Tag: Schools

Follow, my leader

March 15, 2024

In an early work from his debut collection Death of a Naturalist, the late great Irish poet Seamus Heaney eulogises his farmer father as he “worked with a horse-plough,/His shoulders globed like a full sail strung/Between the shafts and the furrow.” The poem – ‘Follower’ – is a vivid evocation of youthful wonder, admiration and awe, and is a poignant love letter to his ‘expert’ father whose furrows Heaney followed, not as a farmer but, as he suggests in the companion poem ‘Digging’, as a writer who would go on to excavate the Irish landscape and dig into its troubled history.

The collection Death of a Naturalist was to have a profound impact upon me as a schoolboy, introduced to Heaney’s work by a new – and wonderfully passionate- teacher who joined our school as I entered my final year. Until that point, I had always enjoyed studying English, but it was the arrival of the inspirational figure of Mr McLaughlin that truly fired my imagination and revealed to me the power – and impact – of the written word.

‘Seamus Heaney’ by Old Oswestrian artist Peter Edwards (copyright National Portrait Gallery)

Amongst others – including my grandfather, a Classics teacher – Mick McLaughlin played an influential role in my own pathway into teaching and, having continued to take a keen interest in Irish literature whilst studying English at university, it was to Heaney that I first turned – and returned – when I commenced my own teaching career. I found it a particularly moving – and symbolic – moment as, in turn, I taught Heaney’s poem ‘Follower’ to my own A Level students, conscious as I was of following in the Tweed-suited, brogues-wearing footsteps of Mr McLaughlin. As Heaney did when he followed in the literal furrows of his father, I, too, “stumbled in his hobnailed wake,/Fell sometimes on the polished sod,” though, thankfully for Mr McLaughlin, I at least didn’t ask him to give me a piggy back as Heaney’s father did with the young Heaney “dipping and rising to his plod”!

Leader as Follower

There’s a lovely moment each year at our school’s summer term Speech Day when the Head Boy and Head Girl announce to the school and our guests the names of those who will follow them as the next year’s Heads of School. Having led the school for the past academic year and delivered their valedictory speeches, their final act is to welcome on to stage their successors, handing over their Heads of School gowns as they do so, a symbolic gesture of the passing of leadership from one cohort to another. With a history spanning over 615 years, I find it a powerful reminder of the golden thread that connects one year group to the next, the metaphoric baton of leadership being passed across not only the years but across the centuries, too. In this sense, our Heads of School become both leaders and followers, walking in the footsteps of their forebearers, learning from them, emulating their example, but ploughing their own furrow, and doing it their own way.

This term we have spent the past few weeks interviewing the next cohort of Prefects to lead the school in the forthcoming academic year. One of the questions we ask requires applicants to reflect on what makes a great leader, and to provide examples of leaders they’d wish to emulate. Many of them pointed to the example of our current Heads of School Myles and Marta, and their Deputies Jessie and Harris as leaders they admire and whose example they hope to follow. They point to Myles’s approachability and his empathy, his calm manner and his willingness to drop everything to listen to a fellow pupil in their time of need. They point to Marta’s example on and off the sports field, her energy, her organisation, her ability to get things done. They point to Harris’s kind nature and his imaginative approach (and his Instagram status as the star of our pupil-led Football team account that has a fast-growing following!). They point to Jessie and the way the youngsters in our Prep School look up to her and admire her, and the ‘glue’ she provides in her own yeargroup.

These four – and their Prefect team – were appointed for the skillsets and character attributes they possessed. They had seen examples of strong leadership from their predecessors, who in turn had role models to follow from their own predecessors. And when we appoint the Prefect Elect and begin the process of handover again, next year’s cohort will spend the coming term following in the furrows of the current Upper Sixth before they take the baton on and lead themselves.

The golden thread continues; unbroken. Follower. Leader. Leader-Follower.

Oswestry Heads of School (clockwise from top left): Myles; Marta; Harris; Jessie

Curator Leadership

One of the tremendous privileges over the past few years in which I have been Headmaster of Oswestry School has been the opportunity to meet a number of my predecessors. Some I knew already from ‘the circuit’ including my immediate predecessors Julian Noad (now Head at Queen’s School, Taunton) and Douglas Robb (now Head at Gresham’s), but others I have met when they have taken the time to visit us whether on Founder’s Day or just in passing through, including Paul Smith (Headmaster 1995-2000) and the legendary figure of Frank Gerstenburg (Headmaster 1974-1985). All were great Heads and steered the good ship skilfully, carefully, and at times courageously through waters calm, choppy and sometimes stormy.

When you are the Head of a school founded in 1407, you quickly gain a sense of the privilege and responsibility of the role, first and foremost of course to the community of pupils and staff one leads, but likewise the privilege and responsibility of stewardship, taking on the metaphorical baton from those who have led the schools across the centuries, and ensuring the golden thread of the school continues uninterrupted.

“Your leadership is temporary,” writes educationalist and former Head Richard Gerver, “and you are just the author of one chapter in a school’s history, a custodian: your aim must be to ensure that it is a great chapter and actually so good that it sets up the next one to be even greater.”

