Buckingham School: beginnings and endings

Thursday evening at the Buckingham School was a very special evening. It was their Celebration Evening where students past and present are awarded recognition and prizes for exceptional work. It was just such a delight to hear about all the students being praised from the teachers who knew them well. Such an impressive array of talent, effort and great results! After an evening like that, no one should be in any doubt that Buckingham School is one of the finest schools around. 

Well done to all the students who worked so hard. And well done to all the teachers, assistants and all staff who all work together to create such a fantastic learning climate. It was wonderful to imagine what these students will be doing in the future: such great beginnings for their young lives.

But the evening was also very important because it marked the moving on of Angela Wells, the headteacher, onto pastures new. As announced by the school back in September:

Miss Angela Wells, who has been Headteacher at The Buckingham School for the past nine years is set to take up a headship at a school in South Yorkshire from 1 January 2018.

And so it was a very special evening for Miss Wells too. Here are some pics and below, the valedictory speech I gave on behalf the town. Naturally the Chair of Governors, Matthew Watkins wished her well too and thanked her for all that she has done for the school and students. Cllr Robin Stuchbury, as a former parent (and indeed former student many moons ago) gave his thanks too.

My selfies are bit fuzzy - especially there seems to be someone flying across the back behind us on the second one...!!

Does anyone know who that is in the background...? Impressive timing!!

And so here is the speech I gave:

Many people have tried to bottle what good leadership is. The interweb is awash with quotes about leadership and what it means - and how people can become better leaders… Having spent nearly my whole career focused on leadership and organisational change, I have become very pragmatic. 

Put simply, the measure of a great leader is results. 
Now I don’t have all the figures and I am very much an outsider looking in. But it seems evident to me that since Angela arrived to head up this school, results in all different ways have improved. This school is not the same place it was those years ago. 

The school is now a far better place in which young people can learn and can grow. This is a place in which young people can set their course to become the citizens of tomorrow. In this respect I am reminded of a verse by Khalil Gibran who talks of children and parents (although I think he is talking about teachers too):

Your children are not your children.They are the sons and daughters of Life's longing for itself.They come through you but not from you,And though they are with you yet they belong not to you.
You may give them your love but not your thoughts, For they have their own thoughts.You may house their bodies but not their souls,For their souls dwell in the house of tomorrow, which you cannot visit, not even in your dreams.You may strive to be like them, but seek not to make them like you.For life goes not backward nor tarries with yesterday.
You are the bows from which your childrenas living arrows are sent forth.The archer sees the mark upon the path of the infinite, and He bends you with His might that His arrows may go swift and far.Let your bending in the archer's hand be for gladness;For even as He loves the arrow that flies, so He loves also the bow that is stable.
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So I believe Angela, through your great leadership, you have been a very strong bow, sending forth arrows into life’s great infinity. And of course, I praise all the ‘bows’ in this school - who are all focused on helping young people have ambitions, hopes and dreams, and the wherewithal to achieve those.

Angela, you have taken the school from being in the doldrums to being one that is the envy of the county and beyond. You and your leadership of very fine team of excellent teachers have transformed the school and achievements of the children who attend in all ways - and not just educationally. 

Well done! You have helped make an important chapter in the town's history that for which many local people - students and parents - will remember you fondly. Yours will be a hard act to follow but I am confident that the next Headteacher will be able to build on your successes.

I wish you well in your new position in Barnsley. I am sure you will do a fantastic job for the young people of that town as you have for ours here in Buckingham. Thank you.