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