The Record 2014 - 2015

GAUDY, 4TH JULY 2015

A copy of this letter should be kept on every teacher’s desk. In talking to countless OSE from almost any era, from 1962 to 1999, this is how they have seen Malcolm Oxley. Indeed, when Chris Jones, OSE, Governor and Chairman of our General Purposes Committee, was musing about a new history of the School to (roughly) coincide with our 150th Anniversary, he naturally thought of Malcolm Oxley – his former History teacher here. “… my first thought, after my mother, was of you” but I suspect Chris did not consider his mother for the job… Malcolm, it is excellent to have you back today and thank you for joining us for this annual Gaudy and the distribution of prizes. Have I given the book a big enough plug yet? (We are selling it in the Quad after these speeches…!) At this end of the year, as we approach Gaudy, I try to think about how I might sum up the School – how to express the great things that the pupils have done and achieved over the past twelve months. I start to view the School as a simply extraordinary set of achievements; just consider what has had to go right for us to get here, to this day, to Gaudy. All of the work of the grounds staff and the kitchens; all of the great endeavours by our cleaners and by our office staff; all of the organisation of the maintenance department and logistics… And over the course of the year, inevitably, the huge efforts of all of the members of this most wonderful Common Room have loomed large to ensure that we have had a successful year.

This morning in Assembly we said goodbye, as a School, to our leaving Common Room members. But there is one who is not a leaver and to whom I would like to draw attention, for he today completes fifty years of service to St Edward’s – Tony Snell. The members of this great Common Room do a truly impressive job of teaching our pupils – your children – and they do so much more as well. Academically, last year’s Upper Sixth recorded the best ever set of results here with 52% of all exams at A* or A grades in the A levels, and at level 7 or 6 at Higher Level IB. The Fifth Form cohort led with an impressive 62% A* and A grade charge which was up with the best of our performances in the past. Last year’s leavers really did set a mark which will take some beating – I know that this year’s leavers have been working with real zeal to reach it. What marks out last year’s results particularly however, is the hidden score which we call “value added”. Calculated from baseline testing in the Lower Sixth, last year’s leavers put us in the top tiny percentage of independent schools where the performance of the pupils was very significantly above the expectation of those pupils. This is hugely impressive. Academic value added is seriously important as are all academic successes – we are an academic school – which is, of course, a tautology… A few years ago I heard Nick Gibb, the Minister for Schools, speak. He said to the assembled independent sector heads that the

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