Head’s Weekly Update

This past year has certainly been one that reflects the very best of Pangbourne. At key points in its history the College has had to flex and adapt to a changing landscape and its agility is the reason it is still here today. 

In the words of Peter Points, Head from 1975-1988: 

“The key for Pangbourne will be to remain as agile as possible in responding to societal and global trends. My era was a time of change but there have been many others since 1917. The ability to move with the times has been one of the College’s enduring skills.”

So perhaps the greatest success of this past year has been the resilience and integrity shown by the students in facing change and embracing the opportunities it presents. The driving ideal for the year has been to put the students at the heart of the college and to ensure our best centuries are ahead of us. 

For me, coming in as the new Head, this has been one of the most challenging years of my professional life. The perfect storm of a Labour Government determined to dismantle the sector, a falling national demographic and increased competition have all led to a complex picture. Everything we have done over this past year has been with the intention of giving the students the very best experience and ensuring that they and future generations of Pangbournians are fully prepared for life in a future we can’t quite define yet. 

The 4 pillars of academic rigour, exploration & adventure, community and leadership exist to provide a framework for this to happen. 

With regard to Academic Rigour and our drive to ensure every single student leaves us with the currency they need to live a life of choice and opportunity, we have seen some pleasing improvements. The new timetable has provided much needed additional time for academic study, the focus on teacher training and the design of the Pangbourne Teacher Habits provided a framework for teachers to have a shared language with which to talk about their teaching and three-weekly grade cards have hopefully provided parents with a level of detail they desire to help support their child. 

The launch of our mastery quizzing model in Key Stage 3 is designed to enable our students to develop the schema necessary for academic success. A schema is simply a mental structure of ideas/words, a framework representing some aspect of the world or a system influencing how we perceive and what we notice in any new information.

We have seen great success with the model in the lower years and I look forward to rolling this out across Years 10 and 11 from September. The fundamental aim is to induct our students into the intellectual habits of humankind and allow them to enter the disciplinary conversation about knowing our world. Please see the full list of Leadership, Academic and Co-Curricular staff for the new academic year here.

Adventure & Exploration have been at the forefront of our planning this year and I am delighted we secured the funding necessary to build the new adventure facilities. I am delighted to have appointed Tom Poynter as Assistant Head Co-Curricular and his passion and commitment to the co-curricular life of the College is going to really help drive this forwards over the coming years. 

Sport has remained front and centre of the Pangbourne experience and I have enjoyed the glorious victories alongside the crushing defeats. The launch of our 5 year sports strategy will enable us to develop a world-class sporting offer. Sport is a great leveller and it teaches us the lessons of life. On the sports pitch, in the gym or out on the river, sport teaches you to manage conflict, think flexibly and communicate effectively. Rarely in sport do things go to plan and the ability to adapt and change is crucial. It is pleasing to begin to see the green shoots emerging from our partnerships with Ealing Trailfinders and Reading Hockey Club. Some notable performances this year include:

• Mia Moore - outstanding contribution to school life and performance in hockey. Premier League winner with Reading Women's Hockey Club and England U21.

• Oli Smith - Brunel and Ealing Trailfinders rugby academy bursary

• Eve Allen  - going through the GB rowing trials 

• Girls 8 qualifying for Henley

• Sophie, Connie, Liv & Maise winning at Hickstead National Senior Schools Championship.

This year we have seen our overall win % rise to 37.1% which is a huge jump on last years 29% wins. This is our best year for a decade. Now sport isn’t only about results, but that needed to improve and we have done that - great coaching, student commitment, a well thought out timetable. We have also seen a new record in our participation levels - 92.8% of the school have taken part in competitive team sport this year, that is an improvement on last year of 84%. We have also had a record engagement level in our senior pupils which this year is over 86%. To give you some context, the independent school average is around 60% for participation, and this drops down to 40% for senior pupil engagement. My ambition is obviously to move this to 100%. 

The word Pangbourne is synonymous with Community and never will this be more important as we enter the uncharted territory of technological advancement and automation over the coming years. Our reconfiguration of boarding and adaptations to the pastoral model will ensure that we are set-up to tackle the challenges of modern life and provide the depth of support and guidance an adolescent today requires. 

The return to the original vision of co-education will mean we not only honour the memory of Anthony Hudson but also provide a modern and future-proof school experience. A school cannot succeed without relationships built on mutual respect, kindness, and integrity. The move back to the original configuration of co-education enables us to have the architecture in place to nurture every individual. 

Education has always been a shared endeavour. My desire is that at Pangbourne, pupils and staff work together within an environment that values respect, kindness, and integrity. We are proud of the relationships that flourish here — between teachers and pupils, between year groups, and across our wider partnerships. A pupil who feels known and valued will thrive, and it is this sense of belonging which enables both personal growth and academic achievement.

My ambition is that Leadership at Pangbourne means service above status. So leadership at Pangbourne means so much more than telling others what to do. Leadership at Pangbourne means ensuring you leave us ready to succeed in a connected and diverse world. This means that:

• It is not enough for a Pangbournian to leave us with great exam results and go to an elite university. They must also have the ability and interest to interact with people different from themselves, and be able to live in successful networks and relationships.

• It means we will have failed if our students leave us without developing the skills most in demand from employers - teamwork, resilience, courage of thought, articulacy, problem solving. A degree is no longer enough to guarantee protection from automation.

• And finally, we haven’t secured our promise to our students if they leave us and aren't driven to leave the world in a better place than they found it. The essence of Pangbourne is community, and service is a yardstick by which we measure ourselves.

It is a great privilege to experience a Pangbourne education and the best way we have of showing its true value is to use it to make the world a fairer, happier and more accepting place. 

I want to thank sincerely all those who have helped to make this year what it has been and especially the Board of Governors, who have been generous with their time and have both supported and challenged the senior leadership team wisely and helped lead the College this past academic year.

Thank you to the parents for entrusting your most important possession to us and having continued faith in the College and thank you to the staff for your hard work and dedication to the students. Those staff moving on leave with our thanks for their service and best wishes for the future. Most importantly, thank you to the students for your hard work this past year, for turning up and getting stuck in and for not giving up when things got difficult. Have a wonderful summer, but do complete the work we have set for you.