Radley Newsletter 13

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Radley N E W S L E T T E R

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| Sweeney Todd | IT | Shell Wednesday Activities | | Politics at Radley | Pastoral Care | Radleians |

Sweeney To

the demon barber of flee At the end of Radley’s musical, Sweeney Todd, packed houses rose spontaneously to give Jonathan Tarcy, eponymous hero of this dark Victorian melodrama, a standing ovation. It was richly deserved; his range of acting, the power and precision of his singing, the sheer believability of his Sweeney, made for an absolutely compelling performance.

A professional career surely awaits him. Yet that ovation could as well have been accorded to Kelly Hampson’s wonderfully feisty Mrs Lovett, and to Musical Director Stephen Clarke and his band who, together, gave such an assured performance of operatic music which is more taxing to conduct and to play than Madame Butterfly.

In truth, it is invidious to bestow the bouquets on any one or two of these performers; what lives in the memory is a great team triumph, nine months in planning, casting, learning, singing and choreographing. That measured campaign meant that there was never the sense of impending panic which usually precedes school productions; from a long time beforehand the Director, Robert Lowe, ensured that there would be memorable, assured, performances.

Teamwork was most evident in the singing; really tricky harmonies (especially in the Double Quintet) were handled with assurance. Every singer sang with ringing articulation and complete clarity, a reflection of the popularity at Radley of singing, with over 100 in the Chapel Choir and many boys having singing lessons. Several sang show-stopping numbers like Henry Macpherson whose Tobias performed Mr Pirelli’s Miracle Elixir, or Head of School Tommy Siman as Pirelli singing about the shaving contest. The girls played a

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key part, too, auditioned and cast from all over Oxfordshire. Johanna (Eleanor Coote) and Mrs Lovett sang their solos beautifully. Disciplined precision, too, in the movement; the blocking for set pieces, like the opening Sweeney Todd number, was artfully done, and later the bedlam

children, flowing sinuously from their prison in white, blood stained gowns across the stage in waves, were both beautiful and seriously disturbing.

At every turn the watchwords were energy, commitment, accuracy and professionalism, and that they should reach the dramatic heights they did seemed only appropriate given the environment in which the cast worked; the set was superb – thanks to Matt Barker, Technical Manager – flexible, dark and sinister, conveying the

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et street disreputable London of back street barbers and seriously unhealthy pie shops. And the costumes (thanks to Lianne Oakley-Rowland) – black, red (bloodily symbolic) and dirty white, themed around a Victorian freak circus – worked convincingly to underscore the strange and shocking world of a man set on revenge through tonsorial expertise, with mortal consequences.

Robert Lowe, the Director, envisioned and executed the project. He has taken dramatic standards at Radley to giddy heights, and packed houses of boys, parents, prep school children and guests were in no doubt that they had witnessed something truly memorable in the New Theatre in early December.

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This Cloud a Silver Li We now live in a world that is profoundly shaped by the Digital Revolution. Nation states, media empires and high street chains have all fallen victim to this Age of Silicon; fibre-optics and smarter chips conspiring together to offer ever-faster access to a virtual world of information and commercial ease.

It’s a revolution that is built on the genius of Alan Turing and driven by the inexorable progress of Moore’s Law - the law of diminishing RETURNs, offering technology that doubles in speed

and halves in price every couple of years. This is the Law that gives us new phones every Christmas and new software by Easter. The Law that ensures that the latest hand-held device is a media centre as much as it is a means of communication.

This is, of course, a second American Revolution. Despite the foundation stones of Bletchley Park, the Sinclair Spectrum and the BBC Micro, we British have again been humbled by our upstart cousins in the New World - only this time we had Steve Jobs and

Bill Gates playing the parts of Benjamin Franklin and George Washington.

Revolutionary fervour has been in the air for a while now. As desktop computers offered us spreadsheets and word processing, so the Internet offered us e-mail and the world-wide-wait. Novel? Certainly.

Interesting? Perhaps. Profound?

No. But change has come far more rapidly over the past five years.

Web 2.0 has reinvented the Net as a genuinely interactive and social environment. Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter are suddenly our networks of need and BBC iPlayer our channel of choice. Wikipedia offers us all the information we can handle and Wolfram Alpha offers a computational knowledge engine that can offer up Poetry and Chemistry with matchless ease.

