Q&A with Simon Smith
Our headmaster elect Mr Smith has been answering your questions as part of a special feature to get to know him better ahead of his January appointment.
Here is Part One of the Q&A:
Do you believe in having parent input in terms of parent teacher meetings?
What is your view on the role of the parents in the Senior School?
I think both questions invite a similar response. Parents entrust their children to this school, many making significant sacrifices to do so and, whilst we are the professionals as educators I think it is not only entirely reasonable but actually essential that parents feel they are part of that educational process too. Schools are a three-way partnership between teachers, pupils and their parents.
I will certainly welcome the views of parents on all sorts of matters and I look forward to having the opportunity to explain our decisions and actions too. I also encourage parents to take an active supporting role in the school.
I am already impressed with what appears to be an enthusiastic FORPS committee and I hope to see as many parents as possible at concerts, drama productions, lectures, sports matches and social occasions. In my experience pupils are incredibly proud to represent their school and perform - having parents sitting in the audience and standing on the touchlines makes them even prouder and more willing to engage in such activities.
I appreciate for parents of boarders it can be more difficult for those living further afield but I hope with enough notice we can find ways for them to attend too. Where they can't the school's staff are trusted in loco parentis and are equally, if not more so, as supportive of their charges, their extended boarding family, on the sports pitches and in the audience.
I know how well staff at Rydal Penrhos fulfil that responsibility - creating a warm, supportive home from home when parents are geographically far away etc. Finally, it is my intention to offer all parents the chance to meet with me from January onwards; watch this space.
How will you ensure that sport doesn't overwhelm the academic provision?
How do you intend to encourage Arts (Drama, Music, Art, Dance) provision in our school to ensure they aren't marginalised?
Again I'll try and deal with these together. The Roman Rhetorician said "Virtuo preceptoris est ingeniorum notare discrimina" - "The excellence of the teacher is to identify differences in talents of pupils." Rydal Penrhos is blessed with hundreds of pupils all with their own talents (some, as yet, undiscovered!) and interests. Offering an education that caters for such a diverse range is demanding and finding a balance across the school is not for the faint-hearted.
Schools are fundamentally places of academic study; we must be intellectually ambitious, academically successful and known for the quality of teaching and learning in our classrooms. In order to ensure our pupils have the best chance in life they must fulfil their academic potential and get the best qualifications they can. However, that doesn't have to be at the expense of the incredible and dare I say fun opportunities that Rydal Penrhos prides itself on offering.
We know that to enhance their employment opportunities and to ensure they develop and grow into decent, healthy human beings we have to encourage participation in the co-curricular as well as the curricular; developing the all-important soft skills essential in leadership. The use of the term co-curricular is very important. Some schools refer to the extra-curricular as if it's some sort of add-on. Instead we need to recognise that all activities can contribute to pupils' academic success.
Speaking well in Drama can help with languages, swing bowling in cricket can make one think about the laws of physics and the demands of learning the violin can be applied to remember key dates in History. This is a very long-winded way of saying that we must promote a breadth in education and a realisation that all aspects contribute to a pupil's experience at Rydal Penrhos. As an IB World School that philosophy of a holistic education encompassing Creativity,
Activity and Service can permeate throughout the Senior and Prep School to complement academic excellence. Getting the balance right requires clear and constant communication, careful management of the timetable and calendar and most important of all a generous appreciation of each aspect's worth. A child gets only one go at education - I want it to be superb.
Our staff work long hours and give a lot of themselves to the school. How will you support and encourage them, bolstering their wellbeing?
Having lived and worked in busy day and boarding schools for 20 years I know full well just how dedicated the staff (both Teaching and Support Staff) are at excellent schools like Rydal Penrhos. Such dedication requires commitment, resilience and good humour! It also requires recognition, encouragement and appreciation of all that the staff do on a daily basis.
I shan't go into too much detail now but I can certainly promise a genuine and active interest in all areas of the school community from the classroom to catering. Professional development is terribly important. I will say more about this in the next article but appreciating that the staff are professionals and therefore need to be given the opportunity to feel valued, develop and improve is, in my experience, another means of supporting the teachers' professional wellbeing.
I also think it's important that the Headmaster leads by example not only by being around the site to thank people but by being as hardworking and committed to the pupils' wellbeing as anyone else in the school.
When will you be visiting our school to meet and get to know the staff?
I have already been up once since my appointment and had a great two days meeting many of the staff at the Senior and Prep School. It was lovely to get to talk with some of the teachers, the Caterers, the Admin staff, the Chaplain and so on. I will be bringing my family to visit in August and then returning for several visits in the Autumn Term. I'm hoping to get to meet some of the parents involved in FORPS and some alumni in that time too. It's going to be a busy six months and I'm going to get to know the M6 pretty well!
Teaching morale across the whole profession (due to reforms and government pressure) is at an all-time low. How can we buck the trend?
I am aware of frustrations within the profession. One only has to watch the news and read education blogs to feel this anxiety. I am also a Governor of Haileybury's State Sponsored Academy and so I have a sense of frustration with the regulatory demands of inspection bodies. However, I believe that morale is much more buoyant in the independent sector.
Yes, staff are anxious about public exam reforms and the like, but I think there is a much greater sense of community and therefore positivity in schools like ours. Boarding schools have their challenges but I think that we at Rydal Penrhos should utilise our independence to teach more widely and imaginatively, to prepare our pupils the way we know is best and enjoy being able to offer our brilliant pupils such a rich life outside the classroom.
I became a teacher because I loved my subject, I enjoyed inspiring pupils and because in a boarding school I could get paid to run around on a rugby pitch in the sun and play pool with the boys in the house on an evening. If we can focus on the pupils rather than the paperwork then I think we will all love walking into work on a morning; particularly in such a glorious setting as Colwyn Bay.
Which areas of your expertise or experience will be most useful to you in your new role?
I hope it's an accumulation of experiences. I've worked in boarding schools for 20 years, I've worked in IB schools for 14 years, I've been a Governor of two Prep schools, I've run a large History Department and am currently responsible for the academic performance of a large boarding school; Haileybury has 780 pupils of which nearly 3/4 board.
And most importantly of all in that time I've always taught. I'm confident that everything I've learnt along the way will mean I can lead and support the staff in making Rydal Penrhos a first class school which is the preferred choice for families both near and far.
What is your proudest moment as a teacher?
That's a great question and makes me feel very old as I sit and try to remember the highlights of my career. In my very first year I was a given an Upper 6th A Level class of just two pupils.
They both got As (there was no A* in those days) - that was great and reassured me that I could do the job! I remember giving a half-time team talk to my rugby U-14 team and us coming from behind to beat Brighton College; that year we won 8 and lost just 2 matches. Most recently I remember watching in awe as Haileybury hosted a TEDx Conference and our pupils gave polished talks about a variety of topics without notes (find them on YouTube).
Their confidence was humbling. Being able to speak confidently and articulately in public is such an important skill. I know the Drama is already very strong here and I can't wait to see my first performance but I will certainly be looking to introduce more public speaking opportunities at Rydal Penrhos.