The Headmaster's Blog

As I stated in my last blog post I have now been Headmaster of the High School for five years. As this 5th anniversary came around and in part prompted by the visit of someone who is about to become a Headmaster for the first time I decided to reflect on the time. As I wrote in my last post there have been many highlights but for the purpose of this post I have decided to pick out five. This has not been an easy exercise as there have been many.
So here is my top 5 not in any particular order:
1. Building of new Sixth form centre – This stunning building makes the list not so much because of how well it was designed nor how good it still looks a few years on but for the way that it has helped to transform the sixth form experience of the High School. At the same time as we were building it we considered what the ethos for our sixth form should be and we set out to engage with the sixth form in developing this ethos. This has meant significant changes in terms of the introduction of specific sixth form assemblies weekly, the introduction of the Friday Forum but at the heart of it has been the desire to establish a really vibrant atmosphere at the heart of the Sixth form experience so that the students feel valued and are fully engaged with the School in achieving their goals. Thus, a new building has helped to establish a new vision for the Sixth form which is continually developing and it has been exciting to be a part of this.
2. Administering the bursary scheme – One of my primary duties each year as Headmaster is to conduct our entrance exam procedures and one of the key parts of this is to allocate the bursaries which we have available each year. During the recession years there has been record demand for these bursaries and we go to a great deal of trouble to ensure that we reach an accurate assessment of need. It is very important to the School that we retain a good mix of pupils of all backgrounds and as we complete the bursary awards each year I am left feeling that this is such an important part of what makes the High School as it is. Of course, raising funds to allow this bursary scheme to flourish in the years ahead will be a key focus of our 500th anniversary year from September 2012-13. In an ideal world we would never have to turn down a boy on financial grounds but this will only be possible if we are able to raise substantial funds in the coming years.
3. Links with Old Boys – Given that when I took over I knew that we would be celebrating the School’s 500th birthday a key focus has been reaching out to the old boy community. Over the past few years we have reconnected with so many different people and I have thoroughly enjoyed meeting with them and discussing their school days with them. Above all else, this has left me with such a strong sense of just how important the School has been to their lives, not just when they were at school but in the years since. I have been privileged to meet so many interesting people and when someone visits the School again after perhaps not being back for a very long time it is great to see that whilst they recognise the traditions of the School are still being carefully stewarded they are always so impressed by all that has been done to modernise the School both in terms of its buildings but also in terms of its ethos. Pride in their old school is thus increased and this has been fantastic to be part of.
4. Exam results – One of the challenges of becoming Headmaster of a successful school is that you are so aware of the need to maintain the high standards that have always been a feature of the School. Thus, the fact that the last four years have seen the School’s best ever A Level results has been a source of great pride. All the more so in that this is such a tribute to both the staff and the students in the School who have worked so hard to achieve these impressive results. Prior to 2008 no year group had achieved more than 80% of their A Level passes at A*-B grade, yet over the past four years students have broken through this barrier each year and last year the figure at this level was 87%. A massive collective effort but one which all who work and study at the School can be proud of.
5. Thank yous – Finally a more personal observation. In my office I am required by the Independent Schools Inspectorate to keep a file containing any formal complaints made. Thankfully this is a very thin file with only a handful of issues which have arisen over the five year period. When I visited an experienced head before taking over the role as Headmaster he suggested that I kept a further file, one of all the thank you letters and all the nice things that people say about the School. This now sits on my shelf alongside the complaints file (interestingly ISI don’t require schools to keep such a file!). Unlike the complaints one this one is a bulging lever-arch file full of lovely letters from people about things that they have taken the trouble to praise over the years. It has been a great privilege to receive so many nice letters about so many different aspects of our provision as a school and looking back through it recently it reminded me of so many happy memories of great events, productions, concerts and so much more. Knowing that so many people are happy with what we are doing is so important and the fact that this feeling is backed up by the many parental surveys we do makes it all the more special. So I would like to end this post by thanking all those who have brightened any one of the days in the past five years by saying thank you!

