have encountered problems accessing through Schoolbase their child’s reports!

We particularly enjoy it when past pupils are successful. This year we have congratulated Stuart Lancaster on being appointed England Head Coach and, of course, welcomed Rowan Atkinson back to tour those parts of the school which you could say were instrumental to him starting his successful career in entertainment.

I wish James Davies, who takes over the reins as Headmaster from September 2012, every success. This is a very special school and I shall certainly miss being part of its community as my wife and I move on to the next stage of our lives. Thank you and please enjoy the rest of the day.”

 

Home

The St. Beghian Society,    St. Bees School,    St. Bees,    Cumbria,    CA27 0DS.
         Tel: (01946) 828093      Email: osb@st-bees-school.co.uk      
Web: www.st-beghian-society.co.uk