A belated Happy New Year.  It is amazing to think we are nearly three weeks into 2013.  It is lovely to have the school back in full swing and our 12 new recruits have all arrived and are very well settled.  We had a friend of our youngest son Sam, from Edinburgh University staying with us for the start of term and he then spent a few days at Windlesham doing work experience.  After the first day, he said to me ‘I cannot believe how happy the children all are to be back at school, they really want to be here’.  Needless to say, that put a big smile on my face!

The children and staff have returned in good spirits and there is a great buzz about the place; the Ones (Year 8) will be a bit more subdued in the coming week as they sit their C.E. mock exams.  I seem to be spending most of my time giving children interview practice as so many are about to go off for pre-tests and it is not long before the scholarship season begins in earnest.

As I write, we are keeping fingers crossed that snow is not going to thwart our Open Day this Saturday or more importantly, disrupt our Senior Schools Show.  Our Head of Marketing and Admissions has worked wonders to get no less than 36 Senior Schools to come and exhibit.  What a golden opportunity for our parents embarking on the process of identifying their first choice Senior School for their child/children. Added to this we also have 24 teams coming to play in our annual Netball Tournament.  It should be quite a day.

I was very interested to hear on the radio yesterday that Dr Anthony Selden, the charismatic Master of Wellington College was promoting the need for good manners and punctuality to be instilled in the young of today.  Anyone associated with Windlesham will know that I place huge store on these attributes.  I would argue that it is fundamentally important to any prep school’s ethos because these all important life skills need to be nurtured in a child’s formative years; waiting till adolescence sets in is leaving it too late!

At Windlesham good manners are an integral part of everyday life and a day does not go by when I do not make reference to it.  Punctuality is something you work on throughout your life and is one of the new year’s resolutions I have put to the school.

I remain very excited about the year ahead and hope we can really build on the momentum we have generated.

My next blog will follow in a week’s time…

It is hard to believe the end of term has come and gone and we are already a whole week into the Christmas holiday.

As anticipated, our final Christmas celebrations were great fun.  The children love their House Christmas parties and they certainly all entered into the spirit for the Headmaster’s Disco.  It was great seeing all the Ones dancing so happily with the children they are senior mentors to and I never felt I had to do any persuading with anyone to take to the floor. I was not surprised to hear from the respective Heads of Boarding that everyone in the dorms fell asleep as soon as their heads hit the pillow.

Despite atrocious weather on the last day of term, the Christmas concert was a triumph.  I am fairly sure everyone who attended could tell what a wonderful buzz there is in the school.  It was a fabulous way to round off a very successful term.

I hope those reading my blog will have time to read the article in the latest edition of Sussex Life.  If nothing else, it is very gratifying to see that I have been quoted correctly.

The year 2012 is ending with my feeling very proud of all that has been achieved and I feel very excited about the prospects that lie ahead for Windlesham in 2013.

Have a wonderful Christmas everyone.

This really is an amazing school.  Last night, I witnessed every dormitory, both in the girls’ wing and the boys’, above our apartment, hearing Christmas stories being read to them by members of staff; even our new Chairman of Governors was good enough to be one of the story readers.  This lovely scene follows on from a wonderful boarders’ Christmas dinner on Saturday when we enjoyed some hilarious entertainment.  What an atmosphere.

I look back on the last ten days with immense pride.  Everyone who saw our production of Les Misérables would seem to have been ‘blown away’ by the quality of the singing and acting; it will certainly live long in the memory.

Many, but by no means all, of the lead parts then had to concentrate their minds on our Carol Services.  Much to my delight, the Chapel was packed full on both occasions and they have simply been the icing on the cake to a very atmospheric and special week.

Nothing was quite as moving as the Thanksgiving Service for Lord Denman on Friday.  We estimate that some 300 people came to pay their respects and support the Denman family.  Our choir led the singing beautifully and you could hear a pin drop throughout the service.  I was so impressed that not a word was heard from the rest of the school.  From the moment all the guests drove up our drive, they were extremely well looked after and I know that the Denman family are incredibly grateful to the school.  It was the perfect way to pay tribute to a truly remarkable man.

We now build up to the end of term and there is cause to enjoy much celebration.  I believe the infamous ‘whole school Christmas medley’ will be a fitting way to do just that come 12 noon on Friday.

