Traditions

Headmaster’s Routh Assembly Address
Monday 6th May 2019

Good morning.
As you are aware, we have two historic ceremonies to perform this morning. First is the presentation of the Housman Verse Prize. This competition honours our most famous Old Bromsgrovian, the great poet AE Housman, who once lived in the building we now call Housman Hall and whose study was in what is now Thomas Cookes and Hazeldene. His poems helped define an age in England, a verse from one of them is carved into the large stone ball outside the Admin Building.

Inviting you to make submissions the Housman Verse Prize each year upholds a School tradition that dates back almost to the time of his death nearly 80 years ago. I invite Mr Dinnen to introduce this year’s winning entry.

‘Old Mr Blair’ by Anya Butler

Old Mr Blair sat in his armchair
And said “this is the perfect day.”
With newspaper in hand, and snacks on the stand
He would have it no other way.
See, this old-fashioned man had perfected his plan
to obtain the ultimate treat:
Why settle with change when you can arrange
to never leave the seat!

Things started off well as the crossword was done
and vouchers removed with a snip,
but a few minutes past and the fun didn’t last
as he heard a Drip. Drip. Drip.
He turned to the left and he turned to the right
but the source of the dripping was nowhere in sight.
With a shrug of his shoulders, he leant back and sighed,
He returned to the piece on what foods are best fried.

But the dripping kept going, it just wouldn’t stop
and suddenly - his head felt a drop.
It seemed water had leaked from the neighbouring floor.
Doris had left the bath running before.

Old Mr Blair was stubborn as dirt,
and he grumbled that, “Nothing could ever divert
me from my newspaper reading today,
not even a bath with its contents astray.”
He munched on his biscuits and sipped on his wine,
he thought to himself, “I’m sure this is fine.
If I just wait it out then the drips will stop soon
And I can keep focus on my afternoon.”

Ink started to bleed so he struggled to read
as the water kept drip-dripping down.
His paper was soggy, his slippers felt boggy
when squelching his toes in the brown.
Soon it lapped at his ankles but don’t be alarmed!
Mr Blair still felt sure that his day was unharmed.
Not a thing on the planet could ruin his aim
Which was keeping his lifestyle exactly the same.

Now waist-deep in water, it still on the rise,
He hadn’t a single concern,
But reaching his shoulders, a twinge of surprise
made him frown and his stomach churn.
The biscuits had floated away from the stand
and the newspaper crumpled like clutching at sand.
The water had swept the old man from his chair,
He grabbed at the thing but was left in despair.

Eventually all that was left in the flat
Was old Mr Blair and his pride.
His head hit the ceiling and he had the feeling
that he shouldn’t have stayed inside
“Is Doris ok? Am I going to drown?
This is not how I planned for my day to go down.”
Mr Blair remained still as his dream fell apart.
He wished he just dealt with this right at the start.
 
Monitors
The second traditional ceremony this morning is to commission our new School leaders for the year ahead. As the current Monitors head off on Examination Leave, the new team take over and assume responsibility for upholding the good order of the School.

The selection of Monitors is no easy task and I pay particular tribute to the care and thorough research that senior staff have put in to selecting the people we will make up this morning. Consideration has covered the entirety of your time at School, not just the past few weeks. That is encouragement for those of you in the Fourth and Fifth Forms to realise that your conduct today can have an influence on your future. That said, nobody is perfect and mistakes made in the past don’t automatically preclude selection in the future, as long as you learn from them.

When we sought your input into the selection process last week, I encouraged you not to think of Monitorship as a reward. If that were the criteria, most in this room would be appointed. Prizes for being excellent are for prizegiving.

I also reminded you that although being a Monitor required a certain skill set of leadership abilities, there were many more suitable applicants than there were positions, so selections had to be made. Just because the top two dozen were chosen, doesn’t mean that there aren’t many others in the 6th Form who have the potential to lead.

Naturally, some will be disappointed, but in that disappointment is a chance to show character and resilience. There are a number of other significant leadership decisions yet to made, especially in the Houses, and I encourage those who desire to lead in this way to prove themselves worthy over the coming days.

Like any job, being a School Monitor has a Job Description. It includes upholding the traditions and ethos of the School and that is a heavy burden. Like me, the people we make up this morning have now become stewards of the School’s 500 year history. They are charged with maintaining standards. Upholding Bromsgrove’s reputation.

We will have tasks for them to do, on top of the normal pressures of the Sixth Form, but they are not slaves.

They will require things of you, in the House, the Chapel, Dining Hall, this Arena, throughout the School. But neither are they slave drivers.

The people who are about to come forward and publicly sign their pledge, are servants. Servants to you, servants to me and servants to the School. The difference between slaves and servants is the choice to serve.

These people have accepted a request to serve their School and for that we owe them our respect. I think it says a lot about our School that the highest honour that we can bestow upon a pupil is the chance to serve others.

In a moment, I will hand over to the Head Boy and Girl to conduct the ceremony. When they announce each name, there is no clapping – pupils walk up in silence. Witnessed by us all, our new Monitors will then sign their names in the book that has been used since 1950. Once that is completed, each will receive their badge of office, shake my hand, then those of the Head Boy & Girl. Only at that stage, will we then applaud. [Archie & Lydia.]

1. Shams Ali-Baig
2. Daniel Ashton
3. Seb Atkinson
4. Patricia Blessing
5. Scarlett Bond
6. Kalea Booth
7. James Bradley
8. Katie Burke
9. Jonathan Burke
10. Max Campbell
11. Thomas Chapman
12. Lauren Court
13. Olivia Dalby
14. William Edwards
15. Phoebe Fletcher
16. Alek Florev
17. Dasha Homyk
18. Siena Horton
19. Kitty Luscombe
20. Joshua Osborn-Patel
21. Thomas Reynolds
22. Mulan Yang
23. Jaren Yeung
24. Vivian Zhang Wei 

Examination Encouragement
This is the final Assembly for the Fifth Form before you go on exam leave. By the time you re-join us, just before Commem, all of the examinations for which you are currently striving hard, will be behind you.

As many of you know, I refuse to wish you luck. If you are relying on luck at this stage of proceedings, either we have failed you or you have let yourselves down. If examination success were a matter of luck, why bother putting in long hours of disciplined revision? Why bother wrestling with concepts that you find challenging? Why lock yourself inside in sunny weather?

Luck is for the lazy, the unmotivated, the ill-prepared. You are none of those.

Instead, to all who are sitting GCSE examinations, I wish you what you deserve. Which, for just about every person in this Arena, is academic success.

The same goes for those sitting IB now, those facing A Level finals in a fortnight, those finishing BTEC modules. And indeed, for the Lower 6th and the Fourth Forms facing internal School Mocks.

I wish you all what you deserve, what you have worked for, what you have earned. Reward for a year of dedication and commitment. All that remains is for you to stay calm and focussed and have faith in yourselves and that success will be yours.

Let us end our gathering with the Grace – please stand.