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1The magazine of the Boarding Schools’ Association Boarding School

Number 30 | Autumn 2009Contents

The deadline for the next edition of Boarding School(Issue No.31) is 30 January 2010. Copy for this edition should be sent to:

The EditorBoarding Schools’ Association | Grosvenor Gardens House35–37 Grosvenor Gardens | London SW1W 0BSTelephone 020 7798 1580 | Fax 020 7798 1581Email [email protected] | www.boarding.org.uk

Boarding Schools’ Association Ltd Registered in England and Wales. Registered No: 4676107Registered Office: Grosvenor Gardens House,35–37 Grosvenor Gardens, London SW1W 0BS

John Catt Educational Ltd is a member of the Periodical Publishers Association.

PUBLISHER’S NOTICE

Boarding School is published bi-annually by the Boarding Schools’ Association in association with:John Catt Educational Ltd | 12 Deben Mill Business ParkMelton | Woodbridge | Suffolk | IP12 1BLTelephone 01394 389850 | Fax 01394 386893Email [email protected]

All advertising enquiries should be sent to John Catt Educational Ltd. Opinions expressed inBoarding School are not necessarily endorsed by the Boarding Schools’ Association.

Boarding SchoolThe magazine of the Boarding Schools’ Association

British education has the potential | 5

State boarding: growth and progress | 13

A sortie to the Dordogne | 30

3 Editorial

5 British education has the potential

10 Can we make boarding a ‘lovemark’?

13 State boarding: growth and progress

15 More ways to succeed

17 Drama comes to life

20 International Boarder of the Year Awards

24 Speed dating agents!

27 Hong Kong education: All Change!

28 Ten years on

30 A sortie to the Dordogne

32 Sending boarding schools to Cyberia

34 Making good boys better

35 Boarding in New Zealand: dealing with regulation

37 Atlantic challenge, Atlantic drama

41 Wellington goes cashless

43 Wymondham’s new sixth form wins awards

Cover: Kevin Roberts, New York Apartment (p10).

BSPages30:BoardingPages 06/10/2009 15:36 Page 1

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This edition of Boarding School will reach you halfway through a term in which boarding schools willhave counted their numbers carefully to see if the

widespread predictions of doom were in fact accurate.How has the credit crunch affected boarding schools in

the year after it first bit into thenational psyche? How much did

parents suffer and have theypulled the plug on their child’seducation because of it?

Given that the real crashoccurred only last autumn, we

were not surprised that thereappeared to be no dramatic impact

on boarding schools in theacademic year 2008–9. We

would all say, whether we justworked in schools or wereparents ourselves, that if you

believe you have found the right school for your child, youwill do everything in your power to keep the child there.Pulling a child out of independent schooling prematurelybrings its own costs of course, in fees in lieu of notice. So itwas likely that many parents would make such decisionsin slow time, hanging in there for the first of the difficultyears, perhaps hoping for better times to return, perhapsintending to consider their options for the next year, 2009 -10, perhaps too – because recessions are random intheir effects, devastating some families’ finances butleaving many others virtually untouched – wonderingwhat all the fuss was about.

Parents with children in the vital examination yearswere virtually locked in for two years at a time. More thana third of boarders in independent schools are in sixthforms. AS examinations of course allow a student to leaveone school and transfer to another – or none – because ASis a portable qualification in its own right. It may be thatthere have been some losses in boarding numbers here,and it may be that some intending sixth formers decidedto enrol at colleges of FE, for instance, or stay in their dayschool, as the case may be. Two years as a boarder in thesixth form are certainly a great preparation, for parents aswell as students, for the complete freedom of university.Sadly, they are also more expensive than being a

FROM THE NATIONAL DIRECTOR university student. It would not be surprising,particularly when tertiary education itself is going tomean fees for parents and probably debt for students, iffewer new boarders joined sixth forms last September.

If that seems a little gloomy, let’s remember that this isall against the background of the wonderful fact that inthe year 2008–9 boarding numbers rose by more than athousand, the largest increase since 2002. If the numbersdo decline in 2009-10, it will be happening after ourstrongest year for some time.

Just as international students make up significantnumbers in our universities, so they are increasinglyimportant members of our boarding communities.British universities report that their internationalstudents, who have had the benefit of a British boardingeducation, make far stronger candidates than their peerswho come to this country just for tertiary education. Theyare thoroughly acclimatised, with a grip on colloquialand idiomatic English which makes communicating bothformally and informally easy. These are the young peoplebest equipped to capitalise on the precious opportunitiesour universities offer them.

Let us hope that Tier 4 on the Points Based System ofimmigration worked well this term, and will bed insufficiently for next year to be trouble free. AdmissionsOfficers in schools worked tremendously hard this year tohelp students make sense of 40 page application forms,ensure that Visa Offer letters said the right things in theright places and at the right times to reassure EntryClearance Officers across the globe that here was astudent who would do well in one of our schools andwould not turn into a terrorist or benefits scrounger asthe clock struck twelve.

While BSA has sympathy with a UK Border Agencytasked with keeping our island safe, there were times in thelast year when it felt as if babies (good students) were beingthrown out with bathwater (those who should not enterhere). At the very least, many of those ‘babies’ were at themercy of Entry Clearance Officers with their own ideas ofwhat was acceptable.

If you started the year with the pupils you wereexpecting, happily ensconced in their beds and thriving inyour many and various classrooms, well done, and keep upthe good work. I hope you will all have a splendidlysuccessful year, by every definition you could wish.

Hilary Moriarty

“ ”There were times in the last year when it felt as if

babies (good students) were being thrown outwith bathwater (those who should not enter).


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RD: But you hadn’t been a boarder yourself?

CG: No, my own background was at a grammar school inSouth Gloucestershire then Leeds University for my firstdegree.

RD: You came into teaching late?

CG: I worked at various things before coming into teaching.I worked first doing research for a non-charitablefoundation then became a field officer for them. AfterwardsI worked in politics for a while. I went to work for someone Ihad known at university, a Liberal candidate, as hisconstituency leg-man. Interesting, but hard work. After thatI went to work for a Liberal MP, which was much moreexciting, rubbing shoulders on the Westminster corridorswith people who I’d only read about in the papers.

I went back to Leeds to do a PGCE when I was 29 andgot a job in Huddersfield, teaching in a comprehensiveschool. After two years of that, I went to Bahrain to teachfor two years and then came back to be the QuakerMiddle East secretary for four years.

RD: You’ve had a more colourful and varied career thanmany in boarding, haven’t you?

CG: My earliest experience of boarding was when I wasput in charge of a school in Lebanon in 1982. At the time,the boarding staff outnumbered boarders by about threeto one. The school was losing money hand over fistbecause it was very rarely open because of the civil warand the Israeli invasion. It was a very quick and easydecision just to shut the boarding section there and then.

RD: How did you find yourself in that situation?

CG: I’m a Quaker and I was working as the QuakerMiddle East secretary which included responsibility forthat school. I was what the Americans call the schoolsuperintendent. The Head was on the site all the time andI spent a good deal of time there but many executivedecisions had to be made ‘by London and that largelymeant me. Just as a footnote, the school is now re-established with a boarding section. I’m very pleased thatit has arisen phoenix-like from the ashes.

British education has thepotential to do a greatdeal of good in the world

A GRAMMAR SCHOOL BOY WHO HAD NEVER WORKED IN A BOARDING SCHOOLUNTIL HE BECAME THE HEAD OF ONE, DR CHRISTOPHER GREENFIELD BRINGS ANUNUSUAL PERSPECTIVE ON BOARDING TO THIS YEAR’S CHAIRMANSHIP OF THEBSA. IN CONVERSATION WITH EDITOR DICK DAVISON, HE TALKS ABOUTMANAGING CHANGE, ABOUT HIS CONCERNS FOR OVERSEAS BOARDERS AND HISVIEW OF THE CHALLENGES FACING BOARDING

Pity the poor photographer from Tempest.He’s doing his best to organise more than ahundred boarding heads for their conferencepicture in May, but is anybody listening….?

Would they stand for this sort ofindiscipline when their own schoolphotographs are being set up? Thought not.

But you can bet everyone was payingattention a couple of minutes later whenBSA national director Hilary Moriartystarted giving instructions.

Herding cats


6 Boarding School The magazine of the Boarding Schools’ Association

By this time I was married and it was about then thatwe decided to start a family. We were living in centralLondon at the time and didn’t want to bring up childrenin London. I was, in any case, in a job which meant that Iwas abroad for about half my time – hardly conducive tofamily life – so I decided I’d look for another teaching job.The options were either to go back in as a Scale 1classroom teacher or to put together everything I’dlearned in administration, management and so on and bevery cheeky and apply for a headship. As it happened Iapplied for a Quaker headship, at Sidcot, which did giveme, I thought, some advantages – I think it got me on theshortlist, but everyone else on the shortlist was either aserving Head or a deputy head. I thought I had nochance. I was so relaxed at the interview I think thatswung it, and they offered me the job. I did 11 years thereand it was a very hard introduction to boarding.

RD: Why particularly?

CG: For a start I had never done it before – I’d never livedin the school I’d worked in. Having a job which was 24hours a day, seven days a week during term time wasquite challenging. Also, I took over from a Head who had

thoroughly enjoyed his boarding role. He had graduallytaken a great number of things to do with housediscipline, house administration, to himself, and so,when I got there, the house staff thought that I would justtake that role on too. I thought that I was not the bestperson to do that so one of my first big jobs was to makesure that I re-established the house parents with thedignity and powers I expected house parents to have.

RD: Was it an advantage, then, learning about boardingon the job, without any kind of preconceptions?

CG: Looking back on it, perhaps it was, though it didn’tseem like it at the time. I wanted to wait before makingchanges but those changes in boarding administrationbecame high priorities pretty soon after arriving. Perhapsit was good that I was able to come in and say: “Is this themost effective use of the staffing resources that we have?Why is this coming to me when what I have to do is goback to someone and ask them for the information onwhich I have to base my decision? They’ve got theinformation, why don’t they take the decision in the firstplace, as long as they keep me in the loop?”

“ ”I believe there’s a hidden hand which helpsshape one’s career, as though someone has

decided that it’s time for you to move on.



RD: Did the school change much in the 11 years you werethere?

CG: Day-to-day, you don’t really notice that it changes but,looking back, there were a lot of things that I could takesome satisfaction in. When you’re in the thick of it, youdon’t really have time to enjoy your achievements; you’realways striving for the next thing. We were able to makesome physical improvements to the school. Pastorally, Ithink we did a lot to change things. Academically, weimproved the exam results and I think people felt a lotmore satisfaction with the job that they were doing.

RD: Then, after 11 years, came quite a big career change?

CG: I have a belief that there’s a hidden hand which helpsshape one’s career, as though someone has decided that it’stime for you to move on. In this case, I had a health issueat Sidcot and I was told that this was due to stress. Itwasn’t stress, but at that time I thought: “Well, if this job iscausing me to have poor health then I ought to move on.” I applied for another headship – this one at Sherborne –and was glad to be offered it. But as part of the procedure,I had to have a full medical, which picked up that I wasdiabetic. It was the diabetes that had been leading to mebeing tired, irritable and having lots of aches and pains.But I’m very glad that I did make that change – I’m notsure it would have been good for me or the school to havestayed on at Sidcot for another 11 years.

I went to Sherborne to take over the leadership of theInternational College, which was then called theInternational Study Centre. At that stage it was still partof Sherborne School. But the Centre had grown to thepoint where the governors said this has got to stand on itsown feet and look after itself. It was an excitingchallenge. I had the privilege of effectively setting up aseparate school and designing all the academicarrangements, even down to designing the schooluniform, getting the school motto sorted out and so on. Itwas fun, doing all that.

When I took over, the college had around 100 students.We have expanded slightly to about 150 and our presentbuilding plans only take us up to about 160. Muchbeyond that and we’ll lose a lot of what we are good atdoing, making children feel secure and every teacherknowing every child very quickly.

RD: You are unusual amongst BSA heads in that yourstudent body changes more or less every year?

CG: Yes, 120 leave and are recruited each year becauseour mission is to take about a year to work hard on theirEnglish, their levels of scholarship and familiarisingthem with the study skills they need to succeed inEngland. So after a year we normally are able to helpthem get into a traditional British school. The onlypeople we try to keep for two years are the people whocome into Year 10, whom we try to keep for the two-yearGCSE programme.

RD: This must present quite specific challenges to yourapproach to boarding. You don’t have the five years orseven years that other schools have to let the structures of

the school – the house system, the out of school hoursactivities, the games – help create the sense ofcommunity. You’ve got to do it in different ways.

CG: Every autumn term is considerably stressed. There’sa lot of pressure because we have got to reinvent thecollege every year and teach the children what isexpected. And children from different backgrounds,different parts of the world, all have differentexpectations of what school actually means. For most ofthem, it’s the first time they have been in a boardingschool, the first time they have had to live in community.A lot of our children come from very privilegedbackgrounds – they’ve had servants to look after them,they have been the focal point of the families – so it’squite difficult for them to realise that they are one of a biggroup of people and that things are done differently.

Usually by about halfway through the autumn term,the college has settled down. Sometimes it’s quicker thanthat but it takes that little bit of extra time for them tounderstand, perhaps, that what they could do at theirprevious school is not necessarily acceptable in England.

Sometimes the relationships between students arequite difficult. In a group of Russian speakers, forexample, there may be one person who sees himself as thestrong man and tries to exert influence over everyoneelse. It may be difficult for us to pick up what is going on,in a foreign language. That’s one reason why we haveEnglish-only rules at certain times.

I like to think that we do get to the bottom of anythinggoing on that we would consider to be unwholesomebecause we do find out from other children. We can thenunpack what’s actually been happening. And we dosometimes have to remove a child who refuses to acceptour guidance on to how we expect children to behave.

RD: I think you have strong views about how Britishboarding schools in general deal with their internationalstudents?

