Lords, ladies and gentlemen, Mayors and guests. It is wonderful to see so many of you here today to celebrate the end of this academic year. It gives me the opportunity to give you an insight into the developments in the College, and the incredible achievements that our pupils have had this year.
The theme of this Speech Day is gratitude and I would like to start by thanking the Governors, and our Chair of Governors – Graham Carter – in particular, for their support and guidance throughout this year. Our Governors give a great deal of their time to the College, both formally and informally, and I am very grateful to them for their wise counsel and sage advice; as well as the direction that they set for the College. There is no doubt that the School is in good hands and I can think of no better body of people to help us navigate what are likely to be choppy waters ahead.
Today is the end of the year for everyone but for some of our pupils, it marks the end of their school careers. A number of our Upper Sixth pupils have journeyed all the way from the Early Years and Junior School in the College and it is really impressive to hear and see the way in which they have developed whilst here. There is no doubt that a seamless curriculum running throughout the School provides a continual and developmental experience and also allows them to be incredibly well-known by the staff here – allowing us to adapt and cater for them in an individualised way. I wish every one of you the very best of luck for your results and hope that you remember that we are always here to support you at any time in the future, should you need it.
Our academic focus this year has been on supporting our pupils to achieve their potential. In response to their feedback, we have increased the number of clinics on offer and have run them throughout the year, and I am grateful to the dedication and commitment of our staff and their continual desire to improve the opportunities for our children. The 1:1 device scheme has become more fully embedded and all of our senior pupils are now submitting much of their prep through OneNote – which allows for greater levels of feedback, the ability to act on it more efficiently and has allowed much greater collaboration outside of lesson time. We are looking forward to rolling this programme throughout Kirby next year. We have once again been praised by High Performance Learning for the developments in our teaching and learning, and invited to share our experiences with other schools around the globe. Our Teaching and Learning group have engaged in action research and have focussed on what makes effective lessons, alongside developing departmental profiles for the pupils and tailoring their classroom activities to ensure that every child succeeds.
On the pastoral front, we were once again named as the ‘Most nurturing co-educational independent school in South East of England’ and this is an area that we continue to prize. Ultimately, we want all of our children to be happy and through proactive Steer tracking and a clear analysis of data we have designed both individual and group action plans to ensure that we are able to nurture every individual. Countless studies have shown that pupils who are happy, secure and valued gain between 11%-17% better GCSEs and A-levels and the dedication of our Housemasters and Housemistresses, as well as our tutors, ensures that our pupils are happy in their own right, as well as ensuring that they maximise their potential academically.
This year has continued to see a focus on the 21st century skills necessary to succeed in the modern marketplace, and attributes such as resilience, solution-focussed thinking and collaborative approaches have now been explicitly written into our lesson plans and our schemes of work. This has also been seen practically, with another excellent level of contribution from our Year 10s and almost all of them now have the opportunity to complete their Bronze Duke of Edinburgh award, and it also means that they have all completed at least one term of community service this year. I am delighted that we had 5 pupils complete their Silver Duke of Edinburgh this year and two of our Lower Sixth are in the final stages of completing their Gold – which is a fantastic achievement, and will see them going to Buckingham Palace to collect their awards. As this programme continues to roll through, we are expecting an increased number of pupils to achieve this each year. Service remains an integral element of our approach and we believe that all of our pupils should understand their place within the local and global community of which they are a part. Our pupils continue to help out in the local community, whether simply litter-picking in the streets around the College, helping to organise food parcels at the Salvation Army or care visits to the residents at Brennan House. I was particularly struck by the number of pupils who volunteered to give up their time last Sunday to join the Race for Life in Herne Bay, raising over £1000 for Cancer Research.
Our International Day this year built on the success of previous years and not only added the extra dimension of pupils preparing food from their home country, but also allowed an increased depth of understanding of the different cultures and nationalities within the school, as each group introduced and explained their act in our cultural show. This celebration of our diverse student body is indicative of the high levels of respect, tolerance and understanding amongst them and it should not be underestimated – the global awareness and cultural sensitivity of our pupils is something that will stand them in great stead as they leave here and go into our increasingly globalised world of work.
I am also very grateful to Mrs Owen who has continued to develop and extend our PSHE programme and ensure that our pupils are prepared for the challenges they will experience in life, now and in the future.
