Clifton College Website

Sue Palmer, President, Chairman, Governors, Headmaster, Headmistress, Parents, Guests and Friends,

Life continues to be a real struggle for our children in this complex and difficult new World. Take for example, a story emerging from Glasgow only yesterday of Strathclyde Police arresting two youths in what is supposedly the first ever crime of its kind. One boy was caught just about to drink a pint of battery acid and the other was about to eat some fireworks ... the Procurator fiscal has apparently decided to charge one of the boys and let the other one off!!!

It is a difficult World for our children to grow up in with so many decisions to make and so many apparent negative influences. I therefore shouldn’t be surprised - in a world where our children are dominated by technology - that for the second year running this speech is being recorded for broadcasting on Facebook, Youtube and Itunes so that pupils and Old Cliftonians alike can watch and listen ‘on demand.’

If you have read any of Sue Palmer’s outstanding publications you will discover that technology pervades all aspects of our lives these days and we perhaps – sadly – shouldn’t be surprised with this filming. Indeed, perhaps we should just finally accept - once and for all – whether we like it or not - that there is clearly – without a shadow of a doubt - an insatiable demand amongst the Clifton Community and the wider world ... for videos of me.

As we have heard so eloquently from Sue Palmer, ‘Play’ in its widest meaning continues to be at the heart of what is needed in today’s society to restore the balance and produce well-rounded, emotionally literate young girls and boys. Play in its broadest sense, includes the Academics, Music, Drama, Sport, Art and Dance. At Clifton Pre, ALL our pupils have had yet another highly creative, extremely challenging year – the results of which I will summarise in a few moments. Your children have worked hard, they have played hard, they have all helped through their commitment to the school’s ethos to build a community which is as strong as it has ever been; a community where they feel valued, feel a sense of belonging, and crucially, feel a sense of pride.

As Sue Palmer would say: "It's in play that we learn social skills – how to make friends, sort out disputes, get along in a group, agree rules, collaborate and (when necessary) deal with failure. It's also where we acquire a commonsense understanding of the world. These experiences develop resilience; the capacity to bounce back from adversity, to learn from mistakes and build on failure, to develop the self-confidence that grows from solving problems" --- It is no surprise then that we are called The Preparatory School! The pupils of the Pre – your sons and daughters – have been incredibly busy this year in their own respective ways developing themselves and fulfilling their potential – all within a supportive Community!

The Clifton Pre community is a better place for your child and for all that they have contributed this academic year. The Pre Community continues to put the emphasis on the pupil and on personal development and - PLAY – whether it be in high quality academics, music, art, drama, dance or sport – continues to be at the heart of shaping our pupils’ young lives. The Pre community is as vibrant and strong as it has always been and it is this theme of Community that I want to focus on today:

Your Community at the Pre is strong. You will not find a more professional and dedicated teaching staff as the recent ISI Academic Inspection Report highlighted - The pupils are also immensely proud of their school. At the Pre we continue to be in the business of building better human beings that can take on the world’s troubles and make them better. In a Community, as C.S. Lewis points out: “ If we fail to pass along specific standards of right and wrong, of what is worth-while, worthless and admirable, then we must share blame for the consequent failings of character.” Much of this means teaching the pupils to take an interest in others around them and also the outside World - dragging them outside the Clifton ‘bubble.’ The Chief Rabbi – Jonathan Sacks – describes our children as Community Builders and the key to a more stable future – I would certainly agree.

So what does your COMMUNITY look like? In March, through the enormous generosity of a Pre Parent, OC and founder of the Red Shoes Charitable Trust – 63 Year 8 pupils travelled to Kenya for the opportunity of a lifetime. Helping in a local school and working with a women’s group provided our pupils with a large dose of humility. Aside from the opportunity to work with extremely low-income families ... through their fundraising efforts, the Year 8 pupils raised the single largest donation ever for a school in aid of the Prince’s Trust South West ... £13,000 plus ; not only were our pupils helping a community abroad but they were doing their bit to build and support the community they live in – It was a win win situation.

And within the last two weeks, the visit to the Pre of the boys and staff from the rugby playing Bahay Bata Orphanage of Angeles City, The Philippines, brought the real world yet again to our school and to your children. Here were a group of young boys who ostensibly had nothing in their lives and yet they equally appeared to have everything. They were smiley, enthusiastic, full of hope and they had great faith. For us all, it was a great learning curve on how life should be viewed despite what the Gods send our way. Thanks to your donations through the Preamble, Chapel Collections, Home Clothes Days and Skipathons ... you made this trip possible. The Clifton Community at its best, yet again!

This year we were also awarded the International Schools’ Award by the British Council affirming the Pre’s commitment to prepare your children for the outside World and make them broader individuals. We live in a ‘bubble’ at Clifton and by thinking of others it has only ever got to result in one thing alone ... it builds a stronger community .... where everyone is thinking selflessly.

