All around I hear doom and gloom about the lack of progress of boys in this country. At Monmouth I am very pleased to report that they are in fine fettle! Boys flourish at a school which has a long tradition of knowing how they develop best. In every area they are thriving: academically, in the arts and on the sports fields and on the river, boys at Monmouth are developing just as well as their female counterparts.
We provide an environment in which boys prosper through academic tracking and pastoral engagement, using systems which are not the result of the latest whims of educational theorists, but developed from long experience. All of this was confirmed in our most recent, excellent inspection report:
‘Another outstanding feature is the high quality personal support that form tutors in The Grange (our Prep School) and house tutors in the Senior School provide for all pupils. Staff know their pupils very well and give them very good and appropriate individual attention. Throughout the school, tutors’ high level of support and commitment contributes greatly to pupils’ outstanding levels of achievement.’
Boys like the excitement of new ideas; they enjoy physicality and thrive on competition. They develop at a different pace and in different ways from girls. Here we provide a carefully controlled environment in which boys can safely gain success and experience setbacks, and learn from both.
Day pupils benefit from the fact that this is a long standing boarding community, operating seven days a week, providing new experiences from which boys can benefit and through which they can explore their own interests. Monmouth has an enviable reputation on the sporting circuits because with some 580 boys in the Senior School we can select from strength, but we also run B, C and D teams giving all boys a chance to develop.
We also believe in spiritual development. Our young and vibrant Chaplaincy team have regular contact with the boys. Two years ago saw a visit from the Archbishop of Canterbury to bless a mosaic celebrating the life of Saint David which has been installed in the School Chapel. A two day pilgrimage at the end of the summer term, from Monmouth to the site of one of St David’s earliest places of worship, encouraged boys who volunteer to learn about the history, geography and spirituality of a fascinating locality. Last year we walked to Tintern Abbey engaged on the same spiritual adventure.
For nearly 400 years Monmouth School has stood on the banks of the Wye giving boys a first class education, but changing with the times in terms of infrastructure and approach. Last year saw the completion of a new sports pavilion and a state of the art building for our very successful Prep School, The Grange opened. At Sixth Form level, in a significant departure from tradition, we operate in close co-operation with our sister school, Haberdashers’ Monmouth School for Girls, giving boys, as they prepare for university, the best of both worlds. However, whatever changes, we will not lose sight of the important lessons about education we have learned over time.
Visit Monmouth, and you will find a school which is easily confounding those negative national statistics about boys’ performance by carefully nurturing confidence, teamwork and success at this crucial phase of their lives.
Dr Steven Connors