The Headmaster's Blog

In my final blog post of 2012 I thought I would pick out just five of the many, many highlights of the past year and reflect back on what they meant to me:

Royal Visits: I never thought that when I became Headmaster of the High School back in April 2007 that it would give me the opportunity to meet so many interesting and notable people. Amongst the many highlights over this time I have enjoyed meeting with Sir Garfield Sobers, Ken Clarke, Ed Balls, Des Colman and many more besides. However, by any standards, 2012 has been a particularly special year. Last summer both the Queen and the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge visited Nottingham. We were asked if they could land their helicopter on our fields and, of course, we agreed. Thus it was that I met all three of them in the course of a very memorable morning. I was joined by all the boys and staff from Lovell House and the Junior School as the spirit of the Jubilee very much came to Valley Road. Given that we were not an official part of the visit they were incredibly generous with their time and the photos we took are a special and lasting memory. I was very much struck by their ability to make people feel at ease and the willingness of the Duke and Duchess to engage with the boys. I very much appreciated how honoured we were to see them all in the space of an hour or two and I know that boys and staff alike enjoyed their visit. Then, in September, as part of the School’s 500th anniversary we hosted a visit by the Duke of York, Prince Andrew, at the School itself. Again this was a very memorable day. I was incredibly proud of the effort put in by so many staff and boys to ensure that this visit went well and I know that our royal visitor really enjoyed the time he spent with us. The attention to detail of all involved in this visit was incredible and whilst I had the privilege of leading him around the School it was an incredible team effort by so many people which was my lasting memory of that particular day.

Exam Results: The academic highlight of 2012 was our exceptional A Level results which were the best in the School’s history. I know that people get very cynical of headmasters announcing record results year after year but these were exceptional in every respect and placed us 32nd in the Times League Table and 10th in the Independent League table. As pleasing as anything though was that these results were achieved by a fantastic Year 13 who had done so much to engage with the School in the time they spent with us and who so deserved to be this successful. So many of them secured places at their first-choice universities as well. Whilst each cohort is different these were special results gained by some fantastic lads and working out the percentages of top grades achieved back on that day in August was a very memorable feeling.

Sunday Times Prep School of the Year: In November we heard that our Junior School had been named as the Sunday Times Prep School of the Year. This was a fantastic piece of news. When I became Headmaster back in April 2007 it was clear that the Junior School needed to be modernised and the work that has gone on ever since that point in time culminated in this fantastic award. This is such a highlight as again it is very much a team effort by all the staff and boys concerned who have worked so hard to enhance our Junior School experience in every way possible. Solid foundations of superb SATS results have helped but at the heart of all of this work has been a great set of staff working together with a passion to improve things and they really did deserve to receive this accolade. I could not have been prouder and this was certainly another memorable highlight of 2012.

Old Boys of the High School: Rarely has a week gone past in 2012 where I have not had the opportunity to meet up with old boys both young and old. I have enjoyed so much listening to the tales of how the School was in their time and in return they have been really interested in how things have altered in more recent times. Their ongoing pride in the High School is very evident and they have all been incredibly grateful for the start that the High School gave them in their often very successful careers. That so many Old Boys have been prepared to come back into school to help with careers events, to speak at Friday Forum, to help launch our Nottinghamians alumni group and so much more besides shows that we are successfully embedding the idea of the School as a community for life and I know that with the 500th anniversary celebrations reaching their peak at Founder’s Day next June we will welcome back even more people over the next six months. It has been a real privilege to meet so many interesting people and without exception they have added a great deal to the ongoing life of the School.

Work with HMC: Finally in my list of highlights of the past year has been the work I have done chairing the Communications committee for the Headmasters’ and Headmistresses’ Conference. This takes me out of school for a few days each term but I have so enjoyed working with my fellow heads from across the country and have gained so much from my interactions with them. The major part of my work in this respect in the past year has been to help lead the work on rebranding HMC as the organisation for Leading Independent Schools and providing a new website and communications strategy for the organisation. This was never going to be an easy task as each of the 250+ Heads in the organisation is used to running their own schools and I guess it is not surprising that many of them have strong opinions. Much consultation was undertaken but I was delighted that the new branding, website and strategy has been universally welcomed and that we have managed to freshen the image of this important organisation. Of course, the credit for this lies with the Communication Manager for HMC but it has been great fun playing a part in such a major exercise. There are, of course, many, many other things which I could highlight here and it is always going to be difficult to pick out just a few. Indeed, in many respects, even constructing a list like this tends to undermine the value of so much of the everyday work. At the heart of all that we achieve as a school is the fantastic work done by so many – boys and staff alike and their passion and dedication is a central plank of all of our success. I hope that as we continue our 500th anniversary year into 2013 that there will be plenty to look forward to and that 2013 proves to be every bit as memorable as 2012 clearly was.

