RGS - Royal Grammar School Newcastle-Upon-Tyne

There can be no right time to write this latest blog. I cannot let last Saturday's RGS Day pass without immediate comment, but there is still so much happening this week before we finish term on Thursday! As I write this we still have Nicholas Nickleby Part 1 to enjoy for the next three nights; Senior School Sports Day and Junior School Prize-Giving on Wednesday; and I'm off tomorrow (Tuesday) to spend a day at the annual RGS Cricket Festival, a splendid tradition in which six of the country's seven Royal Grammar Schools get together for four days' cricket, this year hosted by RGS Colchester.

So I'll have to make this just Part 1 of a blog that will grow and continue later in the week. RGS Day 2010, the first of its kind, was very special, and I can't leave it till Thursday to write about it. A miracle of coordination, good planning, collective hard work and (above all) intense goodwill enabled us to bring together the elements of prize-giving, sense of community, celebration of excellence and commemoration of the Collingwood Bicentenary into a day that really was characterised by righteous (not excessive) pride and joy in a school that we all love and esteem.

Members of the Senior School reacted very positively to the new (to us) concept of having one major summer event for awarding prizes. We felt it was important to do so in the iconic setting of the school's 1906 Main Hall, so we had to hold four ceremonies: that seemed to work, and we avoided any sense of an assembly line by punctuating the ceremonies with splendid refreshments in the marquee, and having the orchestra playing in the hall before each event and more informal jazz groups entertaining those eating and drinking. The ice-cream van was a popular addition.

Once a year the Headmaster needs to make a 'state-of-the-nation' address: I may be fond of the sound of my own voice, but even I wasn't going to say it four times, once at each prize-giving. I was therefore flattered that so many turned up to hear me speak before the Upper Sixth had their event!

This first year we started slightly cautiously and didn't have a host of other events going on: nonetheless the Junior School was swimming, playing hockey and football and holding one of its 'Friday Cafes', while Senior School events included an open play rehearsal, a debating competition, physics lecture/demonstrations and an exhibition of Design and Technology projects, so it wasn't a bad variety. After the success of this year, and the level of interest in all those concomitant activities, it's clear that we can afford to be bolder and offer still more next year.

As for the afternoon, it was an honour to be able to make our contribution to the Collingwood 2010 festival. That is described elsewhere on the website (see News items and photographs), so I don't need to repeat it here, except to say that it was a privilege to be involved to some extent in watching such a talented body of actors aged 14-17 bring to life a new play script drafted by our own Chris Goulding under the inspired direction of Trevor Walters. How they transformed piles of crates and barrels into convincing naval ships, created stunning sea-battles and still generated the pathos and sympathy we needed for such an important, humane and, in a sense, under-appreciated naval hero was quite marvellous to behold, and yet another testament not only to our students' talents but also to the way they use them both generously and with focus. They worked hard and very efficiently to get that show together: we really do hope we can take it out of school, perhaps in the early autumn, and allow a wider audience to see what was a great piece of drama.

For that, and for all the success of RGS Day, my sincere thanks to all who contributed.

And typically - typically of the RGS, that is - life didn't slow down for a moment after RGS Day and our Collingwood commemorations. A huge cast of Year 8 and 9 students have been performing Part 1 of that epic RSC adaptation of Charles Dickens's Nicholas Nickleby in the Studio Theatre on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday evenings. I think it got a little out of hand (!), and can't do better than to quote Mr Walters's brief programme note:

"It was always supposed to be a quick piece for a small ensemble to give students the opportunity for a bit of performance experience on the school stage before the end of the year. It was imagined as an informal, poor theatre setting, with few props and minimal costume: a true Lehrstuck in a Brechtian sense. Mindful of the fact that we were also producing Collingwood at the same time using the same set with older students, it was supposed to be a light, deft piece of work with minimal demands on all concerned.

"And then, forty people turned up to auditions and we didn't want to turn any of them down. So the rest, as they say, is history..."

It's a big play, even this first part, running to more than two-and-a-half hours. The cast had to bring to life both Dickens's picture of 19^th-Century inhumanity and hypocrisy and his rich but demanding language, which the adaptation exploits to the full. So it wasn't a "light piece of work", but deft it certainly was - another triumph and great credit to all involved. Sheer quality just shone through.

On Tuesday I caught an early train to London so as to reach Colchester late morning, in order to visit - only a flying visit, alas - the annual RGS Cricket Festival, hosted this year by Colchester RGS. The sun was hot, the pitches beautiful (if looking brown and a little short of water in the South-East) and the sportsmanship and commitment to the great summer game total. As I left, our lads were just starting to defend a fine score of 298 against the host school: unsurprisingly, they were successful. Another day to feel proud of our students.