This year we have continued to nurture in your sons and daughters, a sense of self-worth, of curiosity/ imagination/ reflection/self-sufficiency and resilience. Looking back, the pupils have managed to fit in an incredible amount since September: Academic and Music Scholarships; mock exams; Anne Guy Concerts, School and Informal Concerts; Poetry and Prose Readings; trips; author visits; Associated Board Music Exams; Activities; Chapel services; art displays; snowball fights; the Ski Team/ Pompeii trip/South African Hockey Tour/ French and Spanish Trips/ World Book Day - as well as a plethora of opportunities in Football, Hockey, Netball, Swimming and Cross-Country. The list is exhaustive .... and I haven’t even mentioned the Rugby tour to Australia in July!!

Pupils

And so onto the children - for they are the reason we are all here and they have given us all so much pleasure this year. The Pre continues to be an extremely rich environment for your children and the steady stream of prospective parents I have shown around the school are bowled over by how happy and even-keeled the children appear.

I have had had the privilege this year of coming into contact in many spheres with your children and they are without question, polite, courteous, friendly, positive, affable and always a pleasure to be with.

On the Music front.

Witness this year the stunning concerts, including the superb Anne Guy Concert, which featured the top musicians in the school. The Informal concerts which were given by a wide range of age and standard - and the School concert - highlighted the thriving pop scene and classical groups that pervade the Pre - many of them you will see performing in the Hall today from 1.30pm onwards.

86% percent of the pupils are learning a musical instrument in the Pre and in the recent Associated Board Exams we had 52 entrants who achieved outstanding Merit and distinction awards improving on last year; The Choir - once again - also continued to provide outstanding singing for Chapel services and was led by our gifted Praecentor, Mr Pafford .…. David Crabtree and the Music department have much to be proud of!!!

Sport

There have been some tremendous sporting feats this year for both boys and girls.

For the Girls ... Every single girl represented the school in matches in Hockey, Netball and Rounders, regularly putting out 14-16 teams. In the Autumn term, the U.13 girls were unbeaten in all their matches, while the U.11 girls came 2nd out 32 teams in the West IAPS tournament. They went on to the National finals, but these were unfortunately cancelled due to the cold weather at the end of term. There was a hockey tour to South Africa and the U.13 girls sports scholars entered to the Upper School trials all gained awards. The U12s were Severnside Netball tournament champions and Girls’ cricket continued to flourish so overall, it has been a very successful year for our girls’ sport.

For the boys, fourteen cricket teams have represented the school this summer, which is an impressive feature of the school. In hockey, we were County champions at all four age groups (U.11/13 Girls and boys) and in the West finals, all four teams won their groups and progressed to the knockout stages of the competition. The U.11 boys reached the finals, just losing to Dean Close, while the U.13 boys came 3rd overall, missing a spot in the National Finals by one place.

In the Lent term, both 1st and 2nd XI hockey teams had outstanding seasons, losing only two matches between them in what is a very strong and competitive fixture list with Mr. Averis' 6th XI were unbeaten! In football, Mr. Grice's 2nd XI were also unbeaten , and all football teams did well. On a couple of occasions in the Lent term, we were able to field 6 hockey XI's and 4 football XI's - pretty impressive to be able to field 120 out of 140 boys in yr 7 and 8 on a single afternoon. The icing on the cake this year was when on numerous separate occasions in each term when we were able to field every single child in the school in one team or another which is quite an achievement for any school!!! ..... Thank you to Miss Loynton and Mr Turnbull for their tireless efforts for championing Girls and Boys sport at the pre – it is much appreciated!

Drama/Art

There have also been outstanding performances at the highest level by large numbers on the stage of the Redgrave Theatre, including Pinafore Pirates and Joseph – which was magical! Thank you to Mrs Beavis and Mrs Joyce for being so inspirational and inclusive in your approach to the dramatic arts! And for those of you who have the chance to see the Art and DT today, it is quite exceptional! Please do not miss the chance to view it. John Grice, Steve Webb and the teachers within those departments have achieved great things with the pupils, not only the scholars but in developing a love of these subjects for all!!

And on the academic front, the Pre pupils commanded six awards to the Upper School this year and the quality of the teaching and learning at the Pre remains extremely high; I’m grateful to all the teachers for their efforts in demanding excellence throughout. You will no doubt have read the Pre yet again has achieved the highest rating of Outstanding in the recent ISI Academic Inspection and, again, I am grateful to all the staff who were involved in making this possible, especially to Mrs Molesworth for guiding us through the minefield!!

Looking back at all that has happened over the last academic year, the list of activities and events is quite remarkable. We are immensely proud of our pupils for simply being! Being kind, being courteous, being generous, and crucially, being humorous.

