13th January 2012 - Message from the Headmaster

Dear Parents
 
Happy 100th Birthday Battle Abbey School!
 
This is the beginning of the year in which we celebrate 100 years of the school’s existence. It is a year to look back with gratitude on all the pupils and staff who have made up that extraordinary tapestry which is our school. It is also a year in which to look forward to all the excitement of education on this ancient site in an ever-changing world. Gratitude and ambition can go hand-in-hand as we move through the year. We can be proud that we are centenarians and proud of the traditions, values and people who have delivered us safely here. We can be ambitious for the future as we work together to improve. No complacency here!
 
The school has needed to change and adapt to stay strong but we have also needed to maintain core values to stay upright and focused. The sense of family, with all that this implies, which lies at the heart of the school is still a guiding principle and the belief that each individual has it in them to succeed is there too in strong measure.
 
I have the privilege this year to teach both Year 7 and Year 9 and I know that the school’s future will be safe – what a great group of young people they are – disarmingly bright-eyed and bushy-tailed (similar to the Upper Sixth Formers too!). Sharing in the development of these young people is what the school exists for, helping them to discover the very best of themselves and sharing in their awe and wonder, as they discover the world and go on to improve it. Sometimes they will need to stumble to grow but we will be there to pick them up and always there to celebrate their success.
  
Enough reflective and speculative romance and back to reality!

I hope the New Year brings you health, happiness and success in equal measure and I look forward to many opportunities to work with you and to meet up.

Best wishes
 
Roger Clark Headmaster

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