Tablet computing, be it in the shape of an iPad or an Android competitor, is now transforming these technologies into engines of research that are genuinely at our beck and call. Never more than a swipe away, we finally have the Library of Alexandria at our finger-tips - and all indexed by Google.

The implications for education are equally profound. The ubiquity of knowledge - and, indeed, the ease with which it can be retrieved calls into question the frameworks of our test-driven culture. But the opportunities to do something genuinely interesting are now tantalisingly close.

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s ddle e pa h t of hold ons U,V siti o es p l M d E R 1 pad cal 2030 ET U = erti of the v e L 1 th s 2040 ET V = are peed L he s d Q 2050 EM P an S are t R d 2060 EM R an eed R n sp 11 0 = 7 0 ctio 2 P e r T i LE -d 0 he y 2080 ET R = to t 1 L 1 t 0 n ions = 9 e 20 osit mpon T Q p o E c L l 0 ia Radley is already ndom 2100 ET S = init a ra L heir t adopting tablet 2110 EM W is t s a R 1 ddle computing for the 2120 ET W = e pa h L t Common Room and 2130 EM Draw O 14 R 11 T ite” 2140 OR I = it can only be a matter wh F I, “ hite” 2150 LOT 0, w rd of time before all boys P I, “ yboa loop e ke 2160 LOT 24, h t t have their own device of u p f P o in L) 2170 EXT I oard 5 - LEVE ndle all choice. The College now N keyb a ( 0 h 8 e * 1 h , 2 T has a wireless network REM + 50 ng ahead 3000 AUSE 25 vi o m that extends through P re 3010 EM Befo every corridor, classroom R 0 = 1 2 AR() 0 0 3 T CH OTO 400 EN LET R = 0 E r and cubicle - as well as G e f TH R buf C = EN G LET -1 ” TH C = “q” THEN LET beyond to the cricket R = 3030 F C = “ R ” T O a E “ L ” I Q pitches. We also have web= = 1 HEN 3040 F C = “ OR C z” T N LET S “ ” I 0 A = “ 0 based mail, on-line resources, C = THE S = 305 “p” LET ” OR IF C -1 Z = N “ 0 = E and a school-wide wiki.

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The next piece of this jigsaw will be the transition to a devicebased culture for teaching and learning. Electronic notes, shared and reviewed by all in the class. Electronics books, with annotations and commentary for later review. Virtual environments for design and simulation.

Digital maps for context. Data sets for analysis. Drawing tools.

Dictionaries. Image banks. Video capture and conferencing. iTunes on demand.

Tablet computing offers alwayson support to education in a way that laptops always promised but never quite delivered. Battery life is a huge boon - these devices will

run for 10 hours before they need re-charging. Their form factor is equally important; slim, silent, wireless - a genuine desktop device in a way that the PC never was.

It’s Apple who dominate the market today - but the latest Android devices look equally attractive as a tool for learning.

The App Stores offer software at pocket-money prices and the gaming support is now as good as anything the X-Box has previously offered.

Bill Gates once hoped to put a PC in every home and on every desk but the mobile revolution is finally giving students the chance to take their own device into every class and into every context.

Now if only they knew how to code...

Ian Yorston Director of Digital Strategy

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SHELL WE ACTIV Each Wednesday afternoon boys are given a chance to try something a bit different from their usual academic and sporting activities. In the Removes, Wednesday activities come under the banner of CCF and in the Fifths boys help the local community in various ways. In the Shells however, the emphasis is on trying something new. This year the options include:

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EDNESDAY VITIES Art, Backstage, Cooking, Creative Writing , Cricket, Design Centre, Drama, Gambling for Chocolate, Films. Fitness Training, Geocashing, Golf, Hockey, Lego Design, Model Planes, Pilates, Rackets, Scalextric Racing, Sculling, Squash, Tennis, Video Filming.

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Politics a Many of our boys study Politics in the sixth form – with numbers having increased from just twenty-six boys in 2004 to eighty-six in 2011 – and they seem to enjoy it. After all, there are few subjects about which everyone has a view and about which we can engage in a new debate every day. There are few subjects that are characterised by such fierce arguments – often from positions held with the vigour and immutability of religious belief. Politics is the language of global conflicts and resolutions (although economics may determine the grammatical structure).

well attended by the boys and which has attracted some very impressive speakers. Many of the speakers come from the University of Oxford, but we have found many speakers as a result of the generosity of parents in suggesting contacts for us.

