Jun 24
What a stimulating day! It was a pleasure to discuss wide-ranging educational issues at the Wellington College Festival of Education; I sat on a panel debating the question: What sort of schools do we need? For me, the answer is simple – we need great schools. There are, I believe, three main elements to this …
Jun 20
This may be the week of our school Founders’ Day, but I had an important appointment today in Oxford, at the Sheldonian, to watch part of the University’s annual Encaenia celebrations. Each year, a number of distinguished people are honoured at the Encaenia ceremony with an honorary doctorate in their field, and this year was …
Jun 18
At the end of this week – on Saturday 23rd June – we celebrate our annual Founders’ Day at St Mary’s Calne. For me – for us all – it is arguably the most important day in the school;s calendar: a day when we remember the Founders of the school, and value their legacy. We …
Jun 16
My eye alighted on this letter in last week’s Sunday Times, addressed to the Editor from Lynnea Shrief, Berkhamsted, Hertfordshire: “Your article “When mums go mad†(Style, last week) contained out-of-date information about me and my children. Furthermore, I understood it would be about my placenta encapsulation business, not about my mothering skills or preferences. …
Jun 13
This week’s Sunday Telegraph magazine, Stella, contained an uplifting article by Sally Howard, which I have yet to find online; if you can find it and read it, do. In it, she describes a visit to Shraddhanand Mahilashram, an orphanage for girls in Mumbai, India, where girls are taught to be independent, confident young women, …
Jun 11
It is so easy to get caught up in day-today issues, and to lose an awareness of what is happening in the world. We take so many of our rights for granted, and we are so quick to challenge perceived injustice, that we can sometimes lose a sense of perspective about how lucky we are, …
Jun 07
I very much enjoyed listening on the radio to the Archbishop of Canterbury’s sermon during the National Service of Thanksgiving in St Paul’s Cathedral on Tuesday, as part of the celebrations for the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee. Ever thoughtful, Rowan Williams, reflecting on the Queen’s 60 years of service to the nation, took the opportunity to …
Jun 04
What historic times we are living in! Yesterday – the day of the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee on the Thames – may have dawned grey and cold, and the rain may have caught up with us all before the afternoon was out, but there was no denying the fact that everyone who was present on the …
May 31
Earlier this week, at an excellent Footdown Leadership Forum, I came across a super organisation which mentors young people to prepare them for the world of work: SATRO. Based in Surrey and the South East, it reaches out to 15,000 young people each year (5,000 primary pupils and 10,000 secondary pupils), through a combination of programmes, …
May 28
A new book is due out in June – ‘The Dirtiest Race in History’, by Richard Moore – which deals with Ben Johnson’s victory in the 100m men’s finals in the 1988 Olympic Games, and his subsequent disgrace when he was discovered to have been taking drugs. To this day, I remember that race well …