Often visitors to the RGS are impressed by the buildings and facilities that we are lucky enough to benefit from but I often have to remind that it is the people (both staff and pupils) who make the place what it is.
At about this time of year all schools are involved in making admissions decisions and many parents will be all too familiar with the situation of wondering whether their child will be accepted to their school of choice. At the RGS we always have many more applications than we have places and the really tough thing is that we have to disappoint so many wonderful children. The degree of competition for places is particularly acute when it comes to bursary pupils. Across the school we already have more than eighty pupils on transformational bursaries. However, if we had sufficient funding then, purely on the academic merit of those who apply to us for bursaries, we would take twice as many deserving young people than we have been able to accept.
What many parents may not appreciate, however, is that this time of year is also the time for recruiting new staff. Typically, schools want to appoint staff before Easter in order for them to be able to start in time for the beginning of the new academic year in September. Whereas the number of pupils applying to come to the RGS is often more than three times the number of places, when it comes to applications to teach at the RGS, we often have fifty or more applying for each post advertised. Just as with admissions decisions for pupils, the recruitment of staff is so important for creating the future of the school community. Indeed, two particular appointments we have recently made are for the Deputy Head (Academic) in charge of our teaching and learning programme, as well as the new role of Deputy Head (Co-curricular) in charge of our immense programme of activities outside the classroom, which signals the high priority we place on this aspect of life at RGS.
Andrew McBride will be joining us after Easter in the Deputy Head (Co-curricular) role, with responsibility for an impressive breadth of activities delivered by dedicated teaching and support staff. Our vision for our co-curriculum is that every student in the school should be encouraged to engage in activities that develop team and leadership skills, build confidence and allow them to have fun with contemporaries. Andrew is currently Deputy Principal at a large High School in New Zealand, but he grew up in the North East. He has a degree in Sport, Health and Exercise from Durham University and a Master’s in Education from Northumbria. He also holds a consultancy role for FIFA for learning and innovation across the Oceania region and sits on the boards various non-profits.
Chris Quayle will be joining in September as Deputy Head (Academic). Chris is currently Head of Middle School at Ardingly College where, amongst other things, he has also served as Head of Geography and won the TES award for STEM in 2020. Chris grew up in the North of England, completed both his degree and a Master’s in Education at Durham, and has close family in Newcastle. He will inherit strong academic foundations as shown by the Sunday Times awarding RGS the accolade of ‘North East Independent School of the Decade’ in 2021, top North East Independent School in 2022 and the ‘Excellent’ outcome of our recent educational quality inspection from ISI.
We are immensely proud of both the academic achievements of our community and the quality of our co-curricular programme, which are testament to our students’ commitment and teachers’ dedication. Both Andrew and Chris will work closely together to deliver the all-round education that we want for our pupils. Both will be focussed on ensuring an appropriate balance between high performance and broad participation to perpetuate the inclusive community that I wrote about in this blog last month. There are so many adjectives that encompass what goes on at the RGS: energy, enthusiasm, kindness, and integrity to name a few. All of these attributes of the community are made possible by the staff and pupils we recruit, perpetuating the culture that we create and pass on for the next generation