Stepping down

Well, the snow and ice are in retreat as temperatures rise. For the last 2 weeks we've enjoyed the novelty of the snow, with days off and beautiful views, but most people have had enough now. It's funny to think that today we are quite pleased that it's a grey, rainy, Manchester day and that the forecast offers more of the same for the weekend.

I have mixed feelings about the fact that this week I've been writing a job description for my successor. The High Master and Governors have agreed that I may take phased retirement, beginning with a reduction to a 25% contract from September this year. By the summer I will have notched up 40 years at MGS, boy and man, and it seems a good time to be winding down somewhat. My successor will have plenty of challenges to confront, not least leading the planning for the school's 500th birthday in 2015.

So 'my' job will be advertised soon, and I hope that my successor will have as much enjoyment in the post as I have had. We have only had a Development Office and Director of Development in the present form since 2003, but because I was doing similar work from 1997 when we started the Foundation Bursary Appeal, it's now difficult to remember how different things once were.

We now have The MGS Trust managing a capital fund (currently valued at £16m+) to support 240+ means-tested bursaries in perpetuity, and we are building a new Drama Centre with £1.75m of donations. The fantastic support that we have received from so many Old Boys and friends of MGS makes my job, surely, the best in the school. I used to think the same thing when I was Head of Lower School in the 1980s, so I've been doubly lucky.