Welcome from the Head Master Patrick Derham OBE
Written before the COVID-19 pandemic outbreak
I
t is with very mixed feelings that I begin what is my final letter to you. I have spoken on various occasions over the course of recent months about my departure. Westminster is going to be very difficult to leave. It really is the most wonderful school and I am very envious of Gary Savage who replaces me after six extraordinary years in a place that will always be very close to my heart. Before the move to Westminster we had a minisabbatical driving across the United States. Towards the beginning of our road trip we were in Santa Fe and visited the Basilica of St Francis. There is a plaque in there that really caught my eye. It said: ‘Rooted in tradition. Building for the future’; these sentiments could have been written about Westminster School.
This is a school with an extraordinary tradition and yet it is an institution, a community, that is forward thinking, never complacent and always looking to improve and to be a leader. I thought that I would share with you some thoughts and memories of my time here, focusing on this past year, which demonstrate the truth of what I have just said and which underlines how making the decision to leave Westminster was the hardest decision of my life. The starting point has to be the absolute privilege it has been to have worked at Westminster. Sitting here in my study, looking out over Dean’s Yard, as I have done for the last 6 years, one is reminded every day of the history and traditions of this school. Indeed at my first Big Commem I talked about this. When we join an institution such as this school, whether as pupils or staff, we become part of a thread of history which in this school’s case runs back at least 460 years to the re-founding in 1560. When we look around us at what the school is now, we see the results of the endeavours of all those who, before us, have been part of that thread. ➽
ISSUE 2019 /20
05
