December 9th - Message from the Headmaster

Dear Parents

 

The sounds of Christmas are ringing in my ears and through the school. On Tuesday evening, a packed house enjoyed Carols round the Fire – the smell of log smoke, the Choir of 71, the wind and string ensembles, all gave us an evening to remember. Every year group in the school was represented and over 80 pupils had a role to play in making Christmas music. The programme was varied with an extract from Handel’s Messiah, which was outstandingly performed, as well as an extract from Blackadder’s Christmas and other brief readings, interspersed with congregational hymns. Many Battle residents again joined us for this special celebration.

 

Yesterday the whole school sat down together for Christmas lunch and after the excellent meal, provided by our high class catering team, the traditional paper fight and the singing of Christmas songs brought fun, laughter and a sense of belonging to a special group – the family of the school. The Upper Sixth were as excited as Year 7. "Tis the season to be jolly" and we jolly well were!

 

Now, as I write, the Sixth Form are putting on a marvellous entertainment for the rest of the school and I am looking forward to the Carol Service.

 

The week began with Richard Malewicz and Rob Mercers Year 10 Modern Nativity. Amidst much humour, a serious message was put over and nearly £500 raised for the homeless this Christmas.

 

It has been a term full of good things, high achievements and happy days. Behind the scenes there has been also enormous hard work and some tensions, which are inevitable as the hectic programme of school life unfolds. It has once again been a real privilege to lead a dedicated and highly experienced team of teachers and support staff on three sites, to work with wonderfully supportive parents but above all to be part of the education of some remarkable young people of whom I am very proud. We are handing them back to you for Christmas. I hope the season brings you great happiness and good cheer and that the New Year is filled with health, happiness and prosperity for us all.

 

Thank you, parents, for all your support.

 

Warmest wishes Roger Clark

25th November - Message from the Headmaster

Dear Parents

 

As the end of term approaches, the very busy life of the school is especially emphasised. I look forward to seeing parents at a variety of events, starting next week with the senior production of "The Sea", followed by Carols round the Fire and the Christmas end of term Carol Service. There are other exciting Christmas events at the Prep School as well of course, which I am very much looking forward to.

 

The academic programme remains in full swing. Our first batch of Oxbridge candidates are off for interview very soon. Year 11 pupils are to be treated to a very important, formal "Mock" examination at the very start of next term and work that they do now and in the holidays will help us all get the best picture of their present academic status.

The Sixth Form Christmas dinner, in all its Hollywood splendour, will be enjoyed by over 80 pupils and staff this Saturday and I am very grateful to those pupils who have organised this annual event so very well.

 

On the last Monday of term, Year 10 under the dedicated leadership of Mr Malewicz and Mr Mercer are putting on a Modern Nativity. We look forward to this interpretation of the Christmas Story, which will be introduced by one of our Governors, the Revd George Pitcher. I am really pleased with the very positive way in which our form teachers use their form time each week to supplement and broaden the pupils’ curriculum.

 

With my very best wishes

 
Roger Clark

18th November - Message from the Headmaster

Dear Parents

Last Friday, the school observed the two minute silence as part of a service of remembrance led as usual by Mike Ansar-Carver. The adults and children shared a truly reverential experience. Mr A-C always brings a moving, historical dimension to this most important service and skilfully takes us out of our everyday lives and makes us concentrate for a while on those who have died in the service of their country and the many others who have suffered in war. He mentioned among much else the very few "grateful villages", where there was no loss of life in the first World War (only one village in the whole of Sussex, East Wittering) but used the local village of Wadhurst to illustrate the norm, where over 600 from a population of 2,000 in 1914 did not return.

On Monday I chose to speak to the school on the theme of forgiveness and some of the themes expressed in the Sermon on the Mount - "Blessed are the Peacemakers". Let us hope and pray that the generation of young people leaving school in the next few years will eventually make a better job of guarding the planet and tolerating each other than their predecessors have done. I also hope very much that some of the lessons your children are learning here will make a small contribution to that. I think that we could all rejoice, if that were the case.
 
Best wishes, as always, Roger Clark

11th November - Message from the Headmaster

Dear Parents

In the middle of an exceptionally busy week, the school and time stood still in the Abbot’s Hall, as Mr Ansar-Carver conducted his annual Remembrance Day service. This is always a very moving occasion and, after the service, pupils attached their poppies to the Honours Board in the Abbot’s private chapel, next to my office, as they always do. Thirty-three former pupils of Glengorse and
Hydenye Prep School, which merged with our school twenty years ago are remembered there.

