In the Great War alone, seven hundred
and seven pupils lost their lives, a number
exceeded only by those killed in two other
British schools, Eton and Marlborough. The
house system provided the heart of the pupil
experience. Each belonged to a house with
some fifty other boys, and they were run
substantially by the older students. Discipline
was harsh, with ‘fagging’ (doing chores for
older pupils) and regular beating by prefects.
The house system taught boys obedience,
loyalty and resilience. Games were ubiquitous
in school life. All played, whether they were
sporty or not. Physical contact sports, notably
rugby, predominated. They taught boys
the importance of team over self and that a
greater fear of injury would be the contempt
of their fellow players.
All students belonged to the Combined
Cadet Force or CCF which constituted the
final strand. Parade, drill, ‘operations’ and
camp constituted the core activities. Boys
learnt how to give and receive punishment
and to accept discipline without complaining.
Physical strength was at a premium.
The Wellington regime was harsh, and has
been captured by the novelist Sebastian
Faulks in his 2008 book ‘Engleby’. It describes
a brutal school which is unmistakably
Wellington which Faulks had attended
during the 1960s. The Wellington College he
describes in its first 100 years undoubtedly
developed a certain kind of character
strength, as did other public schools. The
downside was it legitimised aggression and
bullying. ‘Kindness’ was deemed soft and
milky. Feminine, indeed. Woe betide any boy
who was effeminate, still more gay.
The school had changed much by the time
I became headmaster in 2006. I promptly
made the school fully co-educational, and
promoted a more rounded and kind vision
of character. Our new character approach
has five strands. In 2006, we began to teach
wellbeing (popularly called ‘happiness’),
based on the University of Pennsylvania’s
resilience programme, founded by the
‘father’ of positive psychology, Professor
Martin Seligman.
ethos magazine
Until the most recent years, every student
attended chapel daily, and twice on Sunday.
The first headmasters were all ordained,
as was common in many public schools.
‘Muscular Christianity’ imbued every pore of
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