Boarding School - Royal Alexandra and Albert School

It is wonderful to see so many of you here today. A particular welcome The Worshipful Cllr David Pay, Mayor of Reigate & Bansted and Mrs Pay. Also to Mr Adrian Underwood, OBE.and his wife Pam.

It is particularly fitting that Adrian should be our guest as this school is the second largest state boarding school in England in terms of numbers of Boarders. Adrian was, until recently, National Director of the Boarding Schools Association, which brings together over 500 independent and state boarding schools. Before that Adrian was Headmaster of a boarding school. In fact he combined for many years the roles of Headmaster and Bursar - not something I would enjoy, but if Governors are looking for cost savings....
Adrian is supposed to be retired, but I know he spent last week leading the team inspecting another boarding school and he also has a commitment which is as demanding as a part-time job - keeping his golf up to a seriously high standard.

Adrian, welcome to Royal Alexandra and Albert School and to our 249th Founders' Weekend and we look forward to hearing what you have to say to us

I have to start what I am going to say today with last Summer's results.

Exam results are the product of an alliance: pupils who work hard, parents who support and encourage their children, boarding staff who support and encourage boarders and day boarders and teachers who are determined that their pupils should have the best possible teaching.

School League Tables of results have been around for a long time now, and I am very glad that most parents, and most of you here today, are not deceived by simple statistics. We all understand that a bright pupil will do well in any school and that each and every pupil has their own limitations. The measure of a good school is how much progress each individual child makes while he or she is at a school and this measure is called value-added - or CVA.......

First of all, in simple League Table terms the results for this School are very pleasing. We had our highest ever percentage score for Maths and English in the Primary SATs - and a mere 97% in Science which was below the school record of 98%. We had our highest ever percentage score for Maths and English in the Key Stage 3 SATs and our highest ever percentage score at GCSE,

But I told you that League Tables are not the most important measure of a school. The measure that gives me by far the greatest pleasure is that we were the 28th best out of over 3000 schools in England for Contextual Value Added and, incidentally, 37th most improved school in England for the new measure of 5 or more GCSEs at C or above including English and Maths.
So I would like you to say a huge thank you to the staff, both teaching and non-teaching, who ensured that our pupils achieved such results.

In January 1963 we employed a young Electrician. Forty Four years, four months later, Ted, as he is universally known, is Clerk of Works, running the Maintenance Department and supervising outside contractors.

Ted founded what became the school's Cadet Corps and also established Riding as a sport at the school.

In 1990 two light planes collided over the school and one crashed onto the playing fields. Ted lived in a house on the estate and a boy knocked on his door to tell him that a plane had just crashed on a Rugby pitch. Ted told the boy not to talk nonsense and marched him over to the pitch as a preliminary to telling the boy off for wasting his time..... and then spent the next few hours checking to see that no children had been caught in the crash, (they had not) dealing with the spilt fuel, and removing the wreckage once the bodies had been removed. By the end of that day the debris had all been removed, the crater had been filled in and the pitch re-seeded.

Every Headmaster needs a Ted. When I told him proudly of my idea to turn the gymnasium into a Performing Arts Centre he listened respectfully before saying "I'll get out the drawings that I did in the 1980's. I did wonder when you would get round to wanting a theatre".

Typically, when the Birthday Honours were announced, Ted had arranged to be on a two week cruise with Barbara, his wife, who retired recently after over thirty years service at the school. His justification for asking for time off in term time was so that he could spend the whole of the Summer supervising four major projects which need to be finished by 1st September - and they were be finished - on time and to budget.

I wish talk today about three matters: Sports College and Sports in General
Then
The progress and development of four individual pupils that I shall name ....
But first of all how life at this school has changed for the pupils in this Chapel today and how it will be changing over the next year or two.

Last September the Juniors moved out of the old Health Centre Annexe and into new classrooms built in part of the playground. Too late for those in Year 7 here today and were here last year in Year 6. And last Summer Gatton Hall was refurbished which completed our programme of bringing boarding accommodation up to scratch.

Over this Summer we are building large ground-floor extensions on both Albert and Elizabeth houses to provide much more common room space and better computer facilities. The other five houses should also have extensions built over the next three years. And for September 2008 we plan to build two new Science laboratories, as well as new classrooms in the area where the old "weights hut" currently stands.

So that is the buildings - and this year we also opened the new Indoor Riding School and the Fitness Centre. But what about the people in the buildings and what they will be doing?

