If a person was confident they would be much more likely to succeed. Clearly success in anything worth
doing requires diligence but without confidence it is rarely even embarked upon. I had not heard
this research but have always believed that a School in which pupils feel happy, is a School where
pupils will succeed, and I suspect that is because happiness tends to breed confidence and
unhappiness causes one to doubt oneself. Miss Pike, never someone to rest on the very many laurels
that being the Master of such an excellent school as MCS might allow her to, has made it her mission
to try five new things every year. Last year one of those was to take up “Improv” a type of comedy, so
we learnt, which is entirely unscripted and involves reacting wittily to the comments of another. We
are lucky to live in a City where the head of one of our schools practises improv comedy! What an
example she present to us all! Improvisation has, of course always been an important tool for
teachers because one never quite knows what is going to happen in a lesson – it’s one of those
things which makes teaching and indeed lessons exciting.

In fact it’s been a very exciting day today as we were visited by a wonderful band called the Brass
Funkeys - as it turned out, an utterly appropriate name, given the funky nature of what they played.
Mr Green, the husband of Mrs Green, and happily also a school parent now, played in the band. It
was a joyous occasion and could be heard all round Brewer Street. This was fortunate as I had a long-standing meeting in my study at the time and so had to rely upon hearing it from there. Given the excitement of what I experienced from afar, it must have been electric in the playground.

The school is a member of the Choir Schools’ Association, a wonderful organisation which represents
choir schools in the English speaking world. The vast majority of these schools are in England,
though there are a few other schools elsewhere. Interestingly there are as many choir schools in
Oxford (three) as there are in the Southern Hemisphere! This year the Choir School’s Association is
holding its annual conference at Christ Church an event which will coincide with a Broadcast of
Choral Evensong from the Cathedral to mark the 500th anniversary of the choir and the 100th anniversary of Choral evensong broadcasts, making it the longest running live broadcast programme in the world.

The Choir Schools’ Association is part of a campaign to have the Anglican Choral tradition listed on
the UNESCO Intangible cultural Heritage List, ensuring its protection and its formal acknowledgement as a jewel of British cultural heritage. It would be magnificent if this campaign succeeded. This school and the choristers who are educated here are a vital part of the maintenance of this unique heritage.

We are having a Be a Chorister for a day next Saturday and have a large number of pupils coming.
Many of those pupils are internal, a really very gratifying fact. Pupils who become choristers from
within always start at an advantage as they have had a very good music training within the school. If
you would like your son to experience what it is like to be a chorister, do please get in touch with the Registrar.

Talking of confidence, one boy in Pre-Prep has already completely mastered his scooter and arrives
every morning at great speed. He has enjoyed pointing out to me that his mother just cannot keep
up with him now. “My Mummy is so slow!” he explained. I remember being just like this boy when I was young but, I have to acknowledge that my sympathies no longer lie with the speedy scooter operative!