Happy Christmas everyone.

I have failed in my best efforts to write a weekly blog but I make no excuses because it must always be my priority to put the children and the running of the school before anything else.

I must begin by celebrating with you all our latest Independent Schools Award 2012. We were voted ‘The Best Independent-Maintained School Collaboration’ for our work with Littlehampton Academy, The CRED Foundation, St John’s Ambulance and St Joseph’s School in India. Not only do I feel that our philosophy and ethos of thinking ‘outside the box’ has been recognised but I am also very proud to be the first independent school in the country to have won two awards and consecutively at that. I am thrilled that our effort to work alongside the maintained sector and to have supported such a worthy and worthwhile charity as CRED, has been so successful. Life is not about winning prizes and awards but two distinguished trophies have now taken pride of place above the mantelpiece in the front hall of Windlesham.

The last few weeks have been dominated by the mock exams for our academic scholarship candidates. The results have been most encouraging whilst also reminding us all how increasingly competitive the individual examinations are for the young people.

In between this all, our school play production Les Miserables has grown in pace. I have tried to attend as many rehearsals as I can and, to be honest, have been blown away by the standard of the singing and acting. This weekend’s performances should result in much acclaim and I know I am going to be immensely proud of the whole cast.

We also have our Carol Services to look forward to in a week’s time and I have no doubt Anthony Hutchings will ensure they are as memorable as ever. With Christmas lights adorning the front face of the main house and Christmas trees up and beautifully decorated by my wife Rachel and her band of willing young helpers; the festive season is already upon us.

We have been graced with a visit from the All Blacks legend Sean Fitzpatrick this week which will no doubt inspire our very promising rugby players on to even better performances than they have enjoyed to date.
The last 48 hours have been spent in all day meetings; firstly in my capacity as a Governor at Dulwich College and yesterday at the IAPs Council meeting where I represented the BSA Executive Committee. – All part of my rich tapestry of being a Headmaster. Whilst I do learn something new every day, all I do know is I am at my happiest and my best back at the coal face of Windlesham.

The very sad news of Lord Charles Denman passing away last week has been felt deeply in the Windlesham community. He was a great friend of the school and will go down in history as being instrumental in helping the Malden family establish the school as the front runner in co-educational boarding at the prep school age. We are honoured to be holding a service for Lord Charles Denman next week in our chapel. His and the Malden legacy is one I will continue to enhance as long as I am Headmaster of Windlesham.

I close by welcoming Christina Maude as the new Chairman of Governors. Rachel and I look forward to working very closely with her in the months and years ahead. We shall most certainly be planning a worthy send off for the out going Chariman, Lucinda Williams, on Open Day, July 4th 2013.

It is hard to believe we have been back at school for two weeks since half term.  So much has happened.  I feel as if my feet have yet to touch the ground following my trip to Singapore and Hong Kong. We had a very successful time in the Far East and, as always, making the effort to be there was much appreciated. 

So frenetic is life at Windlesham, it felt like no time had passed before I was running in the ‘whole school cross country event’.  What an atmosphere there was – everyone bust a gut for their house! No sooner was that over, it was time for the inter-house singing competition.  Never has the standard been higher and it was quite clear how much everyone enjoyed taking part.  I was especially proud to see all the new children so involved and singing their hearts out.

Then there was Bonfire Night and, my goodness, what a firework display.  Certainly, the best to date and we probably had more people here than ever before.  It was especially good to see so many recent leavers back and still so enthusiastic about Windlesham. 

Our rugby season is well underway and we have the potential to enjoy a very good season both at 1st XV level and below. 

In between all this extra-curricular, we have enjoyed two outstanding scholars’ evenings and a truly impressive presentation by our Ones on the India Trip.  The standard of their speeches and the way they each delivered their own words was incredibly impressive. I feel sure the Governors will be equally proud when they hear a shortened version at tonight’s Governors’ meeting.

On top of all this Rachel and I have been interviewed by a journalist for a national newspaper.  Watch this space…

I am writing this week’s message from Singapore where I am meeting prospective parents and then moving on to Hong Kong for the same reason . It is very good to be back in the tropics , I feel quite at home given my colonial up bringing in East Africa . I spent a lovely evening last night in the company of several young expatriate families and it brought home to me how much they appreciate my making the effort to be here over our half term .

