Welcome from the Head Master, Mr Patrick Derham

Head Master’s Welcome

In fictional thriller Different Class Joanne Harris revisits St Oswald’s Grammar School in the fictional town of Malbry. The Headmaster, Dr Shakeshafte, is described as spending “the best part of his day in his inner sanctum, engaged in headmasterly activities as vital as they were unfathomable”. It is the question pupils always ask me – “what do you do all day Sir?” My answer invariably focuses on the sheer delight I get in seeing the pupils engaged in the dizzying array of activities on offer. This year has been no exception and the Westminsters of today continue to impress me with all that they achieve.

Iwas thinking of this recently when I was part of a panel of Heads at a prep school, talking to a sizeable audience of potential parents. Each of the panel had to speak for three minutes before questions. By the time my turn came, it was difficult to think of anything distinct to say… In typically impressive style, my colleagues had eloquently espoused the values underpinning their schools, the achievements of their pupils and the virtues of an all-round liberating education. It struck me that a way of getting across something slightly

different about the distinctive nature of Westminster was to talk about place, three places in fact, to give a flavour of what life was like here on a day-to-day basis.

I talked about Abbey. We gather there twice a week in the most majestic of school chapels and hear from an array of speakers who stimulate and challenge in equal measure. The undoubted highlight this year was the induction of the first girls as Queen’s Scholars, a wonderful moment in Westminster’s History. I talked about School. Here we see so much that encapsulates the very essence of Westminster. I spoke about the weekly Latin Prayers, the Greaze, talks and some wonderful music. I could also have mentioned OW and Parents’ Committee events including the Quiz which the staff team won and much else besides.

I talked about the Boathouse. Our rowers continue to excel and I am writing this straight after National Schools Regatta where we won four medals including two Gold ➽

(J15 2nd XII and J16 IV). I cheated a little in that I also mentioned Vincent Square and the Sports Hall (only Westminster could have such an Art Deco gem as its Sports Hall) , as well as our numerous other sporting successes (in football, cricket, cross-country, judo, rock climbing to name but a few) this year, to make the point that Westminster really does do sport.

If I am honest, I doubt if in my brief talk that I got all this across. Even at greater length, it is just a snapshot. But it is a snapshot that makes a point. Place matters, but what happens in places matters more. And a lot happens. In the classroom the results continue to speak for themselves. The Remove last year (2017), achieved what their predecessors have done by achieving over 50% of their grades at A* or the equivalent at Pre-U, a feat not matched by any other school and our best results yet. 74 Westminster pupils achieved offers from Oxford and Cambridge this cycle, equating to a success rate of 42% of all applicants, 36% at Oxford and 48% at Cambridge. It is also impressive to see great success this year at highly competitive institutions such as Imperial, the LSE, Durham and UCL. Applications to leading universities in the USA are also increasingly popular – this year (2017), Westminster has seen further success on the US Schools front with the highest number of applications to date. 29 pupils secured offers at some of the leading and Ivy League universities such as Columbia, Harvard, Princeton, UPenn and Stanford, amongst others. 25 pupils have decided to take up their US offers, which is our strongest ever uptake to the USA.

You would expect me to say all these things but last year we were externally audited in the sense that we had an inspection. This was a fascinating three days for the School Community; we were part of the pilot of the new regime. I hope you have read the reports, which are on the website, and that you will be as delighted as we were with the findings. Rest assured though, we will never be complacent. We continue to self-evaluate and to think about ways in which we can improve to retain our position as one of the leading schools in the world. What pleased me most in the oral feedback were references to the kindness that pervades the school and a very clear statement that our liberal ethos leads to a pupil body liberated from dogma, prejudice or unthinking conformity.

This was very much the theme of what I said at Big Commem in 2016. I used the story of St Jerome to make the point that it is doubt that gives us education and that the state of not always knowing why we are learning what we are learning is absolutely central to the process of In the 456 years since Elizabeth I refounded this school it has offered a defence against the merely utilitarian, against the pursuit of a life lived only for the moment, a life which shuts out other people, their experience and their history and their knowledge. And this is where its ethos lies.

