Message from the Headmaster 

By Roger Sinnett

 

Greetings to you from the alma mater. We are approaching the final stretch of the school year at this exceptionally challenging time, and it is probable that most of us have had a little more time to reflect on what is important in life. Have we been fundamentally changed by Covid-19 or is it our perspectives that may in some way have changed? Are we reassessing what we consider important in life?

I should like to pose a question to you. St Bees School may have existed for centuries and been the alma mater of thousands upon thousands of students through the years, but now in 2020, is it still the same school with a similar ethos to the school you attended back in the day? Has the closure and reopening changed it in any way? Is there a silver thread that continues unbroken through the years?  As Headmaster it is my duty to ensure that a St Beghian is defined by the same qualities of character as was always the case.

It is a sad reality for many children that their school time was simply a phase they had to get through in order to attain adulthood - similar to adolescence or puberty. Their schooling may have left a few memories and a yellowing paper stating their exam grades, but did it truly create the bedrock of success for their future lives?  Did it ‘form’ them?

In establishing St Bees School in 1583 Edmund Grindal had an educational vision which for us forms that unbroken silver thread which links the past with the future. To provide: a stimulating, inclusive and safe environment in which every child is valued as an individual, and nurtured to realise their own unique potential. In the latest chapter of St Bees School’s journey, that vision remains as strong - if not stronger - than it has ever been. Our mission is to prepare our students for the challenges of tomorrow’s world and to achieve this we have chosen rather a different route to that taken by most other schools. We emphasise the nurturing of each student’s maturity through the development of their character. A student’s maturity enables them to take increasing responsibility for their own performance; provides the impulse to learn well from within rather than without, and is the outcome of a strong character. This maturity drives academic attainment. In this way we achieve high academic attainment in balance with strong character attributes. The silver thread remains unbroken. Its course is fixed on future horizons - a future in which many of the jobs our students will be doing have not yet been invented. Academic knowledge has a short shelf-life. Character is key.

So a new generation of St Beghians is in the making and will emerge into the world, strong in character and confidence. It is hoped that the St Beghians of yesteryear will embrace our newly hatched St Beghians, providing them with the support, guidance and opportunity that such an alumni network can achieve.  St Bees is reborn under the principle of ‘fusion’. Fusion of West with East. Fusion of academics with character. It is the fusion of our alumni with the new generation of St Beghians that will serve to inspire all who come after. That is the purest form of legacy.

 

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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