The Scholars’ Concert this week was an equally moving occasion in different ways but also held in the majestic Abbot’s Hall. I try never to forget how fortunate we are to work in the historic buildings and the wonderful grounds of the old Abbey.

Year 7 and 8 were pleased to go to London this week to experience the delights of “The Railway Children” and our Sixth Form performing artists were also enlarging their exposure to live theatre.

Our inspectors have looked at us very thoroughly in the last few days and we look forward with cautious optimism to receiving the final report, which may not be until after Christmas.

Do come along next week to the Junior Showcase on Monday at 6pm in the Performing Arts Centre or to the FOBAS Quiz night in the library on Friday. You will be very welcome.

Best wishes, as always,

Roger Clark 

4th November - Message from the Headmaster

Dear Parents

There are five major achievements to report on from half-term. Two individuals have brought distinction on themselves as a result of long months of training and dedication. Zofia Malewicz has become European silver medallist for kick-boxing, not in the veterans’ class but in the full women’s competition. Oliver Slacke has become the national body building champion also against very strong opposition. These inspirational achievements send excellent messages to our students that hard work and determination can pay high dividends.

On the academic front we were delighted to welcome sixth formers from all over the South to our annual 1066 History Conference and I am extremely grateful to Mike Carver for the academic distinction, that this very high powered conference brings to the school.

Kevin Anderson led a large group of Year 8 pupils to Dorset for a week of bonding and adventure and Aaron Eckhoff with Charlotte Bryant took this year’s seven Duke of Edinburgh aspiring Gold medalists on an extremely tough hike and camping expedition in the Peak District. The gentle, sunny weather of the summer, which I experienced when I was in this beautiful countryside in June had become aggressive, horizontal hail and high winds and, like a headache, when it is over, the team returned triumphal and relieved.

 
This week we have been delighted to welcome our entry and scholarship candidates for 2012. Early signs are that they are an extremely able group. Seven different Prep Schools were represented for entry to Year 9.

We also were delighted to have 8 talented youngsters competing for the Joanna Lumley scholarship for entry to the Sixth Form "A Servant to Two Masters" running currently in the West End and at Battle Abbey School enjoyed its first performance on Thursday and was a spectacular success. There will be three other productions this term for different age groups in the school. In addition, the annual Scholars’ Concert, which showcases the very best of BAS music takes place next Tuesday. All are welcome. It will be an excellent evening. At the end of term there is also Carols Round the Fire. Thus the Performing Arts department is once again in full swing and I have to record my pride in all that they achieve and take on.

A recent parental visitor to the school said that they had approached R.A.D.A. from overseas to ask them to recommend 4 good schools for the Performing Arts to suit their talented daughter. Battle Abbey School was one of those 4. Thus they came to visit us.

Do come along to one or other of the productions or concerts in the next few weeks. I am confident that you will enjoy your visit.

Best wishes

Roger Clark

October 14th - Message from the Headmaster

Dear Parents

Harvest Festival was the theme in Evensong as the boarders, some very welcome parents and the Chamber Choir assembled in the Abbott’s Hall on Sunday evening. "Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness, close bosomed friend of the late maturing sun, conspiring with him how to load and bless with fruit the vines that round the thatch eves run" - I studied Keats at A Level (and can still remember!) and, by chance, it was national poetry day last Thursday. So we had our very own Ode to Autumn, led by Rev Bentham - Ben to his friends - and the husband of our present Head of English. Ben talked about the opportunity to store up our harvest in heaven and not on earth. Good deeds now and kind acts and respect for our fellow man - a great theme which reflects many of my Monday assemblies. Some visiting parents asked me the other day what the school was all about and I mentioned high academic standards, creativity and "love" - the love for your fellow man, which I hope will send many of our pupils out into the world determined to make it a better place. What a great ambition that is! But why not? It is today’s young people, who will be pushing us around in our bath chairs and suing for peace or saving the planet.

 

Before the winter arrives, we have two weeks of half-term to look forward to and then some exciting drama - the surreal drama of ISI inspection and the real drama of the second half of term, full of hundreds and thousands of human interactions and moments of learning, enrichment and hope.

