|
 |
The Old St Beghian | |
| July 2017 | |||
From Our President
Dacre Watson (SH 56-62)
It was about three years ago this month that I had lunch with the retiring President of the St Beghian Society for a ‘handover’ chat; it was comprehensive, brief and entirely enjoyable with the result that I came away feeling that I would be looking forward to the next two years. Nothing could have prepared me for the events which were about to unfold over the next few months and on looking back, I would describe my emotions during the last three years as ranging from despair, cautious hope, optimism and finally to quiet satisfaction as it became certain the school would re-open in 2018. The old adage that in order truly to appreciate the dawn one must have experienced the black night of darkness beforehand, is certainly true
A great deal has been said, informed and otherwise, since the school closed in July 2015 and I remember it as a very dark period as the school property was prepared for ‘care and maintenance’ during the coming winter; no easy task notwithstanding some small income from various sources. But that fundamental task was achieved by the community rallying together with the St Beghian Society in an effort not only to preserve the school but with the long term intention (more a hope, really) of restoring it to viability with a sound future.
This has been achieved by the dedicated work of people (too many to mention here) coming together, St Beghians and others from different walks of life, all skilled and dedicated to the restoration of education in St Bees under the original vision of Archbishop Edmund Grindal.
As I have said in this Bulletin on a number of occasions, my job as President has been to try to keep the St Beghian Society together and focussed on the future, and apart from communicating through the Bulletin and social media, I have managed to attend a number of lunches and dinners this year, of which in terms of numbers present, the London Dinner hosted by Tim Crossley-Smith was the most successful. I was also able to get to the second Hong Kong Dinner organised by Laurence Gribble and the first Singapore lunch hosted by Duncan Merrin; Kirsty Hobbs will be organising a dinner in New York on 9th September and I shall be there as well. Just as important were the Bristol Lunch and West Cumbria Dinner earlier this year. I do not see these occasions as purely social events, though they achieve this very well, but I also see them as an opportunity to involve all those present in what we are doing, our aspirations for the school, and the lively question and answer sessions which they generate should be a template for the future in order to keep you all informed.
I would like to thank not only the organisers but also all those who attended. These gatherings are absolutely vital and an act of faith for the future of the Society, but they also provide a venue for all of us to meet again, often after many years; probably the most frequent comment I hear is ‘We must not leave it so long again’.
The main day for us, of course, is Old St Beghians’ Day, which will be held at St Bees on 23rd September this year and I would urge as many of you as possible to attend if you can. One of the Trustees will be there to talk about the future of the school and it will be an opportunity for all of you to meet the new Headmaster, Jeremy Hallows.
At the AGM in September I shall be standing down as President of the St Beghian Society; I will have occupied the position for three years, years which I can only describe as initially ‘interesting’ followed by the exhilaration of realising that our wildest dreams would in fact come to pass. Throughout these years, in good times and in bad, I have had extraordinary support not only from the St Beghian Society Committee, but also the dedicated and wise counsel of David Lord, Tony Reeve and Pam Rumney. Had any of these three not been present, particularly in the early days after closure, I genuinely do not believe that we would be where we are today. It is a sobering realisation that to my knowledge St Bees is the only British Public School to have closed and re-opened without merging with another school.
This is not to ignore the extraordinary work and dedication of the Board of Trustees under Mark George, whose dynamism and strength have shone through; initially led by Mark Rocca, Mark George took over when the former was posted to Dubai and he has welded an excellent team together of OSBs and people from the community all of whom brought their special skills to the table. We owe them a great deal.
It is now time for a change of leadership of the Society and at the AGM in September, Peter Lever will become the next President. Peter joined the OSB Committee in September 2016 and has spent the last year familiarising himself with the various facets of the school and Society finances and the trusts as well as becoming the firm link between the Society and the Board of Trustees. Indeed, once the Joint Venture Company, to be known as the St Bees School Management Company Ltd, is up and running, Peter will be on that Board together with two members of the existing St Bees School Trust, effectively governors of the school.
Peter brings excellent business and financial skills to both bodies. He will ensure that the Society will be present and involved as the school develops in the future. You will all have a chance to meet him on 23rd September where he will be speaking about his vision for the future.
In my many conversations with Society members, there has been concern expressed that this will no longer be ‘their’ school, or ‘our’ school, indeed that it will now reflect some form of foreign ownership.
First, it will still be ‘our’ school and always will be; Full Circle has taken a very long lease on the school and its name, but the buildings, land and infrastructure will still belong to the school as they do today and always have done. Certainly, the school has changed, though I would prefer to use the word ‘adapted’, to the economic circumstances of the last few years. When you think about it, though, it has always had to adapt and change with time; for instance, which of us who attended during the 50s and 60s would have thought it would become co-educational in the 70s, or that there would be large numbers of foreign students later and, incidentally, who all rightly consider themselves St Beghians?
After the two years’ hiatus we will re-open as a public school run on traditional lines but with innovations which will, I believe, be studied with more than a passing interest by other schools, which will find that they, too, will have to adapt if they are to survive.
So, please make every effort to attend the AGM in September; your questions and concerns will be addressed and I have no doubt that you will find the day to be uplifting.
Thank you, every one of you, for the support we have received in good times and less happy ones. For me personally it has been a deeply humbling experience to witness the extraordinary sense of goodwill towards the school, not only from Society members, but also from the local community and village of St Bees. We must never forget everyone’s contribution to where we are today.
Thank you.
Dacre Watson, President, St Beghian Society.
Home
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
