Concordia Magazine 2025

advantages. It has been a relationship that has benefited both schools — and one that promises much for the years ahead. That future, of course, will be one without me, as I retire after 34 years at the Prep. But I leave with great confidence in the path ahead and in the enduring spirit of a school that has always combined tradition with ambition. Andrew Crook

Pupils have benefited from an expanded range of academic and co-curricular opportunities, from modern languages and drama invitations to the joint Young Musician of the Year competition, combined concerts and our shared carol service in the Great Hall. Sporting links have also deepened through cricket nets, hockey on the astro, athletics on the track and player-development pathways in rugby, hockey and cricket. More recently, several MTP boys joined their MTS peers on a hockey tour to Belgium. Two informal but memorable moments from the early days of the merger stand out: the awarding of the first Merchant Taylors’ badges to Prep pupils and the symbolic opening of the railway bridge tunnel in September 2016 — physically connecting the schools and uniting generations of pupils past and present. Though MTP continues to say farewell to Year 6 boys each July, and to our Year 8 leavers as well, it does so in the knowledge that our close link with the senior school continues to offer powerful educational, social and strategic

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