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
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