THE WYKEHAM JOURNAL 2023
I think the outwardlooking Winchester is better than the inward-looking one I knew . I hope it stays that way .
Here are some of the things which are so striking to my generation :
• Bursaries and scholarships are perhaps the greatest change . The numbers are increasing year on year . Roughly one Wykehamist in five receives some kind of financial support . Those programmes , which diversify the school community , are expanding all the time .
• Winchester is not just diverse because of help with fees . Britain is an open economy in a globalised one : that alone diversifies the school community . Not long after the Hamas attack on Israeli kibbutzes near Gaza on October 7 th 2023 , a long-scheduled ‘ Model United Nations ’ school debate was staged on the Middle East . It went fine : no arguments went out of control or beyond reasonable limits . That points to a community able to manage a diversity of opinion and outlook .
• In the section of the school ’ s website called Educational Partnerships is a heading ‘ Enrichment Opportunities ’. The opportunities are for people outside the school . It lists seven different clubs and classes , several lectures and a summer school for maths . There are classes in drama , economics and chess . Note that the chess class is for primary school children .
• Dr Alex Clayton , who left the school last year after being Head of Geography , did not just teach . He is Chair of Winchester Action on the Climate Crisis and has advised the Warden and Fellows on changing the school ’ s diet to lower its consumption of scarce resources ( see interview with Oscar Mitcham p . 30 ). Geography was not even taught as a subject when I was in the school .
• There is a large programme of helping local state school pupils with Latin , Greek and Ancient History . Not many British schools have a Greek Club . School pupils do one-to-one teaching of retirees studying Latin with the University of the Third Age . Edmund Lewis , Head of Classics , notes that some of these activities were suggested by teachers but they were acted on and developed by pupils ( See also p . 42 ).
• Overall school partnerships link 18 secondary schools to Winchester . This year over 2,000 pupils will have taken part in more than 90 lectures , talks and events .
• The online teaching programme Catalyst , naturally boosted by demand during Covid lockdowns , reaches pupils aged between 10 and 17 in 46 countries .
• The Treasury now welcomes an average of 1,000 visitors a month .
• The school now takes not only girls but also day pupils .
• The Headmaster hails from the other side of the world .
My list is probably not complete . There will be other initiatives and I ’ m prepared to bet that some of those will weave new links to the world beyond the walls . Put together , these accumulating changes amount to more than adaptation : this is a transformative shift of basic outlook and attitude . You can see it in action in the interviews which follow with Oscar Mitcham and Edmund Lewis . I think that the outward-looking Winchester is better than the inward-looking one I knew . I hope it stays that way .
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