Chairman, Your Grace, honoured guest, ladies and gentlemen, and pupils of The King’s Hospital.
Last year the Headmistress began her address by referring to the then recent, savage, budget with its cuts for education. In the past year all of us, young and old, have been assailed by a constant stream of gloomy economic forecasts in the newspapers, on television and, I dare say, over the breakfast table, which I hope still exists! I am conscious that an audience composed in the majority of young people does not want to hear a further outpouring of doom and gloom – you may have to suffer just a little of it later in this report!
The parents present here clearly believe that, after love, education is the greatest gift that they can give to their children. On the first day of the school year I urged the pupils not to be disheartened or depressed by the negative messages
being sent out and suggested to them that the greatest contribution that they can make to national recovery is to make the best possible use of all their talents in the wide range of educational opportunities which The King’s Hospital offers to them. In the words of Mahatma Gandhi ‘you must be the change you wish to see in the world’.
I was heartened last August to read a report of the Merriman Summer School in Ennis, Co Clare which quoted a speaker as saying that focusing on the joy of learning rather than outcomes, and celebrating creativity and innovation, are two priorities for education at this time. He went on to say that the real challenge of schooling was that children should come to love learning and stated that ‘this is something we are singularly failing to do.’ I cut it out and put it by not realising that it would fall to me to deliver the Head’s annual report and still less that the author of this quotation would be our honoured guest today, Professor Collins. We look forward eagerly to what you have to say regarding the future of our educational system at this critical time in the nation’s history.
I think it was the phrase ‘joy of learning’ that caught my attention. Some in this hall will recall that the late Headmaster, Canon Gerald Magahy was wont to use a prayer that contained the petition: ‘give to all who work here the true love of knowledge which makes all study a discovery and a joy’. I am glad to say that subsequent chaplains have made this prayer the school prayer. Clearly it is a sentiment that strikes a cord, as I realised when I was involved in drafting ethos and mission statements and core values for The King’s Hospital some years ago when my three colleagues were all past pupils. They came up with a core values statement that includes the phrase: ‘a love of learning which makes all study a discovery and a joy.’
Clearly we have set ourselves an ideal to create a school that is fundamentally different from that experienced by Shakespeare’s school boy in ‘As You Like It’: ‘the whining schoolboy, with his satchel and shining morning face, creeping like snail unwilling to school’ or from George Bernard Shaw’s assessment, perhaps based on experience in one of our sister Dublin schools founded by Erasmus Smith: ‘there is nothing on earth intended for innocent people so horrible as school. It is in many respects more cruel than a prison. In a prison, for example, you are not forced to read books written by the warders and the governor’.
I hope that the following report on school activities will indicate that we have succeeded to a considerable degree and experienced many joyous moments both in the academic arena and in creative extra-curricular pursuits. However we, teachers and parents, should never forget that there are a number of pupils, a small number hopefully, for whom our rigidly prescribed curriculum offers little stimulus or reward and for whom schooldays must often fall short of being joyful. On this day we must honour and celebrate the achievements of these pupils against all the odds. It is in the area of learning support that the school has been put under greatest pressure by last year’s budget cuts and credit is due to our special education needs department, headed by Mrs Janet Nelson, for the quality of service which they have maintained. We must strive not just to create a good school but to be a great school. That requires the unleashing of the greatness which is in all of us – teachers and learners.
We must have doubts as to the likely benefits of the recent announcement of a reform of the Junior Certificate, which appears to be a rushed, economic-driven decision rather than a considered education-driven decision, while at the same time acknowledging the strong case for change.
I would be remiss if did not comment on the campaign being carried out to restore the position of the Protestant-managed secondary schools within the educational system which they had occupied for nearly 40 years. We are profoundly grateful to the efforts being made on our behalf by the Council of Governors, the Committee on Management, our parent body - Compass, the House of Bishops and our colleagues from the Presbyterian Church, the Methodist Church and the Religious Society of Friends - and indeed I must acknowledge the generous support of that courageous man Archbishop Diarmuid Martin.
The Minister of Education and Science is going to get one unexpected, and probably undeserved, positive comment from me today. Last year the Headmistress said that we must take stock of who we are and why we exist as a school. Batt
O’Keeffe forced us to do just that. We in The King’s Hospital, in our sister schools and in the educational bodies of our churches have critically analysed every aspect of what we are about and how best to realise our mission. We have emerged from that process more confident of the value of what we are doing, aware of our rights under the Constitution, and, we believe, our clear entitlement to similar treatment by the Government as to that we were granted in the past by successive governments composed of all the major political parties and which is in the spirit of a new pluralist Ireland which is being built.
