Reunion 2004 - Welcoming Address

by Martyn Ofield, Headteacher of Priory School

am delighted to welcome Old Lewesians and guests to Priory School and I feel honoured to be asked to give a short address at your Reunion. Your old school closed in 1969 and therefore the youngest old boy left school almost thirty years ago. As I pondered what to say today, I found myself asking whether in thirty years’ time students from Priory School would want to attend a reunion. I hope that the answer will be ‘yes’ because I believe my school to be unique amongst state comprehensive schools.

For example, all students study Latin and classical civilisation in their first three years and some go on to study Greek. Chemistry, physics and biology are available as separate GCSE subjects as an alternative to the combined science offered in most schools. All students study music, drama, dance and art. Rugby and cricket are properly taught and, unlike many schools, football does not predominate. There is a strong debating society and all students participate enthusiastically in the public speaking tradition of the school. The curriculum approaches the renaissance ideal; sciences and arts go hand in hand, and our students receive a rounded education.

The school is very successful. It achieves high standards in examination results and always does well in the league tables. But education is much more than exam results and there is more to a good school than high academic standards. I am sure that you have not come to this reunion simply because your school was successful in public examinations. I believe that the values and ethos of a school determine its worth and success.

At Priory, the Chapel plays a most important part in the promotion of school values and creation of the school ethos. The Old Lewesians have made a great contribution to Priory School through the legacy of the Chapel. Students, staff and parents at Priory owe a debt of gratitude to the Old Lewesians. First, for the work of those who raised the money and built the Chapel and, more recently, to the very generous donations from the Old Lewesians through the Chapel Trustees.

These donations have helped the school to maintain the Chapel. The masonry surface had begun to crumble and significant cracking was beginning to appear. Extensive silicone treatment has been applied and the cracking repaired. The damp course has been upgraded and the guttering replaced. Interior redecoration is scheduled in the school maintenance plan. The Chapel Trustees’ most recent donation of £6000 will enable the school to refurbish the organ completely. I am delighted to have the opportunity publicly to acknowledge and thank the Old Lewesians and the Chapel Trustees for this generous support.

We live in an age when words such as ‘duty’, ‘honour’, ‘loyalty’ and ‘integrity’ are too often seen as old fashioned. Newspaper headlines make frightening reading and can give the impression of endemic sleaze and corruption from our leaders and politicians; of drug taking and underhand gamesmanship from our sportsmen; of insider dealing and pensions swindling from our businessmen. Young people do not escape this bad press. The marks of mindless vandalism are all too visible in our towns and cities. We see evidence of mob mentality too often on our television screens. The statistics for teenage drug taking, crime and pregnancy have all risen dramatically. You will no doubt have heard the latest concerns about obesity in young people. You may well have experienced at first hand rude and aggressive behaviour from teenagers or those even younger.

Too many of our young people are growing up in dysfunctional families, with poor or inadequate parenting and a lack of moral guidance. Some of our young people are not so much immoral as amoral. But I believe that there is some innate good in every young person, some spark of decency. With guidance and discipline, with good role models, with firm but patient nurturing, the vast majority of young people will turn out well. Good schools give this guidance and support.

The Chapel is a tremendous asset to Priory School in this respect. It is an example and a symbol for our students of selfless giving, both in terms of the young men who gave their lives in the war, and those whose efforts raised the money and built the chapel. We continue to tell the story of the building of the chapel and its purpose in our assemblies every year.

The Chapel provides a fitting setting and ambiance for exploring morality, for teaching about right and wrong, for giving young people an opportunity to consider the needs of others. It is also a perfect venue for the events and occasions that create a sense of tradition and bond the school together.

As an example, the chapel has been at the centre of the School’s recent charity work for the war-ravaged country of Rumania. The School has been collecting shoe boxes under a scheme called ‘Love in a Box’. Students fill a shoe box as a Christmas present for a young person in Rumania. They decorate the box and fill it with things such as hats, gloves, soap, toothpaste, books, sweets, toys and similar items. The boxes are then taken to Rumania and distributed. These simple gifts mean a great deal to those who receive them. Our students managed to produce over nine hundred boxes and raised £1700. The boxes were amassed in the Chapel and before they were collected yesterday formed a wall across the front of the sanctuary.

At Priory there is a student with a very poor reputation. He is known to be aggressive and a bully. He is generally gratuitously unpleasant to everyone. Neither his fellow students nor his teachers have been able to find anything likeable or redeeming about him. But somehow the Chapel assemblies and this appeal had touched even his heart and conscience. On the first day that boxes for Rumania were collected in, this young man in a self conscious and embarrassed way brought in the very first box. His box was decorated and filled with meticulous care and attention to detail and he had written a Christmas card to the Rumanian child who would receive the box.

Every child has the potential for good; while the values and ethos that made your school a great school remain alive there is hope for the future.