CG: Yes. Some schools do a very good job but I do getrather anxious when I hear that British boarding schools,because of the threat to their UK enrolment, are goingabroad to shore up their boarding numbers. I think thatis absolutely the wrong angle to be approaching this. It


“


may be arrogant to say so, but I think British educationhas the potential to do a great deal of good around theworld. We should be seeking people who would like tojoin the British system and do the best we can to ensurethat they benefit from the best of British education andnot simply regard them as people to recruit if we have afinancial problem.

but I have had to wait for up to ten weeks for someone toget their CRB check, for no apparent reason.

Another example of government departments dealingwith us in an inconsistent way is the drive (through thePrime Minister’s Initiative) to get more foreign studentsinto the country. Then we get all this nonsense with thevisa regulations, driven partly by bureaucracy and partlyby the anti-immigration lobby, which seems to bedesigned to keep those same students out of the UK.

The economic situation obviously is a big problem.True, the pound has dropped somewhat against the euroand the dollar but in Eastern Europe and in Russia, localcurrencies have dropped even faster than the pound.They are experiencing even worse economic hardshipand their roubles and other local currencies are actuallybuying less sterling. Of course, many of the wealthiestpeople in those countries may not keep their money inthe local currency, but it remains a worrying situation.

In general, keeping boarding rolls up will be challengedby the economic situation. UK boarding is still in decline.It’s masked partly because the proportion of overseasboarders has grown. About five years ago, it was aboutone in four from non British backgrounds, but the latestISC census indicates that it’s nearly one in three now,21,000 out of 67,000, which must mean that numberscoming from the UK are not as strong. So there’s achallenge to keep the message about the benefits ofboarding coming out as strongly as we can.

Boarding schools need to think creatively about thekind of things Kevin Roberts (see elsewhere in this issue)was talking about. He said there is a place for traditionbut perhaps we have to be seen to be doing things whichmake us look more cutting edge.

But the basic problem often seems to be ill-informedopinions about boarding, for example statements whichsuggest that everyone in boarding is a toff. Or that only ifyou are an inadequate parent or you have so much moneyyou don’t know what to do with it, do you send yourchildren to boarding school. It’s an emotional thing, andit’s difficult to tackle emotion just with the facts and thelogic of the situation. It will probably take more of theHarry Potter-type phenomena to rehabilitate boarding,though that, of course, does us no favours in terms ofportraying boarding as cutting edge!

”

Schools acceptingoverseas studentsought be sure that

what they areoffering really is the best they can do, not half a job.

It does seem to me, as I characterised it in a book I co-wrote for the BSA, that some schools see overseasstudents as being just like the British students who can’tspeak and write properly. ‘We’ll recruit them, bang thema bit of EFL, problem solved.’ That is not doing the bestwe can. These children often come from a completelydifferent cultural standpoint. Their teachers need to beaware of what they are dealing with, so they can helpstudents adjust to what we want them to do without itbeing a painful process of getting things wrongrepeatedly and being punished, disappointed and upset.

There is evidence to show that overseas students havemore illness and more problems with mental health, andthat is partly because of the pressures they are under withthe cultural adjustment. Schools accepting overseasstudents ought to look very carefully at what they areactually offering, to be sure that it really is the best theycan do, not half a job. Otherwise there is a retributionwhich awaits us all: we don’t want these people goinghome in a few years’ time thinking that they wereexploited in this country.

RD: What do you think are the challenges facingboarding in general?

CG: We have got several challenges. We have challengesfrom the government, governments of different colours,which have been acting in ways not necessarily helpful toBritish boarding schools. For example, there is thedouble-whammy of the Ofsted inspection of boardingwhere we are not quite clear what they are looking forand why they interpret some DCSF regulationsdifferently from the way the Department itself hasinterpreted them. One instance is the procedure foremploying people in schools between appointing themand receiving their full CRB check. If we had an efficientsystem of getting CRB checks, it would not be a problem



“”

It will probably takemore Harry Potter-type phenomena to

rehabilitate boarding,though that does us no

favours in terms ofportraying boarding as

cutting edge!

RD: My own view, after 20 years of being involved in thepromotion of boarding, is that the real difficulty forboarding schools is that most of the UK parents theyshould be persuading of the benefits of boarding are peoplewhose children are already in their schools, but as daypupils. A generation ago, most of their children would havebeen boarders. For all sorts of very good reasons, boardingschools diversified their offer, made it possible for childrento enjoy almost all the benefits of boarding withoutactually having to leave home. They have sold that day-boarding package extremely successfully and now theyhave to persuade them to buy something more expensive –an upgrade to first class, if you like.

CG: That’s an interesting idea. This affects the childrentoo. When I was at Sidcot, I would not accept weeklyboarding. Lots of parents asked but we persuaded themthat weekly boarding was not a good idea. I felt it confusesthe children and they lose out on much of the boardingexperience because they are caught between two worlds.Termly boarders know that school is reality – that is theethos, those are the values they have to espouse – but forthose who go home at the weekends, home is also thereality. Sometimes there’s a huge disparity between theactual values of the home and the values which aredeclared and generally adhered to in the school.

RD: And is there a challenge for the Association specifically?

CG: There are a lot of schools which are not making fulluse of the Association and what it has to offer. Maybe wehave got to say more clearly to schools that theAssociation isn’t just the newsletters, that’s just forstarters, there’s a whole lot more that you should bebenefiting from, both your staff and your boarders.

I think too we should be looking more closely at our linkswith British-style boarding schools overseas. We should beencouraging, too, the work of developing a body ofresearch based on factual information about boarding. Somuch of what we say about the boarding experience isanecdotal – we need to get more methodical about things,to collect data to refute ill-informed opinion with facts.

And we must develop our own communications withmember schools, so that when things like this visa systemcomes up, people immediately think of the BSA as beingthe organisation through which they can communicatetheir anxieties because we talk to government all thetime, even if government doesn’t always listen.

There are lots of challenges, but we take hope as ourinspiration.



which characterise modern boarding schools be effectivelypackaged into a saleable brand?

One of advertising’s finest turned his remarkable mindto this conundrum at the 2009 annual Heads’ conferenceof the BSA. Kevin Roberts is CEO of Saatchi Worldwide.He has worked on, and indeed helped to create, many ofthe international brands of which we are all, consciouslyor unconsciously, aware.

At the outset, he had some very encouraging things tosay: “Lifting lives in Britain is about passion, not policy. It’sabout enterprise, optimism and a rising wave of inspirationthat everyone can ride. Boarding has the opportunity toinspire and impact the future more than day schools do.You’ve got a captive audience – you know their ticks, theirfears, their desires. This is an advertiser’s dream!

“For friendship, fun and fraternity you’re streets ahead.The job is to unleash that, to make it a benchmark forBritain. Schools must catalyse their role as the source ofoptimism and inspiration.”

And he noted that all the effort of the last few years hadalready borne fruit: “As a species the boarding school hasjumped up the food chain – you’ve loped from loathed toliked. The next phase is underway: this is to leap fromliked to loved.”

‘Love’ is at the heart of what Roberts sees as thequantum leap in recognition enjoyed by today’s mostsuccessful national and international brands. At Saatchi,they call them ‘lovemarks’ and the theory is set out indetail in Roberts’ book: Lovemarks: The Future beyondBrands. The reward these brands enjoy from consumersis, he says: “Loyalty beyond reason. Think Apple, HarleyDavidson, Monty Python, Ben Sherman. Think Cadbury,HP Sauce, Heinz baked beans.”

The premise, says Roberts, is simple: life is emotionaland decisions are based on emotional response. “Spareme the stuffy Anglo-Saxon impulse of keeping upappearances – humans are motivated by raw emotion.”Quoting the Canadian neurologist Donald Calne, he said:“Reason leads to conclusions, emotion to action.”

And he went on to distinguish ‘lovemarks’ from mere‘brands’:

What is boarding’s “brand”? Is it obsolete? Andcan it be changed? Schools may have come lateto an awareness of branding and the

importance of brand values, but these are questionswhich, expressed in a variety of ways, have obsessedboarding schools for a generation.

It became a truism years, even decades ago, thatboarding education was struggling to shake off a publicimage which was a caricature – not even an accuratereflection – of what it represented around the time in the1950s when Ronald Searle and Geoffrey Willans createdthe immortal Nigel Molesworth.

Harry Potter may have shifted that a little, though, asChristopher Greenfield remarks elsewhere in this issue,Hogwarts is not exactly the epitome of a modern child-centred, internet-enabled, Ofsted-regulated boardingestablishment. Hard to imagine Albus Dumbledore orSeverus Snape concerning themselves with inspectionstandards, the governors’ role in improving boardingprovision or the induction of boarders from a variety of

Can we make boardinga ‘lovemark’?CAN BOARDING’S APPEAL BE TRANSFORMED INTOSOMETHING LIKE THAT OF APPLE OR HARLEYDAVIDSON? KEVIN ROBERTS, CEO OF SAATCHIWORLDWIDE, WHO ADDRESSED THE BSA HEADS’CONFERENCE THIS YEAR, CERTAINLY THINKS SO. DICK DAVISON REPORTS.

“”

Boarding has the opportunity to inspire

and impact the future more than day

schools do.international backgrounds. But at least Harry Pottermade it possible for the subject of boarding to berationally discussed in the media without having to referautomatically to Tom Brown, fagging or child abuse.

There is, Potter notwithstanding, a widespread perceptionwithin the boarding community that the general public stilldoesn’t ‘get’ boarding. The question remains: how can thevalues of care, trust and personal and communal fulfilmentas well as the high quality accommodation and facilities



• Brands are built on respect; lovemarks are built onlove and respect.

• Brands create loyalty for a reason; lovemarks createloyalty beyond reason.

• Brands are owned by managers, marketers andshareholders; lovemarks are owned by the people wholove them.

• Great brands are irreplaceable; lovemarks areirresistible.

He issued a twofold challenge: working together, makeboarding a lovemark and, individually, turn your ownschools into “peak performing schools”.

Leaving aside the latter, not least because there is alreadya library of works on turning schools into peak performers,it’s worth examining Roberts’ ideas for transforming thegeneric perception of boarding. In an exhilarating ridethrough the psychology of advertising, he spun ideas asprofligately as only an original thinker can.

First, he said, attract with mystery. People live for whatthey don’t know. Mystery is about dreams, shared stories,where past, present and future are fused as one. Mysteryfeeds imagination.

“Revelation is at the heart of the boarding experience.Your mythology is infused with tradition and diversity andincreasingly resonant. Boarding is a transformationalstory, so let’s tell it as one, a story that can stream

inspiration through society, a story that could bring theworld to your doorstep. How you reveal yourself willattract students and parents – or turn them away, on or off.”

“The second secret of lovemarks,” he said, “is to exciteall five senses. Sight, sound, smell, touch and taste areportals to the emotions. If you want boarding to be aloved attraction, jump shift to sensation.” For example:

• Student music on the website and in the corridor;“make the school bell a different student’s ringtoneevery week!”

• “Infuse Ralph Lauren Polo Explorer duringgeography, not chalk and dust.”

• “What visual wonder-piece says you are more than aschool, bigger than learning?”

• Touch – “link arms and shoulder at every morningassembly.”

• Taste – “eliminate boarding food; institute TopStudent Chef.”

Kevin Roberts (picture: Duncan Cole www.saatchikevin.com)

“ ”Attract with mystery.People live for what

they don’t know.



The third step, he told Heads, is to “compel with intimacy”.Empathy, commitment and passion are qualities thatboarding should embody; boarding school is a tight knitfamily. But intimacy should go both ways: “It’s aboutteachers understanding students as much as it is studentsunderstanding teachers. So let the students teach! Teachingis the single fastest way to find out what you don’t know.”

Finally, he said, really big ideas are transmitted andaccelerated through “sisomo” – the integration of Sight,Sound and Motion. And nowhere more so than on theinternet: as many as 100 million videos are watched dailyon YouTube and over 40 million photographs per day areuploaded to Facebook.

“What some of you consider a social liability, othershave transformed into interactive learning. Video gamesdon’t rot brains – they’re all about storytelling and thesecrets of lovemarks.”

The possibilities for electric connectivity, he said, arefantastic.

• 24 hour documentaries on the corridor walls • Interactive whiteboards in the classroom • Real-time data tracking + Google maps: eg Swine Flu • Students using mobiles to become filmmakers • Live-casting student performances to faraway parents

And his final message? “Harness this for the good of yourschool. Risk everything!”

Only a raw turnip could have come away from KevinRoberts’ presentation without being inspired to trysomething, even if the distance from Porridge Court Schoolto Madison Avenue is too wide to manage in a single leap.But visionary as it is, it leaves a couple of nagging anxieties.

The first is the suspicion that, individually at any rate,some boarding schools have already attained somethinglike lovemark status. This doesn’t just mean EtonCollege, which would surely pass most of Roberts’ criteriafor that quantum leap. Most Heads, and certainly thoseresponsible for marketing schools, will recognise thatthere are some schools which, at least within their ownextended communities, command something like “loyaltybeyond reason”. What they haven’t yet done – thoughsome are beginning to grope their way towards it – is toharness that special status using modern techniques like

networks of advocates. And what it certainly hasn’t doneis to transmit that ‘lovemark’ status to the wholeboarding experience.

Making a generic activity – boarding – a lovemark is achallenge of a different order to that of turning anindividual institutional brand, whether product orservice, into a lovemark.

Such things are certainly possible. It might be arguedthat the Milk and Egg Marketing Boards’ ‘pinta’ and ‘goto work on an egg’ campaigns of the 1960s and 70s didsomething like it for milk and eggs, rather than forindividual milk and egg producers. And perhaps acombination of expert sponsorship and Sky TV hassucceeded in making a national and internationallovemark of English Premier League football.

These are rare successes. And make no mistake, theycost a very great deal of money, the sort of money ofwhich the boarding community can only dream. When,in the 1990s, the Boarding Education Alliance wasformed, it collected from schools the then – and probablynow – unimaginable sum of around a quarter of a millionpounds to spend on a generic boarding campaign.Ambitious souls dreamt first of a mould-breakingnational advertising campaign. On being told that thebudget would not stretch to a single TV advertisement,the group quickly refocused their efforts on a lessexpensive PR campaign.

