Concordia

Concordia Winter 2021

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by a work card system for recording grades and effort – many a teacher, myself included, will remember the laborious task of copying these grades out on to record cards for each tutee. The plan also set out arrangements for regular meetings so that: “The continuing care of a tutor ideally begins when a boy arrives and is amenable, then when the trials and tribulations of adolescence come upon them, a significant relationship has been established and dialogue is possible… From it will spring an even happier, healthier community in which we all become more aware of our responsibilities to each other and to the wider community within the School and beyond” There is no doubt that these reforms laid the foundations for the perception of Merchant Taylors’ today as a caring school. Stephen Wright invested further in the tutor system, increasing contact between tutor and tutee to four slots during the week. In its first century, the House system has moved from a sporting competition to a comprehensive system for pastoral support alongside competitions in all areas. It would seem that Mulcaster’s assertion that such support would shorten the life of staff and ‘dull the childe’ has been left behind. The Taylorian , 1982

games became obligatory, at least in the younger year groups. “Also the housemasters were made responsible for seeing that their boys had regular physical exercise” Four Centuries of Merchant Taylors’ School, 1561-1961, Draper, 1962 The reforms were praised by the rugby club which re-formed senior and junior knockout competitions won by Manor and White respectively and a league won by White, the games being played with “a keenness and good spirit on which all are to be congratulated, and which reflects great credit on all concerned, player and coaches alike.” claimed that “sport forms by far the sanest and the most pleasant occupation to man” in that he would have equated physical wellbeing to mental. However, it was not to be until the 1980s and the arrival of David Skipper that the House System became integral to pastoral care. In his inaugural St Barnabas Day speech, he introduced a tutor system that had already been in action in Andrewes House, backed up The Taylorian , 1948 Doubtless Hugh Elder would have sympathised with the Manor’s House report of 1947 which