Twelves

And since we are talking of children, now would be the appropriate time to ask our President, Mr Nick Tarsh, to present the Twelves with a small token of thanks for all that they have done this year especially in their respective Houses. Twelves are appointed throughout the academic year for displaying the characteristic traits essential to this position:

kindness, consideration, respectfulness and consistent, earnest endeavour. Well done to

Anna Fitzgerald, Ella Browne, Rebecca Lewis, Izzy Watson, Alexandra Ducroizet, Georgia Ellis, Sophia Warner, Seb Stoakely, Hugh Brookes, Matthew Chivers, James Down, Tom Harris, Drew Mitchell, James McDonnell, Sam Matthews, Max Conn, Robert West, Jack Clark, Tom Scrutton and Nikita Komarov.

Alexander Bjoroy

Last commemoration day, we presented the very first Alexander Bjoroy Award to a Year 8 boarder. Two Years ago, the Pre tragically lost one of our own in Alexander Bjoroy... he was a young man who was everything you could wish for in a boarding pupil at Clifton College. He was loving, caring, hard working and he personified the best of his generation. Alexander was fit, bright, dedicated and incredibly courageous and by this definition it is fair to say that he would have almost certainly been an academic scholar and a twelve at the Pre.

The Alexander Bjoroy Award is presented to a boarder who is nominated by the staff of the Pre School. It is an award that recognises the characteristic traits that Alexander exemplified in his time at the school. At the Pre, we want children to grow up feeling valued whilst also valuing the feelings of others.

We welcome people of all sorts of backgrounds and ways of life and nurture them into rounded, high-achieving human beings.

Alexander was all of these things - and more ..... and the recipient of this year’s Alexander Bjoroy Memorial Award is: Jack Clark.

I would now like to say a few ‘thank yous’ to various individuals and groups of people.

Staff

There are a number of staff members who I would like to recognise for their contributions to the Pre and who are moving on to pastures new.

One of our most dedicated teachers – Mr Turnbull - is leaving this Academic year. Ian has been teaching full-time at the Pre for 20 years – with a brief stint at Dean Close - and he has been outstanding throughout. Ian’s passion for and inspiration of the pupils has been obvious for all to see both in the classroom and, particularly on the Sports field. Countless teams have reached the National Finals in their respective sports but, more importantly, the pupils who have been fortunate to have had Ian as their coach have found him to be passionate, caring and nurturing. I hope that we will still benefit from Mr Turnbull’s experience on the sidelines in the coming years but in the meantime, we wish him all the very best! Under his watch, Games at the Pre has reached incredibly high standards and he will be sorely missed and I want to ask him to come forward to receive a token of thanks for his dedication and loyalty to the Pre through the Years.

Teachers

Mrs Elspeth Miller retires from Coach House having worked tirelessly in both the Pre and Upper School for 10 years. Elspeth is one of those teachers who relates so well to her charges and through her nurturing and caring approach has had a profound impact on all of the pupils who have needed that extra bit of support.

Mrs Brignall moves on to pastures new to be close to her husband and we wish her all the very best. It is always sad to lose a teacher who has effectively served their apprenticeship at the Pre and whose teaching has been moulded in those early formative years by experienced Pre staff. We wish Mrs Brignall the very best as she takes up her new post at Chesham Prep and hope that she enjoys her expat posting to Milton Keynes!

Mr Hughes-Games departs the Pre after a year to take up the Head of Science post at the Downs School and I’m sure we haven’t seen the last of him. We wish him all the very best in the near future and the door will always be open should he decide that having weekends off is too much of a burden.

Mr Salt and Madam Vigie are also moving from the EFL and MFL departments, respectively, and onto new opportunities. Although both part-time, they have thrown themselves into the life of the Pre with gusto and they will be missed without a doubt.

Please could I ask Mrs Miller/ Mrs Vigie/ Mrs Brignall/ Mr Hughes –Games and Mr Salt to come forward to receive a token of my gratitude.

There are a number of outstanding replacements lined up for all of these teachers and I will be in touch shortly through Preview to update you. We continue to attract hugely talented and experienced teachers who I have every confidence will further strengthen the provision for your children in the coming years.

In the Houses there is one change with Mrs Millar retiring after a 24 year working association with the Pre. Mrs Millar has always been extremely involved in school life at the Pre alongside her husband – Colin – who was formerly the Deputy Head but it has been in her role as a Poole’s House matron where we will always remember her. Sewing club was a staple of Mondays in Poole’s House and the girls will never forget her loving and caring approach towards them. I would like to ask Mrs Millar to come forward to receive a small token of my appreciation of her efforts and commitment!

Parents

And so onto the Parents ... For many of the Year 8 parents, these final few weeks of the Summer term represents a watershed in the journey through Clifton College from Butcombe – through the Pre – and into the Upper School.

