Teaching Moment

HARROW IS ONE OF ENGLAND’S most venerable schools and I am grateful that it affords me the opportunity to visit our Harrovian Community and our International Schools in many parts of the world. It is a particular pleasure to be visiting Monaco as I also have the good fortune that my wife is French, and all five of us in the family are French and British citizens. So, this trip feels like a kind of homecoming.

Harrow currently has over one hundred members of our community, Old Harrovians and parents, in Monaco and the vicinity. Keeping in contact with our Alumni around the world is an important part of the School’s ethos. For many, the five years spent at Harrow is just the beginning of a lifelong membership to an enjoyable and valuable network across the world.

As headmaster, I am grateful for the opportunity to explain why Harrow is so much more than a school and why being a Harrovian forges characters and values that survive a lifetime - bringing us together in Monaco and further afield.

Harrow is a prestigious full-boarding school for boys aged 12 to 19, founded in 1572 under a Royal Charter granted by Queen Elizabeth I. It is one of the greatest schools in the country, attracting pupils from far and wide. Each year, around 600 boys compete for the 160 places in the Shell (first year) and 80 places in the Sixth Form (the two most senior years).

As a steward of many cherished traditions, today’s Harrow is shaped by the best of its past. Our distinguished history enriches the daily life of our entire community. From the carving of boys’ names onto boards in their Houses to our own unusual form of football, archaic slang, and the communal singing of Harrow songs, these customs develop a powerful sense of belonging and create valuable shared experiences with Harrow pupils across the decades.

No two Harrovians are the same: some live in the UK, others overseas; a number come from established Harrow families, others have no experience of public schooling; many excel in sport or the arts, others are very strong academically. Whatever they bring to the School, all come together on an equal footing, to be judged by their contribution alone. In this environment, boys flourish, learn from each other, and build relationships that last a lifetime.

Visitors are often astonished to find such a substantial estate so close to Central London. Harrow’s 324 acres comprise six conservation areas, a nine-hole golf course and even a working farm. Coupled with its buildings of special architectural and historic interest, the School has the quality of a village. Positioned on the London Underground train network, 20 minutes from Central London on a fast train, Harrow provides the best of both worlds - a spacious boarding community within easy reach of the capital and all it has to offer.

Harrow has produced many great men, the Giants of Old, including statesmen such as Lord Palmerston, Sir Winston Churchill, Jawaharlal Nehru, and King Hussein of Jordan; writers including Lord Byron and Anthony Trollope; physicist and Nobel Prize winner Lord Rayleigh; and Henry Fox Talbot, the inventor of photography. More recently, pupils have gone on to distinguished careers in business, the law, medicine, the armed forces, the arts, and the media, and include among them Richard Curtis, Benedict Cumberbatch, General Sir Peter de la Billière, Julian Metcalfe, and Dr. Simon Sebag-Montefiore. Recalling how great men have walked the same streets, sat in the same form rooms and lived in the same Houses is motivating and empowering for every boy at Harrow.

We are proud of our academic success, too, with Harrovians taking up places at the top universities in the world including Oxford and Cambridge. Our most recent Upper Sixth Leavers achieved outstanding A-Level results, with nearly one in three being an A* grade and 60% either A* or A. Significantly, almost 90% of all results were grades A*–B. At GCSE, over 40% of results were the highest grade 9, with two thirds graded 9 or 8.

Alongside their formal academic studies, Harrow offers boys more than 100 clubs and societies, many of which are led by the boys themselves. Several reflect Harrow’s diverse global clientele, such as the Oriental Society and the Slavonic Society. Often, they are a vehicle for study beyond the confines of the exam syllabus, and among the most popular societies are the Pigou Society (economics) and the Palmerston Society (politics). Some have existed for many years: the most ancient is the Essay Club, dating back to the 1860s. Nevertheless, enterprising pupils are forever setting up new societies: the Linguistics Society, the Martineau Society (sociology) and the Tunis Society (leadership) have all emerged recently.

Our full-boarding model means that every Harrovian lives in one of Harrow’s 12 boarding Houses during term time, going home for an exeat (weekend away) each half term, and for half-term breaks and the main school holidays. Generally, the weekend is a busy time for boys, especially those in the lower years, and although they are in school for most weekends, there is a degree of flexibility.

With the School effectively being their “home” during term time, comprehensive and effective pastoral care underpins a boy’s entire experience of Harrow. At its most straightforward, it equates to term-time parenting: guiding, directing, consoling, and nurturing, as well as intervening more significantly in times of need.

Fundamental to our care for our boys and, indeed, everything we do at Harrow are our four School values: Courage, Honour, Humility, and Fellowship. These values encourage boys, and staff, to be honest, to stand up for what they believe in, to be respectful to others, to be open-minded, and able to admit to being wrong, and to be accepting of differences in personality and culture, so allowing everyone to enjoy life on an equal footing. Our values help develop Harrovians who are considerate, perceptive, and able to tackle life’s challenges head on.

While our pastoral care looks particularly to fulfil boys’ emotional and spiritual needs, we also look to provide the best available facilities to support their academic and physical development. Current Harrovians and their teachers - or beaks, as we call them - have recently been able to enjoy an addition to our world-class facilities in the shape of our new Biology and Chemistry Schools, which feature a 180-seat lecture theatre and 14 state-of-the-art laboratories. With the refurbishment of the boys’ dining hall with its spectacular views of London reaching completion and the construction of a new sports centre to begin soon, Harrow School never stands still.

I’m so grateful to the welcome that has been given to me, and more widely Harrow, from the Monegasque community. Harrow has always been open to boys from around the world and throughout Europe and I’m delighted to have this opportunity to further foster this important, and enjoyable, relationship.

By Alastair Land

Contributor