I left Windlesham after welcoming the India Trip safely back; their adventure has clearly been an experience of a life time and I will share lots more of their achievements with you in the weeks ahead . I am conscious that today the school will be buzzing with excitement as all the children will soon be reunited with their families; for some it will have been six weeks since they were together . It is such a happy thought and I am sorry to be missing the special atmosphere that is creating in our front hall . It is rather nice that they all have the Autumn Fair to enjoy before setting off home .

I am hoping everyone will return after half term well rested and raring to go , the build up to Christmas is always a lovely time with this age group and there is so much to look forward to in our calendar .

Have a lovely half term.

Another week has flown by and, as always at Windlesham, so much has happened.  Thankfully our party in India are all well and clearly already making a difference to the lives of the orphaned children they are supporting.

We enjoyed a very memorable Harvest Festival Service at Warminghurst Church on Sunday evening.  Our Chapel Choir sang beautifully to a packed full church and helped create a truly special atmosphere.  One parent whose daughter is actually out in India made the effort to come from London just to support the rest of the Choir!  It says much for the special occasion it has become and of course says much about the family concerned.

I will be spending the next  48 hours studying the childrens' progress reports and writing my own little comment on each one.  It's an exacting exercise but a very rewarding one, especially when I reflect on how very well settled all the new children are and how happy the whole school is at this moment in time.  There is a very good work ethic running through each year group.

We now have a two week all important session before half term.  The children will be encouraged to be very focused on their work and to enjoy the last of the longer days.

I am preparing for my visit to Singapore and Hong Kong over half term.  I have appointments to meet prospective parents and will be attending the Academic Asia Exhibition in Hong Kong.  Rachel joins me half way through my trip; her priority being to ensure our Autumn Gift Fair runs smoothly – it promises to be a superb event  with a wonderful array of stalls and we expect many visitors to descend on the school. It's on Friday 19th October from 10am – 2pm in The Malden Family Theatre and everyone is, of course, welcome.

I am delighted to be sending out my first blog of the new academic year.  It is a measure of how busy we have been settling in all 64 of our new children that I have not made an entry before now.  Our new intake are, without exception, doing ever so well and are all very happily settled.  It is indicative of what an excellent start to the term we have enjoyed.  There is a real sense of optimism running through all the year groups and the atmosphere both in the girls' wing and the boys' dorms is very special.

On the eve of our team of 11 children setting off for India, I want to express the sense of pride I enjoy in seeing our children make the most of the opportunities on offer here at Windlesham.  The team travelling to India will be away for 10 days under the umbrella of The Cred Foundation. I know it will be an experience of a lifetime and they will return considerably richer in spirit and mind.

I have made a new academic year resolution to attend to my blog on a weekly basis and we will also be 'tweeting' on a daily basis – do follow us on Twitter!

It’s been an amazing week, what with my 48 hour trip out to Kenya and the surreal experience of being back at Pembroke House as a Guest of Honour.  We can look back on all our end of term events with tremendous satisfaction and a good deal of pride.  Saying goodbye to our top year was very sad but I was very touched by the sincerity of their thank you messages.

It’s extremely exciting to have launched the Windlesham Foundation on Saturday at Open Day.  It has been very well received and there has been much interest expressed.

I am going to share various extracts from my recent speeches which hopefully will be of interest and indeed informative!

Pembroke House, Kenya:

I’m passionate about giving a child an all-round education.  Of course, academic excellence must be a top ingredient and, in this day and age, private schools simply have to deliver on this front.  The standard of teaching has got to be not ‘just good’ but ‘outstanding’.  The ingredient that is also totally essential is common sense.

We want children to succeed and to grow in confidence, we want them to have the courage to try new things out but we also want them to fail.  There are many blessings to living and working in the UK but it is extremely challenging to constantly be on your guard about health and safety, risk assessments and litigation.

Most schools in the UK are afraid of failure and remove all possibilities of children not succeeding in everything they do.  We must allow children to take risks, to get things wrong and to learn from their mistakes.