Our subject is not the examination of current affairs – although current affairs represent the evidence upon which our theories are based. Nor is our subject a classroom equivalent of a pub argument without the catalyst of beer. Politics is the academic exploration of structures of power – whether it is the structure of governing institutions (Parliaments, Presidencies, Supreme Courts) or the structures within society that shape these institutions (religious institutions, pressure groups, political parties, corporations as well as social cleavages based upon ethnicity, gender, race and so on).

Just before the October Leave Away Clive Stafford-Smith (OR), a human-rights lawyer who has made representation before the US Supreme Court on many occasions (regarding U.K. citizens held in Guantanamo Bay) addressed the entire Politics cohort – which is always one of the best mental workouts the boys are given. Last term we invited the Director of the Rothermere American Institute (Dr Nigel Bowles, Oxford) - to discuss the powers of the US President.

He began by noting that the most powerful man in the world faces the prospect of presiding over a nation with 89,000 separate governments (from school councils to the US Congress) none of which he controls (and this includes the Federal Government). As President Truman mused as he prepared to vacate the Oval Office to allow General Eisenhower to begin his Presidency: “poor old Ike, he’ll sit here all day saying ‘do this and do that’ and nothing will happen. It won’t be a bit like the army!” Trevor McCrisken, Professor of International Relations at the University of Warwick told us that there were probably as many as forty nations which had at least rudimentary nuclear weapons capacity or the means of acquiring it within ten years and, as a startingpoint for discussion, he told the boys to be afraid. They certainly paid attention (and were left with a less sobering message than the opening gambit would suggest).

At the end of two years our boys have the foundations upon which they can build their understanding of the state, and of society, and the ways in which the two interact. If they take the subject further then they can examine power structures on a global scale – which is the study of International Relations.

They can, for example, study the overarching ideas that shape our political beliefs and motivations – which are the umbrella groupings we call ideologies.

Politics is complex but the subject matter is inherently fascinating.

The boys do not leave our course with their minds changed – it is not our goal to indoctrinate or to convert. But they do leave with a sense of how to think about issues more deeply. Many of our leavers are inspired to study the subject at university level.

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As much as we try to cover our core syllabus or course, we also strive to explore the questions that are off-piste and yet fascinating to discuss in class. We cannot, with ever-changing subject matter, ignore the questions that sit just alongside those topics we are duty-bound to examine. But we must also ensure that the boys develop the analytical rigour needed to examine any question. They must also learn how to structure their arguments so that their writing – and their thinking – is logical, energetic and compelling.

We try to push all of our boys to achieve their potential – and do not believe that our young men can reach only a C grade – we push everyone to aim for the top grades. In 2011 the boys achieved 92% A*/A/B at A level. 32 of our 48 boys gained A and A* grades.

These outstanding results are the result of hard work by the boys and dedicated teaching by the dons.

But we focus on much more than just the results: we aim to instil and maintain a passion for our subject and we do so in many ways: we invite regular speakers to talk to us about topics that go beyond our daily studies and in ways that we have not encountered.

It is almost impossible to find a newspaper item each day, or a story on Newsnight each evening that does not warrant further exploration. We are very fortunate to have regular opportunities to explore ideas and issues outside of our class teaching. We have a flourishing Politics Society that is

Then there is the 6:2 lecture series – which is not strictly the property of the Politics Department – but

at Radley with a cast list that includes former Home Secretaries, Select Committee Chairs, a PM in waiting (Mr Cameron spoke in 2005) and leading human rights lawyers. We were also given the rare privilege of hosting Radio 4’s Any Questions in the majestic setting of the New Theatre.

Yet we continue to foster ambition: we run extra sessions each Thursday for the ablest boys (and any who are keen to attend) in which we take a theme and explore some more challenging texts which we discuss in an informal manner. The new Michaelmas Term – with the tenth anniversary of September 11th at the end of our first teaching cycle – led to the exploration of American culture and paranoia. Using the classic text by American historian Richard Hofstadter we have begun to examine whether the US has a paranoid streak present from its birth (fear of minorities, fear of communism, fear of government itself).

departments within the school. We work closely with the Economics Department who claim that questions about taxing and spending are their questions and not ours (ridiculous of course!). We also work closely with the History Department – such subject matter as the Vietnam Conflict, and more recent conflicts in which the US is engaged are best studied with a solid foundation both in history and in politics. And, as we toured the White House during Leave Away (with the help of a Presidential

insider) we knew that our 6:2 boys would better understand the myriad ways in which their academic studies reflect the very real problems, challenges and opportunities faced by those we elect to govern on our behalf.