I am grateful to William Richardson, General Secretary of HMC, for much of the information in this post.

There is a great deal in the press at present about open access to universities and a recurring feature of this is a suggestion that pupils from independent schools should be discriminated against.  The Headmasters’ and Headmistresses’ Conference (HMC) of which the High School is a part do a great deal of research into university recruitment and in a recent report they have found that far from being discriminated against pupils who attend independent schools have extremely good prospects.  Their main findings were as follows:

• in recent years we have no evidence of any bias by leading universities against our candidates;
• our school leavers do exceptionally well because sixth form attainment is the key determinant of which students get to which university;
• in 2012 a greater proportion of students at HMC schools than ever before secured their place of choice at a leading UK university.

The reason why prospects look so good is that universities are currently struggling to fill all their places.  Overall numbers taking up university places in England fell by 14% compared to 2011 and the government’s decision to allow universities to offer places to all those gaining AAB or better in their A levels meant that such pupils were at a premium.  79200 achieved this level compared with a predicted number of 85,000 which left many universities with excess places on their hands.  Virtually all HMC candidates who secured AAB, along with some who did not, secured good places.  Across the Russell Group of leading universities there were 11,500 unfilled places out of a total annual intake of around 91,000.  Next year the picture will change as the government is opening up places to those who gain ABB so releasing at least 23,000 more students for universities to offer places to and the government will guarantee to fund these places at whichever university they attend.  It is likely then that all candidates achieving at this sort of level for the majority of courses will be fought over by universities eager to attract the funding which they will bring.  Demographic pressures over the next few years also arise from a falling cohort of 18 year olds.   Thus, it is felt that students who gain good grades irrespective of their school background are likely to be offered places.  Oxbridge remains as competitive as ever but elsewhere the Chief Executive of UCAS predicts: “within a couple of years we have moved from candidates chasing places to places chasing candidates.”

Is this picture likely to change?  In a recent report by Alan Milburn on social mobility it described on p. 24, why universities should NOT seek to filter applications based on the school background of candidates because: ‘school type [is a] fairly blunt measure of disadvantage…  The school type indicator does not take full account of the fact that some pupils who attend private schools come from poor backgrounds, while many wealthy people attend state schools.  In my consultations with universities it became apparent that there may be unintended consequences if the Government and universities focus purely on these indicators’.

This is a critical point and hopefully this will influence future public debate on this important area.  Attracting more disadvantaged students to university is a worthy aim but this should be done in the context of greater availability of places and by targeting such students irrespective of their school background.  So much of the press discussion on this topic misses this point.

All in all though,  the picture for independent school students is nowhere near as bad as we are led to believe.  Universities continue to seek to attract the brightest students irrespective of where they go to school and long may this continue.

In an article by Nicola Woodcock in the Times on October 27^th she writes that families are  hiring tutors for children as young as four to start to prepare them for entrance examinations to leading private schools.  I am appalled at that concept!  Last year in the same newspaper’s League Table the High School came 32^nd so I would say that we can certainly be classified as one of the leading private schools.  Whenever I meet a parent who asks whether they should get their son tutored to pass our entrance examination I do all I can to persuade them not to. Why?

The dream of every parent is to find a school which is suitable for their child’s needs.  Thus, it makes no sense to tutor them to pass an entrance exam if all the hands that have helped them to get across the line are withdrawn as soon as the child starts at the School.  When I am selecting boys for the High School I want to find boys who have potential, who will step up to a challenge.  If the response to a challenge is to turn to others to pay them to overcome it for you then this surely is doing our children no good.  It is an important life skill for us all to be able to compete for something and to learn from our mistakes if unsuccessful and to enjoy the fruits of our success when things have gone well.  I want to know that the boys we take into the High School will thrive here on a daily basis.  Much more important than whether they have been prepared to pass a test is do they have curiosity, are they prepared to persevere to work something out, do they read for pleasure, do they have a love of learning? It is also important that they have life-experiences upon which to draw whether this be playing sport, doing drama or learning a language.  It is these experiences where they have encountered both success and difficulty which give them the character to be successful.  It is these characteristics which will last well beyond any entrance examination.

