WINCHESTER IN THE 21 ST CENTURY
‘ We also need to equip them with the skills and knowledge which will allow them both to thrive in the modern world and to contribute to it — and , indeed , contribute to creating a better modern world .’
them to go online with relatively few glitches . Dr Hands says proudly : ‘ If this had happened two years earlier we would have been stumped . But now we have a Wi-Fi network capable of sustaining digital learning for all the pupils in the school . We ’ re very grateful to William of Wykeham for a number of absolutely splendid benefactions , but his IT cabling was not one of them . We were overdue an upgrade .’
There is a second positive that comes from Winchester ’ s COVID experience claims Dr Hands : ‘ It ’ s about the value of scholarship . We gave Dr John Cullerne a sabbatical a year or two back and he went to look at epidemiology in Oxford . The reason we ’ ve not missed a single day of education at this school , and no one could have done better , is because John Cullerne is a scholar . And the Governing Body approved £ 45,000 for a testing machine .’ The extraordinary story of how the school re-opened safely and fast last autumn and again in 2021 is told in full later in this Journal through the interview with John Cullerne .
The COVID nightmare isn ’ t over from an educational perspective as , in line with government guidelines to schools across the UK , Winchester re-opened , but for a second year has been forced to abandon key exams in favour of teacher-allocated grades .
‘ It is a bit chaotic ,’ says Dr Hands , ‘ and it ’ s caused lots of heartache for lots of parents , lots of pupils , lots of universities , and it is very , very , very hard work for the teachers to grade . You ’ re running a school when for much of the time no one ’ s been there , you ’ re doing it all remotely and you have to calculate grades in accordance with algorithms that don ’ t really have much science behind them .’
As the school moves into a new era , reaction to the package of planned changes , including admitting girls , has been two to one in favour so far . And one thing is sure — the number of pupils wishing to study at Winchester will continue to far outweigh the number of places available , and in future the education offered will be even wider than before . As the Headmaster puts it : ‘ With equality comes choice .’ The Warden adds : ‘ We need to ensure that our pupils continue to leave the school with values and a sense of purpose . But we also need to equip them with the skills and knowledge which will allow them both to thrive in the modern world and to contribute to it — and , indeed , contribute to creating a better modern world . That ’ s what William of Wykeham would have expected .’
Written by MARGARET GILMORE
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