As we move to a new, purpose-built department in 2013 we will have the added benefit of a building that will better allow us to work across departments: imagine the use of multimedia images – projectors, sound, artwork – focused around a theme such as the Vietnam Conflict – the boys studying US foreign policy in Politics and the development and passage of the Conflict in their History lessons. All this and the prospect of knowing that when you watch the news and read the papers you are working at your politics studies.

Dr Rob McMahon Head of Politics

As a department we are keen to build bridges with other

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Pastora At the heart of any good boarding school’s Pastoral Care has to be the notion that everyone plays a role in it, from the in-Social cleaners to the Tutor, and Radley has achieved this in abundance over the years.

The head of the Pastoral Team in each Social is, of course, the Tutor and it is his job to make sure that all his boys feel safe, happy and involved as well as to engage all the adults in his and Radley’s pastoral vision.

He achieves this by ensuring that boys respect and support one another in all that they do.

The adults play their part by doing exactly the same and the common goal is to produce a home from home atmosphere.

A modern Tutor is on duty 24 hours a day and, bar his evenings off, every day of the week. Policies and guidelines do little to describe accurately what the Tutor does, since he must go way beyond those.

Fundamentally, he involves himself in every facet of a boy’s life at Radley and has the holistic view of how his boys are doing and how best to help them.

The Tutors are ably assisted by their live-in PHM (Pastoral House Mistress) whose role is far more than that of the Matron in former times. Her role is a very pro-active one and she is the lynch-pin in the day to day running of the Social: she watches, advises, cajoles, listens to and empathises with the boys, just like any mother would do. In addition, she maintains standards of good behaviour, good manners and personal hygene…as well as keeping the laundry, cleaning and cleanliness up to scratch.

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has a representative from each year group and they gather to discuss any issues that have arisen; they may be practical ones or more esoteric. The minutes get published to Social and passed on to the Senior Master and both Warden and Sub-Warden. These Committees are not window dressing and help, as the other pan-College questionnaires do, to shape the thinking about many pastoral matters, including the provision of facilities in Socials and the College.

In every Social, there is also a team of Sub-Tutors. The livein Sub-Tutor deputises for the Tutor if away and acts as an immediate sounding board for both the Tutor and the boys.

The other live-out Sub-Tutors may well be Form Masters to the Lower School and the move to have all Lower School Form Masters as in-Social has done much to elevate the role; the Form Master is tasked to oversee the academic performance of his charges, but equally takes a broader interest which extends into the pastoral more strongly than in the past.

All Dons at Radley are expected to exchange information about any boys they see in whatever context and this helps the Tutor to get his holistic view. It is a sad (but rather reassuring) truth that we spend an awfully large amount of our time talking about the boys and how to help them, support them and motivate them.

A watchful eye is kept on all Socials by the Pastoral Unit, which is made up of three Child Protection Officers, the Chaplain and the Head of Shells, whose principal role is to assist the Tutors with tricky problems that might involve several boys or boys from different Socials; they also check that punishments are fair and equitable and train the Mentors and Prefects centrally.

We must not, however, forget that all boys play a part in developing a happy atmosphere and much reliance is placed upon the Senior boys who either act as Mentors (to Shell and Remove boys) or Prefects to all.

Their ability to pass on things to the other adults is invaluable and they have done much to prevent situations that could have become more problematic.

Their influence as role models is self-evident.

Obviously the Medical Centre, alongside its primary function as a place to discuss health issues, does a lot of excellent pastoral work and several boys have found it an easy place to chat and gain confidence.

Inspections over the years have totally supported what we do here, but it is what cannot be assessed or “marked” that has been Radley’s real success. The atmosphere that is created in every Social is one where boys feel they can relax and are at ease – they know that when things occasionally go wrong, the response is quick and effective.

Seeing the boys together at Cocoa or at inter-Social events, one is quick to spot just how

al Care well the year groups all get on and how well they mix and respect the abilities of others.

Good families are keen to be supportive and enjoy the success of other members as well as participate in the obvious fun

that takes place when all are gathered together and the Socials try to reflect those aims.