The hero Achilles, in Homer’s Iliad, says that the ideal man is a speaker of words, and a doer of deeds. He is also, in the end, a member of his community. Our own ideal is not far off that mark. We seek to teach you how to express yourself, and how to act. As long as you accept your responsibilities to your community, and take seriously your duties of service, courtesy and friendship to other people – starting here at School – what you say, what you think, and what you do is up to you.

Interestingly our partner school, Harris Westminster Sixth Form, also had an inspection last year. We were delighted that Ofsted graded them Outstanding in all inspection categories. Additionally, in the recent Oxbridge admissions round HWSF pupils achieved a remarkable 25 offers; an improvement on 23 the previous year.

We continue to be passionate about widening access. Last year we appointed Kevin Walsh as Director of Outreach and Widening Access and much of his work runs alongside, and is complementary to, the existing excellent civic engagement and volunteering work that we already do. With Jeremy Kemball and the Under School staff, we have set up Platform; a Westminster Academic Enrichment Programme (westminsterplatform.org.uk) which is working with bright Year 5 primary school boys and girls across London. This initiative has been enthusiastically greeted by the schools. Further, we are looking at our approach to fundraising and in particular, developing our capacity to provide life-changing bursaries to pupils who would benefit from a Westminster education. More on this soon.

Our aspirations will be helped by the China initiative. The Chairman wrote to you in December about the agreement we signed with the Hong Kong educational company HKMETG to open six bilingual schools in China by 2028, the

OUR BEST RESULTS YET

74 Westminster pupils achieved offers from Oxford and Cambridge this cycle, equating to a success rate of 42% of all applicants.

36% at Oxford

48% at Cambridge

first opening in Chengdu in 2020. This follows three years of careful consideration and negotiation. We are delighted by the opportunities our new collaboration with HKMETG provides in assisting our drive to widen access to a Westminster education, still further.

Our Bursary Fund will also be helped by the latest Westminster publication which will be available in March 2019. Ad Te Levavi, a stunning collection of photographs of “a year in the life” of this extraordinary community as seen by the photographer Christopher Jonas, is a book that all connected with Westminster will want to have. All profits, post production costs, will go to the Bursary Fund, and details can be found on the leaflet within this publication.

We continue to develop our facilities. We now have the Bentham Room, named after the English philosopher and former pupil Jeremy Bentham (one of the OWW featured in Loyal Dissent – thank you to those of you who have bought a copy; just over £1,500 was raised for the Bursary Fund from sales), and this new space has been created out of the old Cloister Gym. It is used for public exams, for the many society meetings and lectures that we stage and for parents’ evenings. In addition, I am pleased to report that the refurbishment of the Robert Hooke Science Centre is complete and we have added a 7th floor. Computer Science has now moved to Hooke and so we have all the sciences together which is hugely beneficial. We have also added an observatory. Work is now progressing on the site of the old music school, the Adrian Boult Centre. The building was on the site of the old Abbey’s medieval great kitchen. Archaeologists, who have monitored the work throughout, have made some interesting discoveries including wall sections that pre-date Edward the Confessor. Work will be complete by Play Term 2019. More on its usage next year.

Finally, a new sixth form parent asked to see me at the Parents’ Meeting in November; I prepared myself for what was to come. She said, “We have been struggling to create the ideal environment for our daughter to be happy for 16 years… and you have managed it in eight weeks”. I take no credit for this and I am not naïve enough to think that any of us can be happy all the time. We try, collectively, to create an environment where the pupils are happy, purposeful, challenged and successful. They seem to be. Long may that continue to be the case.

This letter does not do justice to all that has happened since I last wrote to you. Suffice to say that your old school is in excellent fettle and I continue to consider myself very fortunate to be working in 17 Dean’s Yard as Head Master of what I know is no ordinary place.

Floreat!