Former Oswestry School Heads Paul Smith (top left) and Frank Gerstenberg (bottom left)

Whether a Headmaster, a Head of School, a Prefect- or any of the other many leadership roles within a school community- one’s leadership is temporary. We are custodians of the school, curators even: our role is to look after. Looking after those within our care, looking after the school. As we have followed in the footsteps of those who have gone before us, in turn we lay a trail for those who come after to follow behind.

Perhaps it’s not a golden thread after all, but a golden tread. In time, our footsteps will disappear, but for those that follow immediately after, they are firmly imprinted, a golden tread to follow, a golden tread to lead forward from.

Image: copyright Anup Shah | Getty

Dwelling in Possibility

September 15, 2022

The English poet Emily Dickinson once wrote, “I dwell… in possibility.”  

As an educationalist, when I think of our pupils I think, above all else, of possibility. The possibility of new experiences.  The possibility of new friendships.  The possibility of exciting futures ahead.  

Some of our pupils- those who attend the Prep School at Bellan House- are as young as 4- how exciting to be starting school in Reception and to begin this great adventure for the first time!  At the other end of the school, those in the U6th enter their final year of secondary education with the prospect of moving on to a new chapter beyond.  Those in between have opportunities galore: adventures to go on; memories to make; whole worlds to explore inside and outside the classroom.  Possibilities abound.  

Reception pupils from Bellan House share a moment reading together as they embark upon their first year at school


Never Give Up

This summer, anyone who likes their sport was treated to an absolute feast of sporting competition, perhaps best of all the glorious victory of the Lionesses in the women’s European Football Championships.  If, like me, you like your athletics, not only was there the World Athletic Championships held in Oregon, USA, but you also had the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham and the European Championships in Munich. 

Now I’m a bit of a running geek, so I’ll literally watch any athletics going, but for me, the greatest moment of them all was the Scottish runner Eilish McColgan’s epic 10,000m victory in the Commonwealth Games, roared on by the 30,000 capacity crowd in Birmingham’s Alexandra Stadium.  

It was an incredible race, an unbelievably gutsy run, but what made it so special is that this was McColgan’s first global title which, at the age of 31 was something that many felt was perhaps slipping from her grasp. 

Photo: Tom Jenkins/The Guardian


McColgan had competed in three previous Commonwealth Games. And in those three previous Games, she had raced in three different events: the 1500m; the 5km; and the Steeplechase.  She had never won a medal, finishing 6th every single time.   

What made her victory all the more impressive was that it came during a year in which she was wiped out for seven weeks due to Covid, and then suffered further illness and minor injuries in the run up to the previous month’s World Championships where she finished 10th.  

Imagine what it takes to stand on that startline in your fourth Commonwealth Games, having never placed higher than 6th, towards the end of your track career, and having just a month before placed 10th, your year’s training ravaged by injury and illness.  Oh, and throw in the fact that her mum Liz had twice won Commonwealth Gold in the same event; a further weight of expectation and pressure to contend with.  You’d think she’d have gone in with significant doubts about whether or not she could do it.

The odds stacked against her, that race took guts; it took self-belief.  But Elish McColgan refused to be defined by her past.  She dwelled in possibility.

Think Not What You Are, but What You Can Become

In the small town of Gilgil in Kenya there’s a place called The Restart Centre.  On its walls are painted in big, bold letters, the words: Think Not What You Are, but What You Can become.

I have had the privilege of visiting the Restart Centre on many occasions over the last decade, and it is one of the most extraordinary places I have ever been to.

Home to orphaned and abandoned street children- some as young as but a few months old- The Restart Centre was set up by an incredible lady called Mary Coulson who felt that she had to do something to help the increasing number of street children in her home town of Gilgil following tribal violence in the country during the 2008 election.  Her vision was to provide a safe haven for these children who had experienced such a difficult start to their lives, many of whom had experienced significant loss, many of whom had suffered unspeakably, all of whom had been dealt a cruel hand in life.

Founder Mary Coulson with children from the Restart Centre

If you ever get the chance to visit The Restart Centre you will be surprised, as I was, with just how happy these children are.  They have experienced terrible loss, suffered tremendously, and carry wounds both physical and emotional.  You would expect them to be downcast.  Downbeat.  Damaged.   Yet even if you’re only there for a short time, you will quickly be infused with the most glorious laughter, the most infectious smiles, and a wonderful, deep joy that can be seen in the way they sing, in the way they dance, in the way they talk, in the way that they live.  It is one of the most uplifting and inspiring things to witness.

Mary Coulson’s simple goal was to provide these children with a future.  With a restart.  And in this small green corner of Gilgil, she has created a place of love.  A place of support. A place, above all, of hope.  For these children, there is now a future.  They have been able to start again; to re-start.  They do not dwell on their past and what their lives have been; instead, they dream of the future, focus their energies on what they can become.

They, too, dwell in possibility.  Think not what you are, they’ll tell you, but what you can become.

Refresh and Restart

For those of us in education, the start of September marks a restart.  Whether new or returning, pupil or staff, the first day of the new term and the new academic year signals an opportunity.  We are fortunate not to have experienced the unimaginable start in life that the children of the Restart Centre have gone through, but we can be inspired by their example, as indeed we can be inspired by the likes of Elish McColgan, the Lionesses, and countless other shining examples of determination, perseverance, and hope.  We can be encouraged to dwell not in the past but to focus our energies on the future and the possibilities that lie ahead.  We can- and should- dream.

Dwell in possibility.