That three-year campaign was an unquestionablesuccess. The decades-long decline in boarding numberstook time to arrest but, by the early years of this decade –admittedly with the assistance of a teenage wizard –numbers began to recover. That recovery has stutteredsince but the lesson of the BEA campaign is, withoutquestion, that concerted action does pay dividends.Perhaps it is time to revisit that initiative, which sprang,not from associations acting corporately, but from a smallgroup of inspired individual Heads.

But turning boarding itself into a ‘lovemark’? We needa Kevin Roberts.

To see more of Kevin Roberts and his ideas, go to www.saatchikevin.com

“”

What some of you consider a social liability, others have transformed into interactive learning.

Video games don’t rot brains – they’re all aboutstorytelling and the secrets of lovemarks



a power of good as well. It helps to have a combination offriendly chit-chat alongside stimulating workshops andthis was achieved by using lots of local Heads to talkabout things that they are passionate about, as well aspeople from within the SBSA itself – nothing better thanlocal knowledge.

The fact that we had former All Black captain SeanFitzpatrick (left, below) as our after dinner speakercertainly helped. He then arrived in time for breakfastwith the boys the next morning and the sight of 150Brymore boys doing the Haka in the dining room will livelong in the memory. As if an All Black captain isn’tenough, The Princess Royal flew in after lunch to openour new buildings – after addressing the conference, ofcourse. She, along with the delegates, joined in the spiritof the conference by wearing her ‘wellie boots’ and this,for me, was the second highlight – the spirit of the SBSA.Despite all the trials and tribulations we suffer every day,the spirit remains strong and, possibly because of some£20 million put into new or refurbished accommodationacross the sector this year, there is a feeling of growth andmoving forward. This is a significant time for theboarding school movement.

The conference brought lots of thank you letters, manyaddressed to the boys who had done so well. The starletter, and my third highlight was from the colleague upnorth who wrote: ‘Your school showed me what I hadmaybe forgotten – that education is never about GCSEs

It is the summer holidays and gloriously sunny. Iought to be sitting with a glass of something, enjoyingthe warmth and relaxing. But no, I am in the middle

of moving office. The perfect end to a perfect year!The academic year 2008/09 has been both the most

enjoyable and the toughest of my career. It started back inthe early summer of 2008 when I became chairman of theState Boarding Schools Association. I was following on fromPaul Spencer Ellis and Melvyn Roffe – so, no pressure then!I sat at my first committee meeting and looked at fellowHeads Norman Hoare and Angela Daly – definitely nopressure having two legends of the boarding world lookingat me!! Not so remarkably, especially if you know any of theabove, the meetings of the SBSA have been a highlight forme (though perhaps not for them!) because I always feelbetter after spending an hour or two with colleagues whoare passionate about what they do and, from what I cangather, remarkably successful too! So, the highlight of myyear has to be meeting my colleagues.

A stunning way to continue this was to host the SBSAAnnual Conference in January and have 120 colleaguesturn up at Brymore for two days. I am fortunate in havingextremely supportive governors and staff, so theconference went well because they paddled furiously tomake sure everything worked, enabling me to swanaround as the serene and untroubled Head! As ithappens, I feel this exercise did wonders for us as a teamand also, as the boys were heavily involved, did the school

State boarding:growth and progressMALCOLM LLOYD, HEADMASTER OF BRYMORE SCHOOL,REFLECTS ON HIS YEAR AS CHAIRMAN OF THE STATEBOARDING SCHOOLS ASSOCIATION: “THE MOST ENJOYABLE AND THE TOUGHEST OF MY CAREER.”



and examination success, but it is about producing fineyoung people like the boys at your school.’ As a NationalChallenge school (‘highly successful but failing’) wewould say “Amen” to that and how nice that people taketime to write.

this a highlight? In a way it was, because we found aninspector who, despite our exam results being worse thanlast time, decided that our standards were actually better– that’s my type of inspector! We were ‘Good’ last timetoo, so I have the challenge of becoming ‘Outstanding’ – Imight have to ask some of my colleagues how they dothat.

Our building work continues and so I have just movedout of my office of the last six years and I am now in the‘old art room’ and wondering if the shredder can copewith me shredding every document and file that Ipossess. I feel like a fresh start, a clean sheet. Imagine, nopaper at all older than a day or two! (I haven’t plucked upthe courage yet.) So, our listed building is about to betransformed and the staffroom and school reception havebeen re-housed too. I will remind you that moving houseis the third most stressful experience after divorce anddeath of a spouse, and I’m told that my office is a secondhome for me, so I’m going for the sympathy vote now,especially as in a year’s time I will have to move back intomy ‘new’ office. I will have to do it all again in twelvemonths time – get the shredder!

Will next year live up to this one, I wonder? TheNational Challenge people came to call (wondering whysuch a small, ‘failing’ school was still open) and we fendedthem off with a plan to improve our results, so we awaitedthe results in August, which will be quite critical, withsome apprehension. The raising achievement plan is, ofcourse, known as a RAP. It’s a good job that someonestopped me from calling it the Current RaisingAchievement Plan!

Enjoy your year!

“”

We found an inspectorwho, despite our exam

results being worse thanlast time, decided that

our standards were actually better – that’smy type of inspector!

Alongside all the SBSA work, we had moved into newteaching accommodation in September and, after theroyal opening, we moved 100 boarders into the newboarding houses in February. So what else would comeour way? Ofsted of course! In March we experienced a socalled ‘joint inspection’ with two education inspectors,two social care inspectors and an HMI to make sureeverything went smoothly. Fortunately the boys wonthem over and we achieved ‘Good’ overall and no majorareas of weakness (GCSE results not withstanding). Was



that a girl who was doing reasonably well, was in factdoing much less well than we might have expected.

I once met the Government’s Chief Scientific Adviser.His first question was, “What subjects don’t you teach?”and this fitted with my theoretically radical view of whathappens in schools. If we were to start the wholeenterprise tomorrow, how would we go about it? I amtalking here of course in a boarding context and we cantherefore take for granted that under good managementthe normal claims for boarding can be sustained: byhaving to rub along with a variety of people, not all ofthem natural allies, we develop that roundness andflexibility of response which makes us feel at home in arange of normal (middle class) situations.

But what should we be doing better, and what haven’twe learnt? We are, after all, almost all of us independent;provided we can sell our product in the market place we

One of my favourite (surely apocryphal) storiesabout headmasters concerns Cyril Alington,hymn writer, Dean of Durham and Headmaster

of Eton. It is alleged that he was once asked by a boy “Sir,is there a difference between you and God?” and after thebriefest of pauses Cyril replied “There is one, but whileyou are at my school it need not concern you.”

Winston Churchill once observed that Headmasters ofindependent schools exercised more power than anyelected politician and there is a temptation to be guilty ofreplicating the sentiments attributed by the writer ofGenesis to God as we walk round our schools: and Godsaw everything he had made and behold, it was very good.I now run a school of which I have found myself saying“Rossall is a school which feels better than it is” and thenthere are occasions when it really is as good as it feels: thespecial event when everyone rises to the occasion or whenthe words of a reflective senior pupil give me a chance toredefine the special ambiance of the place.

My underlying point, however, is a more simple one:having got rid of the abuses, which made miserable thelives of sensitive children (me for example) when we wereyoung, we – that is, those of us now responsible for runningboarding schools – can easily believe that everything in thegarden is now lovely. Indeed, at a meeting of the HMCRugby Group some years ago, I was unable to find anythingthat the combined Headmasters thought could be cited asan abuse or an incomprehensible absurdity in our currentschools. But what will the Stephen Frys of 2030 be sayingabout their time in our boarding schools? That we wereforced to eat meat? That sexual intercourse was forbidden?It isn’t clear.

As the world gets greyer we have to get sharper. Mostpeople used to be sane: a few were loonies. Now we have aspectrum: “I am but mad North North West.” The simpledefinitions we thought would work in reports (clever butidle, a plodder, lacking in backbone, deluded, too quiet inclass, responsive and industrious) no longer suffice. Theavoidance of suffering and pain is for the most partachievable (though a little suffering might be valuable),but we must have higher goals.

We have for years proclaimed our belief in theindividual, in spite of which too many schools have for toolong pursued a one-size-fits-all policy. Ironically, bettermeasurement has helped (I say ironically because I haveusually managed to claim that the worthwhile aspects ofeducation and of schools are the things which can’t bemeasured). By successful tracking we recently discovered

More ways to succeedSTEPHEN WINKLEY, HEADMASTER OF ROSSALL AND A FORMER CHAIRMAN OFTHE BOARDING SCHOOLS ASSOCIATION, ASKS WHETHER SCHOOLS HAVE YETTRULY COME TO TERMS WITH THE DIFFERENCES BETWEEN CHILDREN.



can offer whatever we want. My sense is that because ofthe market place we have focused too much on outcomes– the best examination results, the best orchestras, thebest rugger teams – and too little on processes. The fee isthe same for all children, since all are being prepared forTrue Life, but about 70% will leave feeling that – thoughhuman, sentient, and not insane – they haven’t

contributed to the glory of the place, that they havemerely been the dough without which the leaven wouldhave nothing to work on. So I think our schools ought tobe more alert to the differences between children; thereare after all hundreds of tools of measurement and weought to bear these differences in mind when makingprovision. It doesn’t make sense to say all our childrenare individuals so we shall push them all through anidentical programme. We have perhaps eliminated abusebut we haven’t yet come to terms with difference.

The other point is easier to make. Howard Gardner’sFrames of Mind is 25 years old. Gardner identified seven(now eight) intelligences. These intelligences werediscrete. The intelligence we measure through IQ testscontinues to dominate our notion of what a school is for.Ironically, like the Molière character who discovered hehad been talking prose without knowing it, schools withan all-round ethos do reflect Gardner’s crystallineoctagon, and I have particularly come to value thosechildren who do not excel in competitive intelligences,(academic, musical, kinaesthetic) but have theinterpersonal skills to make boarding work for others.

Perhaps in future when people want to say “I was acomplete failure at school” it will be less easy becausethere will be more ways to succeed. After all, the functionof schools is to enable children to feel legitimately goodabout themselves. If we can sustain a broader view ofwhat things there are to be good at, we have a decentchance of achieving that.

“

”

About 70% of childrenwill leave school feeling

that – though human,sentient, and not insane –they haven’t contributedto the glory of the place,

that they have merelybeen the dough withoutwhich the leaven would

have nothing to work on.



him at 13 years old was projected on the stage behindhim. He pointed to the hope written in the face of theyoung Polish boy who could not have known that hewould never see his parents again. A rapt audience heardhow Brent found a new life in Britain while his parentsand sister were incarcerated in Auschwitz where theywere killed. As a young man, Brent joined the army,believing his efforts would help liberate his family – andall of Germany – from Hitler. He was later to learn fromthe Red Cross that by the time he joined, his family hadalready been killed in Auschwitz.

Brent told the audience how watching the play a secondtime had been an unexpectedly emotional experience forhim. The first time he had seen the play performed, itsprotagonist, Eva, had been played by an adult throughoutand not by a young girl. Seeing Bradfield College pupilBella Noakes, aged 14, who performed some of her lines inGerman, play the young Eva, had unexpectedly remindedhim of his sister - also called Eva. Brent’s sister had beentoo young to be evacuated with him – an age differencethat proved fatal.

“Our experience shows that bringing history out of theclassroom and onto the stage can breathe unexpected lifeinto distant and remote events, revealing their relevanceto pupils and the world they live in today,” said Crossley.“They have had the opportunity to travel back in time and

Aperformance of Diane Samuels’ award-winningplay, Kindertransport, turned out to be muchmore than dramatic entertainment for pupils at

Bradfield College. When one of the surviving Kindercame to see the play, it became a history lesson that noone present would ever forget.

The play deals with the rescue by Britain of 10,000Jewish children nine months prior to the outbreak of theSecond World War. The children came unaccompaniedfrom Germany, Austria, Poland and Czechoslovakia onthe Kindertransport, a series of trains which first arrivedin England in December 1938. They were fostered byEnglish families. The majority never returned home, theirfamilies having perished in concentration camps.

Diane Samuels’ 1993 play, Kindertransport is anaccount of this extraordinary rescue operation, portrayedthrough the story of Eva who was nine years old when shefled Germany for a new life with a foster family in Britain.The play follows Eva throughout her life in England as shetries to bury all traces of her background and roots. Later,as a mother, she is finally forced to confront the truthabout her past and accept that it is integral to her identity.

When drama teacher Julia Crossley decided to stage theplay at Bradfield College, she could not have predicted theimpact that it would have on pupils at the college afterone of the surviving Kinder, Professor Leslie Brent, cameto see it. In an honest and emotional question and answersession with the audience, Professor Brent confirmed thereality of the experiences witnessed on stage. The play,and Brent’s movingly recounted story, ignited pupils’interest in the issues of identity and migration andbrought history vividly to life outside the classroom.

“Performing this play not only enriched the study of thehistory and literature of the Second World War for manyof our pupils - and even some of our teachers - it alsorevealed previously unknown links between the BradfieldCollege community and what would otherwise haveremained a distant historical event with little apparentrelevance to the school today,” said Crossley.

“During rehearsals, a number of people came forwardrevealing their links with the Kindertransport. As a directresult, we were able to invite one of the first children toarrive in England on the Kindertransport in 1938 -Professor Leslie Brent.” Professor Leslie Brent isProfessor Emeritus at London University and recentlypublished his memoirs, Sunday’s Child.

Brent came to Britain on the very first train in 1938 atthe age of 13. As he spoke to the audience, a photograph of

Drama comes to lifeHISTORY CAME TO LIFE WHEN PUPILS AT BRADFIELD COLLEGE PERFORMED AHOLOCAUST-INSPIRED DRAMA IN FRONT OF A SURVIVOR, WHO THEN SHAREDHIS EXPERIENCES WITH THE YOUNG ACTORS.

Bella Noakes, the youngestperformer, whose name on stage

evoked personal memories forProfessor Brent.



to gain a sense of what it might have been like to be achild on the Kindertransport.”