If we are not careful, we will end up with a society that cannot cope with getting things wrong or children and young adults who fall apart the very first time they fail.  The knock on to this state of affairs is that there is a blame culture sweeping through modern British society.  Dare I say that there is a now a tendency in modern parenting to make excuses at almost any cost for their child’s mistake or failure.  Spoiling young people has always been a common mistake made by adults. Never admitting that a child may have got something wrong or really is not good enough at something, is a nasty virus that makes educating young children as once we could, almost impossible.  I like to hope and think that this virus I have just alluded to has not spread to Kenya and certainly not to Pembroke.  I urge you all to do everything in your power to protect yourselves or should I say, your children.

Open Day at Windlesham:

We say goodbye to The Ones who deserve applause, especially for gaining more scholarships than any year before them and particularly, when you also acknowledge that the academic scholarships have been to schools whose academic status is of the highest in the land.

We are sending our Ones to no fewer than 32 different senior schools which is very much the norm.  I think that it says much about the diversity of Windlesham.  We really do take every child for what they are and very, very rarely do I ever feel that someone has not reached their full potential by the time that they leave. This year’s Ones have, if anything, exceeded our hopes and expectations.  They and their parents deserve your applause.

Moving forward, I like to think that my recent appointment to be the IAPS representative on the BSA (Boarding Schools’ Association) will give me the opportunity to give Prep School boarding more gravitas than it currently enjoys.

I recently asked a current parent and a past parent to try and identify what they most valued about Windlesham’s ethos – I share a few of their responses with you.

• Windlesham is about educating the whole child, whatever his or her background, whatever his or her skill set.

• Windlesham fosters an ethos of bringing the best out of each child in a manner that helps to encourage and secure their talents whatever they may be – music, sport, art, drama and, indeed, all academic subjects.

• At Windlesham, a child’s background is almost irrelevant to their future in the school.  Through inspirational teaching and excellent facilities, we have been blown away by the incredible positive difference it has made on our children.  Windlesham has created a springboard for future success.

• Windlesham fosters tolerance and empathy amongst the children whether it is with regard to different cultures, religions or a child’s personal attributes.  Children are not singled out as different; there is an inclusiveness which is very special.

• Happy, fulfilled and confident children is Windlesham’s U.S.P. and it cannot get better than that.

One of my big concerns in educating children these days is that as each year goes by, they seem to be worse at listening.  Maybe it is because we teachers and parents are not communicating as well as we used to – I don’t think so. I believe it is largely all down to children using modern technological devices and thinking that they can concentrate, at the same time as people are talking to them. If you do nothing else over this long holiday, please try to develop your children’s listening skills.

Keeping with technology, Windlesham has long been ahead of the game and we have no intention of not staying that way. I am pleased to tell you that the Governors have approved just over £100,000 expenditure on a complete overhaul of our server system over the summer holiday. We will be upgrading our entire networking infrastructure this summer, replacing our 9 servers with a virtualised environment, giving us more security, safety and speed.  Along with this, we will be updating our Internet Content Management system with internet safety and education for our children very much at the front of our minds.  This gives us a hugely solid basis to grow our ICT over the next few years with particular emphasis on extending our provision of resources across the internet and with a view to introducing more mobile technology (ipads) within the classroom, but not before we have the infrastructure to manage this.

This is the 175th year in Windlesham’s history; the Pre-Prep is 15 years old in September, it is my 5th year as the Headmaster and my 28th as a Headmaster.  We should really be making something of our 175th Anniversary.  Well, we are. Apart from embracing it with such a successful year, we have two significant initiatives to announce.

At the beginning of this academic year we launched The Windlesham Award. The Windlesham Award is a personal development initiative, designed to build a stronger community here at Windlesham and beyond.  The course is for the Twos and has taken place over the academic year.  The children have developed a wide range of skills throughout the course of the programme. It is designed to give the opportunity to work and challenge each child over the course of the year, involving a range of activities, pursuits and projects.  It is a prestigious award, which will both extend and reward each child. The children have completed many core events including a working bee day, mostly based up in the woods, working on the Bushcraft area, putting up fences, sawing logs and clearing areas.  They have also completed a first aid and personal survival training session.  The final major hurdle was the Twos’ camping weekend.

The awards include Bronze, Silver and Gold for the varying degrees of commitment shown over the course of the year and also the Malden Award, presented to the most outstanding candidate in the year.  The recipient of the first ever Malden Award was announced in Final Assembly but I thought it would be rather special if one of the Malden Daughters, Grace Moody-Stuart, presented the winner, Ellie Whiteside, with the Certificate.  Now the baton will be passed on to the new Twos in September.

