I write this on a glorious November afternoon, having followed in Keats’s footsteps along the path from College to the Hospital at St Cross. This walk, at a similar time of year, inspired Keats to write his Ode to Autumn. For me, more modestly, it brought home both our huge good fortune to be surrounded by so much beauty and our serious responsibilities as custodians of such a wonderful landscape and so many historic buildings.
These responsibilities are one of the themes of this year’s edition of the Wykeham Journal, as is the need to combine conserving the best of the past with increasing access to all that Winchester has to offer. This year’s Wykeham Correspondent, George Brock, is an OW who went on to be Foreign Editor and Managing Editor of The Times. We worked together in Brussels in the early 1990s. He offers a range of different perspectives on the same underlying ambitions — from those of generous donors, through conservation artists and a bursary beneficiary to a multi-generational Win Coll family.
The last 12 months have seen major changes in the school. The first two cohorts of Day Girls have arrived in VIth Book. Thanks to the most thorough preparations, in particular by Tim Hands and the Deputy Head Pastoral, this process has been smoother than I dared hope — hugely helped by the manifest determination of the girls to take advantage of every opportunity which Winchester has to offer.
And we now have planning permission to build two new Boarding Houses for girls — the first new Boarding Houses at Winchester for over 100 years. In addition, Elizabeth Stone has succeeded Tim Hands, after his seven successful years as Headmaster. Elizabeth knows the school (and many dons) well from her time in Common Room just over ten years ago. She has started with great energy and enthusiasm, combining an instinctive understanding of what makes Winchester special with a well-judged willingness to challenge comfortable assumptions.
All that said, none of us is complacent about the future. We are living through a time when education is politically charged, whether because of the continuing and uneven impact of Covid, the closure of state school buildings made from aerated concrete, the debate about overseas students in UK universities or the Labour Party’s proposals to impose VAT on independent schools. Unfortunately, education has not benefitted financially from this political focus. In the 1990s education and healthcare both received about 4% of GDP in state support. Health spending rose to over 7% of GDP just before the pandemic, while education spending was little changed as a percentage. In the decade from 2009/10 government spending per pupil at school fell by 9% in real terms. Decisions on public spending are notoriously difficult. But these figures suggest that the contribution of schools such as Winchester (allied to our determination to widen access) is of growing importance — not least in ensuring that minority subjects do not disappear entirely.
Elizabeth combines an instinctive understanding of what makes Winchester special with a well-judged
willingness to challenge comfortable assumptions.
willingness to challenge comfortable assumptions.
The latter threat seems all too real. The sharp decline in Modern Languages (with the exception of Spanish) is well documented. Latin and Greek are endangered species — even in top state and independent schools. By way of example, an excellent local state school now offers no Greek A-level and had 7 candidates for Latin in 2023 (compared to 534 for Maths). Music A-level numbers in England have declined by 45% since 2010. The Governing Body continues to believe in offering a wide-ranging curriculum which stretches our pupils intellectually and is designed to prepare them for success in life, not just exams.
It is entirely understandable that the government should want schools to provide their pupils with skills which will help them to flourish in a modern economy. But, even in times of tight public finances, it is less obvious that trying to do more with less is the right strategy for education — which holds the key to the country’s long-term success. Not to mention the difficulty of knowing which skills will in practice best prepare young people for success in a world changing so rapidly.
This argues, to my mind, for a focus on developing the right mind-set and values — rather than offering quasi-vocational training for vocations which, with or without AI, may no longer exist in 10-15 years’ time. Winchester has consciously offered a different approach to learning for many decades — certainly since I was in the school. What we offer feels both more important than ever and more remote from the conventional mainstream. This makes it crucial that we open up the opportunities which Winchester can offer as widely as possible. In their articles, the Headmaster and Bursar have rightly focused on our growing bursary programme — in particular the numbers now joining VIth Book from the state sector. We are attracting some remarkably talented new pupils at 16+, as I know from meeting many of them over dinner in the Lodgings with visiting speakers. They provide a wonderful illustration of all that is best about our education — they are knowledgeable, diverse in their views, articulate but always courteous. In recent months they have provided lively and well-informed challenges to the Chairman of the Environment Agency on managing our water supply (both quality and quantity); to Mike Brearley on leadership in sport; and to the Chairman of Historic England on handling treasures derived from Empire.
The Governing Body is committed to increasing the number of pupils benefitting from bursaries as rapidly as our finances will allow. Similarly,
the admission of girls, the sharp increase in day pupil numbers, and the strengthening of our partnerships with local state schools are all designed to contribute to our efforts to widen access and ensure that we can offer places to those who will benefit most from our approach to education — irrespective of financial means.
The Governing Body is committed to increasing the number of pupils benefitting from bursaries as rapidly as our finances will allow.
Winchester can only touch directly a limited number of lives. This makes
it even more important that we help our pupils to develop a sense of purpose and direction, rooted in values. How we deliver education may change, but not why. I hope that those lucky enough to spend time here will leave with a commitment to use their exceptional talents productively and through contributing to the wider public good. Everything I see when I am in Winchester, as I am most weeks during the term, suggests they will do just that.
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Winchester College only exists as we know it today thanks to the generous support of those named over the next few pages, and the many generations of donors who have come before us, going right back to our Founder, William of Wykeham, in 1382. Our pupils past, present and future cannot thank you enough.