Executive

Melvyn Roffe

Wymondham College

I was never a boarder and never knew what I was missing until my first day as a very very callow assistant master at Oundle when I realised that to work in a boarding school is to work in an exceptional place with exceptional people. Since then it has been my privilege to work in four such exceptional places, to lead two of them and to work with hundreds of exceptional people, both staff and students. Now to have the opportunity of chairing the Boarding Schools’ Association representing well over 500 exceptional boarding schools in the UK and overseas is a greater privilege still, and one for which I am most grateful.

Boarding is in the news, but not quite in the way it has usually been in the news. It may even be that the media has at long last caught up with the fact that boarding has changed to a point where the stereotypes harking back to Tom Brown’s Schooldays and Nicholas Nickleby are no longer merely inaccurate; they make those who resort to them look ridiculous.

I hope that over the next year the Association can do even more to reinforce a new media agenda on boarding schools. I hope that we can highlight, for example, the role of boarding schools in providing children with values and an experience of community in a world of broken communities and isolated individuals, that we can draw attention to the positive contribution that boarding schools make to wider society and emphasise the diversity of the boarding school sector and the people within it.

I also hope that the coming year will see some significant developments in the services that the Association provides for its members and that we will be able to establish greater contact with friends in boarding schools in other parts of the world. We have much to offer to and much to learn from global perspectives on boarding education.

Above all, I hope that we will continue to celebrate the qualities that are common to boarding schools of all types and sizes and to enjoy the fellowship of others who share the particular privilege of working in them.

Hilary Moriarty, BA (Hons) MA PGCFE

BSA National Director

It is a great pleasure to by the National Director of the Boarding Schools' Association. I am very much enjoying the range and variety of conversations with colleagues in member schools and with the national organisations with which BSA has contact.

Since starting, I have been involved in meetings at the DCSF and with CSCI, and with a focus group examining public perceptions of both organisations. I also had the pleasure of addressing a large audience at the Heathfield St, Mary's Conference on 'The Boarding Community'.
I am delighted to see the number of applicants for the Association's training courses and conferences, which seem to be more popular than ever this year.

I look forward to meeting you should you be attending any of these, and to talking to you should you have occasion to call the office.
Meanwhile, I wish all members a happy, productive and successful year.

Alex Thomson

BSA Director of Training

Alex Thomson read Geography at the University of Edinburgh before completing his PGCE at the University of Leeds.  After five years teaching Geography and Mathematics in schools in Wiltshire, he joined the Educational & Training Branch of the Army.  His twenty six years of service included roles as Director of Adult Education for the Army in Northern Ireland, Chief Examinations Officer for the Army’s Junior Officer Education and Training Scheme, Senior Educational Adviser to the Officer Selection Board in Westbury, and most recently, he was the Children’s Services Director for British Forces in Germany.

He is a traditional Army ‘schoolie’ having maintained his links with children’s education throughout his military career.  He served as the single military officer in the HQ of Service Children Education in Germany, where he was responsible for coordinating inspections, resourcing and SEN support, worked on the closure of Service schools in Berlin, and has acted as the Chair of a number of School Advisory Committees.  In his most recent appointment, he continued to develop his knowledge of children’s and adult education, and has represented the military on joint DCSF/OfSTED/LA/MOD committees concerned with the ECM agenda.

In addition to promoting education and training within the MOD, he has also practised what he preached as he has completed a Diploma in Education at the University of Wales, Cardiff, is a Chartered Fellow of the CIPD and a Member of the Institute for Learning.