Page 61 - OO_2018

LETTER
The Head
Sarah Kerr-Dineen looks back on a School year which brought a number of staff departures and forward to two exciting new initiatives
Dear OO,
It has been a pleasure to see so many of you this year in so many different
places, from Toronto, New York and Hong Kong, to West Sussex, Yorkshire and Newmarket, via the Queen’s Club and Stationers’ Hall. The company of OOs is a highlight of my job and the friendships that develop an added delight.
As you know, while the
values of the School persist
and there is much in the
Oundle of today that you
would recognise with
satisfaction, schools are by
their nature dynamic places. At the end of each cycle of seven years, for example, the pupil body will be entirely different. Thankfully, the staff body allows a wider range of time frames within which each colleague will be part of the life of the School; you will see from the Farewells section that this year we say goodbye to a number of colleagues who are retiring, having served Oundle for the whole of their professional life. Equally, there are others moving on after a shorter period to promotion elsewhere or a change of life for their family. It was ever thus. The mixture in the Common Room of the new and the longer-standing, those who stay and those who move on, is part of what gives it its quality.
Particular mention must also go to those who have led some of the major sports at Oundle over recent and longer years. We salute the contribution of John Olver, John Crawley and Marcus Walker (Sc 76), wishing John Olver all the best following his retirement earlier in the year and welcoming the fact that
John Crawley and Marcus Walker remain with us as members of the Common Room. News of their successors will follow in due course.
While change is part of the make- up of schools and looking back is an important way of understanding the present, we are essentially forward- looking institutions, given that we are educating the children of today to be the adults of tomorrow, joining a world we have not yet met. At Oundle we are increasingly committed to nurturing children who will go on after school to contribute to their own communities and take their place in a global society. There are two particular things I would like to mention in this context.
Firstly, we celebrate the creation of the OPEN Learning Partnership, set up by Gordon Montgomery, our Head of Community Partnerships, which brings together Oundle and LJS with Oundle Primary School and Prince William School, Thomas Deacon Academy in Peterborough and Kettering Buccleuch Academy. This enables the sharing of resources according to our individual strengths,
richer professional development for staff across the partnership and the opportunity for pupils from each school to understand the perspective of others: to look beyond their world. Our pupils will benefit from these opportunities as much as any.
Secondly, the OO President, Richard Ellis (Sn 86), has in his year of office to date reanimated the network of careers advice and support offered by OOs to the pupils of today as they start to consider future life and career paths. This is a precious resource and I
am grateful to him – and to you – for being so generous in offering your knowledge and expertise to guide your successors. Please contact him or Jane Fenton should you wish to know more about how you might join this network.
As I write, we are about to enter the last week of term in glorious sunshine, with exams almost over. The hole in the ground where the old athletics track used to be is taking shape, the new athletics track is finished and the grass nets have had their first season. It is no surprise that the most generous donors to the Sports Centre fund have, so far, come from within the OO community.
I look forward to seeing many of you again next year, wherever that may be.
• PS: As we go to print, Oundle School has been named Best Public School of 2018 in the Tatler Schools Awards. A wonderful way to start another year in the life of the School.
With very best wishes,
Sarah
THE OLD OUNDELIAN 2017 –2018
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