The Head Master of Harrow UK

HEAD MASTER OF

HARROW UK

Optimism, whatever your part in the sacred endeavour that is education, you are an optimist. As a pupil, a parent or a professional; in the journey of a young person, a school and its society you believe in the possibility and potential of positive change – and you want to be part of that change. We are optimists, all of us, in Harrow Bangkok, in Harrow on the Hill and across the fellowship that is the Harrow family of schools.

As we begin to mark (rather than celebrate) coronavirus first anniversaries we do so with the advance of vaccines, the development of treatments and a much greater sense of how to cope rather than capitulate. We will remain on our guard of course and will never be complacent about Covid-secure protocols for our schools; but in doing that we can be proud, genuinely of how through ingenuity and open-minded determination we have improvised, adapted and overcome. Many of our Giants of Old would be proud of their inheritors.

In humility we have acknowledged our human frailties and have learned how to use technology, we have been more mindful of the marginal in our societies and to honour their needs. We have thought carefully about what we do, what we take for granted and how it can be done differently, and we have learned to treasure, deeply, the simple exhilaration of human contact.

So, I am cheerful and delighted to look forward to the rest of this year and towards 2022 when Harrow School will celebrate, with you, its 450th anniversary. We should take courage from our recent accomplishments and know that we are all well-placed in the Harrow Family of Schools to be the educational innovators and leaders as we approach the second quarter of the twenty-first century.

Alastair Land