“By telling the story of Kindertransport on stage,instead of in the classroom,” said Crossley, “we were alsoable to engage every pupil in the school – not just thosestudying history.” As well as the three performanceswhich were seen by around 300 pupils, a team of boysand girls responsible for researching the historicalbackground to the play presented their findings to theentire school via three weekly assemblies, attractinginterest ahead of the play. Other pupils researched theKindertransport in more depth through Bradfield’sMinerva Programme – a university-style tutorial systemfor academically gifted pupils.

“As a result of this play, in drama we are now focusingon questions around the issue of identity and, inparticular, how the past informs the present,” saidCrossley. “As part of this, pupils have been to London tosee a play at the Barbican about the situation in Gaza inwhich the cast was half Palestinian and half Israeli.” Inthe summer, Crossley and her drama students took theirown play to Edinburgh - written, directed and performedby them - about the history of migration in Britain.“What we are now discovering is that history and thequestions it raises are also accessible to those who havenot chosen to study it at GCSE or A level,” said Crossley.

Also watching the play was Nigel Layton, Chairman ofWorld Jewish Relief whose son Oliver, a pupil atBradfield College, has been researching the history ofKindertransport as part of Bradfield’s Minerva

Programme. Oliver’s great uncle, Julian Layton OBE,helped establish Kindertransport, working with the UKGovernment to bring Jewish Refugees from Germanyand other countries to the UK.

For another pupil, Maria Vildavskaya, who played Eva’smother, the play was also particularly poignant. Maria isof Russian Jewish descent and the experience ofperforming in the play has ignited her interest in herheritage and ancestry – something she hopes to continueto explore when she continues her studies at eitherEdinburgh or Harvard.

Professor Brent shares his harrowing childhood experi-ence with the Bradfield perofmers.

“”

Performing the playrevealed previously

unknown links betweenthe Bradfield Collegecommunity and whatwould otherwise have

remained a distanthistorical event.



Bella Noakes, the youngest performer, who played Eva: “As well as the interest and enjoyment I found in performing the production, I also was very muchinterested in the history behind it. When playing the role of young Eva, I took time to research andunderstand what it would have been like for children being evacuated back in 1938. Eva Schlesinger was asurviving kind, one of many Jewish children under the age of seventeen who got evacuated from Germanyto England during the Second World War. Playing the character of Eva made me realise how children whowere evacuated must have gone through a very tough and traumatic experience. Trying to put myself intheir shoes helped me portray the role of Eva in such a way that it was clear and moving to the audience.

“The talk that took place after the production with Professor Brent was incredibly moving. I felt that mycharacter had a lot of symbolic meaning and importance to him because he actually had a sister called Evawho he last saw when she was just nine years old. He also made a comment about how he had seen theoriginal production of the play and how he felt that Bradfield put on a much more moving interpretation ofit. In the original they used an adult to play the role of Eva and he thought that by using a child it made theproduction much more realistic and touching.”

Maria Vildavskaya:“Reading the play for the first time evoked a strange feeling in me. Being Jewish and realizing that suchhorrific suppression and cruelty could have been happening to one of my relatives made me really think ofhow fortunate I am in life and how important it is to know where you come from. This was the driving forcein deciding to audition for the production at school, and once I got the part of Helga, the German mother,this feeling only grew stronger. I learnt to see the other side of the Holocaust- not just the victims but theruined destinies and lives of those who survived. Mothers that were rejected by their own daughters,teenagers who were so eager to forget their past, their heritage that they even changed their own names,and families that would never be reunited. This to my opinion is potentially one of the biggest crimes theNazis have committed- stealing from the survivors their heritage, their past and potentially who they are,which is sometimes more cruel than death.

“Professor Brent’s retelling of his experiences during the question and answer session really shocked me.He gave us a picture of himself taken on the train when he arrived in England on the Kindertransport andit was projected behind him on a screen during the discussion session. He looked so happy and excited inthe photograph. I could feel tears building up when I heard him say that he left on the train feeling excited,and now when he looks back on that day he felt guilty for it because he escaped. He survived whilst hisparents and his family were being taken to Auschwitz where they were eventually killed back in Germany.This made me realize how fragile human life really is.

“All these experiences were hard for us to really comprehend because before the play it was as if we had beendealing with a fictional story (based on real experiences) but here was someone telling us the real experiences.”

Angus Cook, Bradfield’s Captain of Drama:“To be able to act in such a play as Kindertransport was a unique experience for me. The whole concept ofthe play touched on issues and time periods which I had learnt about in history lessons. To be involved insuch a powerful performance, which attempted to raise awareness of this issue through theatre, seemed tome a delicate task to pull off well.

“The rehearsal process helped to improve my knowledge of the horror the children must have gonethrough and asked myself, ‘how can I possibly even try to help communicate this trauma by being anignorant yet comical postman?’

“On the night of the question and answer session with Professor Brent it all felt quite unreal because theman who was sitting on stage with us had gone through the struggle that we had just attempted toillustrate. This remarkable man had gone through all that loss; the loss of family, friends and homelandand he had been left with a feeling of guilt that he had survived.

“I’m pretty certain that I speak for everyone else when I say that I felt humble sitting listening to himrecount his awful experiences in such a relaxed tone with no hesitation. I admired his bravery, not only tohave lived through all that he did but also being able to come and talk to us about it.”



do you think your experience in a British school might beable to help develop international understanding in yourcountry and ours?’

The students in Years 12 and 13 were invited to submitup to 1,250 words answering the following question:‘“The global economy seems to have done little to bringdifferent cultures closer together. Indeed, sometimesglobalisation seems to intensify our differences.” What areyour views about such a statement? How has yourexperience in a British school changed your thinkingabout the world we live in?’

The entries were judged by a panel of former boardingschool Heads and the winners were presented with theirprizes by Dom Antony Sutch, former Headmaster ofDownside School and the current Chairman of theAssociation for the Education and Guardianship ofInternational Students (AEGIS) Advisory Board.

The International Boarder of the Year Awards will beback in 2010, and will be bigger and better than ever.There will once again be three categories covering everyyear group, so every international boarder at an ISC-member school will be in with a chance of winning. Tofind out more about the Awards, please visit:www.boardingschools.hobsons.com/awards

At an awards ceremony at the Globe Theatre onLondon’s Bankside on 15 May, three internationalstudents fought off strong competition to become

the 2009 International Boarders of the Year. Miyu Tarumi, a Japanese pupil at Windlesham House

School, Pulborough, won the award for the Year 8 andbelow category. Loretto School in Musselburgh, EastLothian, celebrated an unprecedented double win, withJacqueline Lau from China winning the award for theYears 9–11 category and German sixth-former PhilipBückendorf triumphing in the Years 12–13 category.

The annual awards, which were launched in 2005 and arerun by Metropolis (the publisher of The Hobsons UKBoarding Schools Guide and website), celebrate thecontribution that pupils from overseas make to all aspects ofUK boarding school life. Heads of all of ISC boarding schoolsare invited to nominate a boarder for one or more categories.The 2009 awards attracted a large number of entries, and animpressive variety of nationalities were represented.

Entrants in the Year 8 and below category were invitedto compare their school in their home country to theirboarding school in the UK, using both pictures andwords, while those in Years 9–11 were asked to write up to1,000 words answering the essay question ‘In what ways

International Boarder of the Year Awards

Year 8 and below: Miyu Tarumi

Miyu Tarumi, who arrived at Windlesham Housein 2005, with very little understanding of English,has won an exhibition at Marlborough College.


The magazine of the Boarding Schools’ Association Boarding School 21

Years 9-11: Jacqueline Lau

Jacqueline arrived at Loretto in 2004 as a Year 7boarding pupil. She has made excellent academicprogress and has participated in the games programme,despite never having played hockey or lacrosse, playingfor the 2nd school team in both as well as tennis.

In what ways do you think your experience in a Britishschool might be able to help develop internationalunderstanding in your country and ours?

I come from Hong Kong, which although part of China,we share and hold similar qualities to the British, as wewere once ruled by the British. Therefore, many of theBritish qualities were brought to Hong Kong. This maybe the case, but nothing is the same, even identical twinscan have differences. Let me tell you what differentiatingfactors there are.

I had never had real contact with British culture; I hadonly knowledge from different media such as movies,books and newspapers. It was not until a few years agodid I have hands on experience. I knew Britain was alarge country in Europe, and there were lots of differenthistorical buildings and museums full of differentcultural histories.

However, my expectations of Britain changed when mysister went to Britain and stayed in a boarding school inScotland when I was about seven. She returned to HongKong during holidays and she would tell us all about herlife in Britain; what differences were interesting to herabout the British culture. That was when I got to knowthe British culture better.

When I was eleven, I decided that I would like toexplore these differences myself. I was very nervous whenI first arrived. However, I settled very quickly as people inthe United Kingdom were very welcoming and friendlyand I felt very much at home. Their generosity inaccepting newcomers had truly helped me to settle in.This was the first difference I noticed between the culturein Hong Kong and the United Kingdom. People in HongKong are not as sincere as they are in the UnitedKingdom, not as friendly or helpful. For example, if one iswalking on the streets in Hong Kong, people very rarelystop and help people that are lost. They pretend theycan’t hear you or even ignore you.

I would like to share my experiences in a Hong Kongschool; a class consists of forty students and there arefour classes within a year group. Because of such bignumbers, the teachers may not know every single pupiland nor you every classmate. Due to this, there is verylittle interaction within the classroom. One is stuck in thesame classroom for the entire year; this was one of thedifficulties I had to adapt to when I first arrive in Loretto.At Loretto, we the students have to go to differentclassrooms for each subject. It is our responsibility to getto the right place at the right time. This makes one feelmore responsible, as we are treated more as an adult andgiven more freedom.

In my opinion, the work ethic in schools of Hong Kongis a lot stricter and higher than British schools, not to say

that we do not work or learn in British schools, but thereis a balance between academic life and our social life.Because one used to work constantly without stopping,learning was never enjoyable. It was constantly acompetition with the rest of your year group. Parentshave high expectations for their children as well, whenone is working under such a pressurised atmosphere.However, since I came to a British school, I find learninga lot more relaxing and at the same time I am willing toexplore the subjects further. Teachers in Britain are fondof helping when students do not understand a particulartopic, whereas my old teachers in Hong Kong were neverhelpful as we had a tight schedule. Therefore, I think thatthe education atmosphere is above all in importance.

Politics and culture however are the main source ofhigh parental expectations and high work ethic. Recently,I read the newspapers and the headline was that thehighest scorers in the Britain GCSEs are Chinesestudents, and that would immediately make others thinkthat Chinese people are hard working and ambitious.This was an example of how cultures could affect thework ethic of the students in a country. Indeed, they arehard working, the pressure is put upon their children,and furthermore, the government will take actions to

“”

In British schoolsthere is a balance

between academic lifeand social life.



provide further improvements on education atmospheresand equipments to push their country’s education onestep forward.

The way I learnt about different cultures is to learnfrom different types of media, allowing me to be morebroad-minded. Furthermore, I believe that a lot of peoplelearn cultures by sharing experiences as well as learningfrom the media. When I return to Hong Kong I share myknowledge of the British and other cultures with myfriends and family, and that is the most common way acountry learns about other cultures. I feel this can help tochange people’s attitude, because in Hong Kong thefamily morals are very much different. The atmospherein Hong Kong is that money is all to life, if you give a lotof money to your child, that is love, Hong Kong is verymaterialistic; parents spend very little time with theirchildren as they are working very much all the time toearn money to provide for their children. This is one ofthe contradicting factors, because I feel in the UnitedKingdom, to love your family is to spend time andcommunicate with your family. For example, spendingtime taking holidays with your family, and even a Sundaylunch helps develop the relationship within a family.

The experience I have gained will truly help me in thefuture, because whatever profession I choose to go into, Iwill no doubt come across people from all differentcountries and cultures. I am also confident that myexperience of a British education will be extremelyhelpful in my future life and career.

Nowadays, more and more people are sending theirchildren to other countries to build internationalunderstanding between their countries to prepare themfor their future, and to build an attitude with a thirst forknowledge about other countries.

Years 12 and 13: Phillip Bückendorf

Phillip joined Loretto School in September 2007 fromGermany. As well as an outstanding academic record, heis currently ranked in the top two or three golfers in theUnited Kingdom for his age-group and within the top tenin Europe.

‘The global economy seems to have done little to bringdifferent cultures closer together. Indeed, sometimesglobalisation seems to intensify our differences.’ What areyour views about such a statement? How has yourexperience in a British school changed your thinkingabout the world we live in?

Over the last decades the word ‘globalisation’ hasbecome a keyword that is used in publicity as well as inpolitical and scientific controversies. Globalisation can beseen as a threat for societies and their members. On theother hand globalisation is a big chance for the economyand for international cooperation. Hardly any other termof international relationships is so often discussed. Thereare different ways of how to interpret globalisation.

According to the GEMI (The Global EnvironmentalManagement Initiative): ‘A set of processes leading to theintegration of economic, cultural, political, and socialsystems across geographical boundaries.’

Generally the term globalisation describes theexpansion of social links from national societies tointernational cooperation. It is a real historicdevelopment that began during the industrial revolution,when the different countries found out that the openexchange of goods between different economies makes apositive impact on global wealth.

Normally the process of globalisation is just seen fromthe economic point of view, because by this means it isquantifiable by indicators. You can prove increases inglobal production and global trade by showing numbers.But how can you get proof of globalisation of cultures?This is the reason why the effect of cultural globalisationis argued. People just agree about the fact that the newcommunication systems and information systems doinfluence the relationships between different cultures.However, you can link economical globalisation withcultural globalisation. In some classes of business, likethe music or fashion industry, you will find the creationof a relatively homogenous consumerism. This comes asmulti-national companies called ‘global players’stimulate the standardised lifestyle. This is followed bythe development of a universal culture. Through theassimilation of consumerism as well as through thestandardisation of the film and television industry, localtraditions are going to disappear.

Another point of cultural globalisation would be theEuro. The standardised currency in Europe brings manyopportunities, but it would be crucial not to mention thatthe countries are losing their own currencies. Manypeople in these countries have difficulties in identifying



“”

The expansion of globalisation in certainforms like economical,

political or cultural types will not happen

without problems.