It is very fitting that, in the year when the school celebrates being in existence for 175 years, the Governors have agreed with my proposal that we launch the Windlesham Foundation. 

This Foundation will comprise of three funds: a bursary fund, a hardship fund and a capital development fund. Donations can be given at any time and will, we trust, be gift aided. Donors will be asked if they wish their donations to be restricted or unrestricted, the latter meaning that the funds can be used at the Head’s and Governors’ discretion, the former that the funds can only be used specifically.

We have architect plans in hand to build a new 25 metre Indoor Swimming Pool and a Purpose Built Sports Hall.  Planning permission is all but guaranteed according to the architects.  All we need now is to raise a substantial sum of money in order to give the Governors the confidence to go ahead.

Windlesham does need to move forward with this development plan and the knock-on effect will mean further new facilities can be created in the current swimming pool area.  This would therefore also mean that the theatre can have a facelift and be dedicated solely to the performing arts rather than the multi-purpose use it currently endures.

I would love to see some of the current children benefit from this and it will provide a legacy for future generations. Several parents and friends of Windlesham have expressed an interest in supporting one or other of these funds and this year has given us a very good reason to ensure there is provision to help families who have to face up to a tragedy.  We need to raise a substantial amount and quickly.

We are not entering into this impulsively. Last year I talked about exciting Capital Development Plans – these are still there and it is now time to ensure that they come to fruition and as soon as possible. We are a lucky generation and your children are possibly even luckier, given the quality of teaching and the all-round education that a private education of this standard provides.

I also want to uphold the legacy of the Malden’s –  that no child should be short changed and if it is appropriate to make a difference to a child’s life, we should do all within our power to make that provision.

We have given several children that opportunity in the past and there is an obvious and shining example of someone in the Ones’ production who has had her life and that of her younger sister transformed. Nobody wants to be involved in charity tokenism.  That is ill-founded, badly conceived and often poorly executed to satisfy the Charity Commission.

We don’t need to be pioneers.  The private schools have a brilliant role model in the Arnold Foundation at Rugby School.

I am experienced enough to know that the Windlesham Foundation will only gather momentum when there is clear evidence that donations are forthcoming.  I have had several pledges already and am very happy to discuss this in more detail, privately.  Quite rightly donors like to know that other people are prepared to match their generosity – people even want to engage in a dialogue with one another. Please let’s make this happen.

On a lighter note, I wanted to share with you a few classic remarks made by children which I have noted down over the last few months.

One boy who shall be nameless asked one of our teachers the other day, “Can I be punished for something I haven’t done?”  “Of course not”, replied the teacher.  “That’s good”, replied the boy, “because I haven’t done yesterday’s prep!”

I saw one of the children, clearly late for a lesson and walking at a stroll (which he is prone to do!).  I called out to him, “Late again”.  He waved and called back, “Oh, bad luck Mr. Foster, so am I”.

How about these from exams or this term’s exercise books:

Asked to write an essay on what they would like to do when they grew up, the opening line of one of the Threes was:  ‘I very much enjoy being a child but I am looking forward to adultery’!

In a Junior Science lesson, a child had copied this down from a Science text book: ‘The first three minutes of a person’s life are three of the most dangerous.’  Underneath, the same child wrote: ‘The last three are pretty dodgy too!’

I especially like the response to one of our Science teachers who told me about a recent Fours’ Science lesson.  On being told that a single rabbit could reproduce itself a hundred times in a year, somebody piped up, “My word, I wonder what a married rabbit could do!”

More reflections of the academic year will follow over the summer holiday.

I am about to depart for Kenya for 48 hours (!) to be Guest of Honour at Pembroke House Speech Day. Needless to say, I will be rolling back the 28 years I have relished being a Headmaster.  In many respects, things have changed quite dramatically but then again, managing children and grown ups is just the same as it ever was.  It is important never to lose sight of how rewarding it always is to celebrate another generation's achievements and that it what Speech Day is about.

The end of an academic year is full of emotion and no-one generates that more than I do!  This occasion at Pembroke House will bring back so many happy memories for me. I have a few powerful messages to put across and if they go down well, I might just put some extracts on this blog when I return.