blog - 5 October 2009

I have had an eventful week, mostly watching staff and pupils in action.

Each term I do a significant amount of formal lesson observation, and this week I began the process by watching two young teachers new to RHS. Both lessons were good and I was reassured by what I saw.

I spent Friday morning on Alton Water - pupils in 7H, under the watchful eyes of Andrew Nutton and Charles Boughton, were learning to sail. The instruction the pupils received from both Andrew and Charles was first class. There can’t be many schools where new pupils are given the opportunity to learn to sail and I must add that it is well worth the effort; in some cases, pupils go from complete novices to very competent sailors in just 5 days - what wonders it does for their self-confidence!

Our Heads of School, Kirsty Brown and Charlie Lambert, have acquitted themselves particularly well this week. In addition to carrying our their routine tasks highly effectively, on Saturday morning they spoke in tandem to a packed Jellicoe Room as part of our Open Day presentation and, in so doing, they did us all proud by coming across as articulate, pleasant, well-rounded and unpretentious - very well done to them. Incidentally, Open Day was very well attended. Our Year 9 pupils acted as guides, and I received some very good feedback about them from many of our visitors. You can read my Open Day address at the bottom of this blog.

As I am sure most of you will know, we have a Flag Ceremony at the beginning and the end of each day. Our bugler for Flag this week has been Tom Precious (Collingwood), and he has done a splendid job by not only playing with great style, but also by taking charge of the flag party itself in a most commanding manner! I am sure that the traditionalists amongst you will be very pleased to read that I have decided that all members of the duty house should attend Flag every Saturday morning. This Saturday the boys in Collingwood House appeared together with their Housemaster, Jonathan Pooley and under the command of their Head of House, Adam Green, put on a splendid mini-parade.

As is often the case, the week ended with an excellent set of Divisions. Our new Year 7 boarding pupils were on parade for the first time and acquitted themselves splendidly. A number of Year 7 pupils also took the lead in a most enjoyable Harvest Festival service which followed, and they did a very good job. Commodore Bill Walworth, OBE, RFA, took the salute at Divisions, and was accompanied by his partner, Mrs. Jane Jones, together with 1st Officer Chris Jordan and Mrs. Susanne Jordan. Bill and Jane were accommodated overnight in Holbrook House and during the course of conversation, I discovered that Jane’s children had been pupils at my mother’s nursery school in Purbrook, just north of Portsmouth, and that Jane’s family home was half a mile away from my own on Stakes Hill Road - small world.

It rained this week - about 1mm in 30 minutes! Not much good for our rugby pitches.

Headmaster’s Open Day address October 2009

For those of you who don’t know, my name is Howard Blackett. I’ve been Headmaster here for the past 5½ years; I’m also an RHS parent. My son, Thomas, completed his A levels last year and has just started at Edinburgh University having had a GAP year in New Zealand; my daughters Alice and Lizzie are both in Howe and are in the L6 and year 9 respectively. And I have to say that as far as my children’s education is concerned I am a very happy dad.

I hope that what has come through strongly today is the fact that this is a values driven organisation; we unashamedly promote the importance of honesty, loyalty, integrity, service and humility. In my view there is nothing more important than ensuring that pupils here understand the difference between right and wrong and are able, in due course, to take their place in society as responsible and decent adults.

We have 680 pupils, in round numbers 580 of whom are full boarders with the other 100 being day pupils. We have 80 teaching staff, the vast majority of whom live on site, giving a staff to pupil ratio of about 1:8 or 9. Class sizes up to GCSE level are generally 15-20 and at Sixth Form level anything from 2 or 3 to 15, depending on the subject concerned. All pupils, including day pupils, are accommodated in one of 11 boarding houses, each of which is staffed by a resident housemaster or housemistress, a resident matron responsible for the domestic side of the house and a resident house tutor. We employ about 120 support staff who are responsible for the myriad of activities required to keep an organisation of this size running smoothly, and I must say they do a terrific job.