This year, we have had another fantastic set of results on the sports pitches and I am very grateful for the strategic oversight that Mr Simmons has provide in his first year as Director of Sport. He, and his team, have facilitated some outstanding results but have also ensured that ‘sport for all’ is a genuine mantra and the number of pupils that have represented the school is at an all time high. Similarly, we have also introduced a number of new sports at the school and now have an elite swimming pathway to add to those of rugby, hockey, netball and cricket, and have developed our programmes for basketball, golf, tennis, waterpolo and athletics. We started the year off with our U15 girls going to the National Finals weekend and coming 4th in the country at cricket, and this was followed up with both our U16 Girls’ team and our U15 Boys’ team coming 2nd in the National Tier 2 finals at hockey – with both giving exceptional performances and playing a number of excellent schools along the way. Our U15 girls then placed in the last 8 in the country at the end of the cricket season. A school of our small size gaining results like this is testament not only to the structures and systems that are in place but also to the time and effort that all of our sports staff put in – both to prepare the sessions for our pupils but also in their spare time to give 1:1s and small group sessions to our elite sports people. We have continued to develop our partnership with St Benedict’s College in Johannesburg and this year, our pupils had the opportunity for a 5 or 6 week exchange to play rugby, hockey and cricket. Not only did this improve their technical ability and understanding of how the game is played overseas, but also enabled them to sample a different culture, school system and environment – giving each one of them a genuinely life-changing experience. These successes and the efforts of our pupils have all contributed to us being named as one of the Top 100 Schools in the UK for Cricket, and also being named in the Top 200 sports schools in the country. We have also just heard that we have been shortlisted for the Independent School of the Year awards 2024 for Sporting Achievement.
I am similarly grateful to Dr Williams and Ms Ross, who have led the Music and Drama departments so well this year. The number of concerts that we have had has increased and there is no doubt that the quality of them has seen a significant improvement too. The collaborative performance of Oliver was a triumph and displayed both superb acting ability and wonderful singing, and we will only continue to build on performances such as this. It was also lovely to see the Chapel used so effectively in the recent Big Sing, that included choirs from the local primary school, the local grammar school, a local choir, as well as the St Lawrence Choir and Community Choir – again further developing our commitment to the local community. The Kirby production of Alice in Wonderland had some superb individual performances but was also genuinely inclusive in the number of pupils involved. As you will see from the programme, we also had a number of successes in LAMDA exams this year, with every one of our pupils who took an exam gaining a Distinction.
I hope that a number of you were also able to visit the recent Art and Design exhibition and the Academic Fayre. Our Art continues to go from strength to strength, under Mrs Hodge’s direction, and we recently heard that one of our artists had a piece of her work accepted into an exhibition of work at The Royal Society of Miniature Painters, and won first prize as Young Miniature Artist. Similarly, another pupil placed 2nd nationally in the 2024 Rotary Young Artist competition – both of these are phenomenal achievements. Additionally, the Academic Fayre showcased the amazing work by our 3rd Form on their academic posters, the excellent results from our Lower Sixth economists (80% of whom became finalists in the New College of the Humanities essay writing competition) and the incredible achievement by one of our pupils in gaining a commendation from Oxford University and being featured on their blog for her flash fiction piece of writing in French – not to mention the results in various Olympiads and other external competitions. The talent among the staff body is plain to see in the way in which they facilitate your children’s learning and so I was delighted that Mike Thompson was recognised in the annual Kent Teacher awards, gaining a Lifetime Achievement Award as well as a Maths Teacher of the Year award.
As you would expect from such a talented staff body, a number of them are leaving to take on promoted posts in different schools next year and I would like to say thank you and good luck to all of them – I am grateful for their significant contributions to the College.
We say goodbye to our graduate and undergraduate sports assistants: Gethin Wynne, Freya Shaughnessy and Liam Moore. They have all been a great support in the boarding houses and sports pitches, and we wish them all the best as they return for their final year of university or onwards into the world of work.
Lucy Vinson has been a dedicated and inspirational teacher of Psychology and she has developed the Department and significantly increased numbers taking the subject.
Dove Al-Hajjaj has been an excellent tutor and also inspired a number of pupils in the Biology Department.
Thahseen Ali has made significant contributions to the girls in Bellerby and provided a similar level of care and support throughout the Science Department.
Bailey Coxon has been an excellent Deputy in Tower House and also given significant support to pupils in the Maths Department.
Polly Griffiths has helped to develop the Design Department and her caring nature has supported our pupils through their coursework and lessons.
Karis Chopping has made significant contributions to the community and extra-curricular side of the school as well as inspiring our linguists to achieve.
Nicola Macauley has been an excellent teacher of AEN and given a great deal of support to all who she has cared for.
Sarah Baldwin has made a significant contribution to the sports department and we wish her well as she takes on the Head of Sport role in the Junior School.
Jonathan Gale has been an incredibly passionate Languages teacher and anyone taught by him cannot fail to be enthused by this love of the subject and enjoyment of teaching.
Rod Wilkening has been with us since 2003 and ably led the Computer Science Department, Rackets and the timetable. A true St Lawrence man, he knew more about the College than almost anyone else, and was always happy to share a sage word.
We have just heard that we have been awarded the accolade of Best Boarding and Day school in the South East, and I am very grateful to all of our teaching and support staff for their resilience, attitude and commitment, and for the positive way in which all of them contribute to the safety, progress and wellbeing of our pupils. Our community would not thrive if it were not for the extraordinary work that our staff do, and so please will you join me in thanking them all.
Finally, I would like to thank you, the parents. We do not underestimate, or take for granted, the levels of trust that you place in us to ensure the safety, happiness and progress of your children, and I am very grateful for all of your support. Whether attending concerts or parents’ meetings, exhibitions or sports matches, or simply ensuring that your children are supported with their work at home, we are very grateful to you for your commitment to us – it is part of what makes our school community so strong.