Warmest wishes

Roger Clark

September 30th - Message from the Headmaster

Dear Parents

Tomorrow we celebrate the founding of the school now in its 99th year. I share with you today what the Head Teachers wrote about the school in their introduction to the first magazine in 1928. It will serve as a reminder to us all of our long heritage. You will find immediate echoes of our present school both in sentiment, educational philosophy and school procedures.

It has fallen to my lot to write the first words of the first number of our first magazine. Therefore I shall make this simply a greeting to girls both "Old" and "Present," in all corners of the world, from 1912 at St Etheldreda’s and the original girl (as she pleases to style herself) to those at Battle Abbey in 1928. We hope that the magazine will serve as another bond to hold our interests together. We want news of, and contributions form, everyone. Old Girls, we want to know where you are, what work you are doing, and whom you are marrying, - all of the utmost importance to those of us on this side of the Gateway.

Now, here on the terrace, looking down on thousands of white and purple crocuses opening their golden hearts to the sun, then up to our beautiful Gateway, I am conscious of our only ghosts-brown-tunic-ed and brown-legged. My thoughts stray from those who make a perpetual symphony of Youth around me to those who have passed through the Gateway to Life in the big World of Grown-ups, and to them I would send a special message. It is simply this, - To all who have loved their school, to them does it belong for ever. You are still links in a precious chain whose strength and work are drawing us slowly, but ever surely, up and always up away from the commonplace, nearer the Ideal. You wear our badge, and all you do does matter to us. In the hurly-burly of everyday life these things are not said, - they appear to be forgotten – they are not. The Gateway is ever open to you, you are ever welcome in our hearts and in our home.

Yours sincerely,
Margaret Jacoby

In the same magazine was a brief history of the school:

When St. Etheldreda’s was started, at Bexhill-on-Sea, in the summer of 1912, the School numbered only three pupils; in two years there were twenty three. In the Spring of 1922 Margaret Jacoby was taking some friends to see the grounds of Battle Abbey when it occurred to her that it would be an excellent place for a school, and in two months negotiations were completed, and the lease was signed on July 5th, 1922. When the move to the Abbey took place in September there were thirty five girls; the School grew so quickly that the next term there were fifty, by the following May seventy two, and very soon a hundred, the School’s full number.

By an interesting coincidence the School began its first term at the Abbey on September 22nd, the anniversary of the landing of William the Conqueror at Pevensey, and the first Hockey match was played and won against a boy’s school on October 14th, the anniversary of the Battle of Hastings.

The article goes on to describe the founding of the house system in 1926. Still later in the magazine Helen Sheehan Dare, the other co-founder of the school writes:

When a girl comes to us we set about preparing her for life but who knows what that life will be by the time she is 18. It is to the task of keeping pace with its ever shifting problems that the modern educator sets him or herself…….. I am going to leave one word of advice – keep your minds young. Nothing hinders human progress so much as the attitude of those vast hordes of so called educated people to whose minds all things new are denied access. Never turn round on the rising generation and tell it it is going to the dogs. Try to keep pace with it and find out where it is really going. If there is one real blessing I would issue it is that your education may never be complete.

Today we look forward and back, we hold fast that which is good and adapt to the demands of the changing world.

Roger Clark - Headmaster

September 23rd - Message from the Headmaster

Dear Parents

I was thrilled with the success of Open Day, when 63 families came to look round from a significant range of local schools. I was especially proud of the student guides and very grateful to the parents who also supported the event. James Dennett deserves great credit for his very smooth organisation of the day. Partly as a result of Saturday, my diary is full up for the next few weeks with many more parental visits.

As in the Prep School, some of the prefects were officially appointed during assembly on Monday. The Bronzes are our school prefects and the Stars are house prefects. The Bronze and Star appointment and "promise" goes back to the early 1930s and I know of various former pupils of my age and older who still treasure their Bronze badge. The Bronzes this year are playing an even greater role in the school than normal. All 22 of them either have a responsibility with a form or for a subject and all are helping the younger members of the school in active and positive ways. Some are also running clubs to add to our extra-curricular programme.


Founders’ Day is next Saturday and this includes a service in St. Mary’s church at 2.30pm, where the House Banners are paraded and former pupils return to school. Helen Sheehan Dare and Mary Jacoby are remembered particularly on this day for their work in establishing our school from its earliest beginnings in Bexhill in 1912 to its rapid development following the move to Battle in 1923.