“”

During my time at Loretto, I have met peoplefrom different countries and cultures. All

have assimilated with the Scottish culture,but I strongly believe that not one has lost

his or her original culture.

themselves with the Euro as they are missing theirtraditional banknotes for example the Lira in Italy or theDeutsche Mark in Germany.

Occasions like September the 11th support theprediction that through increasing globalisation thevalue of cultural belonging increases too. If traditions,rituals or generally existing structures are attacked byglobalisation or standardisation of cultures, this might befollowed by an equal reaction. In the most extreme casesthis might be global terrorism. Therefore, the expansionof globalisation in certain forms like economical, politicalor cultural types will not happen without any problems.There are several scientists who expect separation ofcultures and the reactivation of traditions according toethnic, religious and social modernisation.

Personally I have had different experiences withcultural globalisation. Since 2007 I have been at LorettoSchool in Scotland, but originally I come from the northof Germany. When I came to Loretto, I did not expect theschool to be so multi-cultural. Loretto has people fromover 16 different countries and four different continents.Nearly 20 percent of the pupils in the senior school arefrom overseas. On my first day a Chinese pupil reallyimpressed me with the statement.

“All of you Europeans look so similar. It is so hard toremember who is who.”

That showed me how people are influenced by theirorigin. Normally the European people think that it is noteasy to differentiate between Asian people.

At Loretto all cultures get together. The British peoplehave to accept and respect the other cultures of theirfriends from overseas and vice versa, overseas colleagueshave to get used to British culture. Every year the seniorschool has typical Scottish dinners like the Burns dinner orSt Andrews dinner where all pupils wear kilts and dance toScottish music. You will not find any overseas colleaguewho does not like to discover the Scottish traditions. Thisconfluence of cultures really shows how young people arewilling to assimilate their traditions. This can beinterpreted that globalisation will expand and people aregoing to give up traditional cultures as today’s youthbecomes the next generation. However, if you see things inmore detail even in our school you will find out that thereare certain traditions that people are not going to give up.All multi-cultural pupils really like to live in the sameboarding house, but it only works well because colleaguesrespect each other and their origins.

In my opinion, cultures have never been protectedfrom external influences from their very beginning. Butat this period of globalisation, the intensity of theamalgamation of cultures has hardly increased. This isfollowed by an assimilation of the cultures as well asextinction of the traditional cultures. I think newcultures are created by globalisation, but these newcultures are changing very fast. Making an educatedguess, I would say that cultural habits are transferred bymigrants, tourists and the general pop culture. If you seepop stars like Madonna, who are touring all over theworld, then you will see that this does affect othercultures enormously. The same happens with fashiontrends and several other goods. These foreign goods,images or pieces of information influence existingcultures and traditions.

In the face of the described tendency, I expect, as well, aculturalisation that will resurrect the original traditions.From the experiences I have had at Loretto, I do know thatpeople never give up the identifications of their origin. Thepermanent presence of foreign images as well as theinfluence of fashion trends will converge with the localidentification that people have. During my time at Loretto,I have met people from different countries and differentcultures. All of these people have assimilated with theScottish culture, but I strongly believe that not one of theseinternational students has lost his or her original culture.



The fairs aimed to give both agents and schools the bestchance to build relationships. A networking dinner thenight before the fairs gave schools an informalopportunity to get to know the agents. On the day of thefair, each school was given an individual seating area withspace to display their promotional materials. They thenhad twenty minute ‘speed-dating’ appointments to findout more about each other.

Peter Shelley says: “The feedback we received fromschools after the event was really positive. Ninety per centrated their meetings with agents as ‘excellent’ or ‘good’. Asa result we are planning to hold another event next year.”

The British Council’s Education UK Partnership hasintroduced a new way for UK boarding schools tomeet international agents from key recruitment

countries - without having to leave the UK.Two agent fairs, held in Bristol and Leeds in May 2009,

gave schools a chance to meet up with 27 agents fromcountries including Bahrain, Brazil, China, Hong Kong,India, Japan, Kazakhstan, Korea, Malaysia, Nigeria,Russia, Thailand, Uganda and Vietnam.

The fairs were open to all UK boarding schools, withmembers of the Education UK Partnership receiving adiscount on the participation fee and priority booking. Intotal, 39 schools attended.

Peter Shelley from the Education UK Partnership says:“We wanted to give schools a way to meet internationalagents cost-effectively and consulted with a wide range ofschools on the best way to do this. The agents fairs wereseen as an ideal way for schools to meet agents withoutthe need to travel far.”

The majority of the agents had completed the BritishCouncil’s agent training programme, the Education UKCertificate for agents. This develops the skills andexpertise of agents working on behalf of UK education,covering the UK education system and how best topromote the UK to students and parents consideringstudy abroad.

Peter Shelley says: “The agents who attended the fairswere all committed to increasing their engagement withUK boarding schools. Some had been working withschools for many years, whilst for others this was anopportunity to develop new relationships.”

Speed dating agents!FINDING QUALITY AGENTS TO REPRESENT YOUR SCHOOL CAN BE A CHALLENGE. THE BRITISH COUNCIL HAS FOUND A NEW WAY TO HELP.

“ ”Fairs give agents

and schools the bestchance to build relationships.

Debbie Young from Westonbirt School said: “Theexperience has allowed us to build new and genuinepartnerships with agents that had not previouslytravelled to the UK. It was apparent that they werecarefully selected for their genuine interest in boardingschools.”

The agents too found the fairs to be a valuableexperience. Alongside the fairs, they visited a number ofschools – including Harrogate Ladies College, Ashville


25The magazine of the Boarding Schools’ Association Boarding School 25

College, Blundells School, Westonbirt School, St-John’s-on-the Hill and International College, Sherborne - to givethem a better understanding of what life at a UKboarding school entails.

Leslie Lorimer, an agent based in Japan said: “The fairswere extremely valuable in making connections andestablishing relationships with boarding schools. It was alsogreat that we were able to visit a wide range of schools, interms of size, location, co-ed/girls only etc. It was especiallyuseful to meet the students at the different schools.”

2010 recruitment opportunitiesThe Education UK Partnership is organising another setof agent fairs in April 2010. More information will beavailable shortly on:www.britishcouncil.org/eumd-partnership.htm

In addition to the agent fairs, the Education UKPartnership provides a range of other services to help UKboarding schools recruit international students, including:• Market research• International events and student recruitment

exhibitions • Agent contact listings • Marketing opportunities• Networking meetings• Professional development courses

Two student recruitment events are planned for 2010specifically for UK boarding schools: Russia 12 to 13March 2010 and Thailand in early June 2010 (exact dateto be confirmed). These missions will provide schoolswith the opportunity to :

• meet prospective students and their parents at anexhibition;

• meet Russian and Thai education agents;• visit local schools to learn more about the education

system; and • gain on-the-ground market intelligence.

Find out moreYou can read more about the Education UK Partnership’sservices for UK boarding schools at:www.britishcouncil.org/eumd-partnership-boarding-schools

If you would like to find out more about the 2010 agentfair and discuss your international recruitment goals inmore detail, please call the Education UK Partnershipon: +44 (0)161 957 7069; or email:[email protected]

Also, to receive the latest news about opportunities forschools, sign up to the newsletter at:www.britishcouncil.org/eumd-partnership-boarding-schools-newsletter

Original articles on boarding issues are always welcome. If you have a story please contact:

The EditorBoarding Schools’ Association

Grosvenor Gardens House35–37 Grosvenor Gardens

London SW1W 0BSTelephone 020 7798 1580

Fax 020 7798 1581Email [email protected]

www.boarding.org.uk

The deadline for the next edition of Boarding School (Issue No.31) is 30 January 2010.

Copy for this edition should be sent to the Editor at the above address.



commonly spoken of in Hong Kong as the 334 system, isshown in the chart below, which compares the old and newHong Kong systems with the system used in the UK.

Pupils from Hong Kong form the largest single group ofoverseas nationals to enter UK schools (1577 boys andgirls in 2008), so it is important that UK boarding schoolsunderstand the implications of this change. AcademicAsia is the largest consultancy for the placement ofstudents from Hong Kong into British boarding schoolsand we have received many questions from schoolsregarding the changes. Here are some of them.

For more than 100 years Hong Kong has operated asystem of secondary education closely modelled onthe system used throughout most of the United

Kingdom: five years leading to a public examination(HKCEE), followed by a two year A level course and threeyears in university.

In 2006, however, Hong Kong moved to a very differentsystem, closer to that used in China and much of Asia, as wellas in the USA - three years of junior secondary education,three years of senior education leading to a public leavingexamination and four years in university. This system,

Hong Kong education: All change!BATTIE FUNG, MANAGING DIRECTOR OF ACADEMIC ASIA, REVIEWS THE FUNDA-MENTAL CHANGES TAKING PLACE IN THE HONG KONG EDUCATION SYSTEM WHICHWILL HAVE A SIGNIFICANT EFFECT ON THE WAY BRITISH SCHOOLS RECRUIT.

UK SYSTEM UK Age HK AgeHK NEW SYSTEM (334) STARTINGFROM SEP 2006

HK OLD SYSTEM

University: Year 3 20 21 University: Year 4 University: Year 3



Year 13 (AL) 17 18 University: Year 1Secondary: Form 7(HKAL)

Year 12 16 17 Senior 3 (HKDSE) 2011 Secondary: Form 6

Year 11 (GCSE) 15 16 Senior 2 2010Secondary: Form 5(HKCEE) 2010

Year 10 14 15 Senior 1 2009 Secondary: Form 4

Year 9 13 14 Junior 3 2008 Secondary: Form 3



Year 1 - 6 5-10 6-11 Primary 1 - 6 Primary 1 - 6

Public Exams: Public Exams: Public Exams:

A Level & GCSEHong Kong Diploma of SecondaryEducation Examination (HKDSE)

Hong Kong A levelExamination (HKAL)

Hong Kong CertificateEducation Examination(HKCEE)



What will replace the HKCEE (the present F5/Year 11)exam?

There will be no replacement. The only publicexamination during the secondary school years will be aleaving examination taken towards the end of F6/Year 12.This exam is to be called the HKDSE (The Hong KongDiploma of Secondary Education).

How will the HKDSE compare with the old Hong Kong A level?

At the beginning of F4 (Year10) students will begin tostudy a reduced curriculum of seven subjects, includingfour compulsory subjects – Chinese, English, maths andliberal studies – and three electives. All these subjectswill be examined in the HKDSE examination.

How will the changes affect selection for UK sixth form?

It will no longer be possible to make conditional offers forsixth form places, because there will be no public examon which to base such an offer. Applications for sixthform places from Hong Kong students will need to beassessed in the same way as those from, for example,China, Korea or Japan have always been – by schoolreports and the school’s own entrance tests.

When will the change take place?

It is already under way. The final group of Hong Kongstudents to sit the HKCEE (the F5/Year 11 exam) will doso in the summer of 2010. Candidates for admission inSeptember 2010 are the last who will have an HKCEEresult which may be used by UK schools as part of theselection process. In practice, most schools have alreadyceased to make conditional offers to Hong Kongapplicants for A level courses, recognizing the very poorcorrelation between the GCSE exam and the much moredemanding HKCEE.

How have Hong Kong parents reacted to the changes inthe education system?

The reaction so far has been largely negative. Parentsbelieve that the change will be difficult to implementsuccessfully, particularly in the early years. They suspectthat the high standards of the ‘old’ system will beundermined and they dislike the move to fewer publicexaminations. A particular concern is the restrictedcurriculum from Form 4 upwards, which allows onlyseven subjects in total, as opposed to the eight, nine orten taken for HKCEE under the old system.

Will there be any impact on recruitment to UK schools?

We have noticed a significant increase in the number ofapplications to transfer to the UK for Years 9 and 10 inSeptember 2009. The children in these year groups arethe guinea pigs of the new system and many parents whowere planning to send their children to the UK for Alevels only, are choosing to send them earlier to avoid theuncertainties of the new system. It should be said thatone of the few benefits of the current recession is theweakness of the pound sterling against the HK$, which ismaking UK boarding school more affordable than it waseven 12 months ago.

We at Academic Asia have sometimes been concernedthat some British schools have deprived themselves ofgood students, by treating HKCEE results as exactlycomparable with GCSE results. They are not! NARIC, theindependent body which compares overseasexaminations with those of the UK, for purposes ofuniversity entrance, reckons that a C in HKCEE is theequivalent of a high B or low A in GCSE as the chartbelow shows.

HKCEE vs GCSE

HK Grade UK Equivalent(s)

A A*

B A*, A

C A, B

D B, C

E C, D

F E, F and G

U U

The tendency of some schools to make conditional offersof six B grades or above, is tantamount to a conditionaloffer of six A*s to a British applicant.

Provided that schools can adapt and adjust theirselection procedures, it is likely that many schools will beable to open their sixth form doors to very good pupilsfrom Hong Kong in the same way as they do from mostother countries.

“ ”Parents’ reactions have been largely negative.

They suspect that the high standards of the old system will be undermined.



daily and vital component of boarding life. Whether it bethe house matron, the cleaners, nursing staff,maintenance department, grounds staff, caterers,bursarial staff, duty staff, colleagues, parents, or family,each contributes in ensuring a sense of purpose, of well-being, and a certain joie de vivre.

Communication has been and is a key commodity,whether by phone, email, or face-to-face. For parents, it isreassuring and vital, and for boarding staff, it is critical toascertain the general running of the house or theminutiae of daily events. Boarders need someone to listenand require an adult presence, whether this be in a moreformal context or over a game of pool.

Kim House has changed in terms of its décor, itsfurnishings, and its layout to a certain extent. It is noteasy to safeguard the character of a building and ethos ofa community, yet ameliorate the fabric and livingconditions. The boy boarders have their say on manymatters, ranging from colour schemes to the choice ofcarpets, or from the purchase of a new PS3 (and the cultGuitar Hero package!) to the new flat-screen televisionand the late-lamented Setanta Sports!