It is also a myth that the competition is as fierce as the press (often London-based) makes out.  In our case we will have on average about 180 boys competing for 120 places.  So, yes there is competition but it is far from the picture painted by the press.  Even in London the true picture is hidden because so many parents apply to a wide range of schools so the true competition is always much lower than it would first appear.  In our case, I aim to take all those who I feel will thrive in our school.  If necessary, therefore, I would take 130 but equally importantly if I feel that we have less than 120 in that position I will take less.  The importance of ensuring that the School is the right environment for each individual student is why we place a huge emphasis on interviewing those who come to the School.  We seek to work out whether we feel that the individual boy will be happy with us and in the end it is not about pass or fail just about whether the School is the right environment for the individual child.

Not every school will be right for every child.  I like going running on a Sunday morning but
go about it in a leisurely way at my own pace.  If I had to run in front of lots of people in a huge stadium it would be hell for me, I would be too slow and ridiculed.  So it is with Schools.  There are schools for all abilities; there are schools with various specialisms.  I want those who come to my school to be able to really enjoy their time with us.  Yes, they will need to work hard but we also want them to enjoy a range of other activities as it is through these activities that things such as teamwork, resilience, communication skills, leadership and tenacity are learnt.

Thus, perhaps some of those paying £57 an hour to tutors in London to prepare their children for exams at the age of 7 should save their money and move to Nottingham where they will find a school as strong academically as many of those they are so desperate to get their children into but one which will select their child because it suits the abilities of their child, who will treat their child as an individual and one which after all is about £5000 a year cheaper to get into! Best of all, your son can spend the time he would otherwise spend with a tutor in playing sport, reading, doing drama and generally broadening his life experiences.

Finally I would love to have the opportunity to debunk any other myths that there are about entry to our independent schools, please use the comment box here to ask your questions and I will endeavour to answer them.

Martin Smith, head of PE atNottinghamHigh School

The media is full of comments and reports about the need for there to be a lasting legacy from the London Olympics so that the success can be repeated in the future. Ministers, including David Cameron, have hinted that schools are not prepared to give children the necessary competitive framework that is vital for preparing the next generation of Olympians.  In my experience though this is far from the truth with competition thriving.

At Nottingham High School where I am head of PE, we have a very strong and competitive fixtures list in a wide variety of sports. Teams play midweek after school as well as at weekends and on some Saturdays we see as many as 18 rugby matches being played.   It shows that there is no lack of willingness from the schools’ point of view.

Importantly, this isn’t restricted to schools in the private sector. As chairman of the Nottingham City Schools’ Athletics Association, I see first hand the number of pupils from schools across Nottingham who compete in City Athletics Championships.   For instance in one year group competition this summer, all 17 city secondary schools fielded a team which was great.

I also see the hard work put in by School Sport Nottingham which organises a very strong competitive structure across many sports in the city. Government funding for the School Games programme has been instrumental in providing pathways into competitive sport for young people across the country.  On a local level the recent Nottinghamshire School Games was a huge success with over 800 pupils participating in a multi sports competition.  This is going to be repeated again for the next school year with both winter and summer games and even more young people competing.   Hopefully initiatives like this will help to inspire more and more youngsters to get involved in competitive sport.

So will there be any legacy from 2012?

In my view, there will be an increase in the number of young people wanting to participate in sport and the schools are ready for the challenge as are local sports clubs who will see a surge in new members.

But legacy is also about facilities. The venues in London are fantastic but what about those more local to the majority of the population? Money is being invested locally but there is still more to be done. The only local major athletics facility at Harvey Hadden is in dire need of additional investment. Young people are inspired by modern and up to date facilities so if we are to retain their interest in sport we need to ensure that public facilities are attractive and fit for purpose.

I really do hope that schools rise to the challenge.  I know that in my school, there will continue to be a number of key aims – encouraging participation and enjoyment, ensuring competition for all whatever their ability and developing a lifelong interest in sport amongst our pupils.   Hopefully such an approach will help in creating a future generation of Olympic Champions.

Martin Smith, August 2012.

And so we reach the end of another school year and like everyone who works in a school I am very much looking forward to the forthcoming holiday.  I hope to use the holiday to rest, to reflect, to read and to spend some important family time.  Let me take each of these things in turn.

