Concordia
Merchant Taylors’ School
thought is that the concept of “Englishness”
is not outmoded. My second is that we are
not required to choose between the elements
that make up Englishness and then discard
some parts.
When I think of the English I think of a
nation of good humoured people, not prone
to revolutionary outbursts. We are motivated
by a sense of fair play, tolerance of others
and respect for each other’s rights. We are a
mercantile and financial nation but are never
inclined to define a person by their material
wealth. We laugh at those who think too
highly of themselves and champion the
underdog. A sense of service and duty has
defined us.
We have given the world a
disproportionately large number of its
inventions and scientific breakthroughs and
almost all of its games. We are prone to self-
deprecation but when the moment comes
we stand up and are counted, as we saw last
summer at the Olympics.
I see no value in stepping back from any
of these admirable qualities and would
extend them to all who inhabit our island –
the English have always been a collection of
peoples from a wide variety of backgrounds.
We have been a nation of immigrants from
the moment the hunters first followed the
herds north after the retreating glaciers of
the last Ice Age.
Traditionally Taylors’ has been a
“broad church” with many teaching
styles and personality types in the
academic faculty. Should we maintain
this approach or seek to follow more
rigorously current best practices in
education?
We should seek to identify and celebrate the
best andmost effective work inMerchant
Taylors’. Typically that will be characterised
by high expectations and high standards
of scholarship. We should seek to share
that best practice so that each learns from
the others. I amunconvinced by imposed
“cookie cutter” approaches to improving
teaching and learning. However, we can
learn from research and each other to help
us develop our practice and we should do so.
Given the choice would you describe
yourself primarily as a pragmatist or a
visionary?
I would resist the choice. I think it is perfectly
possible to pursue an ideal through a
pragmatic and practical process.
Are you an elitist? Do schools like MTS
need to reclaim the word elite as an
aspect of excellence about which there
is nothing to be ashamed?
No-one criticises professional sports teams
for being an elite. No-one felt it inappropriate
for the BritishOlympic team to select those
athletes who weremost gifted, who had
trained hardest and who had the greatest
ambition to represent our country. If we
were to find ourselves facing an operation
we would wish the surgeon to have been
selected carefully for aptitude and then
trained to the best of his or her ability. I have
absolutely no problemwith the concept of
an elite group and would seek, through the
provision of an outstanding education, to
enlarge the intellectual elite in this country.
The concept of an elite group becomes
problematic only where the support and
provision for the gifted few prevents or
diminishes the support for those less
fortunate. As such, as we stretch our most
able we should also find ways to support
others and inculcate a sense of service and
wider responsibility in our brightest and best.
The pace of change seems only to
accelerate. What can we do best in terms
of preparing pupils for adult life with
such rapidly changing patterns in the
skills requirements, career paths, and job
opportunities across the economy?
If we encourage such qualities as curiosity,
resilience, integrity, academic rigour,
determination, ambition, and good humour
I think that our pupils will be able to find
ways to apply those talents in whatever way
they wish and will be able to find success in
whatever aspect of life they choose to seek it.
MTS lays huge emphasis on the
quirky and the value of being
independent minded. Can we retain
that emphasis in this world of systems
and accountabilities and homogenized
examination systems?
Yes, I believe we can. We must have the
courage of our convictions.
At the end of the day, schools like MTS
offer more than simply an excellent
education – they open a window onto
a world of values. What values do you
cherish most as a man and as a teacher?
I agree that the purpose of a good school
is to do more than provide an excellent
academic education. A good school should
inspire its pupils and foster creativity. A
good school provides an environment where
the pupils are confident and personable,
with highly developed social skills and the
capacity to form lifelong friendships.
The values of comradeship, good humour,
service, loyalty and resilience will sustain
our pupils and guide their decisions. I think
a school should try to develop a moral
compass within the pupils. A sense of right
and wrong, a desire to serve others and
an adherence to the principles of fair play
should not be the preserve of the pupils
but should be modelled, exemplified and
embodied in the actions of their school.
Values are best shown in practice rather
than theory; I hope that my previous answers
will have given a better demonstration of
the values that I espouse than any simple
assertion of them could do. I believe that
values lie at the heart of a good education; I
amdelighted to join a school whose values
I share.