Pastoral Care can be something of a dry subject on paper and no amount of description can do

justice to the fun and enjoyment that boys have in their Socials and around the College â&#x20AC;&#x201C; the Pastoral teams have worked hard to facilitate this.

Mike Hopkins Senior Master

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Henry McPherson (6.1) THE DOWNS, D SOCIAL My first memory of Radley is rather embarrassing. Sitting at the piano during the Music Scholarships, whilst being drilled with questions by the staff, I remember, in my confused and generally terrified state, dropping a pencil inside the nice shiny Steinway Grand – not a great start, but despite this incident I’m still here to tell the tale. I have to admit that the first term at Radley was a bit of a culture shock; coming from a mixed day school, having never boarded in my life and being only 4’11 inches tall, Radley seemed to me a large and confusing place.

Thankfully, after about three weeks of total immersion in the system you completely forget about your worries and the startling height of the other boys, start acting like you own the place, and throw yourself into everything at full-throttle, something I hope I have successfully achieved in all aspects of my life here.

The school has given me opportunities to do things I otherwise would never have been able to attempt. Starring in stage productions of a near-professional standard, performing in fantastic ensembles in concerts, playing sports which are not available anywhere else (for example real tennis) and learning how to wear a gown properly are just some of the many experiences I’ve had here. Now in 6.1, or “the twilight years” as I recently heard it called by a younger boy, I feel even more so that everything the school has to offer is priceless.

Don’t get me wrong. At points, especially during the A-Level timetable, it can be very tough. Work, extra-curricular activities, sport and social commitments dominate the day, but this is something that I feel Radley tailors its pupils to master with great dexterity. In my fourth year of education here, I feel competent to manage my academic time efficiently and still enjoy every aspect of life. More importantly, thanks to this school, the friendships that I’ve made I know I’ll keep for life.

Now, sitting in my room and looking across at the Shell Hall, I can’t help feeling that the Shells, oblivious to all that is to come, don’t quite know just how lucky they are.

Charles Saunders (Remove) WOODLEIGH, H SOCIAL When I arrived at Radley over a year ago, I thought I was a busy student, with academic and music exhibitions to my name, as well as being very enthusiastic about sport, and I soon realised that I would have to work extremely hard in order to fit in all my commitments. Yet little did I anticipate the vast extent of Radley life, in which I would soon be submerged, and I think that my first few weeks certainly took me by surprise, insomuch as after a couple of days, all I could answer to “How are you feeling?” was “Tired. Very tired”.

To a lesser extent nowadays than when I began at Radley, due entirely to the fact that I have had five terms in which to settle in, I still feel overwhelmed by the superb range of activities on offer, and I have been lucky enough to get involved in a few of these myself. I am a regular attendee at the Creative Writing Group sessions, which I enjoy greatly, as well as watching inter-social debates as often as I can. I have been involved in both the Shell and Remove Plays, discovering the highly professional drama department at Radley, as well as being given the opportunity to take both Maths and French IGCSE early. I have enjoyed attending the thought-provoking philosophy talks, especially this year, and I also help produce the student newspaper, “the Chronicle”, which I am loving.

I am currently a cadet in the RAF, and in the Christmas holidays I went to Wales on the CCF climbing trip, which I enjoyed hugely, and would love to do again. I find CCF a very interesting activity each week, and one which I hope to continue next year. In the Easter holidays I am going to Italy on the Classics trip, and this will be my third holiday abroad with the school in fewer than two years. All of these activities show the versatility of the Radley dons and the proficiency of the Radley community as a whole.

One aspect of Radley life that occupies a huge amount of my time is music, and I spend almost every Central Hour, most mornings, and a lot of evenings in the music department, as well as taking Music as one of my GCSE choices. I can think of few things better than spending time among such fabulous musicians that are present at Radley, both dons and senior boys. I have advanced hugely in my time at Radley, taking four ABRSM music exams in five terms, and this is a credit to the incredible work ethic of the music staff and instrumental dons who give up their time to offer any possible help.

To this very day, I feel unnaturally busy, but this emphasises some of Radley’s best assets, in which it offers such a range of activities, allows boys to have vast amounts of freedom and choice, and caters for everyone to an equally high level, keeping every student involved and happy.

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Website: www.radley.org.uk Admissions enquiries: 01235 543174 admissions@radley.org.uk