On 17th April 2012 I will have been Headmaster of the High School for five years. I cannot believe how quickly this time has flown and I am delighted to say that I am still enjoying the role every bit as much as I did back then. I remember the days running up to taking over very vividly, the sense of excitement and trepidation, the natural nerves over the first staff meeting, the first assembly etc, the feeling of not really fully knowing what to expect.
Five years on I have learnt a great deal! I thought I would use this post and perhaps a subsequent one to reflect on what I have learnt. One of the first things I noticed when I became Head was how other people react differently to you. Although I remained in the School where I had been a deputy head, there is a distinct difference in the way that people view you as Head. The title, the doors that people have to go through to reach you place barriers in the way despite my avowed intention to be approachable. Thus, I have had to find other ways to achieve this. Chief amongst these have been such things as this blog and my use of Twitter. I have found that such methods allow me to show that I am a real person and not just a title, that I have a life outside of the School and that I welcome contact of all sorts from different people. I have been thrilled by the way that blogging and tweeting has caught on at school and by the overall improvement in our communications that this has brought.
Of course, there is much more to being approachable than using these methods. I also want to be approachable to boys and whilst weekly visits to the games field have helped with this, I have also started having lunch with groups of sixth formers on a weekly basis. I have really enjoyed this opportunity to chat informally and have learnt a great deal in the process. This is now one of the favourite parts of my week. Of course, on the other days, I have lunch with the staff and again these informal opportunities to chat have proved very useful.
Another feature of the past five years that I could not have foreseen is how much I have gained from working together with other Heads as part of HMC (made up of the Heads of the leading independent schools). I now chair their communications sub-committee, one of four main committees that do much to promote the work of independent schools in this country. The opportunity to share ideas, concerns and good practice with other Heads around the country and to benefit from shared experiences and interests has been hugely beneficial. Yes, it means time out of school but I have no doubt at all as to the benefits this has brought to me both personally as a leader but also to my school.
Another feature of this role of Head which is hard to prepare for is the fact that in the end you always have to make a decision. Whilst there have been times when reflection on a decision is useful, it is evident that you do really have to have an answer to every question you are asked and are expected to give a prompt answer no matter what the topic is. Not rushing in to answer has been useful, so too has been access to expert advice from the various professional firms that the School uses but in the end one just has to rely on good common sense the majority of the time!
I have loved every moment of the past five years. Even the difficult decisions provide a sense of challenge and fulfilment once the dust has settled. I love the variety that every day brings, I have enjoyed bringing in a number of new initiatives which are now working very successfully to enhance the education of boys at the School and I enjoy the challenge of planning for the future. In an ideal world I would receive fewer emails; I would be able to get out of the office a little more. I could not do the role without the support of an excellent management team, dedicated staff both on the teaching and support staff, and above all without a very loving and understanding family. Five years though have flashed by with many, many highlights and I will reflect on some of these highlights in my next blog post.

Every time I watch my team Arsenal on the television I get hugely frustrated by the number of corners and free kicks which routinely get wasted. Most of the corners end up on the heads of opposition players and many free kicks end up in the stands behind the goal. I can often be heard to exclaim ‘What do they do in training all week?”.
This got me thinking about all of the training courses I have been on in my career and just how much of what I have learnt have I managed to put in practice. It is, of course, hard to remember it all and perhaps this is the point, it is only those things which have been truly inspirational that you tend to remember.
Thus, for me the most inspirational training I have had has been as follows:
1. A course on managing people effectively – this was run by Cranfield Business School and I attended in the term before I became Head five years ago. There was much about this which was inspirational but above all the mantra was that if you were to be an effective manager of people you had to look after yourself first. They persuaded us all to commit to doing this, my commitment was to exercise more and since I attended that course I have gone run almost every weekend in order to deliver on that commitment. That is powerful, long lasting training. If only Arsenal could get every corner to land at the feet of one of their own players!
2. Marketing training – Before I became Headmaster I was responsible for marketing in the school. As part of this I undertook a marketing diploma course run by AMDIS who provide training for school’s marketing people. I learnt so much here – key though was the focus on making sure that you deliver what you promise to deliver. Schools rely so much on word of mouth recommendation from current parents so having a glossy prospectus is never enough, you have to give people examples to talk about, you have to walk the talk. Each time I write a speech as a Head, and there are always many to write, I think about what are the key messages I want to communicate and how do these fit in with our aims as a school. Embedding good marketing practices into the heart of my work as a Head has always proved useful but having integrity and believing in what you are trying to communicate is just so very important.
3. Football training – In my previous school I used to run the football training. Much of what I have learnt about working in schools and managing people was developed through working with boys in this field. The combination of sheer hard work and inspiration it involved to produce good teams also lies at the heart of school leadership. The pleasure gained in a victory against the odds reflects the pride that as a Head I feel in so many of the school’s achievements. All organisations depend on the wider team and this was true both of my football team in the past and now again in terms of running a school.
4. Blogging and Twitter training – This was much more recent. I expressed an interest in getting involved in both twitter and blog writing to our Head of IT, Kerry Turner, and our Head of Languages, Jose Picardo. They kindly gave up some time to get me going and to set me up with the necessary platforms. This too was inspirational and the fact that I am still going with this shows the long-lasting impact it made. As with all good training it has made a lasting impact.
Thus, I pose the question to all those who read this as to what training has truly inspired you? Why has it had lasting impact? If you are someone involved in training how can you ensure that this impact is lasting? It is perhaps something all who work in schools should ask about every lesson, after all our major role is to inspire the young who we teach.

