N E W S L E T T E R - Radley College

Radley 

THE 

N E W S L E T T E R 

VOLUME 11 

| The Old Gym Redevelopment | Standing on the Shoulders of Giants | 

| A Week at Radley | College Oak | Making the Whole Man | Radleians |

THE OLD GYM 

The unimaginative title of this piece 

reflects both the antiquity of the site 

of Radley’s newest building project 

and the fact that it has not one but a 

number of functions, none of which 

is so overridingly important as to 

lay claim to its renaming. So the 

new building is not just the History 

Department, or the Art Gallery, 

or the Coffee Shop, but it is all of 

these, married together in a stunning 

concept – by the winners of our 

competition the architects, Design 

Engine. It is important to emphasise 

at the outset that we still await 

planning permission before Easter, 

but provided the planners’ dangerous 

shoals are successfully navigated this 

spring, we envisage getting underway 

with clearing the site in the high 

summer, with building commencing 

in the autumn. Realistically, we aim 

to be in by Easter 2013. 

That 60 to 70 weeks of building 

reflects the scale of this project. 

First it incorporates 10 new 

History (and Politics) classrooms, 

with accompanying offices, to 

accommodate one of the biggest 

departments in the school; over 

130 boys take A level History, at 

present inadequately accommodated 

in a few beautiful old classrooms 

facing Bigside. Secondly, and at the 

building’s heart, is a Coffee Shop and 

Social Centre for senior boys, and 

their guests, and parents and visitors 

to sit in comfort, have a snack, and 

talk. We felt this need especially for 

weekends; as a full boarding school 

it is important to have a stylish 

social space for boys, visiting girls 

and adults to meet, especially on 

Saturdays and Sundays, and the 

design has imaginatively satisfied 

that need, additionally providing 

meeting rooms for more formal 

discourse. These social areas flow 

easily into the third element, the 

expanded Art gallery spaces, for we 

have long wanted to provide our Art 

2 THE RADLEY NEWSLETTER 

2 THE RADLEY NEWSLETTER

REDEVELOPMENT 

department and the beautiful, high 

quality Art emanating from it, with 

exhibition spaces which do justice 

to Radley’s artistic productivity. The 

Art will be both wrapped round 

the social spaces, and have discrete 

galleries of its own. Design, too, 

benefits from extended workshop 

and exhibition spaces. 

As a whole, this great new building 

will make a powerful statement in 

the heart of the College. There may 

have been some residual affection 

for the corrugated construction 

which morphed from 19th century 

chapel into Gym, then into Radley’s 

theatre space, but the shell has long 

since lost its usefulness, the new 

theatre superseding it in 2005. Now, 

an exciting new concept, enhancing 

the Rackets Court and setting off 

Clock Tower, will radically transform 

the centre of Radley College for the 

better. 

THE RADLEY NEWSLETTER 3 

THE RADLEY NEWSLETTER 3

Standing o 

Shoulders 

This is only the second full year of the ‘Standing on the Shoulders of Giants’ 

Sixth-form Lecture, Seminar and Research Project Programme – yet already 

it seems difficult to imagine sixth-form life without what is now known 

affectionately as ‘SOTSOG’. 

What is SOTSOG? Every academic 

cycle, in the first half of the 

academic year, the entire 6.1 yeargroup 

attends a Lecture period in 

the Theatre. Two different dons 

have roughly twenty minutes each 

to inspire their audiences on topics 

and issues central to sixth-form 

intellectual life and indeed to the 

issues of university study that lie 

ahead. Subjects like The Whig View 

of History, Revolution in Science, The 

Ethics of Terrorism, Marxism and 

Feminism, the Nature versus Nurture 

debate and many others have been 

covered – with the use of powerful 

film and audio clips to help bring 

these issues alive. 