Wednesday was another red-letter day for both the Senior and the Junior Schools. The former set off en masse to Monkton Stadium, Jarrow, for a new approach to Sports Day, with the whole school present to enjoy the event and to support our athletes and their Houses. It was a tremendous day. Competition was keen, and several school records tumbled: but there was enormous participation, too, real sport for all. Some 380 members of the school competed in an event, a fantastic total. Sadly we ran out of time for the relay races at the end, partly because there had been such powerful competition in some field events: now we know how the day can run we'll amend the schedule for next year. For we'll surely be back to Monkton Stadium, a lovely setting and a fitting one for the quality and commitment of our athletes.

A full breakdown of results for Sports Day can be found at:

http://andpul.freeownhost.com/sportsday/2010

And in the evening the Junior School closed its year, as usual, with its formal Prizegiving in the Main Hall. As always it was a happy, intensely warm occasion that emphasised the spirit of community that makes the Junior School such a wonderful place and the children so high-achieving. I always feel it a privilege to be involved with it.

Finally, I must say here the farewells to departing teachers that I couldn't fit into my end-of-term letter. In the sports department, we are saying goodbye to both Miss Charlotte O'Brien, who is moving back to her native Yorkshire, and to Miss Natalie Elliott, who has been coaching part-time and with great effect this year. Mrs Catherine Stewart, who has been teaching psychology part-time for some years, is leaving to concentrate on research: her teaching-load will be taken on by Mrs Ann Robinson, who will go full-time. And the Junior School says goodbye to Miss Sian Watkins who is moving to the Geneva English School. We thank all four for their great contributions to the RGS and wish them every success in the future.

It was good at RGS Day to hear the Upper Sixth, through Head Boy Drew Harding, pay tribute to Mr Howard Baker who, this summer, steps down from his role as Head of Sixth Form. He has filled it with distinction for many years, but fortunately the RGS does not yet have to contemplate life without HHHB. He will continue to teach philosophy and PDS, and will take charge of our learning support, an important function which needs his brand of humanity and also his enormous experience and sheer clout. Mr Tom Keenan now moves from Head of Maths to be Head of Sixth Form, and Mr John Smith becomes Head of Maths.

To fill these various we shall welcome in September the following new teachers:

• Miss Susan Davidson Sports
• Mr Doug Jardine Maths
• Miss Peta Stead Sports
• Miss Alison Whitney Junior School

 

And now it is time to draw to a close, and for us all to pull the shutters down for a while, and perhaps have a bit of a rest. I do hope that all the members of the RGS family manage some time for R&R, and that the weather is kind to us too!

Bernard Trafford

Headmaster

Well, we are into the middle of June (though still waiting for real summer weather), close to the longest day and already in danger of counting down to the end of term. For teachers that often means listing, with some dismay, the sheer number of things that we need to get sorted out for next year before this term ends. Such is the cyclical nature of the school year.

But that doesn't mean there isn't a lot of good stuff to come. Right now I'm busy working on the fine detail of RGS Day on Saturday 3^rd July. Don't worry! This isn't another publicity puff for it! But it's exciting now to be in the middle of sorting out prizes to be handed out at the four prizegiving ceremonies during the first part of that day. Within the next week we should be finalising our lists and sending letters out to proud parents. It has given us a good opportunity to overhaul how we award prizes, too. For a start, this will be the first time in living memory that we have had the upper sixth (well, most of them) at a prizegiving, and it will be good to use it as a farewell to them: every member of the upper sixth at that last prizegiving will be given a memento of the school in addition to any prizes they may have won.

We are operating the same system for awarding prizes in all seven years of the senior school. It's pleasing to be able to exercise such consistency.

Academic prizes are awarded following nominations by subject departments. The two top students in the year in each subject normally receive a prize: others may qualify by accumulating nominations. Thus only one prize is awarded, but with recognition given for the subject(s) for which it has been awarded.

Rutherford prizes are a bequest from William Rutherford (RGS 1885-1891) which originally outlined the following terms of reference (in his day he was aware only of male pupils, of course!): "The awards to be made by the Headmaster in consultation with his colleagues and to take into account not only the educational advancement of the pupil but also his conduct towards his masters and fellow students". Rutherford prizes provide an opportunity to recognise and reward personal qualities and positive contributions to the life of both form and school, with an emphasis on good personal relationships and consideration for others.

In Years 7-10, we shall also announce (but only at the ceremony itself) the award of a very few Headmaster's prizes, awarded to students who have made exceptional progress during the year.

