Whether the Weather

ROUTH HALL ASSEMBLY 
Monday 20th January 2020

Today's Routh Address was given by Mr McClure 

Whether the weather be fine
Or whether the weather be not,
Whether the weather be cold
Or whether the weather be hot,
We'll weather the weather
Whatever the weather,
Whether we like it or not.

You can be the judge of whether you found that weather verse to be a pertinent thought for the start of another day, another week at Bromsgrove. If nothing else, I hope you appreciated that it was light-hearted and short! So why did I choose it, having been given this opportunity to speak to you with the Headmaster away in Bulgaria this week.

If pressed, I wonder what each of you would say you want to get out of a British public school education? At a basic level, I realise some of you may shrug and drolly or begrudgingly retort that it is because your parents have sent you here – well, it is lovely to have you here with us, too, this morning! If you are holding out for a cut-glass, posh accent and something of a superior affectation or manner, I’m not sure Bromsgrove is the right place for you. Perhaps some of you are still somewhat bewitched by the hope that there’s a bit of Hogwarts in every boarding school, or that your House is so obviously Gryffindor compared to your sworn rivals in pseudo-Slytherin, and that maybe Quidditch might still become an inter-House competition in your time here. Others may relish the chance to be in a diverse community. I would hope that most of you would at least reflect on the real opportunities you have here, both in and outside the classrooms. With the UCAS process now completed for another year, the Upper 6 have again clearly set their sights high for the next stage of their education, and the focus on academic work has been sharpened by the round of mock examinations in the last fortnight. Equally, every week at Bromsgrove includes so much more alongside the work – the sort of news we shall share later in this assembly.

Of course, with so many international students in this Arena, there must also be something else besides the qualifications, the opportunities and the campus, or you could have your choice of schools in any other country, so there must be something about Britain, or England itself. Whilst there are indeed some defined ‘British values’ which provide a stable context for your education – democracy, rule of law, individual liberty, respect and tolerance – I do think that the opening poem touches on two other core principles of ‘Britishness’.

The first is the language. Communication in English is a valuable global skill, and it is something which our international students prize highly and which they practise here in a way that can only impress those of us with fairly limited linguistic ability. And let us not forget that, even for native speakers, English is one of the most complicated languages on the planet – the mark of an island race which has absorbed elements of both its indigenous people as well as all of the invading tribes over the course of its history. That is why we have words which, although spelt differently, are pronounced the same – enabling the word play on the word ‘weather’ in our opening verse this morning.

Last week, I came across a poem, titled ‘The Chaos’ – over 140 lines, so you’re glad I didn’t start with that – which is completely filled with examples of words with irregular spellings and thus highlights the complexities of English pronunciation. As an example, consider the three words tomb, bomb and comb: all spelt with one consonant followed by –o-m-b, yet pronounced with three completely different vowel sounds. And it’s not just the vowels – English is after all a language with a perfectly good letter ‘s’ for sibilance and a ‘k’ for a hard k sound, yet we completely confuse the issue by using the letter ‘c’ for both sounds. Think of that in your next Maths lesson when you’re asked to calculate the kirkumferenke, or should that be sirsumferense of a circle (or kirkle)! Is it any wonder that the land of origin of the English language can have a slightly eccentric reputation globally, where convention trumps logic, but also where frustration can to some extent be excused by humour? In sharing The Chaos poem with Mr Corns, he reminded me of the example of the made up word ghoti (g-h-o-t-i), which one could logically argue can be pronounced ‘fish’ if one pronounces gh as in enough, o as in women, and ti as in motion. So, grow to love the foibles as well as the functionality and beauty of the English language as you employ it each day.

Which leads to the other British staple of the opening verse – the weather. Even in the middle of the eighteenth century, the influential writer Dr Johnson (he of dictionary fame) stated “It is commonly observed that when two Englishmen meet, their first talk is of the weather”.

Little has changed, really. Those of you from other countries may well agree with the American author, Bill Bryson, who has suggested: “To an outsider, the most striking thing about the English weather is that there is not very much of it. All those phenomena that elsewhere give nature an edge of excitement, unpredictability and danger – tornadoes, monsoons, raging blizzards, run-for-your-life hailstorms – are almost wholly unknown in the British Isles.”

In response, and in his own book on ‘The English’ at around the same time, the English journalist Jeremy Paxman (nowadays the host of University Challenge) claimed that:“Bryson misses the point. The English fixation with the weather is nothing to do with histrionics – like the English countryside, it is, for the most part, dramatically undramatic. The interest is less in the phenomena themselves, but in uncertainty … one of the few things you can say about England with any absolute certainty is that it has a lot of weather … you can never be entirely sure what you’re going to get.”

