Are you the retiring type?

Well this really is an odd day - my last as a full-time employee. Seven years as a pupil at MGS in the 60s, followed by 33 years here as English teacher, Head of Lower School, Surmaster and Development Director end today. Simon Jones takes over as Development Director and I stay on as a part-time Adviser.

My father retired from his semi-skilled manual job as soon as he was able, and hasn't regretted it. I am thinking that semi-retirement will suit me well - I still have MGS things that I am really interested in (and I have almost 10,000 emails in my Inbox, all read but not all acted upon), but a little more 'me' time will not come amiss. There are many things to sort out at home (that's how it is when you are lucky enough to live in a house built in 1620), and there's an extended family to create more time for.

So - are you retired? and how is it? or how do you feel about the prospect if you haven't reached the appropriate age yet?

Do you still get nervous?

One of the great advantages of getting older, it seems to me, is that it's more difficult than it used to be to find situations which are embarrassing. You reach a certain stage in life and people can either take you or leave you. A couple of years ago I travelled to Exeter for a cathedral service taking (as I thought) my suit in a carrier along with my overnight bag. Come the Sunday morning, the carrier revealed a suit jacket but no trousers, and there was no opportunity to do a quick bit of shopping. So I attended that service, and the lunch afterwards, wearing my suit jacket with my travelling jeans. Most people there whom I knew were far too polite to comment. Those who stared got the true story. Not a problem.

This may not be a week for embarrassment, but it is one for nerves, thankfully not mine. Today we are appointing an MGS Archivist, and while I'm not an official interviewer, I am meeting the candidates, and admiring how they control their nerves. They really want this job, and only one can get it. It will be a really important role, shaping a new department to present the school's collection of historical material to pupils and the outside world in an interesting and exciting way. The person appointed will also work with all those who will be looking at the history of the school, and Manchester, in the light of our 500th birthday in 5 years' time.

On Thursday, our senior 6th formers get their A level results (if they haven't already got their IB scores), so they are entitled to be feeling pretty nervous, too. There'll be lots of joy as the results envelopes are opened, but some sadness, too, no doubt. All the indications from the university world are that this is not going to be an easy year if you fall short of your expected grades. So good luck, lads - glad I'm not 18 again.

A taste of summer

It's August and traditionally the silly season in the press. So, let's have an equivalent here on the DevOff blog.

Many weeks ago, Julie sowed some giant sunflower seeds and presented all the DevOff staff with little plants to take away to grow as a bit of a competition. Not that we're a competitive lot - oh no!

Jane, Julie and Simon went for the pot cultivation method. I'm not sure they realised what intensive care they were dedicating themselves to - regular watering and feeding would be essential, even if they had chosen a big enough pot. Being a coarse gardener, I chose a spot in the middle of our field, dug a big hole, filled it with well-rotteded horse manure and planted the little beauty on top. Then I more or less forgot it for weeks.

The first bad news came from Simon, whose darling daughter loved his plant so much that she hugged it, breaking the stem. I don't think sunflowers benefit from having their growing point removed - exit Simon from the competition. I showed him a photograph of my plant around this time and he accused me, on the basis of the background flora, of having sent it to my friends Brian and Joy in Provence for cultivation. But no, it's been in Flintshire all the time.

Next a violent rainstorm took out Julie's pride and joy. It seemed harsh that she who had propagated all the plants should exit the competition, so I gave her a 50% share of mine. Then Jane reported that her plant had 5 flowers on it, although it was only about 3 feet high. She didn't seem impressed when I told her that plants are programmed to flower and produce seed when they realise they are soon going to die.

I didn't bother to water my sunflower, but the heavens did, copiously, throughout July. Now the weather is rather better, and as you can see below, it is capped by one splendid flower at a height exceeding my 8 feet reach. I claim victory for Julie and me!

Who'd be a teacher?

As someone who has spent more time in school adminstration than teaching, I have the greatest admiration for those who carry on doing a good job in the classroom year after year. MGS produces a good number of teachers (and Heads), and I'm glad to see that John Witton (ex-MGS pupil) and son of Allan and Lesley (both ex-MGS teaching staff) is featured in one of the latest advertisements from the TDA, the Training and Development Agency for Schools:


http://www.harriscrystalpalace.org.uk/39/video/video/25/mr-wittons-tda-advert


One of MGS's great teachers of modern times was Ian Leverton, first Head of Russian and subsequently Head of Modern Foreign Languages, who died tragically young. He is said to have taught largely through the language and imagery of football, so the first Russian sentence a 13 year old learned might have been 'That's a thundering shot from outside the box'. One of the many MGS soccer teams he successfully coached, the lads of 1976 to 1983, presented a trophy in his memory this year to be awarded annually to the highest goal scorer of the season, and this was duly awarded by Rodger Alderson to Felix Shalom (U12, 29 goals) in Prizegiving this morning.