A school must have a moral purpose and The King’s Hospital reaffirms that it is a Christian school in the Reformed tradition of the Church of Ireland that welcomes those of other traditions who are comfortable with our ethos. We enter our 341st year confident that we can yet again adapt to changing circumstances as we have so often had to do throughout our long history. Mr O’Keeffe it is some achievement to have roused the too often slumbering Protestant community to express their hurt and outrage at what you have done to us by putting their heads clearly above the parapet for once. Indeed it has been observed that our mild-mannered Archbishop has used the term ‘discriminatory’ with regard to the changes; a word which he does not use lightly. Archbishop Neill we thank you for your strong and wise leadership on this issue over the last 14 months.
Perhaps the Minister might take heed of his colleague Dr Martin Mansergh, a former guest of honour at this ceremony, replying in the Senate to Shane Ross in late October, ‘I interpret the equality provisions in the Constitution to be not inconsistent with positive discrimination. A global understanding of equality is that, in order to establish it, positive discrimination may be necessary in certain circumstances’.
Finally on this topic I must emphasise that the position of the Protestant-managed schools will remain perilous as long as they remain classified on a par with the Catholic fee-charging schools which fulfil a clearly different purpose. Further loss of state-funded teachers could make them no longer economically viable.
The entire teaching community is also hurt and outraged that the Government and media have moved from seeing education as a driver of the late Celtic Tiger and now appear to bracket them, with the entire public service, as the alleged real culprits for the nation’s current sad economic position. The banking community, developers and builders are now apparently largely absolved of blame and should soon be operating in a similar manner as in the past. National recovery and social harmony surely requires a thorough review of both private and public sector and a consensus as to an equitable reward for labour. Adults, like pupils, must take responsibility for their actions and learn from their mistakes. A statement made by John Osborne some years ago might be worthy of reflection, ‘the schoolteacher is certainly underpaid as a child minder, but ludicrously overpaid as a teacher’.
As I believe I am the first scientist to deliver this report, I note that some of my colleagues have said that they do not expect me to quote poetry and they expect the report to be more concise – that is shorter! I think that I can deliver on the former while the jury is out – or the stopwatch is on – on the later! As this is the 200th anniversary of Charles Darwin’s birth and the 150th anniversary of his publication of ‘The Origin of Species’ I may be allowed to quote him, perhaps in the context of my previous remarks on our political and educational leaders, ‘Man with all his noble qualities … still bears in his bodily frame the indelible stamp of his lowly origin’.
I think pride of place in offers of praise and thanks this year must go to our parent body for their loyalty towards us in uncertain times and in circumstances that involve considerable sacrifices for many. We are truly grateful and trust that we can fulfil your expectations for your most precious possessions, our pupils.
Equally notable has been the commitment of the entire staff who have shouldered greater burdens both in the classroom and in the support services. Sadly jobs have had to be shed both from the teaching staff as well as the support staff. We acknowledge the loyalty and sacrifices of one and all.
We welcome Mr William Maxwell and Mr Jonathan Moore, both past pupils, to their first Charter Day since assuming the chairmanship and deputy chairmanship, respectively, of the Board of Governors. We extend our thanks to Mr Hubert Beaumont who occupied the chair for a short period after Michael Browne’s untimely death but especially to Hubert for his long service as Deputy Chairman and his wise leadership as Chairman of the vital Finance Committee of the Board.
The whole community was saddened by the death of our colleague Denise Farrelly’s infant daughter Aoife and the deaths, sadly by their own hands, of Daniel O’Connell, who left us midstream during 2008 and our 2008 leaver Alexander Maher. Our catering manager, and past pupil, Mark Miller suffered the tragedy of his wife’s death just two weeks after the birth of twins. We extend our sympathies to their families. May Aoife, Daniel, Alex and Ann Marie’s souls, through the mercy of God, rest in eternal peace.
We thank God for the remarkable journey of recovery of our former colleague Philip Gray after his serious accident and wish him well on his retirement as Headmaster of Kilkenny College. We also have remembered in our prayers our 2009 leaver Lesley McKenna as she recovers from serious injuries sustained in a car crash, Margaret Heffernan, from the school office, whose husband Daithi is seriously ill and, of course, our Headmistress. In this context we pay tribute to our Chaplain, Canon Peter Campion, whose ministry and pastoral work to the entire community so much enriches our lives here.