One of the greatest challenges for any Head is that of remaining in touch with the pupils in the School. This I would contend has little to do with the character of the individual head but is all to do with the title of being Head of a school. Inevitably because of the position you hold in the School pupils, staff and parents alike form their own perceptions of what you are like which are all to do with the position rather than with your own character.
Part of this is because inevitably there are barriers between you and the people concerned. Some of these are physical barriers, our pupils have to pass through reception, past the doors of my two deputies and then through two doors past my P.A. in order to reach me! Other barriers are designed to protect the head, thus the need for appointments to be made via a P.A. This is not because I am keen to keep out of sight but because I have an incredibly full diary and this needs managing to ensure that I am available to anyone wanting to see me.
There are a number of ways I have tried to make myself more accessible and more approachable. I very much enjoy seeing boys with their distinction appointments. The only down side of this is that because I am doing this during many lunch breaks I am not in the dining hall to chat either to boys or to colleagues. This must come across at times that I am keeping out of sight but really these distinction appointments give me a good deal of opportunity to speak direct to boys.
I have also made significant use of both my blog and twitter in an attempt to break down some of the barriers. I use my Twitter not only to talk about school matters but attempt to put across some of the more personal side of my life to show that despite my role I am a human-being. Thus, there are many mentions of family, Arsenal and much else besides. I always very much appreciate it when staff, parents and boys follow me on twitter or read my blog as these are important ways of communicating directly with people and also give them the chance to comment back. All of this communication helps to break down barriers just as conversations on the touch-line each week when watching the rugby also do.
When taking on this role as Headmaster I decided to base myself on parents’ evenings where the refreshments are served. This has certainly helped parents to approach me more easily. No longer do they need to make an appointment to see me on such an evening and it allows for many more informal conversations. If a more private conversation is necessary this too is possible later in the same evening.
This year I have tried something else which is new in an effort to engage more with the pupils in the School. Each Monday lunchtime I have lunch with an invited group of sixth formers. This has been a fantastic move and I have very much enjoyed the chance to chat with boys informally in this way. I would like to believe that they too have enjoyed it and I hope that one of them will blog about the experience on our sixth form blog in the weeks to come. There is no set agenda to our conversations but I have tried to encourage the sixth formers to open up, to chat about anything they want. I have responded in kind by letting them ask any question they like and trying to give them an insight into what I do all day! They have responded to this and topics covered have been wide-ranging covering issues to do with the sixth form and much else besides. I have been hugely impressed by their willingness to engage with the discussion and to present their points both cogently and powerfully. It has been very reassuring that they have been universally positive about their sixth form experience and seem genuinely to have been pleased to be given the opportunity to chat. I feel that I am much better informed about their sixth form experiences but also about things which they find of interest.
I would love to hear from boys, staff and parents alike about any ideas they have as to how my mission to engage with them all can be extended further. I do genuinely aim to be approachable to all and hope that I can continue to break down the barriers provided by my title.

