Page 3 - Millfield GSG Brochure 2021

WHAT THE GOOD SCHOOLS GUIDE SAYS

put myself in different educational he joined the kitchen staff to help serve
settings so I can bring the best of all of food. On another occasion a student’s
them to the role I’m in,’ he says. He post was mistakenly delivered to his
admits that when he first visited Millfield office and instead of sending it via the
he was stunned by its scale. ‘Like so many internal mail he walked round to the
people I was guilty of thinking that a boarding house and delivered it in person.
school this big must be daunting or
intimidating when actually the reality is The head is proud of the fact that
that a school this big provides a place for Millfield isn’t overly selective. ‘You
everybody in a way that smaller schools achieve the best academic results by
can’t.’ treating every child as an individual and
that’s what Millfield has always done,’ he
He’s hugely proud of Millfield’s sporting says. He believes that everyone has
achievements but highlights its myriad of brilliance in them and that ‘we can help
academic and musical successes too. them to discover it’, citing the example of
‘Millfield has always been determinedly a sixth former who was highly
diverse and hasn’t cared a fig about commended in a national entrepreneur
HEADMASTER tradition in a way that other independent competition for his sustainable cycling
schools thrive off their traditions,’ he business and is now being mentored by
Since 2018, Gavin Horgan MA (Oxon) says. ‘It’s very refreshing in this day and Dragon’s Den star Peter Jones. Despite his
(40s). Previously head of Worksop age.’ claim that he isn’t sporty – ‘I’m a
College. Educated at Stonyhurst College, dyspraxic classicist, I can’t even do a star
where he was awarded an assisted place Parents like his dynamic approach. One jump’ – he’s a keen mountaineer, winter
and bursary, at Oxford, where he read told us, ‘He is a nice, personable guy who mountain leader, runner and cyclist in his
classics. ‘My father was a postmaster and makes a point of knowing all the kids.’ spare time. He’s involved with a number
my mother was a special needs teacher Another said, ‘He is very impressive of charitable organisations and education
and they lived in an ex-mining village in – both as an individual and as a head. He charities and although he doesn’t teach
Dumfriesshire so it’s very clear to me that has innate leadership qualities and is these days he observes lessons every
without the bursary or the assisted place thoroughly likeable too. His heart is all week. Married to Alison, an academic
my fortunes in life would have been very about the students, the staff and the who works in the museums sector, with
different,’ he says. school.’ We also heard that when the two children, both at Millfield Prep.
lunch queue was moving slowly one day
After university he worked for the Red
Cross and then taught in Sri Lanka. On his
return to the UK he taught English at The most exciting independent school in the UK
Calthorpe Park School in Hampshire and
Archbishop Tenison’s School (overlooking to run because of its determined modernity, the
the Oval), qualifying as a teacher through fact that it isn’t shackled by tradition, has the
the Graduate Teacher Programme. Spent
two years as deputy head of St George’s resource to do things and also because we care
College in Buenos Aires before being
appointed as deputy rector of Glasgow about public benefit. We give away £6.5 million
Academy. He spent six years as head of every year in bursaries.
Worksop College – ‘a small mixed ability
boarding and day school’ – where he
organised a school trip to scale previously
unclimbed mountains in Greenland,
believing that risk is essential to
children’s development. The pupils spent
a year preparing for the harsh conditions
in the Arctic Circle, flew there in a
Catalina seaplane and carried out
scientific research. He’d like to organise
something similar at Millfield. He
believes that his diverse experience has
been invaluable to his Millfield role. ‘I’ve
been like a magpie in my career, trying to