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8
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