FOUNDATION OFFICE
Head Master’s Lectures
Daniel Mendoza and Rod Downie We were delighted to welcome Daniel Mendoza OBE (Sanderson’s 1982–1986) back to the College for the first Head Master’s Lecture of the year, Standing on the Shoulders of Giants. In his talk, which was captivating in its honesty, Daniel spoke about his time at Lancing and what shaped him to be the person he is today, as well as his role as a Trustee and Chair of the Anne Frank Trust. It was particularly fitting that the lecture took place on International Holocaust Remembrance Day. Daniel said he had ‘the time of his life’ at Lancing and he joked that his 15-year-old self would have been ‘gobsmacked’ to have seen him standing at the lectern in the Sanderson Room giving a Head Master’s Lecture. He talked about the friendships he had made here as being the most important legacy the school had given him. It was a poignant moment when he shared with the audience how the loss of a close friend from Lancing and coming to terms with his death had influenced him.
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His work at the Anne Frank Trust where they ‘empower young people to challenge prejudice’ complements his desire to create a world in which ‘every individual has the responsibility to lead enriched and purposeful lives.’ Daniel was pleased to see that the Foundationers Bursary programme at Lancing today has this ethos too, at its heart. The Trust encourages young people to read Anne Frank’s story and this then starts a process which enables them to tell their own stories and, ultimately, makes them the educators with their peers. He ended by urging all of us to think about our own Giants as they are all closer to home than we might believe.