The 2009-2010 school year has now officially ended, but the Development Office staff will be in action for most of the summer break. I'm off for 2 weeks in Austria with the 'Old Trekkers' Trek' - a hut-to-hut walking tour at, hopefully, a leisurely pace, but will be around again from the end of the month.

Do you know how hedge funds work?

Well you certainly would if you had been able to attend this year's Hugh Oldham Memorial Lecture at MGS on Monday. Old Mancunian Stanley Fink, known from his days at the Man Group rather affectionately as the Godfather of the hedge fund business, gave a highly challenging explanation of the contribution that hedge funds make to the financial markets and the economy.

With analogies including a visit to a horse racing meeting in Hong Kong, he explained the mathematical approach to movements in prices which is adopted by hedge fund traders. He also made clear that the over-simplification of these instruments in the press does little to explain the range of intellectual challenges they pose. His views on regulation are clear: already recent rule-changes have the Swiss authorities rubbing their hands as many firms move from London to Geneva.

Stanley Fink and his wife Barbara are also well known as philanthropists, and he explained the reasons behind their emphasis on educational, health and poverty-reducing charities. If you are lucky enough to make or have money, he said, it's your duty to send the elevator down to bring up as many more deserving people as you can.

The Hugh Oldham lecture follows an afternoon of seminars attended by Sixth Formers from a wide range of Manchester schools. We were fortunate to have a sparkling set of seminar presenters on Monday, many of them also Old Mancunians.

If you would be interested in attending future Hugh Oldham lectures, contact us in the Development Office at MGS to be added to our mailing list.

The most beautiful cathedral?

Does Exeter have the most beautiful cathedral in the land? Many would say so, and my annual visit last Sunday renewed my enthusiam for this wonderful, light-filled building, which is full of interest and architectural beauty.

Members of the South-West Section of the Old Mancunians' Association always meet towards the end of June, close to the birthday of Hugh Oldham, former Bishop of Exeter and Founder of Manchester Grammar School, to honour his memory. The cathedral authorities are very helpful in shaping Mattins around this occasion, and this year Canon Carl Turner gave a really lively sermon inspired by the Adventure theme obvious at the school's website.

We have a special short service after Mattins outside the side-chapel where Bishop Oldham is buried, and we lay a wreath.

Then we retire to the Southgate Hotel for a delicious lunch and brief speeches, this year from me, standing in for the High Master, and from the newly appointed School Captain and Simon Jones, who is taking over as full-time Director of Development. Then a brief AGM and back into the car for the long drive home, this year made miserable by the commentary on England's departure from the World Cup. A pity that, but bearable in the context of another visit to my favourite cathedral.

From Iran to Exeter

Jeff Hume brought a dozen Old Mancs back to Manchester last Friday for a reunion, 40 years on, of the group that was the Iran Expedition of 1970. With some wives and partners, and members of the present Geography Department at MGS, they talked about the serious scientific and logistical challenges they met all those years ago. Travelling to study the land system of the northern Damghan Valley in the Elburz Mountains, they produced a full scientific report, but most importantly, as young adults, they had an amazing set of experiences. The formative nature of these experiences can be seen in the lives they have led since: Jeff himself has worked in petrochemical exploration.

Two of the teachers who made the trip possible were present, too. Philip Boden left MGS to join a university department of education. John Abbott became a headteacher and has written extensively on what we get wrong in educating teenagers - see 'Overschooled but Undereducated'.

It was a great gathering, and one which continued, after a lunch at school and a trip to see how much has changed in central Manchester, with a hotel dinner.

So many good lunches and dinners! This coming weekend I shall again be in Exeter to attend on Sunday morning the cathedral service which recognises the role of our Founder in 1515, Hugh Oldham, Bishop of Exeter. Then to the Southgate Hotel for lunch and the AGM of the South-west section of the Old Mancs Association. We shall have the School Captain and Vice-Captain with us in an attempt slightly to reduce the average age of those attending.