There were relatively few changes in staff at the end of the year. Paul Huggard, forever ‘young’ Mr Huggard, resigned after a year’s career break having served the school as teacher, games master and housemaster over a number of years, not to mention his relentless punning – however brother John can be relied on to maintain the family tradition! We also bade farewell to Katherine Crampton and Michael Dungan who left after shorter periods. To all of them we say thank you and extend best wishes to them in the next stages of their careers.
Just in case he is forgotten by the Headmistress next year, I must record that Dermot Kelleher, who retired from teaching in 2005, is retiring as Housemaster of the Bluecoat House day pupils at the end of this term and as a rugby coach at the end of the season. We acknowledge with gratitude over 35 years of exceptional service to the school, in particular his development of a physical education department for the boys and his contribution to the expansion of rugby horizons started by Caleb Powell, who incidentally is the incoming President of the Irish Rugby Football Union. Surprisingly Mercer’s School had a PE teacher on arrival at Brooklawn while King’s Hospital did not.
The only physical change this year has been the resurfacing of the astroturf hockey pitch; an essential development to maintain it in playing condition.
And now to the pupils achievements which bear witness to our nurturing of their diverse talents and in whom we take justifiable pride.
On the academic front, 2009 Leaving Certificate results showed an improvement on the previous year with those achieving over 400 points rising to 57% led by Siofra Bennett and Evan O’Brien with 590 points each. Siofra, together with Sinead Gleeson and Victoria Larragy were awarded Entrance Exhibitions to Trinity College Dublin while Evan and Maxwell Potterton were awarded Entrance Scholarships to University College Dublin. We heard that Jonathan Kelly had achieved first place in Ireland in Spanish in his 2007 Leaving Certificate. The Junior Certificate results showed 54% attaining honours in nine or more subjects, with Sarah Scales obtaining 11 ‘A’ grades in all her 11 subjects; a truly outstanding achievement.
Past pupils continue to bring academic distinction to the school with Jean Acheson and Naomi Hodgins elected as scholars at Trinity while we are aware of 13 who graduated from various universities with first class degrees; Carolyn Kelly, Ruth Dennison, Stephen Furlong and Simon Mee gaining gold medals on graduation. We also record no less than six awards of doctorates, in a range of disciplines, recently. These achievements reflect not just their efforts but those of their teachers and our excellent career guidance department under Susan Tanner.
Last year marked the 50th anniversary of the establishment of the Cusack Medals for English essays established by a former Chairman, Henry Cusack. Andrew Deacon organised the publication of a commemorative volume containing a combination of new essays by previous winners together with some of the original pieces.
Music and drama maintained both their busy schedule and high standards with our Chapel Choir, under Helen Roycroft’s most professional direction, fulfilling their round of duties both in school and beyond, travelling to Carbury, Co Kildare last year. Organist Graham
Walsh’s diligent attendance and beautiful playing every morning in Chapel is very special and he has performed the task for more years than he would want to be reminded of. (There will be plenty to say about the choir in next year’s report.) Andrew Deacon produced an original and entertaining stage version of Henry Fielding’s ‘Joseph Andrews’. Today Amy Carroll becomes the 20th winner of the King Charles II Trophy for the performing arts. This was an idea of a distinguished past pupil, Air Marshal Sir
Erik Bennett, who donated the handsome trophy and supplies a substantial cheque each year. Earlier this term he invited all previous winners to dinner in Dublin and must have been gratified to witness how his idea has born fruit in the winners’
lives, whether professionally or as a recreational hobby. He regrets that he cannot be with us today as he has returned to his home in the Oman desert.
King’s Hospital was active in debating and public speaking as well as quiz teams appearing in the final of the Schools’ National Mathematics Quiz and the semi-final of the All Ireland County Quiz which was televised. Georgina Gilsenan and Philippa Tuthill gained third place in their section of the Young Scientist exhibition.
Our social outreach continues through our links with Stewart’s Hospital and numerous fundraising campaigns often initiated by the pupil body. Currently we have undertaken to pay the university fees for a Palestinian girl from Hebron giving her a real chance to help her community rise from its sorry state. We continue to support an aids hospice and school for aids orphans in Zambia. Mark Campion led a group on a World Challenge trip to Vietnam – another widening of horizons for our pupils. Today we will be taking a retiring collection in aid of Christian Aid and the Father Peter McVerry Trust illustrating our commitment to charities both near and far.
The Chaplain led the school to gaining an An Taisce Green Flag for reducing and recycling waste. He has now been joined by Ciaran O’Connor as they try to obtain a flag for energy conservation.
Turning to sport, on the water Siofra Bennett won double and quadruple sculls leading Ireland to victory in the Home Internationals while Turlough Hughes, after winning a gold medal at the Home Internationals, went on to be the first King’s Hospital pupil to win an Irish rowing championship with victory in the Novice Sculls.
