SPEECH DAY 1964
- from Phoenix 1964 [published December 1964]
The speeches and presentation of prizes took place on Wednesday evening, January 29th, in the presence of the Upper School, the Staff, and parents and invited guests.
After an introduction by the chairman, Councillor Gilmour, the Head Master presented his report on the events that had taken place since the last full-length speech day four years before. Chief among these were the building operations that had given us a modernized school half as big again and with many new facilities. Surprisingly little work-time was lost during the rebuilding, and although we had one year without a play or concert, societies whose activities needed less space continued almost without interruption.
Outdoor activities and games were unaffected by the rebuilding, but it was ironic that at a time when our facilities for sport were better than ever before it was becoming increasingly difficult to field school teams, owing to the growing number of pupils taking Saturday jobs.
The School’s academic achievements during the past four years, judged by the examination results and the number of entrants to institutions of further education, had been good, and it was a source of satisfaction that we now had the largest Sixth Form in the School’s history.
During the period under review members of the Parents’ Association, founded in 1960, had given the School a lot of practical help, organizing many socially and financially successful events, and planning an exchange visit with a French Lycée. The Association had an even more significant part to play in the future life of the School.
Turning now to the future, Dr. Evans deprecated the present desire in some quarters to abolish the grammar school system at all costs; he asked that if any reorganization of secondary education should be felt to be necessary in this area, changes should be made on educational and not on political grounds.
The Robbins Report had recently forecast a rapid growtn in the demand for places in higher education. While some of these extra places would be filled by fully satisfying the present demand and by the continued growth of the population, many future students must come from the vast group of children who were not at present realizing their full potential, and whose doing so, the Report stated, depended on their education and home life.
In our School this group was represented by the potential Sixth Formers who left after the Fifth Form, and by those pupils who, by obtaining fewer than five "O” level passes, failed to fulfil their early promise. The reasons for such failure were complex, but the responsibility was clearly a dual one - the school’s and the parents’. While we in education were constantly aware of our obligations, it was not so certain that this was true of parents. There were a few questions that parents might well ask themselves:
"1. Do we value education and understand the work of a Grammar School even though we ourselves were not educated in one?
2. When we signed an agreement to keep our child at school for seven years, did we then and do we still intend to honour it?
3. Even though we may both be out at work all day, do we still find the time and energy to take a positive interest in our child’s work and play, if necessary to supervise and control them particularly in the early years?
4. Have we provided a place in the house where our child can study and learn, even if it can only be a warm and well-lit bedroom?
5. Do we encourage our child to take part in out-of-school activities and do we ourselves support the school in its attempt to educate beyond the classroom, by our presence at its games on Saturdays, at its concerts, its dramatic productions, its various functions to which we are invited?
6. Are we really concerned to take positive action when school reports are persistently unsatisfactory?
7. Does our child look to us for advice and guidance? When we believe our decisions to be right, can we make our will prevail in such small matters as dress, personal appearance, pocket money, and such deeper issues as standards of behaviour and morality? Does there exist in our family a parent-child relationship acceptable to us and willingly accepted by our child ?"
If parents could truthfully answer yes to these questions, not only would there be fewer academic failures at “O” level, but we would be able to contribute still more to the number of highly educated people this country needed.
Dr. Evans concluded by expressing his gratitude to all those who in various ways contributed to the well-being of the School.
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Mr. J. Scupham, O.B.E., M.A. Controller of Educational Broadcasting for the B.B.C., presented the prizes and challenge trophies and addressed the School.
He said that in the last fifty years we had seen the completion of the third revolution; the scientific and industrial revolutions had preceded the revolution in communications which had taken place during his own life-time. Today we lived in an exciting world of opportunities; there were signs of great expansion in education, and the Newsom and Robbins reports were harbingers of this. Sir Edward Boyle, two days previously, had said that he wanted to see all children given the opportunity to acquire intelligence and to discover for themselves the difference education could make not only to their prospects, but to the meaning and significance of their lives.
Every Grammar School pupil should aim at getting at least five passes in the “O” level of the G.C.E. This achievement was well within the capacity of everyone at a Grammar School.
After the fifth form two avenues opened: one led to the sixth form (and Mr. Scupham mentioned that the number of people in sixth forms had increased by fifty-five per cent in the last four years), and this was the way to the universities and the colleges of advanced technology. He reminded the boys that the technologies were as exciting and important as any academic pursuits, and advised the girls to equip themselves academically, for it was becoming the fashion for women in middle life to return to a career. Those who left after “O” level should ensure that they entered some trade or profession that required further study.
Mr. Scupham advised all children to have two aims: the first, to acquire an easy and fluent command of their own language; the masters of the world had been masters of words; Mr. George Woodcock, General Secretary of the T.U.C., had said that the greatest deficiency in understanding lay in the lack of ability to communicate. Their second aim should be to master another language.
His own organization, the B.B.C., had to provide, in the main, what the public wanted. The value of broadcasting depended on the quality of the people who used it and what they wanted to do with it. In short, it depended on the quality of the education the schools in this country gave.
A Vote of Thanks to the Speaker and Visitors was proposed by the Head Boy, and Alderman Mrs. N. D. Stephens, M.A., Chairman of the Ealing Education Committee, replied on behalf of the visitors. The evening ended with a short programme of music by the School Chamber Orchestra.