These lectures have proved a 

show-case for Common Room to 

demonstrate their intellectual talents 

and inspire the boys. As someone 

lucky enough to have seen all of 

the lectures thus far, I can testify 

that the standards of presentation 

and content have been exceptional. 

Lectures that seem to have especially 

gripped the sixth-formers over the 

past few months have included 

Alex Hawkins (Music) and Charlie 

Barker (Modern Languages and 

Senior Master) on Race in the 

Cinema and in Music and Ed Tolputt 

(Physics) and Anthony Williams 

(Music) on those contrasting 

European Geniuses, Alan Turing 

and Beethoven. Another highlight 

was Ian Yorston’s (IT) lecture on the 

emergence of the Big Brother state 

in Britain – which was not only full 

of impact, it also proved particularly 

timely, as it coincided with the 6.2/ 

St Helen’s Conference focusing on 

these selfsame issues in November 

2010. 

After each lecture, the lecturers’ 

slides are sent out to the yeargroup, 

so boys have a record of the 

material covered. They are also 

given a Course booklet, containing 

summary notes on each topic from 

each of the Lecturers, together with 

follow-up reading and research 

suggestions, guiding them on the 

next steps once their interest is 

sparked. 

The second SOTSOG period each 

academic cycle is taken up with a 

university-style Seminar, where boys 

meet with their Seminar leader, in 

small groups of around a dozen, to 

discuss issues that have interested 

them in the lectures. Discussions 

have been full, frank and often 

stimulating. 

Such intellectual stimulation over 

and above their mainstream A level 

subjects is of course an educational 

end in itself. It can be hugely helpful 

in A level classes, for example, to 

be able to reference names like Sir 

Isaac Newton (who himself used 

the ‘standing on the shoulders of 

giants’ analogy to describe his own 

investigations), Nietzsche and Marx, 

safe in the knowledge that sixthformers 

will have an understanding 

of the enormous legacy of such key 

figures from their SOTSOG lectures. 

But SOTSOG doesn’t end there. In 

the second part of the 6.1 year, the 

interest triggered by these lectures 

and seminars is followed up with 

the third and final part of the 

Programme: the undertaking of 

a research project. There are two 

types of research project; every sixth 

former chooses one of them. The 

simplest is the internally-marked 

2,000 word ‘Radley Project’ – on 

any of the titles suggested by the 34 

individual lectures they have heard. 

A stimulating question is posed – 

for example, Can or should Art be 

dangerous? – then explored in the 

research essay. 

Even this comparatively short 

Project carries strong research 

and independent learning 

benefits – precisely the kind of 

skills universities are increasingly 

valuing, as places become evermore 

competitive. Will a university 

applicant be capable of working 

independently without close 

supervision? Is he likely to drop 

out, unable to complete the rigours 

of the course? Having completed a 

research project at Radley, all the 

evidence points to success - and, 

as we’ve already seen in our UCAS 

application cycle this year, those 

boys, the majority, undertaking 

the Radley Project, have been 

highlighting its benefits in their 

UCAS ‘Personal Statements’. 

And for the even more academically 

ambitious and organised there is 

the demanding externally-assessed 

project – the Edexcel Extended 

Project - worth half an A level. 

This is by no means an easy option, 

requiring a great deal of planning 

and organisational skill, with for 

example, around 20-25 research 


n the 

of Giants 

sources needing to be consulted 

and incorporated into a final 

dissertation. That said, the benefits 

to any applicant aiming for a top 

university are clear to see. If a 

Radleian can successfully, on top 

of taking four A levels, complete 

a 7,000 word research project, 

then without question, he is likely 

to prove a very strong candidate 

indeed for university study. 

This year around 35 completed 

projects will be submitted to 

Edexcel from our current 6.2s 

(who did most of the research for 

these Projects in their 6.1 year). 

We await the results with interest. 