There has been much in the press recently about a national shortage of head teachers. Apparently many posts are going unfilled and there is a significant shortage of people seeking to make the move from deputy head to Head.
In many respects this is understandable. Being a Head is not for everyone just as many teachers do not want to make the move from being a classroom teacher into senior management. Each teacher has to make their own decisions about their own career path.
However, I thought that it would make for an interesting post if I could try to explain what I love about my role. I recently spoke at a Friday forum with our sixth formers and they asked whether I loved having ‘all that power’. This is certainly not what motivates me so what do I find about the job that makes it so rewarding?
Above all else I love the variety of what I do. Each and every day is very different and it is the challenge of dealing with such a wide range of issues which makes the role so very interesting. Much of what I have to do is very positive, whether this be meeting boys with distinctions or having lunch with groups of sixth formers, there is plenty which is positive.
Of course, I do have less positive things to deal with as well but I have always enjoyed problem-solving and the challenges that these present and the ability to resolve a difficulty also make the role interesting. I enjoy the challenge of having to make a decision – there is no one else for me to pass a decision on to and thus in the end I have to come down one way or another. Such decisions will not always be popular but this is not a central part of the job. All I can do is to make a well-informed, rational decision and clearly communicate the reasons for it.
A big part of the role of the Head is communication and this is why I blog, tweet and spend time on developing our communications strategy. I do believe that communication is important for any organisation and being open and approachable is a key part of the role. This is not about me promoting my own self-importance but merely using every opportunity I can to engage with all those in the school community to communicate shared goals and plans. I sense that schools have moved away from wanting heads to promote themselves, modern schools are much more collaborative in their approach to management but I believe firmly that I should be approachable to all and that a central part of leadership and communication is listening.
There are, of course, many challenging parts to the role. For me the biggest challenge is time. The role does take up a huge amount of my time and I am lucky in that I have a very understanding family. However, there is a sense of satisfaction to be had in juggling so much at any one time and one learns to prioritise. It is important that you look after yourself if you are to manage others successfully – key to this for me is my weekly run, some very important time for myself. So too though is the opportunity to switch off – hence the time I spend watching my son’s football team or watching Arsenal is every bit as important as the time I spend behind my computer working on school matters. It is important too to take time off during school holidays which is why it is always so frustrating that organisations like the school inspectors send out requests to update information right at the end of term!
To me the best part of the role is to take a project from idea to completion. There are a number of things that I have worked on in recent years which started out just as a good idea but we are now doing as a School and which have been well-received. There is a great deal of satisfaction in this whole process and this is very rewarding.
Finally but most importantly as a Head you have a fantastic opportunity to work with such an impressive group of people. Whether these be your staff or the students or indeed the parents you are surrounded by impressive minds and people who are seeking to achieve great things. As Head you can merely try to harness this enthusiasm and to encourage it. Schools are vibrant places and the chance to do your best to serve the needs of your students is a special one and one in my view to be enjoyed.
I know that the responsibility is large and that the accountability could be daunting but in the end the chance to work with others to create the best possible opportunities and outcomes for our students is a real privilege and long may I continue to enjoy it!

In a recent article I wrote for Independent Schools’ Magazine I was asked to reflect on something written by Mark – the former BBC India veteran reporter. Tully maintains that “success at school is too often ascribed solely to one’s own efforts, and take little account of gifts given at birth or circumstances of family life…if we exaggerate the role of free will in our lives we become either arrogant, attributing all our achievements to our own efforts and abilities, or depressed, attributing all apparent failures to our weaknesses”.

This was my response:

In my view Mark Tully’s viewpoint is a little simplistic. Both Matthew Syed in his recent book Bounce and Malcolm Gladwell in his book Outliers make reference to the ten thousand hour rule in which they contend to become world-class at anything one has to practise the skills required for 10,000 hours. However, to say that if we attribute such success to our own efforts then we are arrogant is unfair on all those who strive for success and work hard to achieve it. Seeing the fruits of your labours does not make you arrogant. Both of these writers also look at the role of being in the right place at the right time in order to be successful and there is no doubt that luck and circumstance are other important factors.
Schools though play an important part in all this. Schools need to provide the range of opportunities so that each individual student can find those areas in which they can succeed or equally important those areas in which they can find real enjoyment. Yes, students in independent schools are fortunate to have such a range of opportunities but through such activities students learn how to deal with both success and failure and the lessons learnt are very much part of how we develop their characters over the years. Not everyone can be in the First XV or main orchestra but I would contend that those important life skills are taught just as much for those in the 3rd XV, a house team or a training band and so whilst we cannot guarantee success for every student we can ensure that all develop through a variety of different experiences to ensure that they leave us neither arrogant nor depressed. We aim to turn out well-rounded, quietly confident students who are academically strong but also equipped with the life skills to thrive beyond school, you can’t achieve this just by wanting it, nor by being born with these skills but through the care of those who teach them and the range of opportunities on offer we are able to ensure that their inner potential is developed and that they leave us both happy and successful.