I want to thank all of the Year 8 parents for all the tremendous encouragement and support you have given to your children across their time at the Pre as well as for trusting the school with them through thick and thin.

But there has still been the odd burst of aggression and howlers from some of you along the way, many of which it seems has been caused by technology faux paz, I’m sure! What is with all the email and texting anger?

• I received what was obviously a hastily written email on an Iphone in the early hours one Sunday morning with the opening gambit, Dear Hamster and one with the even more sinister, Dead Headhamster! ... it gets worse!
• And another Iphone predictive texting blooper with the message ... James is under the doctor’s care and should not take PE today .................... Please execute Him!!
• “Dear Mr Milne, Robert has swallowed a 50 pence piece. I am keeping him in bed but will be calling in the doctor if there is no change by Monday!!
• Sarah was absent December 11th – 16th, because she had a fever, sore throat, headache and upset stomach. Her sister was also sick, had a fever and a sore throat, her brother had a low grade fever and ached all over. I wasn’t the best either, sore throat and fever. There must be something going around, her father even got hot last night!!
• And my favourite from a new Year 7 mum. “If you promise not to believe everything my child says happens at home, I’ll promise not to believe everything he says happens at school!

...It’s a deal!

But I really shouldn’t be so hard on our parents, to be honest. Rather impressively, one of our parent cyclists was so taken by the journey to Paris last year in which we raised £45,000 pounds for charity that he is reportedly working on his first book. Early signs are that he should be finished reading it quite soon!!

Without doubt, you have been the most supportive and dedicated bunch of parents I have come across in my time as a Headmaster ... never pushy just always wanting the best for your child .... there, I said it!

This past year alone there has been – A hockey tour to South Africa, a Ski Trip, Trips to Spain, Rome and Pompeii, Kenya and to the IAPS ski Championships in Italy. Matches, concerts, plays, Chapel, exhibitions, recitals, Parents Evenings, the Headmaster’s Ceilidh, hosting the visiting Filipino rugby team and fund-raising – all of which couldn’t have happened without the Pre parents. I thank you for your support, and most of all, I thank you for trusting the system.

And so to the future

If Commemoration is a time for gratitude for past and present, then it is also a time for reflection about where we are and where we ought to be. So what are we doing as a school to help your children? ....

As the College enters its 150th anniversary next year, it has survived, World Wars, Economic crisis, famine, drought and several labour Governments. It is therefore a sign of its strength and commitment to the ideal of a strong Community that we will be embarking on a programme of strengthening the pastoral provision for your children across a number of areas. In addition to continuously upgrading and refurbishing our present pastoral and academic facilities to ensure that we stride ahead in a time of recession and not simply ‘tread water,’ we have finally this week been given planning permission to develop the corner plot on 1 The Avenue which will ensure that we have two new Upper pre Day houses – a New Hankey’s and a New Girls house - for the start of the academic year, 2012/13. This will not only allow the Pre to give the boys of Hankey’s a physical structure they can be proud of but in the building of a Girls house next door, we will be able to re-structure the Girls Houses over time to reflect the Lower pre/Upper Pre structure that the boys’ Houses currently enjoy. I am extremely grateful to the Governing body of the College – The Council – for supporting this £3 million pound project; there can be no stronger message of support for your children’s welfare than to be investing in their happiness, safety and security – building Community!! All of these improvements will ensure that our pupils’ all-round care and education remains paramount and provides them with the ideal environment in which to flourish and to be nurtured, inside and outside of the classroom. The plans for the new Day Houses are displayed in the Main Pre Hall for you to view and I’m sure you will agree that it is an impressive plan.

So my message to the pupils in the Pre is, take advantage of the wonderful opportunity you have at this school to ask of yourself, ‘what can I do to make this Clifton Community a better place?’ Your parents are working unbelievably hard to give you what is an enviable opportunity to change your life. Seize every opportunity that you are given to challenge yourself, to be creative, to help others and make a difference; this is what really matters in life ... this is what builds a better you and a better, stronger CLIFTON Community!

Being a parent has always been hard work. Looking after children is physically and emotionally draining and the stakes are high. Education is more than just about academic learning and exams and I personally continue to feel it is my duty to lead from the front and guide and mentor your children through some of the biggest decisions of their life so that they may build stronger communities wherever they are. Take for example a recent discussion I had with a girl in Year 8 who is desperate to go into business one day! ..... I take my responsibility to these children very seriously – She asked me last week, what is a moral compass? Imagine I own my own business, I said. Suppose a man walks into my shop and orders fifty pounds of goods. I wrap it up to give it to him - he pays me with a fifty pound note. As he goes out the door I realise he has given me two fifty pound notes by accident -

Now, here’s where the ethics comes in and one develops a Moral compass – should I tell Mrs Milne or not?

Thank you for listening.

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