What has been particularly pleasing 

is that not only has there been 

some exceptional work at the ‘top 

end’ – with outstanding original 

research written on topics like 

Climate Change, Middle Eastern 

Politics, Sport Science, Feminism 

in Literature – some boys who 

may not necessarily seem natural 

academic high-flyers have also 

successfully produced original 

and high-quality research, 

again motivated purely by 

their own personal interest and 

determination. 

This sense of seeking to spark and 

inspire is of course the very cornerstone 

of the SOTSOG course. 

And whatever else it may achieve, 

SOTSOG seems to be encouraging 

a significant number of boys to 

be more academically ambitious 

– at the same time giving them 

a taste of the research skills that 

will be needed once they arrive at 

university. 

None of this could have been 

possible without the enthusiasm of 

Common Room. A clear majority, 

over fifty, of all dons have been 

voluntarily involved with SOTSOG 

in some form or another – whether 

as Lecturers, Seminar Leaders or 

Research Project Supervisors. It is 

interesting to note that a number 

of schools are currently looking 

at the idea of research projects 

and independent learning skills, 

as a means of supplementing their 

sixth-form curriculum in these 

increasingly competitive times. 

Very few will be able to call upon 

the talents Radley has been able to 

muster from its Common Room. 

Dr Andrew Cunningham 



A WEEK A 

WEEK 8 CYCLE 15 

Sunday, March 6 

The Sunday next before Lent 

CCF Field Weekend 

Rugby Sevens: Windsor RFC 

10.00 Service for Lent, Preb. Charles Marnham, The Lent Visitor 

11.00 ‘The History Boys’ Technical (Theatre) 

____________________________________________________________________ 

Monday, March 7 Day 5 

Matthew 7:13-23 

CCF Field Day 

C Social Duty Week 

8.30 6.2 to AER (SLT) 

8.45 6.2 Study Day begins 

9.20 - 10.00 6.1 Lecture: ‘Research Skills’ (CDS/AC) 

____________________________________________________________________ 

Tuesday, March 8 Day 6 

Matthew 7:24-29 

Art Scholarship 

A level Mocks begin 

8.00 - 4.30 U14 South regional hockey heats 

1.00-6.00 Art AS Exam 

1.15 Coffee Concert: Instrumentalists and Singers (Silk Hall) 

____________________________________________________________________ 

Wednesday, March 9 Day 7 

Isaiah 58:1-8 

Ash Wednesday 

Academic Scholarship 

8.00 Ash Wednesday Roman Catholic Mass 

8.45 Ash Wednesday Service (Chapel) 

9.20 Period 2 

____________________________________________________________________ 

Thursday, March 10 Day 8 

John 13:1-11 

Academic Scholarship 

Departmental Outings 

8.00 - 4.30 U16 South regional hockey heats 

8.30 - 6.00 Fifths: Art Trip to London 

8.30 - 6.00 6.1 Geology fieldtrip to Aust Cliff 

8.30 - 6.00 6.1 Geography Energy field trip 

1.00 6.1, Remove, Shell Interim Reports deadline (CR) 

____________________________________________________________________ 

Friday, March 11 Day 1 

John 13:12-17 

All Rounder Scholarship 

____________________________________________________________________ 

Saturday, March 12 Day 2 

John 13:18-30 

8.00 Sailing Match: NSSA 2 boat team racing (Farmoor) 

9.00 - 4.00 Rowing: Reading University Head 

9.30 Council (Radley) 


RADLEY 

11.00 - 5.00 Art GCSE Remove Exam 

11.15 - 12.30 Cricket: Academy Squad Training 

11.30 - 4.30 Choral Society Rehearsal Day 1 - (Silk Hall) Lunch in Hall 

2.00 Shell Golf v Summer Fields (H) 

____________________________________________________________________ 

2.40 Warden’s Spelling Test: Shells 

4.30 CCF/Wednesday Activities 

6.00 ‘The History Boys’ Dress Rehearsal (Theatre) 

