The following day, when everyone was gathered in the conference venue, the combined forces of Worcester and Pembroke performed two beautifully delivered pieces including Rutter’s The Lord Bless you and Keep you. I have to admit I felt a degree of smugness when I was able to remind everyone there that we were the only school in England to provide singers for three college choirs! The great Samuel Johnson, best known for his compilation of the first English dictionary, (a work which contains many entertaining definition, such as that for oats “ a grain which in England is given to horses but in Scotland supports the people”) said of his College Pembroke, “we are a nest of singing birds. ” Surely this could even more accurately be applied to our school where singing is part of our DNA.

I was also very proud of four boys who came to play their instruments to the assembled company; we had two pianists, an oboist and a double bassist. Again everyone was hugely impressed. It is very easy to just take this for granted but even in the world of choir schools our boys are outstanding.

The schools in the CSA are hugely varied in their nature. Some are, like us, purely prep schools, others go to 18, some are mixed, some are single-sex, some are boarding, some are day, most are independent schools but some are state schools. So we are a very varied group, but we meet because we share one thing in common – we all educate choristers and, for all of us, music is very important. One of our speakers was Lord Chartres, the former and well-known Bishop of London, who confirmed the Prince of Wales and preached at his marriage. He reminded us that education was about so much more than measuring and weighing and acquiring facts – instead it was about learning what it is to be human, and, in particular, about nurturing our ability to appreciate beauty. In fact music, he argued, created beauty out of order and he considered it a vital task of schools everywhere, but particularly those like ours, to continue to develop young people’s appreciation of beauty and music. One of the most inspiring aspects of the conference was being able to see our pupils creating so much beauty through their singing and playing.

Our conference happily coincided with one of Oxford’s most unusual traditions, the welcoming in of May Day from the tower of Magdalen College. Never in any of the CSA conferences that I have been to over the years, have the delegates gathered at 5am! We walked together into the centre of Oxford and then down the High Street. As we approached the tower, the crowds grew larger and larger and the noise louder and louder. All around us chaos reigned – clearly a significant percentage of the youthful (and in some cases not so youthful) population of Oxford had been up all night. But suddenly on the dot of six, the bells tolled – suddenly the great crowd fell completely silent and from the top of the exquisite tower, whose golden weathervanes glinted in the brilliant morning sun, the distant sound of a choir reached us. During the entire time that they were singing, not a sound could be heard from the gathered masses. I saw then the power of music to transfix – to calm even those who had made the most of the preceding night.

I am now looking forward hugely to reading the rest of this newsletter and to find out all the wonderful things I have missed while I have been over the road! Have a restful Bank Holiday weekend and, if any of you are tempted to come in on Monday, you will not find many other people here!