Pupils here are not educated simply to pass exams but to enjoy the adventure of learning and to develop a lifelong appetite for knowledge. Our academic curriculum is broad and balanced combining the best of academic traditions with the latest technologies to ensure that pupils leave us well prepared for the increasingly complex challenges of the world beyond school. Modest class sizes together with our strong tutorial system ensure that pupils here receive close individual guidance which helps them reach their full academic potential. Last summer we achieved 37% A* and A grades at GCSE level, and at A Level, over the past few years, our A/B pass rate has been between 60 and 70%. 90% of our pupils progress on to higher education and many gain places at top class universities including Oxford and Cambridge.

Outside the classroom pupils at RHS receive an outstanding all round education, with opportunities to engage in activities, outdoor pursuits and sports all within the context of our unique seafaring heritage. We run a large number of school teams each term for both boys and girls at all levels and for the less able games players we have regular inter house fixtures. In addition we have a very large CCF and a significant number of pupils take part in the Duke of Edinburgh Award scheme. I believe that physical fitness and competition helps our pupils develop their self esteem and confidence and it also has a very beneficial effect on their powers of concentration and academic studies.

You have probably noticed some building work on site. We are approaching the end of a 5 year £18m development aimed principally at upgrading our boarding accommodation. Six houses are now complete and our new £3.5 million music school was completed last year. In fact the new music school was formally opened by John Rutter who has invited our choir to perform together with Royal Philharmonic Orchestra this coming December in the Royal Albert Hall – a truly fantastic accolade for our choir and Peter Crompton our Director of Music. The new music school makes a pretty obvious statement about our commitment to the future development of music here; our aim is to raise the profile of our music making, already widely regarded as an area of excellence, into something really special and I am absolutely confident that we will do just that.

The most recent phase of our boarding house refurbishment programme was the conversion of Blake and Drake into two new junior houses for pupils in Years 7 and 8. Both Blake and Drake opened for business at the start of this term. The creation of two new junior houses has enabled us to enhance the educational experience of pupils at the lower end of the school in a significant way. The accommodation itself is superb for both boarders and day pupils and the pattern of the school day for junior pupils has been restructured so that it is more appropriate for their needs; specifically they have two sessions of supervised prep during the working day and a full programme of extra curricular activities - by 6.00pm all academic work and other commitments are complete and day pupils are be free to go home. During the evenings and weekends boarders take part in leisure activities – such as swimming, games, cooking and art – as well as social events and trips.

The Junior Houses are designed to accommodate approx 50 boarders and 30 day pupils and day pupils who want to ‘try out’ boarding are able to make use of the bunk room which provides bed spaces on an ad hoc basis. The conversion of Blake and Drake into junior houses has been a radical and exciting development and I’m sure that they’ll be a great success under the leadership of Joanna Hewitt and Mike Barraclough.

On to the specific subject of day pupils – we have always been and continue to be a boarding school but we have, since September 2006 welcomed day pupils. Our pioneering group numbered just 15 and, as I said earlier, we now have about 100 day boys and girls. Whether in the junior or senior part of the School, all day pupils are accommodated in the same houses as boarders; this means that they are able to integrate fully into school life. As far as the routine day is concerned, our approach is as flexible as possible. Senior day pupils are able to stay in school for an evening meal and to do prep, or they can go home, if it is more convenient to do so, late in the afternoon. We now run five bus routes to and from school and we are committed to developing other routes as quickly as possible as demand rises. Day pupils are very important to us but we continue to be a full boarding school in both our ethos and operation and this will continue to be the case. This is demonstrated by our investment in our boarding accommodation, the huge range of academic and extra curricular opportunities available and the emphasis we place on the pastoral welfare of our pupils.

I trust that you now have a good feel for the school. What we do really well here is give pupils a broad and balanced education and promote traditional values. It is my aim that our pupils experience a wealth of opportunities; that they are kept busy; that they are genuinely stretched and that they really enjoy the experience of being at school here. It is this experience of learning by doing that helps pupils grow in confidence and develop important skills for life.

I do hope that you too have enjoyed your visit and that you will wish to come back again. The members of staff here today would, I am sure, be delighted to speak to you about any specific issues or questions you may have, and I am very grateful to some current parents who have come today to answer any questions you may prefer to ask them rather than me!