No Chapel 

9.05 Hudson Society 

9.05 Vth Form Society 

9.05 Crowson Society 

9.05 Lent Address (New Pavilion) 

9.05 Upper Sixth 

10.00 6.1 Interim Reports deadline (Boys) 

____________________________________________________________________ 

Academic Scholarship (from 3.30pm) 

2.00-9.00 Music GCSE/A Level Composition Workshop: Bingham 

String Quartet - Removes and 6.1 (Silk Hall) 

5.15 Shell 1 Guides for Scholarship (until Thursday) 

6.00 ‘The History Boys’ Dress Rehearsal (Theatre) 

9.05-10.00 Inter-Social Debating Competition - Sixth Form: Round 1 

(SLT) 


____________________________________________________________________ 

4.30 Games 

6.30 D of E Gold Spotlight 

6.45 English Dept Shell 1 and Lit Soc theatre trip: ‘The Tempest’ 

(Oxford Playhouse) 

8.30 Keyboard Krazy Koncert (Silk Hall) 


(SLT) 


____________________________________________________________________ 

APT for 6.1 (no priority) 

Rackets v Clifton (H) 

12.05-7.45 Golf v ORs (at The Berkshire) 

12.40-7.00 Fives v Malvern (H) U14 A&B 

2.00-6.00 Squash v Abingdon (H) 

7.45 ‘The History Boys’ (Theatre) 


(New Pavilion) 

____________________________________________________________________ 

1.30 Form Masters’ Period: 6.1, R, S Reports 

4.00 Council (Radley) 

7.45-9.45 Choral Society Evening Rehearsal 2 (Silk Hall) 

7.45 ‘The History Boys’ (Theatre) - Council attending 

____________________________________________________________________ 

12.00-6.00 Cross Country SE Championships (Harrow) 

Hockey v Charterhouse 3, C1-3, JC1-4 (H); 

1,2,4,5, M1-6 (A) lunch12:00, leave 12:20 

Soccer v Haberdashers Aske’s 1-3 (H); C1-2 (A) leave 12:00 

Soccer v Oratory C3, JC3 (H) 

2.00 D of E Bronze Expedition departs 

Fifths Dance with Westonbirt (H) 

7.45 J Social Culture Evening (Silk Hall) 


College Oak 


Every Wednesday evening Radleians congregate in their boarding houses for ‘Social Prayers’. Talks are given 

by dons which may have a moral or spiritual element, often they relate to events in the news, but sometimes 

they simply inform the boys about interesting ideas and facts which might not otherwise find their way into a 

curriculum. This is an address given by the Acting Warden, Andrew Reekes: 

Standing at the bottom of a broad track, alongside 

Capability Brown’s picturesque lake, is a gnarled 

and twisted oak tree of considerable girth and 

obvious antiquity. Since Radley’s early days it has 

been known as College Oak, but Radley College 

is a Johnny-come-lately when set alongside this 

noble tree, which dendrochronologists from the 

EU have recently dated as being c.1060 years 

old. In truth, it is one of the oldest extant trees 

anywhere in Europe. 

Pigs foraging for pannage through the forests 

attached to Abingdon Abbey evidently missed a 

stray nut. It took root at a time when Edgar the 

Peacable, from Wessex, was King of England and 

St Aethelwold the Bishop of Winchester held the 

Abbacy at Abingdon and so owned the woods. 

The tree was already a century old when William 

of Normandy conquered England; he came to 

Abingdon in 1084 to celebrate Easter, hunted 

boar across Radley land and left his son, later 

to be Henry 1st, to board at the Abbey. College 

Oak grew and flourished through the Angevin 

and Plantagent centuries, one of scores of such 

trees in these parts. A layman here would have 

been trespassing and it is likely that only boar 

and deer sheltered under its boughs; perhaps the 

occasional courting couple romped in its leafy 

shelter. 