And there is truth in both statements, wouldn’t you say? Whilst Australia is sadly struggling with the most intense heat wave causing mass destruction through fires, here in Britain we have had to battle Storm Brendan, in truth more of a meteorological inconvenience, which sounds like it is named after your uncle. Yet, whatever the scale, look as well at the variety of the last week: Brendan’s squally showers with mild temperatures were quickly followed by our first heavy frost on Saturday morning – enough to freeze the astros and cancel the Prep School hockey fixtures – yet by Saturday afternoon, many of you were playing (including on the astros) in winter sunshine under blue skies which turned a magical red by sunset, prompting the odd Twitter photo in awe.

It is this variety which makes the weather our obsession in this country, for a number of reasons. The anthropologist Kate Fox believes that the changeable and unpredictable nature of the English weather makes it a particularly suitable facilitator of social interaction – if it were not so variable, we might have to find another medium for our social messages. Because, as I’m sure you are all aware, whether you are British or not, conversations in this country about the weather are not really about the weather at all. In a particularly well-observed section of her book Watching the English, Fox identifies weather-speak as a form of code, evolved to help us overcome our natural reserve and to actually talk to each other. “Nice day, isn’t it?” or “still raining, eh?” or other variations are not actual requests for weather data: they are ritual greetings, conversation starters or default ‘fillers’.

Indeed, if you think about it, they are so ritualised, that there are certain unwritten rules:
- First and foremost, you are expected to respond – even a smile or a pretty inaudible acknowledgement will  do rather than an awkward moment caused by blanking the speaker or leaving them hanging.
- The basic rule is to agree: “Cold, isn’t it?” followed by “Yes, isn’t it?” is a perfectly acceptable exchange that will keep both parties happy.
- Even if you don’t agree, start with a “Yes” or “Mmm” to be polite, then:
either a) follow with a personal taste comment “but I quite like it”
or b) with a mustn’t grumble type response “but at least it’s not raining!”
- Even what might be called ‘moaning rituals’ (e.g. if it is both wet and cold) have an important social purpose here, since they provide further opportunities for friendly agreement (not to mention some wit or humour) which are valuable aids to social bonding.

And that, surely, is as good a reason as any to have a national obsession about a phenomenon which is not actually that spectacular – another example of the British reserve. As Fox states, “the nature of our weather ensures there is always something new to comment on, be surprised by, speculate about, moan about or, perhaps most importantly, agree about. We expect to be surprised: we are accustomed to the variability of our weather and we expect it to change quite frequently. If we get the same weather for more than a few days, we become uneasy; more than 3 days of rain and we start worrying about floods; more than a day or two of snow, and the whole country slithers and skids to a halt.”

So there you go: a brief lesson in the culture of British weather conversations for those of you who are international and experiencing a British education with all its quirks as well as qualities, and a moment of slightly wincing reflection for those of us who are British in realising that we are all creatures of habit who have been unwittingly swept along in such a cultural convention.

The variability of the British weather is at its greatest in these spring months and, aside from our ritual comments on it, there is also room for using it as a metaphor, particularly for the Lent Term, in which so much is crammed into a relatively short term. I am of an age where I remember songs by the Antipodean band Crowded House, and two of their hits take up this theme. Four seasons in one day is all about the variety which life, like the weather, can throw at us. This term, that may be the storms of the mock exams, the intense heat of completing a piece of coursework, or the morning chill of an end-of-topic test. Or perhaps it could be the warming breeze of an artistic performance, the clear blue sky of a House event, or the welcome rainbow of a university offer. In short, it is quite a good description for the many moods which we may all feel both collectively and individually this term. Almost as an antidote to that, Crowded House also released a single with the lyric “Everywhere you go, always take the weather with you”. I’m not sure we logically have any choice but to do just that, although I think they meant that to some extent you create your own weather by making the most of your own environment and experience. Sound advice for us all, too.

Which, I believe, on a lovely crisp January morning, brings me back full circle to a fitting bit of advice for the Lent Term, delivered in a suitably British way, to be received, at your choice, either humorously, literally, or metaphorically:

Whether the weather be fine
Or whether the weather be not,
Whether the weather be cold
Or whether the weather be hot,
We'll weather the weather
Whatever the weather,
Whether we like it or not.


