Because I wrote a piece about starting a school I began thinking about school missions. Mostly about how alike they are and how so often completely hollow when you take a look at what really drives the school in question. And then I thought back to all the hours over the years that I have sat with earnest, caring, dedicated…
I was pleased to be invited to contribute something to Trevor Day School’s 90th Anniversary magazine. This is what I wrote, with the addition of some photos from back in the day. How the High School Began At the opening faculty meeting in September 1990, Head of School Jack Dexter announced the theme for the academic year: Change. A year…
I’ve just read Back To My Beginnings by Paddy Staplehurst. It’s a memoir of growing up in St. Etheldreda’s in Bedford – a home for girls that was run by Anglican nuns. Paddy and her younger sister Bille arrive in 1944 to join an older sister, Dawn, after being taken into care by Norfolk County Council because of persistent abuse.…
Good friends, gone now. Their photographs on my wall. Until some stranger takes them down, throws them away. No reason to keep them after all. Last week I learned via a Facebook post that Marty Sternstein had died on April 18th. This past week has seen a a social media outpouring of tributes in his memory. Marty was 78 when…
Knowing that as far as our Federal Government is concerned I am – along with pretty much everyone else – expendable, I am committed to avoiding contracting COVID-19. So that means not going shopping. And it means arranging for deliveries. Almost a full time occupation in itself. And that means someone else taking the risks on my behalf because they…
It’s not coronavirus alone but it was almost a final straw on top of other financial threats. Schools are braced for a dose of tough reality.- UK private schools feel pandemic squeeze And so it begins – the great corona virus contraction of 2020. The old new normal is now the new abnormal normal. After the global recession of 2008-2009…
What Schools Have To Be About Now A colleague shared an article – That Discomfort You’re Feeling Is Grief from the Harvard Business Review and it struck a chord. Suddenly – with the pandemic – the future, that had been lurking and looming on a horizon in plain sight, had arrived all at once. And everything was different and everything…
As my inbox and timeline fill up with Corona Virus updates and advisories this is little footnote to my post about the much fabled NYC Lincoln School (1917-1940) The School is Dead, Long Live the School. Lincoln was dedicated to experimentation and research in the interests of uncovering the best ways to education children in a modern democratic society. They…
This is actually a story about books but somehow the schools took over. It does start with the books – four old books from a library of a defunct school and each with this lovely bookplate. Beneath the tree is the line “And some of the blossoms shall turn to fruit” And some of the blossoms of the Lincoln School…
This is a follow-up to The Queen of Mean and one of a series about Headlands Grammar School and what I remember and learned in my seven year sentence. By the time I got to the sixth form I had learned to keep below Miss Jacob’s radar and anyway she had younger fish to fry. Hundreds of them – all…
When Senior Mistress Miss A. Jacob retired from Headlands School Mr.Magson had this to say in the school magazine: Two comments about that: While I don’t doubt the truth of Magson’s words, I didn’t know then, and don’t know now, any student who had a good word to say about Miss Jacob. There’s a little collection of some of the…
I’ve long thought that the word retreat should not be linked with strategic planning. It’s a bit of a misnomer for what should be a process of setting direction forward. There’s nothing wrong with “retreats” and often they are essential components – creating the thinking space for assessment and reflection. That kind of indwelling can contribute to the careful assessment…
Everyone who ever had Merv Comrie as a teacher at Headlands has a story to tell. Merv left an indelible impression on all those he taught. My own favorite moment came as he was taking class 4M through Macbeth explaining everything line by line – that time-honored English teacher way of ensuring students will not get any pleasure from Shakespeare.…
Before I learned to be afraid of Miss Jacob I was terrified by Miss Almond. First week, first form at Headlands. First history class. Miss Almond, in her academic gown presiding. She was one of those teachers who could see round corners and knew what you were up to even though she was busy writing on the big roller board…
The schools we attend and work in help shape the people we become. Seven of my sixty plus years in school were spent here – at Headlands Grammar School, Swindon. It is long gone and the site redeveloped. When people go into education as a career they sometimes seek to replicate the good experiences of their own schooling. Others dedicate…