At some stage, centuries ago, a lightening strike 

or a natural deformity led to a strange perversion 

which makes College Oak unique; its 60 foot 

long sideshoot, as thick as a child is high, lying 

parallel to the ground and rooting in the soil in 

its own right. It probably explains why the tree is 

here today. With Henry VIII came a passionate, 

competitive, dynastic desire to make a mark in 

Europe and war inevitably meant the need to 

defend these shores with a strong navy. Henry 

ordered the building of huge oak men-of-war of 

which the Mary Rose was one example. Because 

of its size, and height, and the design of is 

gunports it shipped water and turned turtle one 

benign summer’s day on the Solent. Surveyors 

then, as in the time of his daughter Elizabeth, 

scoured the south of England for thick, tall, 

straight oak timber. Radley’s was even then too 

old, too bent, to pass muster. As in the late 18th 

century when the Admiralty looked for English 

oak to construct a navy against Bourbon, then 

Revolutionary, finally Napoleonic, France, 

College Oak survived the cull. 

By then, too, something else had happened to it. 

It had been incorporated into the leisure industry 

of its era. Capability Brown, the greatest garden 

designer of his era, architect of over 140 such 

schemes, was employed here to landscape the 

grounds surrounding newish Radley Hall on 

lands freed, after Henry VIII’s dissolution, from 

ecclesiastical ownership. Capability Brown’s 

style was one of smooth, undulating grass 

accompanied by artistically devised clumps and 

softening of trees, with serpentine lakes, all with 

the aim of creating the gardenless garden. College 

Oak was a picturesque prop in an 18th century 

stage set, part of a contrived landscape in the style 

of Claude Lorraine. 

Its final incarnation, now 900 years old, was to 

act as bit part player in the new Radley College, 

founded in 1847. So hungry were early Radleians 

that they foraged like those Anglo-Saxon wild 

boar of old, for acorns from College Oak; they hid 

tuck from prying authorities in its hollow interior. 

At some stage – not, of course, now – it was also 

the secret repository of illicit cigarettes and the 

occasional bottles of hooch. By the 21st century 

it was, indeed, a hollowed-out oak, a hoary old 

growth, but it still had life, and survived the 

attentions of tree surgeons round the grounds in 

the last decade. 

So, it is rather humbling to review what it has 

outlived. It was 100 years old when the Normans 

came, 400 years old when England’s population 

was halved by Black Death, 600 years old when 

Shakespeare was born, 700 years old when 

Royalists and Parliamentarians surged to and 

fro across Radley’s lands as they contested the 

Thames Valley and Royalist Oxford; 850 years old 

when beacons were lit across Southern England to 

warn of impending invasion by Napoleon in 1805; 

the tree celebrated its millennium as Radleians 

and Eastbournians (evacuated here for the war’s 

duration) gazed skywards at German bombers 

passing north overhead to seek out Birmingham 

and Coventry. It is quite extraordinary that a 

living thing could have survived so much – over 

1000 years – of our island history. That survival 

perfectly illustrates why we revere the oak tree 

– its resilience, strength and durability has long 

symbolised those enduring rugged, yeoman 

qualities of the idealised Englishman. 



Making the 

Whole Man 

Some schools are obsessed with academic league tables; some worship at the shrine of sport; some 

pay lip-service to the spiritual traditions of their foundations. Radley aims to educate the whole 

person. One of the advantages of the boarding environment is that the dons and boys are living 

in a community. Thus the values and skills which are essential to build a successful and caring 

society can be nurtured in an effective and authentic manner. 

Successive governments have identified 

the erosion of social, moral and personal 

values as weakening the fabric of society. 

The response was to develop as a part of the 

National Curriculum subjects called PSHE 

(Personal, Social and Health Education) and 

Citizenship . More recently the National 

Healthy Schools Programme was established 

as a joint initiative by the Department of 

Health and the Department for Education 

and Skills (DfES) to reduce health 

inequalities. Healthy Schools, as envisaged 

for the maintained sector, advocates a 

whole school approach to PSHE, involving 

pupils, the leadership team, governors and 

the relevant parts of the local community. 