Some of their traditions are still with us (Stars, Bronzes and the house system). I hope too, from reading their various writings on education and the school that we are still continuing their strong traditions of pastoral care and innovative educational thinking. The pupils must remain at the centre of all our planning and development as a learning community. It was the case in the 1920s as it is the case today.


As we look back on 99 years of the history of the school, the words: "Hold on to the never-changing, important, human and educational values but move with the times," seems as good a motto for the school today as any.

I look forward to seeing many of you next Saturday.

Roger Clark - Headmaster

September 16th - Message from the Headmaster

Dear Parents

So much has happened already this term and it is barely ten days old.

I was thrilled to be there in the boarding house last night when the news came through that one of our Hong Kong boarders, who has been at the school for seven years, had won the emergent artist prize at the Battle Contemporary Arts Festival. (There were, incidentally, only two school-age artists in the whole competition, both from Battle Abbey School.) I was delighted to share with him his moment of triumph and also to hear Mrs Stewart’s excited voice at the end of the telephone. One of the great privileges of being a head teacher is being able to bask in the reflected glory of one’s pupils. David Cheng deserves great credit, as does our inspirational Art department. This award comes hot on the heels of the national awards for textiles won by Alice King and Harriet Pankhurst at the end of last term.

Our pupils have been enriched by two theatre trips to London already, by five inter school matches and by two "bonding days" for Year 9 and 12. Form Captains have been appointed and the new senior prefects are working very well supporting the learning and pastoral life of the younger pupils in the school. We have "Form Bronzes" and

"Subject Bronzes", who are assisting teachers in delivering the best possible programme for our pupils in Year 7 to 11. All the Sixth Form biologists are away to the north Norfolk Coast for a long weekend to sample rivers, rocky shores and study heathland succession ….. and now, tomorrow it is Open Day.

Very sadly, two key part-time members of staff fell ill right at the end of the holidays. We are in close contact with them and every effort is being made to avoid disruption to the pupils’ learning as a result of these unforeseen absences. I am sure that you would join me in sending every good wish for a speedy recovery to Mrs Halls-Bryant and Mrs Lloyd.

The Summer holidays are long gone! Especially for many of the staff here whose term began with the new boarders induction week which began on Bank Holiday Monday. Rak Patel is to be thanked for setting up a very stimulating week for our newest boarding recruits and I would also like to thank Sue Bonell, our extraordinarily hard-

working Bursar and her team of excellent support staff for all they achieved when the school was in summer recession.

As always, I invite your all to remember that we are a partnership. The staff here want to work closely with the parents to develop these wonderful young people – the pupils of Battle Abbey School.

Best regards - Roger Clark

September 9th - Message from the Headmaster

Dear Parents

Welcome back to a very important year in the history of the school.

We start our Centenary year in January, the school having been founded in Bexhill in 1912. There will be many Centenary events and you should all have a copy of the Centenary calendar to help plan your year.

The Senior School is full and the Prep School is also enjoying strong numbers with 19 new pupils this term. The 54 new pupils at the Senior School seem to have settled in extremely well and we are working hard to make their first weeks with us happy and fulfilling.

We also welcomed 12 new staff in a variety of capacities to our work force of 120. Not least of these is Maria Maslin, the new Head of the Preparatory School and I look forward very much to working closely with her in the years ahead and to sharing her great expertise. She is already an extremely highly regarded local headteacher.

We are delighted to celebrate the academic success of last year’s examination candidates. There have been both collective and individual successes. Two of our pupils will be starting their studies at Oxford University in a few weeks, two more will be starting at Central St. Martin’s, one will be studying medicine at Heidelberg University, another Music at Durham, one will be starting at Guildford College of Acting and another at the Academy of Contemporary Music. Other pupils will be going to a wide range of universities, which include the Royal Veterinary College, London Queen Mary’s, Birmingham, Sussex and Essex.

