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.