You’re beginning your first term as Headmaster this September after working at St. George’s for a number of years. Describe your role and experiences of the school before you became Headmaster? 
I’ve worked across a range of schools: state, independent, all boys, all girls, large, small, central London, outer London, Catholic and secular. What’s been wonderful about the last three years at St George’s is I feel I’ve found the school that pulls together the best elements of what I feel a school ought to be (and I’m not alone!). 
When the news isn’t about schools closing down, it is about senior schools acquiring prep schools or single sex schools going co-ed or schools trying to acquire more land to enhance their facilities on-site. We are already there as an all the way through, 2-18 co-ed school occupying the largest school campus inside the M25 with a proven track record of both sporting, academic and wider co-curricular achievement. I’m stepping into the headship from the role of Deputy Head Academic, but what I love about the College is how lightly the students wear their academic achievements, because they know it is the wider opportunities the College offers that will enable them to truly flourish. 

What excites you most about leading St George’s? 
We are a large community of joyful, ambitious teachers and students. When term is in full swing St George’s hums like an amazing machine, buzzes like a beehive: it is just such a busy and purposeful place. I’ve always loved the high energy entailed in working with young people and there is a thrill to walk around a campus like ours and see every member of our community beavering away. 

Your three daughters will all be joining the Junior School. How does being both a Headmaster and a parent shape your perspective? 
I think all teachers build up a list of students they have encountered that inform their own parenting. There are those students you earnestly hope your own children will grow into, and equally those who you pray they don’t. More helpfully, my wife and I are millennial, working parents raising a family in the midst of a cost of living crisis, the rise of AI and an evolving picture of what place social media should play in a child’s upbringing. I hope that means I bring a level of empathy and understanding for my students’ parents with me into the office.

St George’s talks about providing a ‘perfectly balanced’ education. What does that look like? 
In a word: opportunity. It is a given that a school seeks to teach students how to excel in public exams. The balance is the wealth of other opportunities we provide for our students. Leading a good life as an adult means understanding that there is more to life than work and more to happiness than career success.

What do you hope to preserve, and where do you see opportunities to build on the school’s success? 
Our Josephite ethos is the bedrock of what makes St George’s special. We believe in dignity: the inherent, unchanging worth every human possesses simply by being human. You have dignity by virtue of existence. It is intrinsic, permanent and equal in all people. This is the basis of how we treat our students, how we expect them to treat others and why we place a high value on community outreach in order to encourage our students to develop a sense of responsibility to their community.

The opportunity lies in the field of AI. This amazing new technology will only ever be as good as the moral compass of the human wielding it.  

For families looking at schools this autumn, what would you encourage them to look for? 
I’d advise them to be honest with themselves about what it is they believe they are looking for from an independent education. Try to avoid choosing the secondary school that best matches your 9-10 year old; you need to think what your 15-16 year old of the future will need to grow into a young adult. 

Find out more at stgeorgesweybridge.com