I am sure I will embarrass Siofra by using her as an example of what we are about. As well as achieving 590 points in her Leaving Certificate and gaining an Entrance Exhibition to Trinity – she was also offered a place at Durham University – she found time to serve as Head Girl, reach international standard in rowing and play the clarinet. Such a wide range of participation is quite common; hers is only exceptional for the level of her achievements.
While on dry land, rarely dry of late, the SCT rugby team reached the final of the league, while the SCT Girls’ hockey won the plate competition. Peter du Toit and Derek Whiston were capped for Leinster at rugby with Peter going on to play for Ireland. Peter was awarded sports scholarships by UCD and Derek was awarded a scholarship by Dublin University RFC. During the summer John Aiken led a successful development squad rugby tour to South Africa – four wins and one draw - the same record as the 2003 squad under my management! – KH remain unbeaten in South Africa! The value of the experience has been shown in this year’s results to date. Incidentally they also developed their hymn singing on tour and this has proved of lasting benefit on a daily basis in Chapel even if all the hymns which they know were all written by a Portora old boy! In athletics Seye Ogunlewe was first in the 100 metres at the All Irelands with a time of 10.76 seconds and Eamonn Fahey won the Leinster long jump and came second in the All Irelands. Both boys beat long-established school records. Natalya Coyle was champion in the national tethtrathlon, for the second consecutive year, and a member of the victorious Irish team in the British championships. She was second in the national pentathlon. Some names to look out for at London 2012. Matt Jarvis gave Sports Day a fresh look with house-based competitions.
Pupils continue to participate in equestrian events with Daisy Grehan and Lauren Persse representing Ireland at the Junior Europeans, while Kate Finnegan won the RDS Young Riders’ Speed Derby and Melanie Young won numerous honours including taking 3rd place in Tattersall’s Three Day Event. Hill walking remains popular at the weekends with several ‘away’ trips including an expedition to the Alps last summer.
At our annual Sports Award Evening Derek Whiston and Natalya Coyle with Siofra Bennett jointly, won the awards for sportsmanship. Past pupil Nigel Henderson was recipient of our Hall of Fame award on retiring as a hockey international with 67 caps. Another past pupil, Emma Beamish, gave an inspiring address telling of how she has coped with an international cricket career while suffering from epilepsy.
Do take time to follow the busy life of the school and its successes throughout the year on our excellent website so diligently managed by John Huggard and being expanded by our Development Officer Paul Rolston.
The often hectic life of the school could not continue without the dedicated work and support of so many. We acknowledge the huge level of voluntary commitment by Governors, Parent’s Association Committee led by Hal McGuckian and Past Pupils’ Union Committee under President John Honner.
The Bursar’s office, led by Ann O’Neill, the cleaning and laundry staff supervised by Kay Boland, maintenance supremo Pat McCartin, Jack-of-all-trades Peter Wilson, our contract caterers, cleaners and security firm, and of course our doctor and nurses create a comfortable and rich environment in which to live and work.
The academic and sporting successes of the pupils depend on the exceptional commitment of their teachers. So we acknowledge and thank each and every class teacher, those who turn out, rain wind or snow, for long coaching sessions, those in charge of choirs, orchestra, bands, plays, quiz and debating teams who return late at night from scattered venues. The whole community, and especially the boarding school, is entirely dependent on the outstanding pastoral care delivered by the housepersons and their teams. The prefects, led this year by senior prefects Julie Gillis and Eamonn Fahey, mentors and Student Council, under its president Nathan Murtagh, play an ever more responsible and mature role in the running of the school.
My final thanks must be to my senior management colleagues, Bursar, Ronald Wynne, Acting Deputy Headmaster, John Rafter, Assistant Heads, Siobhan Daly and John Aiken and to the members of the Board for their support and advice to me personally and last but not least to my secretary Lorraine Walker who has born the brunt of dealing with the new boy! If I may commit what seems to be almost a sin for teachers, and principals in particular, I confess that I have enjoyed every day of this term.
The Headmistress is very appreciative of all the messages of support which she has received and I am pleased to report that she has made steady progress with her recovery and will be back at work for the start of next term. Her absence today gives me a unique opportunity to pay tribute to her, I believe not just on my own behalf but on behalf of the whole school community. She, following in the footsteps of her predecessor, Harold Meyer, has developed a strong senior management group and delegated real authority to the members of the group. I know that this has served the school well during her illness and believe that it will prove of lasting benefit in the years to come.
Thank you.
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