The most innovative method of delivering 

PSHE recommended by Healthy Schools is 

the ‘normative’ or social norms approach 

rather than the negative approach to such 

issues which polarizes attitudes and can 

even make illicit or unhealthy behaviour 

more appealing to a rebellious teenager. This 

model fits well with Radley’s ethos. 

To promote this normative approach, PSHE 

and Citizenship are integrated into all 

aspects of life at Radley; classroom teaching, 

tutor groups, socials, and games. The 

development of the whole person is central 

to Radley’s education. As Radley is also a 

religious and charitable institution its culture 

promotes a spirit of responsible and selfless 

giving in its staff and pupils. 

The more obvious aspects of PSHE: healthy 

diet, alcohol, smoking and drugs awareness, 

and sexual health are taught, in the main, 

within the Biology curriculum, but these 

are supported by talks from medical staff, 

external specialists and developed further 

in small Social-based discussion groups by 

boys’ form-masters. 

We have been very lucky to establish a 

large and reliable network of excellent 

guest speakers who have fully endorsed our 

approach. For example, the Shells receive 

very different talks from Alex Corkran 

and Kaz Ghalmi on issues of self-esteem, 

eating disorders and awareness of peer 

pressure. Alex Corkran comments that she 

finds Radleians a pleasure to speak to, as 

they listen intently. She is impressed greatly 

by the questions they ask and by their 

willingness to approach her afterwards with 

more questions, or just to say thank you. 

“What a fabulous group of young people 

they are!” she told me after giving her last 

talk. Kaz Ghalmi is a former drug addict and 

a specialist in professional drugs-awareness 

training. He was recommended to us by 

Thames Valley Police and, having lived in 

Radley village, he knows our situation well. 

He is a very amusing speaker who manages 

to get the boys in the Shells to think about 

their attitudes towards one another. He 

and another drugs worker run workshops 

with small groups in the Vth form. In these 

they address in more depth any questions 

about drugs and alcohol abuse. Another 

local specialist in this field is Mark Stevens, 

the clinical psychiatric nursing manager 

for Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire 

Community Addiction Services. He comes 

in weekly for the first half of the Michaelmas 

Term to speak to a couple of form groups 

at a time about drugs and alcohol abuse. 

Both he and Kaz Ghalmi also give talks 

to Common Room and to parents to 

complement their work with the boys. These 

sessions have always proved very popular 

and are strategically important in keeping all 

those looking after boys fully informed. 

A number of Old Radleians have generously 

given talks to our boys. About eight years 

ago, I went to a dinner talk on Addiction 

given at Brooks’s Club by Lord Birdwood. He 


gave such an entertaining and compelling 

insight into his own life experience as 

an alcoholic that I was delighted that he 

has been able to return to Radley each 

year to speak to the 6.1 year group. He 

comments, “The reaction of the audience 

of older boys is everything one could 

hope for. From the beginning, they are 

engaged, clearly identifying with the 

pitfalls which I am describing. There is 

real identification. Mind you, the topic 

- addiction in general, and alcohol in 

particular - is likely to ring bells as most 

families have a problem somewhere in 

their spread. I focus particularly on AA 

(Alcoholics Anonymous).” He reports that 

he received some feedback unexpectedly 

in Brooks’s one evening when a Radleian’s 

father said, out of the blue, that his son 

had raved about the talk and how much of 

an eye-opener it had been and stimulated 

discussion amongst his friends afterwards. 