We had our best ever performances at GCSE from some extraordinarily talented and hard-working young people. Jo Hartnell achieved a staggering 11A*s and Dani Edmunds 10A*s with 99% in an incredible 6 of her subjects and 100% in another. Bethany James, after a year of ill-health, nonetheless managed 9A*s and Daniel Snape also 9A*s with one A. Lily Lindon amassed seven A*s with 4 As. Other pupils gaining 8 or more As and A*s were Lilly Lee, James McIntyre, Rocky Bullin, Betty Edwards and Emily Montford. Jed Crouch and Helen Kingwell achieved 7A*s and A grades. I am delighted that all bar one of these hugely sucessful pupils above will be gracing our Sixth Form for the next two years.

The factor which all the above pupils have in common is that they worked extremely hard and, in the end, this is the most powerful message their success gives to the next generations.

So, a very exciting year lies ahead and as always I urge you as parents to stay in really close contact with the school. The education of your children is a team effort in which we are privileged to play a part and we can best help them by combining our talents and working together in their best interests. Share the ups and the downs of these vitally important years with us!

Best wishes to you all

Roger Clark

June 24th - Message from the Headmaster

Dear Parents,

The time is fast approaching where we will have to brush the dust off our buckets

and spades and prepare for the summer holiday. This is the penultimate newsletter

of the year and I write amid a hubbub of stimulating activity and enthusiasm.

There are many exciting things to achieve before the end of term. I have just

come from a wonderful Yr 7 assembly where the children, with the help of the

wonderful Mrs. Hoffmann, looked at their ancestors and traced their roots back

all over the world to some famous, some infamous and some little known but

extraordinary people, were all encouraged to make the most of our lives so that

future generations would look back at us in admiration and wonder.

The Year 12 and 13 Performing Arts Productions yesterday evening also . lled me

with admiration and wonder at the incredible achievements of that department.

Will Cousins and Lewis Bennett, assisted by the extraordinary talented Lily

Lindon, gave one of their last, memorable performances and the Lower Sixth

proved there was talent in abundance coming through for next year.

Parents, your children amaze me and it is a privilege to work with them.

I am looking forward very much to spending Open Day and Sports Day at the

Prep School tomorrow and I will be spectating at the Dads v Lads cricket match at

Crowhurst Park on Sunday. Next week the whole of Years 7 – 9 will be off

curriculum for four whole days and will be steeped in the drama of ‘Les

Miserables’. The following week there are two whole days given over to Sport.

Busy, busy days ahead and I hope something for everyone.

Roger Clark

June 17th - Message from the Headmaster

Dear Parents

"I have never been to such a nice school" - a comment from a visiting, prospective parent today. It was the day when many had sat their last GCSE and all the work was over for a while but to be fair we saw many other people smiling too. I was quick to point out that we have our moments of disappointment and struggle and that a school is a microcosm of life. I was delighted to tour the school and find all of the pupils in such a good mood, but then it is Friday! We saw Battle Abbey at its best but I would be naïve in the extreme to assume that’s how it always is. We have to contend with "triumph and disaster and treat these two imposters just the same."

I am always gratified as a Headmaster to hear good news but of course there are problems and perhaps one mark of a good school is how we change a challenge into an opportunity.

There is an absolute determination at Battle Abbey School to keep improving and I remain very grateful to those parents who work with me so that we can become stronger and stronger. There is so much to be proud of; your children never cease to amaze me with their talent and optimism.

Today I was immensely proud to show off some recent outstanding Art work and to have an Art teacher from another school say how excellent the standard is at Battle, I was proud too that the performing arts department astonished my visitors with its versatility and

talent.

Have a good weekend and I look forward to seeing many of you in the last three weeks of term as so many of your children will be taking part in the plethora of activities that marks the end of the summer.

June 10th - A message from the Headmaster

Dear Parents

The week began for me with an illustration of the rich variety of pupils that we have in the school. I sat talking through a translator to a parent from Samara in the southernmost part of Russia. Samara has a population of two million and is just a bit north of Kazakhstan. Of course, like any other mother the world over, she wanted to know how her son was behaving and whether he was trying hard. What a trust the world has in English boarding schools and what a responsibility this trust lays upon us! We try very hard to live up to the high expectations and are grateful for the privilege of educating young people from so many different backgrounds.

Several times this week I have talked to parents about the perennial problem of choosing options for Year 10 and fitting everything in that the pupils want to do. As a small school we tailor the timetable to the individual, which occasionally gives us huge challenges.

