The Salopian no. 166 - Winter 2020-21

SCHOOL NEWS 9
week was only an interim ‘survival’
measure. It was not something that
could be sustained through an entire
Summer Term. Shrewsbury has never
been a school to putter along on a
default setting of mediocrity. The
programme for the Summer Term had
to be dynamic, vibrant, effective and,
critically, wholly and demonstrably
meaningful.
Of course, with the news that schools
were closing, the Government had also
thrown in the exciting free gift of the
cancellation of public examinations,
initially with no sense of how pupil
grades were awarded. When I was a
child, I recall spending what limited
money I earned from the delivery of
the monthly parish magazine, on a
subscription to the Star Trek fact files.
This riveting publication was produced
loose-leaf fashion, so that those of the
persuasion could purchase binders and
store the various blueprints, mission
records, supply sheets etc. in a wellorganised
fashion. Little did I know
at the time that as I sat in my room,
very much alone, ensuring that there
was no cross-contamination between
Kirk and Janeway, I was actually being
prepared for the agonising process
of piecing together the astonishing
volume of guidance documents, update
documents, update on the update
documents and media news stories
which were to proliferate in my inbox
in this period. The spare room did, at
one stage, resemble the hovel-dwelling
of a demented serial killer – endless
documents pinned to boards and
connected by threads and pins
Designing a process for submitting
Centre Assessed Grades to exam
boards, although by no means
straightforward, proved to be far easier
than I had thought. The great strength
of Shrewsbury School has always been
the fact that teachers here really do
know the pupils very well, so I was
able to work confidently with Heads
of Faculty who had a wealth of data
at their disposal in this regard. What
was more complex, however, was
designing an academic programme
for the Summer Term for pupils from
beneath whose feet the rug had just
been unceremoniously pulled.
This was marginally easier in the case
of the Fifth Form who were able, of
course, to begin their transition into A
Level study. I was very keen, however,
that there should be a sense of
academic closure on the GCSE courses.
As a boy, I once stoically refused
a medal (I had recently watched
Cool Runnings, I think, and was
experiencing a delusional commitment
to nobility) because I had tripped and
fallen in the last hundred metres of a
cross-country race and thus not actually
finished it. I didn’t want the Fifth
Form to be in the same position – it
was essential that they finished those
courses so that in years to come, should
anyone moot the concept that they had
not ‘earned’ their GCSE results in the
fiery crucible of the examination hall,
they could respond not only that they
had absolutely merited those grades
through fully completing their courses,
but that they had done so in the most
difficult of circumstances.
For four weeks then, a committed
and determined cohort of Fifth Form
pupils astonished us all by engaging
with absolute enthusiasm and working
extraordinarily hard in their GCSE
subjects. Having scrambled with
the inimitable, indispensable and
indefatigable Dr Oakley to re-write
the timetable at short notice, we were
able to migrate them across to their A
Level subjects before Exeat and, along
with new entrants who were able to
drop in for taster sessions and for the
year-group-wide Sixth Form study skills
programme, they made a phenomenal
start and are now very evidently
reaping the benefits.
It was for the Upper Sixth, of course,
that we felt the most profound
sense of sadness. Being robbed of
the opportunity to sit one’s final
examinations is one thing, but to be
robbed of a final Summer Term at
Shrewsbury and all the excitements,
celebrations and enjoyment that would
have brought is quite another. I was
determined that whatever we laid on
for them was going to be so much
more than ‘something to keep them
occupied’. Early into the Easter Term I
met with Toby Percival (Head of UCAS
and Higher Education) and a group
of highly enthused and determined
staff and, within two weeks, he had
designed the outline of what was to
become Shrewsbury U. Fusing together
external input and advice from five
Russell Group universities with the
passions and expertise of Shrewsbury
teachers, this was a remarkable piece of
innovation that saw Salopians engaging
with the early phases of Higher
Education in a manner endorsed
and supported by those institutions.
Alongside this, Chris Wain (Head of
Futures) made contact with the Institute
of Leadership and Management and,
through remarkable energy, tenacity
and (frankly) sheer bloody-mindedness,
converted the School into an accredited
centre for the delivery of their Level
Two Qualification in Leadership almost
overnight. Ultimately, 95 Salopians
successfully achieved this award – an
astonishing achievement under any
circumstances and even more so under
COVID restrictions.
The spirit of innovation and the level
of energy of Shrewsbury teachers was
utterly humbling to behold. There were
simply too many projects to mention
a complete list here. From Theme
Weeks based on Identity and Natural
History through to the launch of the
HPQ for the Third Form, it became
apparent that every single member of
the teaching staff at Shrewsbury School