I suppose there is something sentimental at the back of the plan for RGS Day. Is it, in cynical 2010, a somewhat soft and fluffy idea to have a day devoted to celebrating what is good about the place? Possibly, but there is always room for a bit of sentiment in what are hard times in a troubled world. But I think, on the contrary, that there is a hard-edged necessity for an occasion of this sort. Unashamedly academic education often feels itself under pressure. Independent schools are frequently attacked. And we constantly battle what seems to be a prevailing anti-cultural, anti-intellectual culture where dumbing down is rife, where genuine intellectualism is seen as a kind of snobbery and young people are encouraged to seek fame and fortune not through dedication, commitment and years of hard work but through three minutes appearance on a glitzy TV talent show.

I'm not convinced things are that bad, in truth, but nonetheless I think we do need to stand up for the RGS, for its centuries-old tradition, for a real commitment both to scholarship and to endeavour in a host of activities outside the classroom. We may pat ourselves on the back to some extent: but I we won't become too self-congratulatory. If we can really stand up for what is (or should be) important in young people's lives, for education and for opportunity in their broadest senses, then we should do so.

It's a duty. After all, it's what the RGS has been doing for nearly five centuries - and it's a sacred duty at that.

 

In my assembly on Monday I was aware it was the last time we would have all the senior part of the school together for some time, and the penultimate occasion on which the Upper Sixth would sit in Main Hall assembly (except, I suppose, when they come back for their prizegiving on Saturday 3rd July). I couldn't resist reading a poem by C. Day Lewis which always seems appropriate on such occasions. Entitled Walking Away, it refers to the poet's taking his young son to school for the first time, and begins:

"It is eighteen years ago, almost to the day."

A colleague gave me the poem on a day when my own elder daughter left school. I found the last verse particularly poignant:

"I have had worse partings, but none that so

Gnaws at my mind still. Perhaps it is roughly

Saying what God alone could perfectly show -

How selfhood begins with a walking away,

And love is proved in the letting go."

In truth, this last week before leave of absence begins for exams is always a slightly edgy one. In general students love their school, and get quite sentimental about leaving it: there have been plenty of farewell dinners and parties, and still one or two more such events to go. But they are also eighteen, ready to go out into the big wide world (as they should be), and not a few are now feeling that they've outgrown school. They're right: they have. But in the meantime there is an inevitable level of horse-trading, give and take, and some instances of kicking over the traces. I hope both students and school keep a sense of proportion and take it all in good part, but there are tense moments. It would be foolish to pretend otherwise.

And then they do walk away, as they must. We teachers get used to it, year after year. We do feel a wrench as they leave us, particularly those with whom we have developed a particular relationship in the classroom or through the myriad extra-curricular activities in which we work together. But they must move on and, when they do so confidently and with a sense of expectation and excitement about university in the adult world, we can pat ourselves on the back and feel a bit of pride in a job well done. We want to see them sturdily independent, striding out with the world at their feet.

But we do this every year, while for parents this is a wrench, and a difficult time. They too, perhaps, are dealing with the odd battle of wills and their children starting to assert their independence. But for parents children never stop being their children, and the letting go can hurt. Walking away, indeed.

This Friday we have an early evening buffet for the Upper Sixth leavers and their parents. It's a very happy occasion, again tinged with sadness and sentiment, but with a lot of pleasure and always (touchingly) grateful parents who find a quiet word to express their gratitude to a particular teacher. Some of those moments are what make the whole job worthwhile.

I say a very few words at the occasion, and this year will mention one thing in particular, the Bursary Campaign. Always among the students present are some who are at the school because they receive bursary support, financial help with fees assessed according to the financial needs of the family. I'll be mentioning the Campaign on Friday, because of one heart-warming initiative.

When students join the school their parents pay a £200 deposit. It is not universally popular, but it covers damage, lost books and the like, and when the student leaves the money is refunded. In the last few years we have asked whether parents, instead of having money back, would like to give it to the Bursary Fund. It's taken a while to catch on, but this year (as I write this) we are currently just 13 deposits short of paying for a whole bursary for a student next year. What a wonderful gift: just a small gesture from each parent gives another enormous life chance to a student next year.

The Bursary Campaign is close to the heart of the school. The RGS was founded for the poor, not the rich, and we hope that it has never forgotten its mission over the centuries. Through the generosity of donors - some are charitable trusts, others very generous individuals - we are able to help 99 students at present: 99 who without financial help would not be able to be at the RGS, enjoying the extraordinary opportunities it offers. How can one therefore be anything but passionately committed to the Bursary Campaign? So on Friday I shall be asking the last few parents if they'd like to make that small but immensely important gesture and donate the deposit. And I hope the Upper Sixth, as they leave and go on to successful lives and careers, will remember in future years just what an important gift one can give by donating to the Bursary Campaign. The Campaign's strapline is

 

Giving the gift of education.

 

!n my view, it's one of the greatest gifts one can give.

 

Walk away - but never forget.

 

Bernard Trafford