The older of my blog readers will recognise this as a song title from Spandau Ballet. During the course of the summer I have the chance to catch up on all those domestic tasks which I should have done earlier in the year but never quite got round to. This often involves me having to ring places like the bank, the garage, the dentist, a shop or two etc. I often find this a frustrating task with it being so difficult at times to talk to someone. My bank is the worst at this, in one recent call I spent nearly twenty minutes being passed from one automatic option to another and at no stage was it possible to speak to another human being.
This got me thinking about communications with schools. I feel that my own school is pretty good at communicating and in our last parental survey we got a very positive rating in this respect. However, I do feel that schools should make this area a priority. Unlike many other organisations we are only open Monday to Friday during office hours so the majority of people trying to contact us are doing so in their work time and thus inevitably they can find it so frustrating if they are unable to get the answer they want.
A couple of years ago I went to a seminar by a marketing expert who was explaining to schools’ marketing people his own experience of independent schools. He gave a powerful exposition of the frustrations he faced in getting in touch with his child’s school. He said that this was the biggest weakness he had found in education. He explained that all schools talk of the importance of the triangle between parents, child and school yet it was almost impossible in his case to contact the School.
I do believe that our school is better than most in this respect. On looking at a number of school websites I could find very few that do as we do and publish all the email addresses of every member of staff so that people can contact us. Many schools just have the one incoming email address and it can take ages to reach the person they want to contact, some make it impossible to contact individual staff altogether. Of course, there need to be protocols. Teachers are often teaching every period during the course of the day and so staff cannot respond to an email by return. I do sometimes have to remind parents of this and suggest to them that they would prefer the teachers to be concentrating on the class in front of them rather than responding to the email sent twenty minutes earlier.
I am sure that social media can play an important part in our communicating as a school. We now have an ever-increasing number of staff using Twitter to communicate. Thus, if a fixture is cancelled now we will be able to tweet news of this out quickly rather than asking every parent to ring the one answerphone message. I hope that in the future we can explore text-messaging as well via our new database. Similarly we have used a Posterious blog to relate what is happening on a school trip. Our Junior School provided video reports on each days’ activities on a residential trip. Photos of activities can be easily sent ‘as live’ by Twitter. The possibilities are endless. Another part of our strategy in this area is to use blogs to communicate more informally and to try to give the thinking behind what we are doing in some areas or to stimulate discussion and debate.
Clearly there are times when we get it wrong. As headmaster I am the natural point of call for anyone wanting to complain when things have gone wrong. At times we just have to apologise and learn the lesson but I try to set an example myself and respond to all my incoming mail within the same working day whenever possible. I am sure that we can improve even further in these respects and will be looking at our customer service in this respect during the course of this year.
In conclusion, I believe that effective communication should lie at the heart of our relationships with parents and welcome any comments on this post particularly if they contain good ideas for the future!

