Courage to Evolve

Letter from the Headmaster

“If you have never done anything new, you will be no good at dying”. These challenging words from Fr. Timothy Radcliffe O.P. (Worth Prep. School and Downside) make a fitting summary of the last 12 months at Worth.

We have been preparing for many new things and, tragically, we also prepared for the death of two students, each of whom suffered from illness over a long period. Patrick Lamb died in March, 2001 and Alex Leaney in March 2002. They now lie side by side in the monks’ cemetery. May they rest in peace.

The death of these boys brought to the surface the deeper purposes of Worth: our common language of hope, our acts of love and our symbols of faith. These continue to be the foundations of the school and on these foundations, new projects are being constructed.

The first of these are literally new constructions, namely, new buildings. The Upper Sixth House is rising handsomely, on budget and on schedule to open in September 2002, ready to house up to 90 students. The new house for the Butler Housemaster attached to the New Block will open at the same time. Then the Gervase area of the school will be closed and the refurbishment of the main building will begin.

The First XI cricket field has also been given a serious makeover, with new drainage and levelling out: at last we have a level playing field! In winter months this will be three rugby/soccer pitchers around the cricket square.

Finally, this September will see the completion of the science laboratory refurbishment that began some years ago.

Our ambitious development plan is investing £8 million over the next four years, with £2 million of this sum coming from our current Appeal. We have to-date, raised £1 million and during 2002 we are looking to Old Boys (among others) to help us raise the second million.

Yet these physical facilities are not ends in themselves and it is the education we offer that is developing too. We are introducing the International Baccalaureate this September, as an alternative alongside ‘A’ levels, the first Catholic boarding school in Britain to do so. This has led to a significant rise in numbers applying to join our Sixth Form. We currently have some 440 students aged 11 - 18, due to rise to 460 in September, comprising 310 boarders and 150 day boys.

We were recently inspected under the Ofsted framework and the inspectors highlighted many areas of success: high levels of academic achievement that had risen well beyond the national rise in ‘A’ level results; high quality pastoral care; happy and courteous pupils.

The report framework also contains a section on “what the school could do better” and under this heading there was, unusually, just one sentence: “there are no significant weaknesses”. Obviously, they made recommendations for improvement which we will act upon. But I hope that old boys will share in our pride at what we are achieving. The inspectors commented “The pupils’ pride in their school is amply justified” and I hope that may also read: former pupils’ pride in their school is amply justified.

Father Christopher