The Lower Sixth spent a day on the important process of personal statement writing in preparation for university application next term and were entertained by the Head of Admissions from Sussex University. This very witty gentleman is becoming a regular and welcome visitor to the school.

It has been a very constructive week, because I have met so many parents both present and prospective and shared their hopes and fears and thoughts about the future of their most precious possessions, their children. I am always delighted to meet parents and I urge you to remember that. All of us here have a deep vested interested in the education of your children and we are constantly seeking to exceed your expectations of us.

Last night at about 8pm there were still about twenty pupils deep in rehearsal for "Oh What a Lovely War." I spent an hour watching their final throes of rehearsal and wondered once again at the enormously diverse talents and opportunities there are at the school. There were still five teachers here after 9pm and two wonderful former pupils, Chris Rogers and Fergus Bruce, back from university and helping in the same way they always did whilst at school. Three other staff are currently in France with Year 7 and will be back at the end of the weekend.

It is a good opportunity for me to thank the teachers who are so committed to the education of your children that they give up so much of their extra time over and above what I can reasonably expect.

At the start of the week, it was very good to receive so much overwhelming support from parents following the publication of the article in the Observer last Friday – you will recall the newspaper had received an anonymous letter, concerned that I had not kept parents informed about changes to the governing body and furthermore, by implication, that the School was in financial difficulty. Several parents have since expressed an interest in becoming a governor and others have asked for further information about the role of our governing body. The Bursar, who is Clerk to the Governors, will be producing an article on the governing body for a forthcoming newsletter, which will provide you with more information. In the meantime, I extend my grateful thanks for the support you have shown over this matter.

I look forward to seeing many of you in the next four weeks. There will be many

opportunities to visit and, of course, if you want to come in for a chat, please do so.

Best wishes, Roger Clark

May 27th - A message from the Headmaster

Dear Parents

Some GCSEs and AS Level examinations have come and gone and left a number of our pupils quietly confident. More lies ahead for most of them.
Half-term and revision will, I am sure, be synonymous for our older ones. Labor vincit omnia. The Roman poet, Virgil, thought so two thousand years ago and so do we today.
It was very good to greet around 90 of the parents of all three sections of our school on the Terrace at the Abbey on Friday evening and we were richly entertained by the fabulous Prep School choir and by Rocky Bullin and later Sam Wills. I am most grateful to Keith Sellens and his wonderful FOBAS team for organising this very enjoyable occasion.

At the start of the new week it was good to see some of the same faces come along to the Year 6 Induction Day at the Abbey. If a measure of the success of the day was the incidences of giggling then it went down extremely well with our transferees.

It was a great privilege for the Battle Abbey School Choir to support the Battle Choral Society on Saturday night accompanied by a professional orchestra of 50 in front of an audience of 500 in Christchurch in St. Leonards. Our pupils were proud to take part in the delivery of Verdi’s Requiem – stirring, dramatic and uplifting.

In the second half of term we have the drama of exams, the drama of “Oh, What a Lovely War!” and “Les Mis”, the Lower 6th off for more university induction and personal statement training, much more sport and athletics, the Summer Ball and Speech Day to look forward to, among much else.

So now we have time to catch our breath and enjoy a short break. If any parents would like to see me, I will be in school on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday of next week and happy to meet with you. As Mrs. Jacoby, co-founder of our school, said in the first school magazine of 1928, “The Gateway is ever open to you.”

Yours Sincerely,
Roger Clark

May 20th - A message from the Headmaster

Dear Parents,

Sunday sees the 99th anniversary of the founding of the school. The

earliest accurate record we can establish tells us that the first pupils arrived on May 22nd 1912. Next year at that time we will celebrate one hundred years of education. Some of you will know that there is a very active committee of parents, staff, governors and former pupils meeting regularly to make plans for the year. We look forward to reporting back to you at the end of this term.

"Hold fast that which is good," springs to mind as a good motto at this time.

The ethos of the school as a family is alive and well, constantly being guarded and checked up on. The human values continue to enjoy utmost importance through the decades in most good schools, while we adapt to societal and technological change. Inanimate computers may help direct our lives but we do not forget the primacy of the moral and spiritual dimensions in our lives. We move with the times yet keep our feet on the ground.