Perhaps a few ORs have memories of 

watching scratchy black and white films 

on How babies are made, or The dangers 

of venereal disease. We have an old 16mm 

film reel sitting on the shelf in Biology 

entitled Human Reproduction but (un) 

fortunately no projector with which to view 

it. Things have advanced a lot. As well as 

excellent materials from Channel 4 and 

BBC Education, Prof Robert Winston’s 

acclaimed Human Body series provides 

a superb set of programmes covering 

puberty and pregnancy. Using models, 

condoms and other contraceptives, the 

Biology Department and Medical Centre 

provide guidance on contraception and 

sexually transmitted infections with special 

emphasis on Chlamydia: a particularly 

nasty, but often symptomless, bacterial 

infection which is currently spreading 

through the UK’s teenage population at an 

alarming rate. 

The context of all PSHE and Citizenship 

is always considered in light of Radley’s 

identity as a Christian school. Over their 

time here, boys need to develop a mature 

emotional and spiritual self-awareness to 

help them cope with the psychological 

and moral challenges which they will 

undoubtedly meet throughout their lives. 

An awareness of the effects of depression 

and anxiety on oneself, family and friends 

has been acutely brought to the Radleian 

consciousness through the work of the 

Charlie Waller Memorial Trust and Alex 

Corkran’s talks. 

Another remarkable expression of 

Radleians’ generosity of spirit is 

exemplified by the sustained and diverse 

range of fund-raising activities for so many 

different charities, often with very personal 

links to boys in the school. These activities 

range from individual endurance record 

attempts and sponsored long-distance 

cycle or rowing events, to whole-school 

charity dress-down days and selling special 

Radley-branded novelties such as pyjamas 

or boxer shorts. Many thousands of pounds 

are raised annually through the boys’ 

ingenuity and resourcefulness. 

It should not come as any surprise that 

the spiritual barometer of the school is the 

atmosphere in Chapel. The school chapel is 

a special place, a holy place: the generations 

of past pupils who return and visit to pray 

and reminisce in silence or at services 

are a testimony to its power. It forms and 

confirms Christians on their discipleship 

journey. For some it begins as a routine 

chore, for others it seems irrelevant at first, 

but it soon becomes a spiritual refuge and 

refectory. Very few schools still have a daily 

chapel service for the entire school, or even 

the principle of a weekly Sunday Eucharist. 

When I arrived at Radley in 1997, I was 

struck by Chapel’s peaceful atmosphere 

and the stillness maintained by the whole 

congregation in the five minutes before 

weekday Evensongs and during prayers and 

the taking of Communion. 



adleians 

The voluntary candlelit Eucharists on 

Friday evenings would gather thirty or 

more boys together in prayer to receive 

the Blessed Sacrament. This term the 

Chaplain has introduced a short said 

Eucharist after lunch on Wednesdays. 

Having had the privilege of preparing 

boys for Confirmation, I am acutely 

aware of how embarrassing they find 

it to talk openly in groups about their 

spiritual journeys as opposed to other 

PSHE topics, their favourite team’s 

performance, or which film star they 

fancy most. However, individually, 

they all relate different, but no less 

real experiences of fear, inadequacy, 

joy, and hope which are healed and 

nurtured in Chapel, where they are 

reminded that they are not just pupils, 

but the living Body of Christ. 

I will never forget the sight of hundreds 

and hundreds of candles being lit on 

the Altar at the voluntary evening 

service the Revd Tim Fernyhough 

and I led in response to the 2004 

Boxing Day Tsunami. In those 

precious minutes boys were not too 

embarrassed to cry, to pray fervently, 

to thank God and to struggle with 

the tragedy of natural disasters. It was 

perhaps the most overt expression of 

a school’s corporate Christian faith 

I have experienced for many years: 

quiet, candlelit, prayerful and dignified 

liturgy followed by the most rousing 

hymn-singing. 

It is not just the boys who are nurtured 

by Radley’s spiritual tradition. In my 

time here the Holy Spirit has been 

hard at work in Common Room: 

Katie Jones, James Wesson, Matthew 

Bemand, Brenda Stewart, Rebecca 

Peters and I have all been ordained 

priests, and two more Radley dons 

are currently exploring this calling. 