The two shower rooms would not look out-of-place in ahotel, though possibly not The Ritz; indeed, the amountof time spent in the showers testifies to this fact, nevermind the positive comments from visiting prospectiveboarding parents. This summer’s Kim House kitchenproject, including new units, fridge/freezer, anddecoration, sends out a clear message as to theimportance of boarding at Kimbolton School.

We are fortunate to have excellent support from aplethora of background staff; the boys recognise this factand are appreciative. Revision on the Kim House deckingis almost de rigueur.

Policy is a key word; it puts down a marker. It is presentfor the welfare of each boy. We have lights out times, preptimes, rules, and signing out. However, we are fortunate

Adecade ago, my wife and I became houseparents inKim House (as the boys’ boarding house atKimbolton School is affectionately known). With

three very young boys in tow, we began preparations for anew beginning, a different lifestyle, and the challenges ofcaring for thirty or so boarders, half of the boardingcomplement at Kimbolton but an integral part of theschool community. Since we weren’t changing school (I hadbeen appointed head of French five years previously), therewas little to worry about from that point of view butsacrificing our own time, and that of our family, was clearlygoing to be a dramatic change from our previous existence.

Situated on Kimbolton’s picturesque High Street, KimHouse occupies a privileged position, in the village and offthe school campus, yet its proximity to school is the envyof the girl boarders, who have a greater distance to coverfor the daily commute to the school canteen. The distinctappearance, an imposing building with green trellisexterior, is unique and offers a certain character to theboarding residence.

“I wonder what the boys are up to!” I asked my wiferhetorically as we lay in bed after our first day in charge.Unexpectedly, and sagaciously, she replied: “You’ve just gotto trust them.” Having set academic success, extra-curricular involvement, and social integration as the pillarsupon which I wished to shape the boarding experience, thisnotion of trust, indeed reciprocal trust, was undoubtedlyprophetic. Trust has certainly been the key ingredient forthe happiness of each boy, each member of staff, and theparents who offer us the privilege of educating their son(s)in the broadest sense of the word.

In the running of a boarding house, people, premises,and policies are key ‘P’s, but they must be underpinned bytrust and support plus a little hard graft and, of course, asense of humour. The boys over the years may havequestioned their housemaster’s comedy value, as theyremind me when they pay a visit after leaving, but it is a

Ten years onROB KNELL REFLECTS ON A DECADEIN CHARGE OF THE BOYS’BOARDING HOUSE AT KIMBOLTONSCHOOL, AND ON COMBINING THEROLE WITH BEING THE SCHOOL’SHEAD OF FRENCH.

“ ”The housemaster’s comedy value is a daily

and vital component of boarding life.



in a community-based rural boarding setting to allowwhat I call ‘directed freedom’. Ostensibly contradictory,the boarders respect the moments when the goalpostsoccasionally move a little: visiting a friend mid-week,thus missing the official prep slot, watching that all-important Champions League match, or celebrating abirthday in the local Chinese restaurant. In most cases,the prescribed time to return to the House or be in bed isrespected and prep is completed before the event.

There have been a number of inspections, alwaysdaunting because of the paperwork and time constraints,but actually a joy because we are so proud of the boys.Indeed, during such inspection visits, they are alwaysproud and supportive of each other and the boarding staff.

I have continued to be head of French and, from aprofessional point of view, the roles of houseparent andhead of department have complemented each other. InKim House, I frequently wear more informal clothes(even some designer labels, which offer me kudos pointsin the boarders’ eyes!). Even a change of clothes relaxesthe mood and removes the teacher tag. Furthermore, as ahouseparent and head of department, there is a certainsensitivity towards the boarders, particularly concerningthe work pressures.

Within the classroom context, relationships have alsobeen galvanised; the mutual understanding hasameliorated working habits. On a personal level, one

needs to be more than simply a manager of people,resources, policy, and change, but clearly a manager oftime. However, this time aspect becomes more focused,more quality-based, and more productive. This dual roleworks well at Kimbolton, although I accept that it maynot be ideal in other larger boarding environments. Italso works well personally as I am on-site and can beinvolved seven days a week in school activities, such ascoaching 1st XI football.

“ ”Is there a better jobin education? Not, in

my opinion.

In many respects, so much has evolved, yet little haschanged, except the aforementioned three very youngboys are now seventeen, fourteen, and twelve years old,and I have an advancing forehead with a few grey hairs!Only my wife seems to display the same serenity andyouthfulness as ten years ago.

Do I regret the move to being a houseparent? Certainlynot! It has offered me the chance to help shape youngpeople’s futures and to liaise with so many differentpeople. Is there a better job in education? Not, in myopinion. Will I be sorry to give it up one day? Mostdefinitely, even though I will have more family time,more flexibility, and more independence.

I owe a great debt of thanks to former Head Roger Peel,to the current headmaster, Mr Belbin, to my family,especially my wife, without whom the job would havebeen infinitely more onerous, to Headmasters whoturned me down for deputy head posts, and to the scoresof boys who have resided in Kim House … aka the ‘KimHouse tribe’.



for space with bales of hay. It is now home to the larger ofour two multimedia classrooms, the other being situatedin Le Mas and decorated with a lovely mural, thanks tothe girls of the summer term 2008, led by Sophie Atkins.

While in Veyrines, the girls are my responsibility asHead. I live within the courtyard with my husbandRodney, who is the administrator. We have made the thirdof the old farm buildings - once the bread oven and thepigsty - home. Most of the staff are French and all arededicated to the welfare and education of the girls. DrCrauffon, our local GP, has helped look after the girls forover 15 years and the medical support we have receivedhas been excellent.

Designed to enable young minds to appreciate adifferent culture, a different language and a different wayof life, the curriculum provides each girl with anopportunity to think out of the box and make connectionsacross the conventional subject areas. Personal self-confidence blossoms as a result and it is remarkable howthe most diffident pupil is able to participate in Frenchand in English with assurance and enthusiasm.

At the heart of our curriculum lies ‘the sortie’. Going outin a group of eight or less, each girl is offered a uniquemoment for independent study and stimulating co-curricular activity. Each ‘sortie’ is prepared carefully interms of vocabulary and knowledge in school using ourexcellent AV/IT facilities, so that each girl can use herFrench to best advantage whilst on site with an expert.

Downe House introduced the imaginative andinnovative idea of spending a term in France, toall pupils aged twelve, over seventeen years ago

this autumn. It is a unique opportunity to experienceFrench life and culture to the full, in the idyllic setting ofthe valley of the Dordogne. The school is housed in aconverted farm, hewn from yellow, buttermilk stone andcomprises three buildings, which nestle around theformer farm yard, now awash with bright red geraniumsand sweet scented herbs. The life of the village is the lifeof the school and the girls become part of the communityin Veyrines, greeting other villagers with a bright Bonjouron a daily basis. Huddled around the square, in thisbeautiful valley, clad with walnut trees, the mairie, thechurch and the school provide a safe and secureenvironment for the girls to enjoy.

The original farmhouse, called Le Mas, houses two ofour four cosy bedrooms beneath its steeply sloping eaves.All bedrooms have en suite facilities. Downstairs the girlsenjoy their own salon, comfortably furnished with bigsofas, floor cushions and throws – truly a home away fromhome! There is also TV and computer access for that all-important email, but it is the fruit baskets, containingproduce of the region which are the most popular.Nectarines and cherries are at the top of the list, withwalnuts a close third – much better than all that sugarytuck! The other two bedrooms are housed in La Grange,originally the old barn, where horse, cart and plough vied

A sortie to the DordogneEVERY GIRL AT DOWNE HOUSE GETS THE CHANCE TO SPEND A TERM IN FRANCE,AT THE SCHOOL’S OWN EXTENSION IN SOUTH WEST FRANCE. ALISON GWATKINWHO, WITH HER HUSBAND, RUNS THE FRENCH “SCHOOL”, DESCRIBES THEUNFORGETTABLE EXPERIENCE EACH OF THE 12-YEAR-OLDS ENJOYS.



“”

Learning outside the classroom in this way fires theimagination and enables many girls to get excited aboutlessons. We are very fortunate to be situated just a shortdrive from the rich heritage this beautiful area affords. Sosteeped in art, prehistory, history, geography, ecology andso much more, the countryside has become an extensionof our classroom. Some of our experts enjoy aninternational reputation, including the Truffle Hunterand the Chocolate Maker. Mealtimes in our lovely diningroom, which is also our art gallery, provide anopportunity, to savour not only the gastronomic delightsof the freshly cooked local produce, but also to exchangeinformation and ideas, in French, of course, on theadventures of the day.

example, there is a study of architecture followed by astudy of French furniture. In order to promote personalself confidence further, at this important moment inadolescent development, the girls participate in twoworkshops with a colour consultant to help address thosevital issues of image with assurance, panache and style.

In addition, we have exchange contact with three stateschools in the south west. One is close by and enables thegirls to spend a day at cookery school, where they join thestudents in the preparing of lunch for the public, in thecollege’s own gastronomic restaurant, before sharing thefruits of their labours at midday in the restaurant. In theafternoon, the girls participate in English lessons toencourage the students. We also work closely with theEuropean sections in two other schools, producinganthologies of poetry in English and in French, sharinghandball and badminton competitions and, hopefully, inthe autumn, performing Christmas music together.

Many girls comment that the French Experience hasgiven them increased confidence in their ability to boardsuccessfully. Thrown together, a thousand miles fromhome, evening activities and weekend activities promotethose friendships and that camaraderie for which goodboarding schools are famous. Each term creates a specialsense of team. Encouragement of each other to accept achallenge is evident. Enjoyment in learning and beingone team, with all the staff, is exhilarating and the buzz isremarked upon during parental visits. The HouseCommittee plays an active role in the running of theschool and helps organise our charity events for thecancer unit in Toulouse and the shows given to the oldpeople locally, under the expert guidance of MrErrington, our talented music master.

The Headmistress of Downe House, Mrs EmmaMcKendrick, concludes:

“The benefit that the girls derive from the term inFrance has exceeded our original expectations in everyway! Of course there are enormous linguistic benefits,but the growth in confidence that comes from theexperience of living in France and learning in a differentway is unrivalled. Our French Experience forms asignificant part in preparing girls for the Upper School atDowne, in the same way that their final year at prepschool does.”

Over the term, each girl will compile a journal ofmemories. This has evolved into an extensive piece ofcoursework. Each one is different in terms of scope andcontent. As much as possible is written in French and theillustrations are both artistic and imaginative, includingexcellent photography. The girls receive inspirationalteaching in art and history of art whilst here in Veyrinesand the work on display around the school is testimony tothis. The course starts with the study of light and formhere in the Dordogne and progresses through a history ofFrench painting to the final challenge, when the pupilchooses a favourite painting and then has to rework it ina different style. So far we have explored Impressionism,Fauvism and Modern Art.

To complement the academic programme all pupilstake part in themed Ateliers during the term. For

‘From the first time I saw Veyrines, I knew

that I was going to havethe best time of my life.

It is beautiful!’



seem, and people are not always who they say they are.What looks like a bank, can turn out to be a robber, whatlooks like a friend can be a predator and what looks like agame can be a trap.

There is no point in simply demonising the net. Thatwould be futile, not just because of the multiple portals(laptops, phones, libraries, internet cafes), but because itis a place of unprecedented opportunity as well as risk,where young people (even in rural and remote parts ofAustralia) can psychologically grow and develop throughhome grown websites like moodgym and reachoutpro, butwhere they may also become the victims of crime orengage in illegal behaviour themselves through ‘sexting’and cyber bullying.

The dilemmas faced by boarding schools across the worldare significant, as many of these young people aretransporting their developmentally normal risk-takingbehaviour online, engaging not just in cyber bullying butalso uploading and downloading material that can beharmful to themselves, their schools and their communities.

The internet is one of the few things parents haven'texperienced themselves as teenagers and most parentsreally haven't kept up to speed with the new technology.The problem is that the information superhighway nowruns right through our homes and schools and is at theheart of our student’s lives.

The ethics of this situation are interesting. An ethicaldilemma is a situation that will often involve an apparentconflict between moral imperatives, in which to obey onewould result in transgressing another. There is a moralimperative for schools to safeguard their student’swelfare; however, the young people would also argue thatthere is an equally strong moral imperative to respecttheir privacy. Indeed many students argue that they havea right to internet access and that what they do online isprivate.

The dilemma for boarding schools is whether theyshould demand to see what students are doing online. Dostaff have a right to see student’s social networking sites,the pictures they have uploaded of themselves and thecontact and personal information they display to their

The uptake of information and communicationtechnologies (ICT) have created a new space inwhich young people can learn and play, be

amazingly creative as well as interact with each other. Theinternet is unarguably the greatest communicationsrevolution since 1450, when Johannes Gutenberginvented his movable type printing press. It is a storyabout community and collaboration on a scale never seenbefore, whether referring to the cosmic compendium ofknowledge that is Wikipedia, the million-channelpeople's network we now know as YouTube or the onlinemetropolisis of Twitter, MySpace and Facebook.

Young people find it exciting because everything isavailable and almost anything is possible. At no othertime in one’s life is the desire to be with friends so strong,and the net facilitates this in a way never thoughtpossible. Adolescence is all about identity formation andthe internet allows young people to create more identitiesthan David Bowie and Madonna combined, as they try onone digital mask after the other, to find one that fits.

But it is dangerous for the same reasons – our youngpeople are early settlers in a new land I will refer to as‘Cyberia’. A virtual world full of brilliant vistas but alsowith some dangerous, poorly lit, back streets, a digitalfrontier without laws, where things are not always as they

Sending boarding schools to CyberiaTHE WORLD WIDE WEB IS A PLACE OF UNPRECEDENTED OPPORTUNITY ASWELL AS RISK, SAYS MICHAEL CARR-GREGG, PSYCHOLOGIST FOR THEAUSTRALIAN BOARDING STAFF ASSOCIATION. BOARDING SCHOOL STAFF HAVE AN OBLIGATION TO JOIN THE YOUNG PEOPLE IN THEIR CHARGE IN THIS VIRTUAL WORLD “FULL OF BRILLIANT VISTAS BUT SOME DANGEROUS,POORLY LIT, BACK STREETS”.

