... William of Wykeham was also a radical innovator in how he wanted education delivered – and to whom.
the school, including the appointment of a new group of Fellows( although existing Fellows were allowed to carry on – my predecessor, Warden Lee, managed to remain in his role until his death in 1903).
This may seem a rather irrelevant bit of history. But, in practice, the governance of Winchester was changed radically as a result of the Clarendon Commission and today we face the likelihood of similarly major change – at Winchester and more widely – flowing from the new financial burdens imposed by the government; combined with a move towards more homogenised learning across the maintained and independent sectors. It is not yet clear where the latter process will end, but the Secretary of State’ s approach to Academies suggests a desire to revert to greater central control of what is taught in schools – and how; to insist on teaching qualifications as a precursor to work in the classroom( which would reduce our ability to recruit talented graduates and help them train on the job); and to make education ever more vocational in its purpose.
The principle of having a vocational focus to much of our education system is admirable( and, indeed, William of Wykeham founded Winchester and New College in significant part to provide replacements for the priests killed in the Black Death). However, William of Wykeham was also a radical innovator in how he wanted education delivered – and to whom. It is a tribute to his vision that Henry VI borrowed so much of it when founding Eton College 60 years later. It would be nice to think that Bridget Phillipson’ s reforms might be seen as a model to follow in the 2080s – but improbable.
I dwell on all this because Winchester is almost uniquely ill-suited to a flat, monochrome vision of education – with teaching expected to achieve narrow, mechanical goals. Like many independent schools, we offer a broad curriculum and the opportunity to study subjects, from Classics to Modern Languages to Music, which risk becoming extinct in the maintained sector. The result is that we face exceptionally challenging times and will need to adapt, just as the school did( eventually!) after the Clarendon Commission. It is too early to predict exactly how the independent education sector as a whole will evolve over the next 2-3 years. There is no real doubt, however, that it will become smaller, more dependent on overseas pupils and more concentrated in London and its environs.
... we face exceptionally challenging times and will need to adapt.
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