Bernard Trafford (08-17) I joined the RGS as its Headmaster in September 2008, fresh from a hectic year as Chairman of HMC, the association that represents the 300 or so leading independent schools in the UK (plus some 50 British-style schools in other countries around the world). By Bernard Trafford All in a day’s work: recording a message; prowling the corridors; presiding over the Carol Service
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hen I applied for the job at the RGS, I had a good idea of what I was coming to. I had always taught in old grammar schools,16th Century foundations that had weathered the storms and stood the test of time, always clear in their vision and purpose. Indeed, I started teaching at the RGS in High Wycombe, a school against which we still play cricket once a year at the now legendary RGS Cricket Festival. So I knew the beast, and felt at home in the type of school. Yet every school is also individual, unique: that’s certainly true of the Newcastle RGS. It is, as we so often say when trying to describe it to potential parents and students, “a special place”. More than that, when I arrived I said (perhaps too frequently) that the RGS isn’t just a “great school”: it is truly “one of the country’s great schools”. That remains true. It’s not for me to judge what has been achieved over the last nine years: others must do that. Certainly I found a school that was powerful, at ease with itself, and in the midst of a period of enormous development and transition. Already a passionate co-educationist, I was delighted to be able to see the process, already underway, through to what we might describe as ‘full coeducation’: as I write this, more than 40% of the student roll are girls. Inevitably such a change means that there has been significant work to do on culture and ethos – yet without, I would claim, losing one iota of the traditional strengths and values of the school. I arrived to see some fantastic modern buildings added to the handsome 1906 school: it’s been exciting to continue that development which will, of course, go on beyond my tenure with what the Governors are calling, in convenient shorthand, Project XL3. I’m sometimes asked what headmasters do: it’s a tricky one to answer, so I won’t bother here! But I’m also asked what an individual head brings beyond that overall management and leadership role. I’ve always loved to be immersed in, and to support absolutely as much as I can, the whole of school life. I’m as fanatical in my commitment to the extracurricular life of the school as everyone else in it, and still reckon that our somewhat crazy formula works. Students and staff alike work flat-out for the length of the term, necessarily slightly shorter than terms in the state sector: and then, if not collapsing, they at least use those holidays and half-terms for vital R&R. In how many day schools will you see students still involved in after-school activities at getting on for 7pm on a Friday? It happens here. I’m a musician by training, starting out in education as a Music teacher: so if I’ve been able to contribute in a specific area, of course it’s been in the performing arts, something I have relished.