“”

The informationsuperhighway nowruns right through

our homes andschools and is at the heart of ourstudents’ lives.



friends and potentially the rest of the world?The internet allows young people and the people they

communicate with to become virtual chameleons andthey rarely have to entertain any notion of responsibilityfor their actions.

The fact is, when using text messaging, chat rooms orinteractive websites, students will never know for surewhether the dialogue they are engaging in is with theperson they imagine. The internet allows young peopleand the people they communicate with to become virtualchameleons and they rarely have to entertain any notionof responsibility for their actions.

Young people are already there. Nike, Nintendo andToyota are there. So are advertisers, propagandists,peddlers and paedophiles. On the net, everything is nowup for grabs, including our students, at any age – evenfive-year-olds. Right now many are fending forthemselves because they have been left alone (and ofcourse they like it that way). Both Australia and the UKhave been lucky thus far, rates of cyber bullying andpredatory behaviour is low compared to other countries -but the overseas experience, especially in America, istruly scary. We should learn from it so we don't make thesame mistakes.

The term in loco parentis refers to the legalresponsibility of a person or organization to take on someof the functions and responsibilities of a parent. Thisallows institutions such as colleges and schools to act inthe best interests of the students as they see fit, althoughit does not allow what would be considered violations ofthe students' civil liberties.

For adolescent psychologists the answer is clear. As DrPhil McGraw says: “Pray to God, but row for the shore.”Parents need to understand that, if they or the schoolenable students to visit Cyberia, then the school must beaccountable for what the students do online. As a result,cyber psychologists argue there needs to be an onlinesafety contract often expressed in a signed acceptable usepolicy. This, together with education, regular monitoringand supervision should ensure that the young people surfthe net as safely as possible.

An invitation needs to be issued to all staff and parentsto become cyber-anthropologists; to don a virtual pithhelmet, backpack and provisions and to venture into theonline world of Cyberia, preferably with students actingas guides.

The key message of my 2007 book, Real Wired Child(Penguin 2007), was simple: young people are at riskonline and parents were largely unaware of the dangersand unacceptability involved in their children’s onlinelives. It is time for parents and staff to discover thedelights and the dangers of the internet, and, if not toactually become a part of its community, then to at leastunderstand it and get involved.

There is both a legal and moral obligation for boardingschools to be proactively involved in the issues of cybersafety. While most now are required to have a policy, thetruth is that implementation of those policies isprofoundly flawed in at least three ways.

First, very few schools draw up the cyber safety policyin association with students – so there is little or noownership of the policy by the people it impacts upon,leaving them at best ignorant of the provisions or at worstcontemptuous of it.

Second, close investigation suggests that the cybersafety policy is too infrequently backed up by consistentcurriculum material, which means there is noopportunity to make the concepts within the policy liveand breathe for the students. Boarding schools inAustralia increasingly are using novels such asDestroying Avalon by Kate McCaffrey and Chat Room byBarbara Biggs, to initiate a classroom discussion aroundstaying safe in a virtual world.

Third, there are few resources for professional staffdevelopment and training and many senior staff have noformal training in cyber safety or how to respond whenissues arise. A constant source of uncertainty inAustralian boarding schools focuses on when onlinebehaviour crosses the line to become criminal andwhether to involve the police. Some states and territoriesin Australia have made it an offence to fail to report.

Throughout the western world, unfortunately, popularnational-level TV personalities and shows are still largelyin the fear-dissemination phase; and some internetsafety advocacy groups are engaged in a concerted pushto get them promoting the facts. As a society, the USAright now are having to dig themselves out of a holebecause of the predator panic that has developed over thelast three years. The news media and high-profile lawenforcement (such as the majority of state attorneysgeneral) have been sending the consistent message since2006 that the web is alive with predators. So a handful ofonline-safety organizations and advocates are trying toget consumer education on a fact- rather than fear-basedfooting at the moment.

As the psychologist for the Australian Boarding StaffAssociation, I have been on a nationwide tour ofboarding schools, running a one day workshop for staff,giving them the skills, knowledge and strategies to keepthe students safe and I look forward to sharing thisinformation with members of the BSA in the new year.

“”

While most schoolsnow are required to have a policy, the truth is thatimplementation

of those policies isprofoundly flawed.



• the school is for boys only;• no fees are charged;• all boys must board (there are no day boys);• boys must come from homes where the parents are of

good character;• boys must be brought up in the Anglican faith; and• boys can come from any race.

For the first 21 years the school offered primary educationonly. Secondary boys at that time boarded at the schoolbut attended Auckland Grammar during the day. Asecondary department was built in 1931 and hasremained and grown ever since. A major expansionstarted in 1956, the 50th anniversary, with the foundationstone being laid for St Patrick’s Chapel. The total rollwhen that phase of the operation was completed somefive years later, had grown to 300.

The next major jump in numbers was in 1993 when thepresent junior campus was built some two kilometresaway, to accommodate 192 boys. That brought the roll to510 from Years 5-13, with Years 5-8 on the junior campusand 9-13 on the senior campus. Whilst they are separatecampuses, they operate as parts of one school. February2006 saw a further increase of the roll to 546 with thecompletion of a $13m expansion programme, resulting ina total of nine boarding houses.

Scholarships are hotly contested and up to 600applications are received for the 75 places available eachyear. A scholarship covers all costs; boys are expected tobring with them only a dressing gown, trainers (and ateddy bear if they want). The school provides uniforms –including their laundry and repair – food, boarding andeducation. The main entry years are five and seven withvacancies previously being filled only from five to ten. Anexperiment last year in filling vacancies in Years 10 and11, proved to be highly successful, so this will continueinto the future. The school covers most of the academicsubjects that other schools cover and runs a full sportsand cultural programme, winning a variety of interschooland age related competitions.

What kind of boys does the school turn out? A full rangeof young men, some of whom have made their mark onsociety as Prime Minister, Governor-General, leaders in

In the words of Monty Python: and now for somethingcompletely different… How would you like never tohave to worry about parents not paying their school

fees, to have seven applicants for every boarding placeavailable each year, to run an institution unique in thesouthern hemisphere and to have the fun of acommercially-run operation in the not-for-profit sector.

Dilworth School in Auckland is an independent schoolwith a difference. Founded by an Irish immigrant, it iscurrently run by two Scotsmen and is based on theAnglican faith.

James Dilworth was an Irish immigrant from Ulsterwho came to New Zealand in 1841 and subsequentlybecame a successful farmer and entrepreneur. He was oneof the first three directors of what is now the ASB Bank(owned by Commonwealth Bank) and over the next 50 orso years, amassed what was in those days considerablewealth.

He and his wife Isabella had no children and whenJames died in 1894, he left the bulk of his estate to founda school for boys from straitened circumstances. Hewanted to establish a school with the unique goal ofeducating sons of people from the top two-thirds of NorthIsland who had suffered some family misfortune and wereunable to afford the education they wanted their childrento have.

It took the original trustees 12 years to overcome somesignificant hurdles and get together enough money tostart the school. One hurdle to be overcome was thegranting of tax free status which the government of theday was reluctant to give – this required the trustees totake a case to the Privy Council (not an easy task in 1898when the main method of communication was codedtelegrams) which they won after 18 months preparation.In the end Isabella moved out of the family homesteadand the first eight boys moved in.

The school today bears no physical resemblance to theschool of those days but the basic philosophy under whichthe school is run has remained unchanged for the past100 years.

The conditions in the original will are still valid todaywith the main points being:

Making good boys betterDILWORTH SCHOOL, IN AUCKLAND, NEW ZEALAND, IS AN UNUSUAL SCHOOLBY ANY STANDARDS. FOUNDED BY A SUCCESSFUL IRISH IMMIGRANT, IT HAS A CONSTITUTION MODELLED ON CHRIST’S HOSPITAL AND IS NOW ONE OF NEW ZEALAND’S BIGGEST CHARITIES. ERIC COCKERTON, ASSISTANT PRINCIPAL AND DIRECTOR OF BOARDING – AND CHAIRMAN OF THE NZBOARDING SCHOOLS ASSOCIATION – INTRODUCES AN INSTITUTION UNIQUE IN THE SOUTHERN HEMISPHERE.



the church and business, but just as importantly, thosewho have turned out to be ‘good and useful citizens’ asexpounded in James Dilworth’s will.

There are some 150 staff, of whom one third areacademic and two thirds cover the pastoral care, catering,clothing, grounds and admin. This unusual ratio reflectsthe 24/7 operation that is required from the NZ schoolwith the largest boarding numbers.

There are some misconceptions about the school. It isnot a school for ‘naughty boys’ – it is a school for ‘makinggood boys better’. TVNZ featured the school in an hourlong documentary a number of years ago and haverepeated it several times since then. The number ofapplications rocketed in the year of first showing it on thetelevision. The Board accepts applications from one parentfamilies, married and de facto couples, relatives or orphansand, unfortunately, a rising number of grandparents wherethe parents are not around for their boys for a variety ofreasons. Applicants do not need to be Anglicans to applybut must accept that the boy will be brought up in theAnglican faith. While the Church is not involved in therunning or governance of the school, there is a very closeand warm relationship with the local Diocese.

The organisation has a somewhat unusual structure inthat the two parts of the organisation are led by two joint

CEOs. It was modelled on Christ’s Hospital in England,which had been around for some 300 years when Jamesfirst set up his school. Interestingly, the structures of bothschools are still very similar today. The Principal of theschool is responsible for all academic and pastoral careissues for the boys while the Trust Board’s GeneralManager looks after the finances and investments, as wellas the applications for scholarships.

The original bequest amounted to £103,271 and thishas grown very many times over to make Dilworth one ofthe largest NZ charities and one of the largest propertyinvestors. This growth has not come without times ofdifficulty as, in the early 1980s, the school was in direfinancial straits. High inflation meant that costs wererocketing but rents, which provided the bulk of theincome at that time, were frozen by law. Adding to theproblems was the inability in the will to sell any land.Discussions with the Government were leading tomerging into the state system as an integrated school butthe unique structure did not fit within the state rules.Finally a change to the will saved the day whereby landwas allowed to be sold.

With thanks to Martin Thomson – GeneralManager of the Dilworth Trust Board

Boarding in New Zealand:dealing with regulation

environment that supports students’ learning.The New Zealand Boarding Schools Association

(NZBSA) is more than ten years old and is the onlynational body to support boarding schools and hostels inNew Zealand. The association represents 99% of hostelsin New Zealand, supporting them and attempting toassist in developing a cohesive and comprehensiveapproach to management. Membership of the associationis through a school or as a life membership (nominatedand ratified through an annual general meeting).

The NZBSA collects data to provide statistics on boardingwithin the country and has an input into the review processthrough consultation with government and the ERO.

All training in ‘duty of care’ qualifications is undertakenthrough the association and these training responsibilitiesand results are acknowledged as excellent by ERO.

There is a strong philosophy of sharing best practiceand a proud history of accomplishing collaborativeevents. Boarding staff, unless members of the teachingprofession or some other recognised union, have had novoice in cases of dispute or grievance. However recentlywe have found two unions to provide representation forhostel and boarding school staff. To further supportmembers we publish a national magazine and we are alsocontinually working to maintain an active relationshipwith members through regional visits, national

Boarding is alive and well in New Zealand and it wasa great privilege to be invited to attend the 2009BSA annual conference for Heads in Oxford. The

conference was extremely rewarding and the BSA, alongwith the Headmasters and Headmistresses, gave my wifeGlynne and me a very warm welcome.

New Zealand has approximately 10,000 students inboarding and hostels in over 100 schools throughout thecountry, providing a diverse variety and choice ofboarding options. These range through full, partial, dayand flexi options.

Like the UK, New Zealand has had an external reviewprocess for some time, to see that hostels were operatingeffectively for students. The Education Review Office(ERO) has been auditing hostels for about ten years, witheach hostel being reviewed on a three yearly cycle.Legislation was passed by parliament in 2005 and theregulations came into force on 1st March 2006. The effectof these two processes and legalisation on themanagement of hostels has been to ensure that clearpolicies and protocols are established and that carefulmonitoring can take place.

The ministry is the licensing authority and now allhostels must be licensed. This process for licensing occursevery three years. ERO was given the brief to see thathostels will provide a safe physical and emotional



conference and give further support through our websiteand personal emails.

To further develop, enhance and provide the best forour members and especially the students in our care weare reviewing and developing in a wide range of areas:

• Training expansion• Duty of care development• Staff working towards completion of the Australian

Catholic University Associate degree • Looking at skill specific courses for managers and

directors• First aid in teen mental health issues• Employment law and employer best practice• Post graduate study and research – longitudinal and

collaboratively internationally• Finding some industry platforms and guidelines for

staff remuneration packages• Keeping our membership fees and conference fees as

low possible with industry partnerships • Staff relief – a pool of experienced managers and staff

who can assist with relief with leave or to bridge thegap so you aren’t forced to take the ‘available person’

• Internal pre-ERO audits• Using the expertise within the industry to improve it• Cultural audits

No one objects to aiming for excellence. We recognize thatthe legislation is part of that process, but does not alwaysprovide the tools to get there. The actual process for hostellicensing is quite costly, which inevitably impacts on hostelfees. We must also be careful as, at times, the licensingprocess may not necessarily generate a change to practice.What it always results in is increased paperwork. Thelicensing process tends to be an audit from within, whilethe ERO full school audit is a published document.

Generally, our members do find the processes a valuableopportunity for reflection, taking the time to ensure thattheir policies are modern, practical and able to be enacted.

The licensing authority was new to New Zealand in2005 and resulted following a lengthy process ofsurveying staff and through consultation with schoolsand hostels. The survey was conducted of hostelmanagers, staff, school principals, guidance counsellors,parents and boarders.

After all the discussions, policies and protocols wereset in place so that all New Zealand hostels would requirea license. The law was drafted and redrafted withindustry consultation and a non-prescriptive version waspassed. This meant that the hostels already operatingsuccessfully and safely were not required to change but toconfirm their safety standards.