To rest… I know that those who do not work in schools feel that teachers have incredibly long holidays and find it hard to believe that teachers can be tired at the end of a term.  I would agree that the luxury of a long summer holiday is in many ways a real privilege.  However, I do also feel that both staff and pupils do get very tired by the end of a term.  Thus, for example, in the last seven school days I had a function to attend each evening and thus got home around 10 o’clock most days. Again people will say that they have to do long hours in their own place of work.  I guess that the difference for teachers is that it is impossible to do any sort of flexi-time, we can only take days off, even occasional ones, in school holidays.  Many teachers in my school routinely give up their weekends to either run activities or sports’ teams and this too has a cumulative effect over the year.  I think that for those in management positions in schools it is only when you stop to rest a little that you realise just how much of your days and evenings are spent thinking about school issues of one sort or another and you need to rest in order to give things a sense of perspective and to allow your mind to recharge.

To reflect…This is so important for all senior leaders in schools.  It is inevitable that the day-to-day demands during term time take up so much of your time that the chance to plan ahead, to reflect on what has gone well and what needs to improve has to take place out of hours.  Again a sense of perspective is given by having time to reflect and to look forward.  During the course of this summer I will be looking back over the past year in order to prepare my speech for Speech Day in September. I will also be looking forward when I write the next version of the School’s Development Plan.  The work for this started some time ago but a summer holiday gives me a chance to reflect on the proposals, to think about how any changes can be brought about and also to reflect on the parental surveys which we are in the process of carrying out as these are always a very useful source of ideas. It is also important to reflect on one’s own personal values, on the School’s values and also on the way that various situations have been handled. I believe firmly that it is important that I am always learning, always prepared to see things through other people’s eyes.  It is also the case though that the emails still keep coming throughout the summer and so the day to day material continues although rather more slowly than usual.

To read…Sadly time does not allow for as much reading during term-time so the summer is a great opportunity to read much more.  Some of this is pure escapism, a chance to read the latest best sellers. Other reading though is of interesting books and articles which I have made a note of during the year for one reason or another.  The first in the pile this year is Luck by Ed Smith, exploring the role that luck plays in our lives. I hope that this might lead on to an interesting assembly but it is also fascinating in its own right, it explores the question to what extent do successful people owe their success to hard work and ability and to what extent do they owe their success to straight forward good luck.  I particularly enjoy my reading over the summer as this really does give me the opportunity to forget all about the here and now and allows me to escape into different worlds and thoughts.  I hope that the boys in the School similarly use this opportunity to read, it is one of the great tragedies of our times that pupils in all schools, and perhaps especially boys, do not read more for pleasure.

To spend time with family…I mentioned in my end of term newsletter that the families of the staff of the School are the unsung heroes of schools.  They are the ones who have to cope with the long hours, the constant emails and phone calls, the intrusions into the evenings and weekends on a weekly basis.  They also provide the emotional support which is so important in ensuring that staff retain a sense of balance and they often have to listen to the woes or joys of any particular day as part of the unwinding process each evening.  It is fantastic to be able to have some time over the summer to give entirely to them, only a small payback if I am being honest but days spent in their company mean so much to me both at the time and also through memories of them when I am really busy at other times.

Thus, in the period running up to the A Level results, I very much look forward to doing all of the things I have outlined here.  I hope that everyone who works in or who attends a school also gets the chance to rest, reflect, read and spend some family time.  Have a great summer.

Earlier this week Michael Gove, the Secretary of State for Education, announced that he was considering the return of O Levels.  I was rung up by the local radio station and gave a quick, impromptu view on this topic but have decided to expand on this in this post. I would stress that these are very much personal views and given that the government has yet to publish its proposals very much a reaction to the headlines in the press.

The current GCSE examination has as its core purpose to be an exam which is suitable for all students at age 16.  Thus, it is inevitable that it is something of a compromise.  I would welcome the return to an exam which is designed to deal more effectively with the assessment of bright students.  However, the key here is that work is done on the subject material to make it interesting and challenging. For far too long the examination boards have dominated what is taught in our schools. Assessment has driven the curriculum. Schools should assist in the development of interesting courses as the prime aim.  These should challenge pupils of all abilities, be suitable preparation for further study and equip them with the life skills required to be successful in the 21^st century.  Once the content and challenge of the courses has been successfully resolved then we can start to look at what is the most effective way of assessing this material.  At present the exam boards have too much influence, they write the exams, they set the content and often they are involved in producing the course books.

Another important factor for the future of all exams must be top quality assessment. There are far too many occasions when schools feel let down by the quality of marking.  Recruiting the best teachers as markers means paying them a professional rate for their time and reducing the overall number of exams would mean the ability to ensure that there is no dilution of the quality of marking in any area.