There has recently been comment in the national press about boys’ schools being in crisis and the Good Schools Guide spoke of the ‘near extinction’ of independent boys’ schools. The local picture is very different indeed with Nottingham High School approaching its 500th Anniversary in 2013 and with numbers buoyant for the next academic year. It seems that in Nottingham parents are still extremely keen on the education of boys.
It is true that many former boys’ schools have taken in girls. However, whatever their protestations to the contrary, it is invariably due to economic pressures that this has happened. The huge increase in numbers of schools converting from single-sex to co-education coincided with the last recession and it is an obvious way to go if you are struggling to fill places. You immediately double your potential pool of students. The numbers though at the High School have remained buoyant both through the last recession and in the current economic downturn so there is no imperative here for us to take this route.
However, much more fundamentally, we believe that educating boys separately is best for their educational development. Our curriculum is very much geared to the interests of boys. Boys have different learning styles and we both understand these and cater for them. Boys are not having to play to an audience, they can be themselves. This is particularly important in their teenage years. In any case, with the Girls’ High School next door our students get the best of both worlds. They travel in on the buses together and the sixth forms have access to each other’s common rooms during break times, we do joint musical and dramatic productions so there is no sense in which the boys are missing out on female company.
As a boys’ school we place a huge emphasis on developing all round characters. Thus, whilst the academic side of school life is very important so too is the vast range of activities which boys are involved in. On any one lunchtime we have up to 15 different activities, again all very much geared up to the interests of boys. Sport plays a vital role in school life but so too does drama and music. It is quite normal for boys to be both in the rugby team and the orchestra, to play in the cricket team and to sing in the choir. Boys can choose whichever activities interest them without having to worry about the balance of males/females undertaking the activity.
There are many misconceptions about boys’ schools. One of these is that they are harsh, uncaring places. This could not be further from the truth at Nottingham High School. In our recent inspection report we were widely praised for excellent pastoral care with our tutor system highlighted as a significant strength of the School. Boys respect each other and each other’s differences and achievements. There is a real sense of shared pride in success and, of course, a sense of competition which helps to maintain high standards.
Thus, with no economic imperative to change, with many sound educational reasons to remain as a single-sex boys’ school, and 498 years of history behind us, Nottingham High School is proud of its long tradition as a boys’ school. We understand how boys learn best and how to develop them as caring, confident characters ready to shine in the world at large. With our strong links with the neighbouring girls school they get the best of both worlds and I would contend that whatever they say those boys schools who have taken in girls have only done so to protect their financial position in times of hardship.

A couple of weeks ago I attended my first ever Teachmeet. This is where groups of teachers get together one evening and present short talks of either 2 minutes or 7 minutes about some aspect of good practice which they want to share. At the Nottingham Teachmeet there were over 100 teachers there, including a few from my own school. This was a very inspiring event. What made it so? Firstly, it was its timing, a Friday night. I am sure that most people value their Friday nights at home at the end of a long week. However, all these people had voluntarily come to listen to others speak with a real passion on educational topics and all who were there had open minds. There is no charge for attending a teachmeet, no one is forced to go by their schools so to get so many there on a Friday night was inspiring in itself.
Another inspirational aspect of the evening was that so many were prepared to share their good ideas. This generosity of intellectual capital was fantastic and I picked up many good ideas and was also inspired by the format, short 2 or 7 minute talks encourage people to concentrate on a few big ideas but by providing links via the web you are able to explore in greater depth later.
I was also inspired by meeting so many of those who I follow on Twitter. This network is again very generous with sharing ideas but it was good to meet some of the people I follow and talk about their passions and areas of interest. There is a real danger when you become a head that you stop attending training courses, that you get out of touch with exceptional classroom practice and that you are removed from the craft of teaching. Contact through such means as Twitter and Teachmeets help to give you fresh ideas, help you to refashion your vision for your school and help you to stay fresh.
I have made a conscious decision this year to pursue opportunities such as these. I have been headmaster of the school now for four years so both on a personal and professional level it is a good chance to reflect. I was very fortunate to be given a sabbatical term before I took up my post and that was a superb opportunity to reflect but finding the time to do this is much more difficult now in post.
I have tried to follow this them of ‘learning something new’ in my personal life too. One new hobby I have embarked on this year is geocaching. For this I bought a great iphone App and largely it uses the phones GPS system to guide you to hidden locations where a log and small items of ‘treasure’ can be found. In other words, it uses the world around you for a large game of hide and seek. This has proved to be a great family activity, it gives new purpose to walks old and new and has meant that I have seen the countryside around our house more as well as ensuring that I get out with the family for some healthy exercise.
Another initiative I have been pleased to support is our week of languages which we are to embark on soon. For this staff across all subject disciplines and all parts of the school have been encouraged to sign up to speak to boys in a foreign language during one post-exam week. Again I have been impressed to see colleagues freely giving of their time to brush up on their O Level language skills with this purpose in mind.
‘Learning something new’ has proved to be both very inspiring and refreshing in recent months and I look forward to continuing to find new challenges. I will certainly attend further teachmeets, the positivity of being surrounded by so many passionate practioners is very uplifting. My geocaching too will continue and I have also taken some golf lessons for the first time in ages to help with the work/life balance. Thus, I end this half-term looking forward to new challenges ahead and safe in the knowledge that four years into my headship there are still plenty of things for me to learn, develop and be inspired by.