The Wykehamist
the learning in this school( I won’ t be specific because I don’ t want to offend anyone) which was picked up from an external source, and all the schemes of work had to be done in a certain kind of way, on the basis that we were a certain kind of school; and we went on holiday and came back, and they’ d switched providers— and then we were a“ something else” school, and we had different pictograms, and we rewrote everything using the new lingo, and it was all absolutely pointless. Education is very prone to that. So one of the things I want to do is filter that out and be protective, so I’ m not wasting staff time and dons’ time on that kind of thing, so that they can be free to do the things that do matter and are enduring.
The other part of the job of the Headmaster is to love the people here. And love means doing what’ s good for them, whether or not they particularly welcome it [ laughs ]. Middle Part are finding the phone policy a bit tough on Sundays— and if we stick to our guns, it’ s because we love them. But, genuinely, major social institutions, major cultural institutions— they’ re really suffering. The majority of people don’ t go to church, or temple, or mosque. Community clubs, sports clubs; everyone’ s very happy for their children to play in them, but the sort of people who would put in forty years of service running the local football club are dying out. All of those volunteer organisations are struggling. People have other demands on their time. But one of the few institutions left that is still strong and plays a massive role in people’ s lives is school. And so I think that means we’ re important to the pupils, not just while they’ re enrolled but even once they graduate, to their families, and with the local community and so on. Making this a healthy community with a mindset of mutual service, where people are treated with dignity and feel as if they belong is a really important part of the role.
JD: So, something that you haven’ t touched on, but I imagine is quite integral to the role of Headmaster, is that position of being a bridge between the onsite school and the governing body; the Fellows, the Warden. What kind of relationship is that?
HM: I’ m happy to say that I am blessed with Fellows who really understand what their role is, and who are able to be very involved with the life of the school; they’ re very active, some more than others because of where they happen to live and what their circumstances are, but they are all very actively involved, and in different parts of the school. I get advice two or three times a week from a Fellow. We have people who are experts in finance, we’ ve got people— safeguarding governor, for instance, that’ s an enormous role— we’ ve got people who spent their careers in advertising and marketing. One of our Fellows was himself a Head. So depending on the issue, I frankly have this board of free expert advisors that I can run something past just by picking up the phone. It’ s an immensely constructive and productive relationship. The amount of professional advice and assistance that we get out of the Warden and Fellows is astonishing— for free! [ laughs ] It is remarkable. The Warden, in particular, spends an extraordinary amount of time on the school.
JD: Thank you. It’ s very reassuring.
HM: [ laughs ]
TD: In your view, what about Winchester should always remain true? What will?
HM: It’ s very hard to narrow it down. I would say the most distinctive thing about Winchester is our culture of learning and scholarship, and the joy in learning for its own sake. You’ re never going to find a school anywhere that says,‘ We train people up to be extrinsically motivated, derivative thinkers’, no-one’ s going to say that, but the bottom line is that in many schools, what they’ ll say they’ re about is academic excellence, and that very quickly moves into‘ here are our exam results’. And it’ s implicit in what they say that that’ s their marker of success.
I just think we’ re different. I hear over and
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