The institutions and hostels to which the legislationapplies are:

• School hostels• Health camps• CYFS (Child, Youth and Family Services) family

homes: if five or more students unrelated to thefamily are boarding for education purposes

• Private dwellings: if five or more students unrelatedto the family are boarding for education purposes

• Private dwelling used to accommodate hostelstudents during school holiday time: if five or morestudents unrelated.

Currently, there are around 113 licensed hostels, 103school hostels (of which 21 serve private schools, 34 serveintegrated schools and 48 serve state schools), sevenhealth camps and three private homes.

The Education Review Office reviews hostels andboarding facilities when they review a school and havebeen doing so for nearly ten years. So most school hostelshave now had approximately three reviews.

They are entrusted to ensure that all hostels provide anenvironment that will promote the physical andemotional safety and wellbeing of students, and that alsosupports the learning process.

ERO reviews hostels as part of school reviews and includesan assessment of the extent to which hostel regulations arebeing met. However, reviewers will not spend time checkingon compliance with the regulations. Instead, the hostelowner is required to complete a Hostel Assurance Statementwith the assistance of a self audit checklist.

A 2004 report suggested that some improvementscould be made to the way some hostels were operatingand also gave an indication as to areas that could possiblybe reviewed. ERO used indicators of good practice,reflecting those that were being used by Ofsted in theUK, to evaluate the hostels.

Some of the areas now being particularly emphasizedduring the review process revolve around:

• the need for the ‘culture of boarding to beacknowledged with the use of boarding experiencereviewers;

• hostel reviews being published within the schoolreview – even if the hostel is a separate entity;

• developing, revise or update policies, procedures andother documentation to guide the operations of the hostel;

• formalising processes such as those associated withstaffing and complaints;

• developing or reviewing staff job descriptions;• extending staff skills through appropriate training;• conducting regular staff performance appraisals;• the relationship between the school and the hostel

and the accountability and reporting arrangementsbetween the hostel and the school;

• the relationship between parents and the hostel;• the quality of the management of the school hostel;

and• the extent to which the school hostel provides a safe

physical and emotional environment that supportslearning for students accommodated there.

The report concluded that the risks to students in boardingfacilities could be significantly reduced by defining who wasresponsible for student safety and by providing assurancethat adequate safety systems were in place. These factorswould, I am sure, to a large extent be common to all hostels,no matter what country they were in.

ERO visits continue and provide useful feedback to theboarding houses and hostels.



Taking part in the Tall Ships TransatlanticChallenge in a boat nearly a century old shouldhave been an exciting enough summer for pupils

of Dauntsey’s School in Wiltshire.But only days from the finish line in Belfast, the 7,000-

mile voyage turned into a terrifying battle with theelements as storm force 10 winds and 60ft seas batteredthe school’s 56-foot gaff cutter Jolie Brise.

Three days out the Tall Ships Race control suddenly lostcontact with Jolie Brise. At the same time, Dauntsey’sheadmaster, Stewart Roberts, also realised that the boat’sskipper had not reported their position at the scheduled time.

He managed to contact skipper Toby Marris, who wasalso on board, who reported that all was far from well: aweather system had stalled over Jolie Brise causing stormforce 10 conditions with seas topping 60 feet. A freakwave had hit the boat ripping off the top mast andthrowing crew members out of their bunks. Withinmoments all hands were on deck coping with some of theworst conditions ever experienced by Jolie Brise.

The crew described the experience in their journal asfollows:

Days 19 & 20: Crew Report 4/08/09 -05/08/09

On Tuesday we were finally hit by gale force 10 winds,which led to massive 50-60 foot waves, making steeringand life on board very difficult. Fortunately, because wewere going downwind, we were able to surf down manyof the waves.

At around 2 o'clock we were hit by an enormous freakwave causing us to spin into a crash gybe. The boomswung into the backstay causing the top mast to breakoff. It was all hands on deck to try to recover the damage.The top mast was eventually brought down on deck. Itwas quite spectacular to witness, but we were assuredthat this used to happen in the past - in fact they used torace with a spare topmast on board.

Down below we tidied the mess caused, and most of thecrew retired to their bunks. On further inspection, wehave discovered a large crack in the bow sprit, causing us

Atlantic challenge, Atlantic dramaJOLIE BRISE WAS ONE OF ONLY TWO BOATS COMPETING UNDER THE UK FLAG INTHE 2009 TALLS SHIPS TRANSATLANTIC CHALLENGE, AND WAS THE ONLYSCHOOL-OWNED BOAT IN THE ENTIRE FLEET. THE WORLD-FAMOUS 56’ GAFFCUTTER HAS BEEN OWNED BY DAUNTSEY’S SCHOOL SINCE 1977 AND HASCOMPETED IN MANY TALL SHIPS RACES, BUT THIS RACE WAS UNLIKE ANY SHEHAD COMPETED IN BEFORE.


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to be very cautious so as not to ruin further cruises on theboat this summer.

This was not the end of the day’s excitement. The wavescontinued to build and helming became very strenuous.A series of huge waves hit the boat, resulting in peopleflying about down below, life-jackets inflating on deckand, most importantly, an end to supper. We thencompletely lowered the main sail and after a brief heaveto, we continued sailing on the storm jib alone. Tobrighten the mood, three pilot whales swam past us.

Through the following night the wind died down andthere was a more upbeat mood on board with the worst ofthe weather over, the sun out and less than 300 miles togo until the finish line.

Jolie Brise crossed the finishing line at 21.12 on Friday7th August. 18 days after leaving Halifax, Nova Scotia, theJolie Brise sailed into Belfast at the end of her 7000 milejourney which had started in early May in Vigo, Portugal.

As Jolie Brise made her way up the River Lagan to hermooring on Queen’s Quay, all the ships in the fleetgreeted her with long blasts on their whistles and therewas much cheering on the quayside, and not least fromthe crew’s parents.

Jolie Brise was one of only two boats competing underthe UK flag, and the only school-owned boat in the entirefleet. The world-famous 56’ gaff cutter has been ownedby Dauntsey’s since 1977 and has competed in many TallShips Races. For earlier legs of the 2009 TransatlanticChallenge, she was crewed by recent leavers; Dauntsey’spupils, aged 14-18, made up the crew for the later stages.

At the prize giving Jolie Brise gained three awards: aprize for coming second in her class, a prize for theyoungest crew and the Crowther Memorial Shield for theskipper, first mate and crew who demonstratedoutstanding seamanship.


Jonty DriverSO FAR Selected Poems 1960-2004

“…a compelling read, infused with an immense generosity of

spirit that is both uplifting and beguiling.”

David Caddy, Conference & Common Room

To order your copy call

01394 389850

If you would like Jonty Driver to come to your school to read his poetry,

please contact John Catt Educational Ltd on [email protected]

Price £10 + p&p

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The card is pre-loaded with funds by the pupil’sparents, either via their bank account or at any post officeor PayPoint outlet, and the pupil can then use the card tomake payments in the college shop, and at the cafe, forschool trips as well as in the local village and at anyretailer displaying the MasterCard acceptance marks. Thepupil can only spend the available balance on the card,meaning that there are no penalties or related interestcharges, and parents can track all payment transactionsonline to ensure that they are being used sensibly.

The ‘Freedom4Schools’ Programme launched at thestart of the Michaelmas term and a dedicated website forparents and students can be found at:www.freedom4schools.co.uk

Warren Hardy, CEO at White Eagle (Europe) Plc said:“Prepaid cards from White Eagle offer schools theopportunity to be free from the inconvenience andadministrative burden of cheque and cash handling whenmanaging students’ personal finances. Prepaid cards arenow hitting the mainstream as people become furtherpredisposed to making payments without using cash. Theapplication of prepaid cards lends itself very well to themanagement of student finances and we anticipate thatmany other schools will follow Wellington College’s leadwith this successful programme.”

For more information see: www.freedom4schools.co.ukor: www.white-eaglegroup.com

Wellington College is believed to be the firstschool in Britain to move towards a ‘cashlesssociety’ by providing each of its pupils with a

prepaid card that can be used to pay for student expensesover the school term.

The Freedom Eagle Cash Card is provided by White Eagle(Europe) plc and acts as a ‘pay as you go’ bank account forpupils. It enables parents to manage their child’s finances andaffords pupils the freedom to spend their pocket money in asafe and convenient way. The college benefits as there will be adecreasing need to manage pupils’ personal finances.

Dr Anthony Seldon, Master of Wellington College,commented: “With the introduction of the new Freedomprepaid card for our pupils, Wellington is moving withthe times and, in doing so, relieving the administrationthat managing pupils’ spending money entails. This is afantastic solution for everyone involved and we aredelighted at the work that White Eagle has put intocreating this system of payments for us.”

The card effectively cuts the school out of theadministration equation, giving full control of eachpupil’s pocket money to their parents and empoweringpupils with the increased convenience and freedom thatprepaid cards afford. The cards provide a safe and securealternative to cash and, additionally, they should also helppupils learn how to monitor and manage their moneybetter as they can track their balances in real time.

Wellington goes cashless


Taking the PYP ForwardThe future of the IB Primary

Years Programme

Edited by Simon Davidson & Steven Carber

with an afterword by Dennison J MacKinnon

The International Baccalaureate Primary Years

Programme stands in a proud tradition of

reflective educators incorporating best practice

into international schools.For the PYP to

maintain relevance in education today, inquiry

has to be rethought, refreshed and reapplied.

Taking the PYP Forward does exactly that.

Raising many questions and recognising the new

challenges facing educators, this collaborative

work brings together voices from both within

and outside of the PYP. Intending to broaden

our view of inquiry and circulate fresh thinking

about the relevance of the PYP for all areas of

learning, this is an essential contribution.

Price: £14.95 per copy + £3 p&p

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character and sense of place within the courtyard. Thebuilding also features a range of sustainable materialsand uses renewable energy technologies. Thesustainability agenda has been a key determinant of thedesign. The highly insulated building has exposedconcrete surfaces internally to provide cooling in thesummer, has hot water produced by solar panels, and islargely ventilated by natural means.

Melvyn Roffe, Principal of Wymondham College andcurrent Chairman of the Boarding Schools’ Association,commented: “The College secured funding of £9.844million from the DfES under the Government’s‘Successful and Popular Schools’ Programme, of whichthe £6.75 million for the Boarding Block represented thelion's share. The balance was allocated to various worksacross campus and to an 11 classroom expansion project.

“We are delighted with the outstanding quality of thedesign of the new boarding facilities and of thelandscaping which deserve the recognition of theseawards. The facilities will raise the profile of our 16+provision and hopefully attract even greater studentnumbers applying to our Sixth Form.”

Wymondham College sixth form boarding facilities wonthree South Norfolk Council's Design Awards last year for‘Design Excellence’, the ‘New Building’ and for‘Landscape’. Judges were so ‘stunned’ by the quality of thenew centre that they created the new, special Award for‘Design Excellence’.

The design of the new sixth form boarding facilitiesat Wymondham College, the UK’s largest stateboarding school, has been acclaimed in the

architectural community. As well as winning designawards from the local council, the £6.75m scheme,designed by LSI Architects, was chosen as a finalist in the2009 Creative East Awards for ‘Best Architecture projectin the UK by Architects of the Eastern region’ (fromMarch 2007 to December 2008).

The scheme is a ‘wishbone’ style extension to an existingboarding block, with 115 en suite single study bedroomsand support accommodation, library, IT rooms,communal activity spaces and an expansion of theexisting dining facilities. The new building links to theexisting Lincoln Hall building to provide a single base forall Year 12 and Year 13 pupils.

The main concept behind the design for the newcomplex was to provide all residents with a view outwardsover the Norfolk countryside, from rooms organised inthree and four-storey wings arranged around a large,landscaped courtyard. The wings meet in a dramaticwestward pointing ‘prow', which is clearly visible on entryinto the campus. This prominent end to the building isfacetted and glazed giving it a strong three-dimensionalquality and is the point at which the three storey southernwing meets the four-storey northern wing.

There are clear visual links between the design of thebuilding and its landscape setting, which create a strong

Wymondham’s new sixth formwins awards

All images ©: LSI Architects LLP

Left: View of courtyard towards Lincoln HallBelow: Exterior view at south wing


Gresham School Hymn Books

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We can also provide high quality,hand-crafted music folders for yourschool – perfect for professionalpresentation at your school concerts.

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Something toSing About!

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CReSTeDCouncil for the Registration of Schools Teaching Dyslexic Pupils

Does your school have excellent provision for

dyslexic/SpLD pupils?

Then you should be listed in the CReSTeD Register of schools.

The Register is free of charge and is distributed annually to parents,schools, LAs, educational psychologists and others. Up to date

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act onThe journal of research

in prep school education

Action - The IAPS Journal, is a new pub-lication, brought together by a board ofdedicated, highly qualified professionals

working in a small area of educationthat is a gem: The Great British Prep

School. Action has been devised to cele-brate the diversity in teaching in prep

schools, to underpin practice withreports and studies, and reviews. Withthe hope that things that don't work

will be given as much air time as thosethat do; we can always learn more.

Price: £8.50 per copy + £3 p&p

Order from John Catt Educational Ltd12 Deben Mill Business Centre,

Old Maltings Approach, Melton, Woodbridge IP12 1BLTelephone: +44 (0) 1394 389850

Email: [email protected]



isn’t it time your school shop went online?

At good schools around the UK,the school shop is changing!

Does your existing shop:

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Constantly reduce retail prices – without being asked?

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Stay in stock throughout the year?

Offer a design service, tailoring your garments to your school?

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If your answer is NO to any of these questions you should be talking to us!

our partner schools include...

School uniform shop stuck in the past?

Telephone 01832 280011

[email protected]

www.schoolblazer.com isn’t it time your school shop went online?

AiglonAlleyn’sAshford

Bancroft’sThe Beacon

BerkhamstedBlackheath High

CastertonChrist College, Brecon

Dame Alice HarpurDunottarDurham

FarlingtonThe Grange

HaileyburyHeath Mount

Kent College, PemburyKimbolton

King’s BrutonLaxton

Norwich

OundlePeterborough High Portsmouth HighQueen Margaret’s

RendcombRoyal Russell

Ryde

SeafordShiplake

TruroWindermere St Anne’s

Wisbech GrammarWykeham House


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