As an example, this week we worked together in the Senior School to raise money for the Denny Foundation. Two pupils, Alice Denny and Harriet Pankhurst, inspired a charity "mufti" day. They gathered the support of their house and cakes were sold and stalls erected in the Abbot’s Hall at break. Mr Malewicz took to the stage in a pink motorbike helmet and yellow hair, accompanied by a bodyguard of Sixth Formers. The whole family of the school got together, had fun and raised nearly a thousand pounds in one short day.

In all parts of the school we regularly remember and try to help those less fortunate than ourselves – a tradition rooted in the past.

As for the future, let me quote from a Battle Abbey School brochure soon to be

published concerning the Enrichment Curriculum starting in Year 10 in September:

‘According to former US Secretary of Education Richard Riley – the top 10 in-demand jobs in 2010 did not exist in 2004. We are currently preparing students for jobs that do not even exist yet, using technologies that haven’t been invented in order to solve problems we don’t even know are problems yet.’

We have researched long and hard. We have sought and received the approval of six of the top universities in the country, including Oxford and Cambridge. We have adapted our curriculum to suit changing times and will be offering much more than we have done previously. A full version of the new brochure will be available on the website shortly.

So, 99 years on, the school is proud of its traditions and always adapting to provide the very best education for our children for the future.

Best wishes

Roger Clark

May 13th - A message from the Headmaster

Dear Parents,

Battle Abbey School is proud to educate children from 2 years old to 18. This was illustrated in quite magical form on the two evenings of the Dance Show at the Abbey this week. The youngest dancers were 7 years old, the oldest 18 and the support that they gave each other throughout the age groups was obvious for all to see. Kay Heasmer will be going down to the Prep School at the end of term with some senior dancers to run a dance work shop. Dance was to some extent the "missing link" in the Performing Arts portfolio at the Senior School but with the arrival of Miss Heasmer two years ago, this has now been put right.

Over 130 of our senior pupils will be taking public examinations this term and I am delighted that so many of them are working hard. It is a time of considerable pressure for these young adults and the staff are working very hard to support them in every way they can.

Two years ago we started the Duke of Edinburgh Gold Award for Sixth Formers and I am delighted that our first pupil has come right through the process; Nick Taylor will be going to St. James’ Palace later in the year to be congratulated by a member of the Royal Family. Several other pupils are due to finish in the next six months and we are already making plans for the third cohort to start the process. I have always believed that the Gold Award is the equivalent of another A level and speaks volumes about the character of the young person who succeeds in reaching this level. I am delighted, therefore, that from September 20 more pupils will be starting on the road to Gold in Year 10 by embarking upon their Bronze Award as part of our new enrichment curriculum.

Best wishes.

Yours sincerely,

Headmaster

Roger Clark

April 7th - Message from the Headmaster

Dear Parents,

The Senior School is full for September both boarding and day. Late applications will still be considered but, in the present climate, I am delighted to share this with you and I would like to thank you all for your great support. The good opinions expressed by our parents are such a valuable part of marketing the school. I hope also that you feel your concerns are both welcomed and listened to.

Some of you will know that we have introduced an exciting new change to the curriculum for all those of our pupils going into Year 10 in September 2011. Our students will be studying 9 GCSEs instead of 10 and for the rest of their curriculum they will be studying four core areas: Society (Religion, Politics and Economics); Culture and Sport (Art, Drama and Sports Leadership); Personal Development (languages for non linguists, Careers Education, the Duke of Edinburgh Award and a Service to the Community element).

We believe that this will better prepare our pupils for the rigorous demands of A level and broaden their horizons in preparation for University interviews and later life in general. We have received confirmation from Oxford, Cambridge, Warwick, Nottingham and UCL Universities that this change will in no way prejudice a student’s application to these top universities. The Admissions Office of Oxford University wrote as follows "We can confirm that your students will not be at any disadvantage in the Oxford admissions process because of the number of GCSE qualifications they have obtained. We do not have any fixed requirements at this level and as such do not discriminate between candidates on the basis of the number of GCSEs they have". The other University Admissions Offices replied in a very similar way. I am confident that this development will greatly enhance the learning experience of our KS4 pupils and I look forward to sharing the finer details with you at the beginning of next term.

The achievements of this term are catalogued for all to see in these newsletters. The school has been busy and productive and I am very pleased with how the term has gone. I have met more parents this term than usual; I welcome this very much and hope that you will continue to feel able to contact me at any time. The school is open during the holidays and I will be available should you need me.