I also believe that there should not be the opportunity for multiple resits.  I am not against the modular system as such but feel that there should be no more than one resit of each examination.  This would give employers and universities a much greater understanding of the ability of candidates to cope with pressure and to perform.  In life we rarely get the opportunity to have multiple goes at getting something right.  The exception to this is the driving test but here it is a relatively simple set of basic skills which need to be acquired, academic rigour should not be tested in the same way.

The key to all exams is that they are suitable for the ability of the students who sit them.  There must also be genuine compatibility between examination boards and if this is impossible I would support the introduction of a single exam board as long as this was independent of both publishers and government.  Why do we not have a group looking after school examinations in the way that the Bank of England looks after interest rates? Taking the politics out of education and maintaining high standards over the decades would be important steps forward.

I also believe that there is a pressing need to develop vocational courses and exams which have real value to them.  The academic nature of either GCSEs or O Levels is not for everyone but the vocational qualifications have to be as well respected and recognised if those sitting them are not to be let down.  Let employers have an input to decide what skills need to be taught and build the course first, then devise the appropriate assessment system to give it real value in the wider world.  Those following such a vocational path though should also have to do core subjects such as Maths and English to ensure that everyone receives the important grounding in these areas.

Thus, whatever exam system emerges from this initiative it is vital that it is built on interesting and challenging courses suitable for drawing out the potential of all students.  It should not be driven by ease of assessment but by providing experiences in classrooms which are inspirational to all students.  We should ensure that our exam system is monitored independently, we should pay our examiners well and we should ensure that the grading system is understood by all with genuine comparability across the years and across the exam boards if there are to be more than one.  With all students soon having to stay in education to the age of 18 there is a real opportunity for us to think creatively about the preparation that we want them to have before embarking on either A Level or higher vocational courses.  The key focus though should be on the creation of inspirational courses rather than on the method of assessing them.  It would be good to think that in future government targets for schools would not revolve around how many students schools can get over the C grade border but that schools would be judged according to how effectively they have got the best out of each student both in and out of the classroom.  Well-rounded, interesting students with a passion for learning would emerge from genuinely interesting and challenging courses appropriate for their ability.

Last week we said goodbye to Year 13 as they went off for study leave. Prior to them going the School Captain and his two vice-captains gave excellent assemblies giving their thoughts as they finished their time at the School – these can be found here http://sixthform.nottinghamhighblogs.net/
My response to these assemblies was entitled ‘Be your own Spotlight’ inspired by the Patrick Stump song – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C5nC1yoTh3M
I spoke about the fantastic impression that the year group have made on all those who have worked with them. The song refers to their salad days being over but however, good a time that these students have had at school I hope that this is just the beginning of a fantastic life to follow.
The expression ‘School days are the best of your life’ always concerns me. Whilst it is true that I want all boys to end their time with us being able to look back positively on the fantastic range of opportunities they have had, I hope more than anything that the skills we have equipped them with will enable them to go out into the wider world and make the most of all that lies ahead. The pressures of exams will be replaced by other challenges in the years ahead but I hope that they have gained resilience, confidence and communication skills in the time that they have spent with us.
Equally importantly I hope that the friendships that they have made here will stand the test of time. In the past few weeks I have heard via LinkedIn from many boys I taught in the early years of my career in Chester. Such contact from past students is always one of the great joys of being a teacher. The boy who I knew as a skilful wingback in my 1st XI football team is now an employment lawyer but his character still shines through his email to me. I hope that the High School students who leave us now will stay in touch in the years to come. Through our new Old Boys organisation we seek to keep in touch with them but also want to help put them in touch with each other. Thus, for example, if someone is moving to a new area we hope that they will contact us and we can put them in touch with others in their new area, or better still in their new company. These friendly faces can then help them to settle in or tell them where the good places to live are etc. If through the school we can help out in any ways then we will truly have a community for life. I want to create a situation where people might physically leave us at 18 but where virtually they remain part of our community.
Thus, whilst those leaving this week will inevitably have a sense of nostalgia and perhaps even a few nerves about what the next stage holds there will always be a warm welcome at the School and just as in recent weeks we have had some Old Boys in their 80s visit us I hope that many of our recent leavers will be regular visitors in the years ahead so we can share their successes with them.
School days are great but a great deal of life lies ahead for each of these students. I genuinely hope that the great time that they have had with us is matched by the experiences still to come. It would be truly sad if after all they have achieved with us that their best days were behind them. I have every faith that they are equipped to make a fantastic mark on the world and that whilst they can look back with pride, they can look forward with excitement.