There is already an impressive range of activities that take place after lessons in the evening and at weekends. From next September we are re-organising these events to make it easier for more pupils to attend and so when lessons end at 3.30 pm, there will be a short break for a snack and something to drink before an activities hour from 4.00 to 5.00 pm. After Tea and Prep there will be a second activities slot from 7.00 pm to 9.00 pm with pm with Sports, Musical activities, Cadets, Scouts and Cubs, Photography, Fishing, Debating and many other clubs and Societies.

By having a structured programme of activities at fixed times every day, I believe that we are providing the balanced education that young people do not get in many schools and which is the particular merit of a boarding school.

There are some young people here who seem to take part in everything, who are always busy doing some sport, acting, helping with reading in the Junior Boarding House Rank-Weston, playing a musical instrument or singing, doing a Duke of Edinburgh's Award hike, dancing, going to the theatre... the list goes on and on

My ambition is for all pupils to be taking part, to be trying out an activity they have never done before and to be finding new activities where they can enjoy themselves and achieve success.

Almost two years ago this school was designated a Sports College, and I want to talk briefly about what this means. The four elements of Sports college are Participation, Performance, Leadership and Healthy Lifestyles.

Participation: we hope that all pupils will take part in a range of sports activities, the sports and games that we already play as well as, for example Young Gattonians, Scouts and Cubs.

Performance: this is about the Gifted and Talented Scheme we run for sports men and women, as well as performance in PE exams.

As a school we have identified a number of sports that we can or hope to offer in the future. These are divided into three categories:

Focus Sports - Those in which we aim to excel and compete at a local and national level.
Development Sports - Those in which we aim to provide opportunities for all pupils to participate both recreationally and competitively.
Curriculum Enhancement Sports - Those sports which we do not offer at present but hope to in the future to extend the curriculum and extra-curricular opportunities for pupils.

Leadership: increasing numbers of our secondary pupils are already involved in coaching and training younger pupils both at this school and in other schools.

Finally Healthy Lifestyles. Somebody attacks turkey twizzlers - whatever they are - and sets up a commission on school meals or even bans salt from school Dining Rooms; you will note that we do not have salt on the tables in the Dining Room. These are all one-off events which make no real difference to our young people.

What does make a real difference is encouraging our young people to eat healthily every day by providing them with quality fresh nutritious food, and educating them about the benefits of eating well. What also works is encouraging them to have an active life-style and to try the games and sports activities that they will continue into adult life. For some odd reason the PE Department does not offer the sporting activity which I continue to practice; but they say it is impracticable to run sessions of walking the Labrador!

Few of you will have heard of East Surrey School Sport Partnership - which is a pity as it is an offshoot of our Sports College activity. Over £300,000 per year is funnelled through this school to all Primary, Secondary and Special Schools in the area to promote sport and Healthy Lifestyles.

Groups of Primary Schools - we call them families of schools - using their School Sport Co-ordinators, who are financed by the East Surrey School Sport Partnership, work them to create new policies for PE and games as well as running Healthy Living days.

A good school not only works with its own pupils but has a positive effect on other schools round it.

And now I come to talk about four individual pupils: Mary, Wilson, Aubrey and Norman. Some clearly recognise these names - but many do not. Let me explain. These young people are four orphans at The Open Arms Infant Home in Blantyre, Malawi and they attend the Ladybird International School. They are aged 7 and 8 - which means they are of Year 3 age. This school has given a commitment to support these four young people by paying for their education and financing their places at the orphanage. This is not a one-off charitable event but a long-term commitment to see them through their childhood and their education and we hope into employment at the end of it.

I can report that this year their progress at school has been "steady" and all four of them are appear to their Headmistress to be "happy and secure" there.

This year we raised the necessary £1500 through collecting boxes, some special events in houses and through the generosity of Helen Attreed, our HSBC Bank sponsor Governor. When you are having drinks and lunch down by Gatton Hall and in the Dining Hall there will be pupils with collecting boxes for the Open Arms Orphanage Appeal. I thank you, in advance, for generously supporting Aubrey, Wilson, Norman and Mary.

In conclusion, I believe we have a firm vision for the future of this school: the balance of education. Obviously what happens in the classroom is vital, but equally vital is the boarding school concept of broad education; of Music, Sport, Drama and many other activities which teach young people both self-confidence and the ability to live and work alongside each other.