…and so to Stratford for this year’s Annual Conference of HMC. A very large number of School CEOs all crammed into a large, rather impersonal hotel for an intense 3 days, in this case the Crowne Plaza on the inner ring road of Shakespeare’s market town. From Monday to Wednesday of this week the streets of Stratford were invaded by an influx of lanyards, blue & white brollies, suits and laptops. Though the attendees are largely colleagues from the private sector there are a very few state maintained schools hanging on in there – in the mainland just Bishop’s, The Judd and Pates, high octane grammars all. A decade ago there would have been more, but changes in headship seem to have eroded the state grammar representation, a loss to both constituencies I fear.
So why go? This conference is different to any other that I have been to irrespective of the venue or the provider, for several reasons. Firstly, HMC has pulling power. The calibre of the guest speakers is relentlessly high, probably due to the depth of the HMC wallet but also the high profile names among the schools present. Whether you are in tune with the likes of Eton, Winchester, Stowe and Rugby is immaterial, as there is no doubt that their presence draws attention. Thinking back over the years I have had the opportunity to hear addresses from the likes of David Trimble, Jonathan Powell, Chris Patten and many others who have been on the front line during political and social change. This time we were treated to David Olusoga and Pat Sowa, each in turn making a different appeal to Heads to engage with the ethical side of leadership. Compelling and moving both, this is what I come for; the invitation, the compulsion even to reflect upon the job that I do and how I could do it better. And then there’s the so-called ‘networking’, the chance to meet and compare notes with a variety of colleagues working in contexts both similar and different, from both these home islands and from far overseas. Finally (and this is especially true in Stratford of course) the conference activities stretch into the evening, in this case taking me once more to the RSC Swan Theatre to see an utterly compelling production of ‘Merchant of Venice’. It’s the sheer breadth that gets me I think, the refusal to be typecast and the invitation to see that wider stage that we all perform on every day in schools.
I found another session of this year’s conference particularly engaged me in this, my final year at BWS. Representing an organization called ‘Contender Charlie’, Ben Walden based his talk around the theme of inspirational leadership. I doubt that any of the Heads sitting in the Grand Ballroom thought themselves inspirational; it’s something that we would all aspire to, but like most things in headship it remains out of reach, but worth reaching for. The uncanny thing for me was the way that Ben used the plot of Henry V to look at a path through a career in leadership, from the call to inspiration in the Prologue, making the break from the past, taking the first faltering steps and facing the bleakness and self-doubt of times of difficulty. All Heads have been there. All will know what that feels and smells like. All have had to take the triumphs and disasters in their stride, and all will have hopefully experienced (to a greater or lesser extent) the ‘achieving the vision’ bit that arrives as pieces finally come together. The difference here was that the analogy of the Head’s journey was made complete by Shakespeare’s soaring rhetoric from Act IV of the play. An absolutely memorable piece of performance art, and a lesson for life too.
Now home I am looking forward to re-immersing myself in the life of Bishop’s, and I am sure that as usual there will be too little time to think about anything other than the day-to-day once I am back in. Despite that I know that over the past few days I have been made to think. There was no choice, and I wouldn’t have had it any other way. The shame is that very few other state school Heads get to have such an experience.
SDS