Before my own ordination training, 

I would lead a simple said Compline 

on Wednesday evenings in the Chapel 

of the Resurrection above Memorial 

Arch. This was always supported by 

the dedicated team of Sacristans, one 

of whom is himself now following his 

own vocation. Boys and dons alike can 

become whole people at Radley. 

The Revd Dr Simon Thorn 

Head of Science and PSHE 

Vannevar Taylor (VI-1) 

DRAGON, ETON, K SOCIAL 

There is no denying that when I first 

set foot on Radley soil as a Radleian, 

doubts were scurrying around my 

head and my heart thumping with 

nervousness. I knew of the immense 

beauty of the grounds, I knew of its 

reputation as an all-round school. I 

had captained an Eton side that was 

thumped by Radley at rugby: their 

sporting prowess was no secret to me. 

Equally, some of the brightest boys of 

my prep school, the Dragon, had gone 

on to Radley: it was easy to guess that 

they were no slouches on the academic 

side of things too. 

This did not prevent the doubts 

from assailing me. I had laboured all 

summer-long to catch up on GCSE 

syllabuses which differed from those I 

had studied at Eton, I was determined 

to make this place the right one. I was 

prepared for challenges, and therefore 

anticipation was normal. 

This was reckoning without the 

character of the place. From my first 

evening at the school, I felt welcome. 

Boys went out of their way to be 

friendly to me and to make me feel at 

home in a way I had not experienced 

before. Thanks to this, I settled down 

quickly to the Radley way of life. 

Sport was integral to this, and my 

participation as openside flanker to 

the Colts 2 unbeaten season in my first 

term confirmed my impression of all 

Radleians’ dedication to sports. I felt 

from the off that it would provide for 

me what Eton had not been able to: 

a warm, friendly environment where 

pleasant and sociable boys were the 

rule rather than the exception. 

On the academic front, I felt at once 

that I was in safe hands. Lessons 

were productive and informative and 

teachers managed to keep each and 

every lesson interesting. However, 

the relative informality that existed in 

lessons and the friendly relationships 

boys struck up with teachers was the 

aspect that surprised and impressed 

me the most. This kind of relationship 

not only contributed to the friendly 

atmosphere of the place, but helped 

drive the boys to better and higher 

achievements, as they tried desperately 

not to disappoint the teachers after 

their hard work. 

Having already been to one of the best 

public schools in the business, it would 

have been natural for me to have been 

critical of aspects that left something 

to be desired. This was rendered 

impossible by the lack of flaws in the 

Radley system. 

Societies were without exception 

stimulating and of profound interest. 

Better still, there was no lack of them; 

lectures were constantly being given, 

either by teachers or experts in all 

fields brought in to talk to us. Most 

impressively, boys seemed eager to 

involve themselves in these extracurricular 

opportunities, and many 

took a genuine interest in multiple 

shades of the spectrum. 

Life in socials was another aspect of 

Radley life that I immediately took to. 

K Social, as one of the two new houses, 

was easy to like for its cleanliness and 

striking interior, but its atmosphere 

was something that no other school 

could, in my opinion, replicate. Again, 

the informality of it all struck me, but 

the idea of “cocoa” was one that had 

never occurred to me before, and one 

that suited the camaraderie present in 

all socials. 

Having been successfully guided 

through GCSEs and having embarked 

on the A level course, every aspect of 

life in school continues to impress me, 

not least the fantastic facilities we have 

at our disposal, or the competitiveness 

of boys on the games fields, but equally 

the friendliness of everybody no matter 

what the situation. 

I have much to be grateful for at 

Radley for, particularly the recent 

award of an honorary academic 

scholarship. I shall always be thankful 

for the opportunities it has given, and 

continues to give to me, as I make my 

way through the sixth form. 



Website: www.radley.org.uk . Admissions enquiries: 01235 543174 . admissions@radley.org.uk

N E W S L E T T E R - Radley College

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