Tower and Town, September 2017

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Master of Marlborough College

The chance to be head of a school is something hugely privileged and unique. It is not without risk, and demands a mixture of all-round skills. No individual can possibly be blessed with the full range of answers to cope with a relentless series of demands. As is life’s way, the toughest times have a remorseless way of impacting just when life is most stretched.

Over 25 years in post has seen the job change hugely. Parents are more involved than was the case a generation ago. Then, there was a certain belief that you handed over your child to be developed during their adolescence. Five years later the finished all round article was handed back, ready to take their place in the wider world. It was likely that the next step was University but never guaranteed. Since then secondary schooling has reached a point where almost all from the private sector went on to tertiary education. However recent years with the impact of tuition fees bedding in, have seen a commendable reversion to more creative thinking, as alternatives to the treadmill of going straight on to a degree is now open to scrutiny.

Academically the need for strong results has increased. A generation of parents and youngsters are increasingly obsessed with measurement. The demands that this places on youngsters has intensified. This is reaping concerning results through the pressures created. Heightened mental anxiety is a consequence. Also the wider parameters of a broader education have become more constrained. If success is reduced to mere results, then the system has taken over. However, if education means the development of the whole person, whilst affording teenagers the space in which to think things through, then this narrowing of focus is in danger of producing less thinking individuals. The wider consequences for broad, cultured individuals is less.

In an age where the internet affords ever wider opportunities for research, there is an irony in finding that it may well be confining broad thinking, albeit unwittingly. Concentration is at a premium in an age of quick fix solutions and the hidden shallows of the click of a button leave pupils under-informed. Thinking skills are the victim of this fate. In short, the inequalities exposed through global connectivity are creating a more bitter and less contented world view. Each individual is endangered by anger associated with the insecurities that have been exposed.

Having had the opportunity to Head three hugely different schools and the honour of concluding at Marlborough where the College and the town are truly remarkable, there is one thing which is certain. Service of young men and women at a formative time in their lives is a major opportunity.

The chance to set cultural norms for each generation during the secondary years is both challenging and rewarding. However, the pupils are full of optimism, and this remains the case year in year out. They can make this a better world and the promotion of rigour, responsibility and respect is something well understood. The real price of privilege is the realisation of the need to give back in a world which is improved when the best of what has been learnt is freely made available to others.

Jonathan Leigh