Boarding Schools' Association annual conference for headteachers

Monday, 11, May 2009 12:00

Headteachers arriving at the conference, with a fantastic Jazz Band from Wymondham College, the largest state boarding school in the country, playing in a green and leafy quad at a country hotel could have been forgiven for thinking they had arrived at a summer wedding. Enjoying the company of colleagues, hearing inspirational speakers and taking time to reflect on the vital jobs they do, Headteachers experienced a conference which provided a wide variety of food for thought as well as excellent catering.

In his opening address, the Chairman, Melvyn Roffe, Principal of Wymondham College, and the first State Boarding Schools' Association Chairman of the BSA for a decade, took a moment in his speech to alert Government to two problems: treating children applying to our schools from overseas as if they were all likely to be benefit scroungers or budding terrorists would damage a vital element in Britain's economy, its capacity to educate the world; and it was high time government swept away the obstacles, whatever they might be, which stood in the way of Local Authorities sending children in difficult circumstances to boarding schools. More than 70 schools are interested in offering places: far more children could be helped than was currently the case.

Other highlights of the Conference were:

Kevin Roberts, CEO of Saatchi and Saatchi, with his advice that we should make boarding 'a lovemark' - loved by our parents and pupils 'beyond reason' - and a display of advertisements to make most of our marketing directors weep with envy;

Andrew Motion, flexing his muscles in his first week as 'Not the Poet Laureate', and reminding us of the value of teachers who make every child think there is something he can do, and maybe change his life because of it;

David Hempleman-Adams, who is self-effacing and funny and would probably be excellent company if you needed someone to go to all 4 of the earth's poles with you, because he would know how to do it and keep you giggling while it hurt;

Dr Carrie Herbert, founder of the Red Balloon Learning Centre, who reminded us that if every child matters, then every child deserves an education, especially the child who has given up on education because other children have made their lives hell with their bullying;

Dr Michael Carr-Gregg, Australian psychologist and guru, expert on adolescent mental health, with a salutary but entertaining reminder of how much is now known about adolescents' mental health, and how important it is that we should know it too and change our practice accordingly.

With boarding numbers in ISC schools up by 1000 on 2008, the Headteachers in Oxfordshire had much to celebrate, not least a conference which inspired and invigorated all those attending.

Next year -4 - 6 May, in Torquay.

ENDS

Hilary Moriarty

National Director

Boarding Schools’ Association

020 7798 1580