Achievements

Music 
Congratulations to the following students who have recently passed music examinations;
Thomas Astle, Piano, 5
Joseph Hong, Clarinet, 5
George Vaughan, Flute, 5
Angela Hong, Singing, 5
Eleanor Dunn, Piano, 6
Alfie Harvey-Gilson, Trumpet, 6
Lili-Rose Hunt, Singing, 6
Isabella Lloyd, Singing, 6
Sebastian Harrison, Trumpet, 7
Jovita Lam, Piano, 8
 Yana Chan, Theory, 5
Lucia Goodwin, Theory, 5
Steven Tang, Theory, 5
Chantal Wong, Violin, 5
Henry Hoare, Tenor Trombone, 5
Harrison Brown, Trumpet, 5
Jessica Whitlock, Singing, 6
Owen Price, Piano, 7
Jake Wingfield, Trumpet, 7
Sophia Meadows, Piano, 8
Joshua Osborn-Patel, Cello, 8

Netball
Congratulations to the U19 Netball team, who won the county Netball tournament beating RGS Worcester, Kings Worcester, South Bromsgrove, Malvern College and Christopher Whitehead to progress to the West Midlands finals along with our U14 and 16 teams.

Rugby
Well done to the U17 Rugby team who retained the Siviter-Smith trophy (for arguably the oldest running schoolboy fixture) beating KES Birmingham 1st XV 45-17.

House Table Tennis
Unusually, we have joint winners of the girls’ competition – Mary Windsor and Housman Hall (after all of their matches the score between all competitors was the same).
In the boys’ competition, the Runners up were Elmshurst, with the winners – Wendron Gordon.
I invite the captains of Mary Windsor, Housman Hall and Wendron Gordon on stage to receive the trophies.

In Review
Last weekend, as well as hosting the Girls’ National indoor finals here, our U16 Boys’ indoor hockey team were playing at Whitgift School. The boys played well: even though they lost narrowly to the hosts Whitgift and Dean Close, they drew with Bishops Stortford School and beat Egglescliffe which resulted in our team being ranked in the top 6 indoor Hockey teams in the Country. Very well done.

The Boys badminton team played well to beat Rugby School 12-4.

There were good wins for the U18 Boys’ basketball team this week, beating Shrewsbury School 51-45 and Rugby School 108-43. There was also a pleasing performance for our development side who beat Sir Thomas Rich’s 52-45.

There were good cross country performances from our runners in the match at Welbeck College with a special mention going to Callum Wilkinson, Seb Purvis, Dan Goodwin, Sophia Meadows, Lena Siller and Grace Dieppe.

In the five football matches played against Rugby School on Saturday, Bromsgrove won 3 with victories for the U16B, U16A and 2nd XI.

In hockey cup matches, there were good wins for the U15 Boys team who beat Ratcliffe College, and 1st XI who Warwick School 1-0. Unfortunately the Girls’ 1st X1 lost in the National Cup against Dauntsey’s School.

On Saturday, it was pleasing to see so many boys representing the School in hockey fixtures against Rugby School with wins for the U14B, U14A, and U16A teams, as well as the 1st XI continuing their good start to the season with a 5-3 win.

Well done to the 1st, 2nd, 16A, 15A, 15B, 14A, 14B and 14D netball teams for their victories against Rugby School. Particular congratulations to the 1st team since their fixture was also a Cup match.

It was good to see a number of our squash players play in a fixture against Cheltenham College even if on this occasion Cheltenham got the better of the results.

 And yesterday, I am pleased to report that the U18 boys’ table tennis team qualified for the regional finals by finishing runners up in the zonal competition.

And previewing the week ahead:
On Tuesday there is the Upper Fourth Parents’ Evening here in the Arena.

There are a number of Cup matches for our sport teams and we wish them all the best. If you are free on Wednesday lunch time, please come and support the senior Netball team who will be playing St. Bede’s College. On Thursday the U15 Rugby team play Oakham School in the last 16 of the Nat West Cup, during activities.

Cultures Connect 2020 is taking place on Saturday 14th March this year. This is our annual extravaganza to celebrate the diversity in our school. If you would like to showcase your talents, whether that be singing a pop song in Chinese, reading a poem in Russian, playing a traditional instrument from your home country or even dancing to K pop, please get in touch with Mrs Boonnak or Dariia Hromyk by the 9th Feb to audition. The theme for this year is ‘time travel’ and all acts should be related to a particular era of your own choosing.

I hope you all have a good and productive week. Please stand as we say the Grace together: