OLD PERSEANS
A TEA PARTY TO REMEMBER
Celebrating the Legacy of Four Perse Heads As the saying goes: “Two heads are better than one”. Well, why settle for two when you can have four – Perse Heads, that is!
O
n the afternoon of Friday 16 June 2023, four successive Perse Heads met to take tea together at the School. Tony Melville, Martin Stephen and Nigel Richardson, accompanied by their wives Pauline, Jenny and Joy, gathered with the current Head, Ed Elliott, to reminisce. To mark the occasion, Archivist David Jones and Head’s PA Liz Carson kindly put together a special booklet for each Head containing photos and snippets of memorable occasions during their respective tenures. Below, David Jones considers some of the significant developments that occurred under their leadership.
to set up a bursary fund and improve facilities. A remarkable £415,000 was raised, demonstrating faith in The Perse’s future. The second challenge was the establishment of Sixth Form colleges, attractive and free alternatives to the Perse Sixth Form. The School therefore began to take pupils at 13 Plus, increasing numbers to 470 and helping to combat losses from the Sixth Form. When Melville retired in 1987, he could look back on the successful transition to independence, enlarged facilities and growth in numbers. MARTIN STEPHEN (1987–1994)
For Melville’s successor, Martin Stephen, competition from Sixth Form colleges remained a worry. He emphasised the advantages of the Perse Sixth Form, especially extra-curricular opportunities, but further improvements to facilities were needed to dispel the view that The Perse was simply “an academic hothouse”. An art and design studio featured in a successful appeal for £600,000, music was given greater encouragement and business studies became a new A level option. Boarding was in decline nationally, so the boarding houses closed in 1993. It was hoped to sell the site to fund a sports hall but an economic recession deferred the initiative. Post-Direct Grant it was no longer safe to assume that “a good thing advertises itself”. Stephen engaged with local prep and primary schools, and more widely did his best to give The Perse publicity. The first Daily Telegraph A level league table (1991) was timely. The Perse came ninth amongst boys’ schools and was featured in the colour supplement. Now, a radical development, first suggested by Melville back in 1983, was reconsidered: a merger with The Perse School for Girls. However, due to logistical issues and opposition from some quarters, it was decided to start taking girls into the Sixth Form instead. That, and the end of boarding, increased the rationale for ending Saturday morning school. In 1994,
TONY MELVILLE (1969–1987)
When Tony Melville arrived, the First World War was only 51 years past. The Perse was a small Direct Grant school (420 boys and 25 teaching staff) whose academic record was outstanding and whose buildings were barely 10 years old. However, two serious challenges threatened the School’s equilibrium. The abolition of the Direct Grant in 1976 removed government-funded free places (up to 40% of Perse pupils). Would the School be forced into the state system? The answer was to go independent, followed by an appeal for £275,000
MELVILLE (FAR RIGHT) AT THE OPENING OF THE NEW SIXTH FORM CENTRE IN 1971 WITH BENEFACTORS MR & MRS MARSH (MIDDLE) 18
