An Interview With: Alex Hamilton

Head of Classics and CCF Contingent Commander

DATE JOINED: September 2001 SUBJECT TAUGHT: Classical Civilisation and Latin CO-CURRICULAR: CCF (mainly) but also athletics, rugby, and hockey at various times

POSITIONS OF RESPONSIBILITY DURING YOUR TIME AT LWC:

Head of Classics, Head of CCF

It’s been an exciting year for the CCF, what have been the highlights for you?

The main highlight of the year so far has definitely been the CCF Banner Blessing parade back in October. The sheer wave of support and goodwill towards the cadets and staff of the CCF was staggering and it was so nice that the whole school could be involved in that important moment, and it wasn’t just a CCF thing. The cadets really rose to the occasion as they always do and performed their roles within the ceremony better than I could have expected. There was even very little complaining about the amount of drill they had to do to prepare for it!

What does your involvement in the CCF mean to you

It’s really important to me. It gives the cadets an opportunity to do something different and learn about their own strengths and those of others. It’s a great mixture of teamwork, fun, challenge, adventure, and leadership all in one activity and allows those pupils to excel who might not necessarily be gifted academics or sportsmen and women (although some are!). The cadets are given opportunities that they wouldn’t get elsewhere, like flying in a Chinook or scaling a via ferrata in France, and it’s really special to be part of that.

What’s next for the CCF?

We are expanding! We have 65 new recruits joining us this week, both from LWC and from our partnership school, The Costello School in Basingstoke. This will take us over the 150 on the roll for the first time since we became an entirely voluntary activity and it’s great to be working with a Contingent of that size. We are going to be involved in more skills-based competitions over the next couple of years and engaged in a number of joint exercises with other cadet units so the cadets can test their skills against others in the wider cadet community. We will also be continuing with our regular camps and exercises, both in the UK and abroad.

What drew you towards working at LWC?

I loved the mix of academic, cocurricular, co-ed and pastoral that LWC offers. It’s an impressive place when you think of how well it does in each of these facets of education and how much it offers the pupils, when many schools will just specialize in one or two of these aspects. There are very few schools which offer such a good all-round package as LWC and allow the pupils to flourish in so many ways. The staff I met when I first came here were amazingly kind and generous which also helped make the decision that this was the right place for me. Oh, and coming from North London, the chance to live in the beautiful Hampshire countryside also helped!

An exhilarating CCF Winter Adventure Training camp to Crib Goch, Snowdonia

Throughout your time here, what do you think has been the biggest change?

I think there have been quite a lot of changes here in the last 20 years or so. Perhaps the biggest is the value that is now placed on each and every pupil and a concern for their individual needs. It’s not all about how well you can play rugby or whether you make it to senior prefect or not, there is more of an emphasis now on bringing out the qualities and strengths within each pupil and equipping them with the tools to succeed once they leave here. Pupil welfare takes a far higher priority than it used to. We have also got some lovely new buildings and of course spectacular grounds.

Where would you like to see LWC in 10 years time?

be great to see that flourishing with pupils from both schools benefitting from the wonderful facilities and strengths of each school. If LWC were a market leader in the outdoor learning environment in 10 years time, that would be very nice to see.

What’s your favourite thing about working at LWC?

The people. Both in terms of the staff that I work with but also the pupils that I have been

“We are lucky enough to teach over expanding! We have 65 new the years. I love working with the staff teams that I am involved with recruits joining at the moment, they are us this week” really helpful, positive and proactive people and make my job so much easier. I also love our surroundings, being in the heart of the Hampshire countryside is just fabulous: it’s lovely to look out over the fields from my classroom.

It would be great if we were achieving our ambition of making full use of the 1200 acres of fields and woodland that LWC sits in. There is so much un-tapped potential in the woodland particularly that would give us a real benefit in terms of a whole variety of co-curricular activities, not just in CCF! The partnership with St Neot’s School is really positive and it would

Who inspires you the most at LWC?

All the pupils who keep coming to school every day with a cheerful outlook on life despite difficult backgrounds and circumstances outside school.

What has been your funniest moment at LWC?

Some of the staff charity concerts in the old days were very funny. We had staff dressing us as boy bands and singing Boyzone songs and a reverse ‘Full Monty’ where staff were gradually getting dressed to the tune of Hot Stuff. There were actually some amazingly talented performers in there and some teachers who clearly were looking for any excuse to break out of the classroom and get onto the stage and perform. It was funny because some of the most outlandish performances came from the normally most straight-laced teachers.

If you could have done anything different over your time here, what would it be?

I’m pretty happy with how things have gone so far, but I think I would probably take myself a bit less seriously in the early part of my career and try to enjoy the job a bit more. It’s easy to become too worked up on whether something went well or badly without enjoying the experience at the time. This applies to time in the classroom and in the co-curricular life at LWC. Enjoyment and pupil engagement is the key to success and it doesn’t matter if things don’t always go to plan.