A WIDER PERSPECTIVE
George Brock , Cox , 2nd VIII , 1967
and , equally important , what has not . Two things have not altered . The school ’ s intellectual culture remains distinctive . It is no accident that when the school ’ s online courses were offered to teenagers all over the world as Catalyst the emphasis was on ‘ Div ’, regular lessons distinct from the exam curriculum asking and answering interesting questions while crossing barriers between subjects . The school remains a world leader in teaching thinking .
Secondly the idea of service to society remains unaltered and strong . This may express itself in all sorts of ways and take many varied forms in different eras , but that ideal runs like a thread through the school ’ s history . You will see it reflected in several of the interviews which follow . If you asked a random selection of people what had changed about Winchester in the last two decades , it ’ s a fair bet that many would name the arrival of girls in the school . But the inevitable headlines which that announcement attracted are misleading . The creation of a girls ’ Boarding House is a significant moment , but it is part of a much larger and more significant shift . Winchester has become an outward-looking school .
When I arrived at the school in 1965 , it was inward-looking by comparison with today . Schools must always adapt and change if they are to continue . But a very large number of the changes made in recent years have a common denominator : they connect the school to the outside in new ways . And these connections themselves enrich and broaden the school and what it achieves . The total effect of these innovations is greater than the sum of the parts .
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