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his predecessor and developed the use of particularly striking images to market the School. He was an early advocate for the use of video, not only as a promotional tool but also to help build the School’s digital archive, such as the recording of the 2021 Triennial Service. Jon also embraced high-quality still photography to document more of the boys’ activities and achievements, and these images helped to raise the profile and success of the weekly Scissorum publication and the School’s social media presence on Instagram and other platforms. Jon embraced innovation, and his latest prospectus is a case in point, using QR codes to ensure a more interactive experience as well as provide valuable feedback and data on the effectiveness of the publication. Websites have become essential in independent school marketing and so, working closely with Adam Clarke, Jon helped deliver an initial refresh of the School website before a total redesign was conceived, which also highlighted MTS alumni for the first time. On that note, it was back in 2008 that Jon helped deliver the very first of the new Concordia alumni magazines, and he has continued to edit this for most of the past 15 years, often spending weeks tracking down OMTs who had an interesting story to tell. Jon’s institutional knowledge grew as a result, and this enabled him to add value in his broader role, supporting the Development Office with the Parvae Res e-bulletin for example. Most recently, Jon’s idea of relabelling the School’s entire digital archive with pupil names (70,000+ images) began to bear fruit, with long-serving SCR members lending valuable support. In 2017 Jon took the opportunity to get involved in the Independent Schools French Drama Competition. At the time he was teaching his Lower Sixth set Camus’ Les Justes , and so an excerpt from this seemed a natural fit given the importance of finding a work with enough dramatic heft to captivate an audience in a short space of time. MTS won the award for Best Play that year and went on to do so twice more in 2019 and 2022, with Jon directing the boys in the Florian Zeller plays La Vérité and Le Mensonge respectively. Jon hugely enjoyed

a teacher of French. He took particular pleasure in teaching the works of authors such as Maupassant and Voltaire, and he also has fond memories of attending and judging French debating competitions with Sixth Form linguists. As a teacher, Jon had the advantage as a non-native speaker of understanding the difficulties that British pupils can encounter, and he would regularly veer off into tangents to give boys a greater understanding of the culture that lies behind the language. He also became more proficient at detecting when boys would provoke such digressions, especially towards the end of lessons! In 2010 Head Master Stephen Wright granted Jon a sabbatical and he spent five months studying classical Arabic and North African French literature in Fez, Morocco. Jon remains hugely grateful for an opportunity which enabled him to imbue his literature classes, especially on L’Étranger and Meursault, contre enquête, with additional depth and to advise Oxbridge applicants whose courses involved Arabic. It was this expanding cultural hinterland that saw Jon go on to deliver lectures about contemporary France to Lower Sixth Formers at the end of their first year of Pre-U study. Jon’s enthusiasm for matters Arabic has continued unabated; he has kept up his impressive command of the language with regular lessons and countless casual conversations with restaurant proprietors on the Edgware Road. His contribution last year to the Modern Languages “guess which teacher and guess which language they are speaking” Competition flummoxed many pupils and staff, who could not identify him and could not imagine that he had such proficiency in the language. In 2016, Jon, whose aforementioned journey had continued via co-editing Scissorum , reached an important juncture. Having served a valuable apprenticeship under former Director of Communications, Chris Roseblade, Jon took over this role himself. While teaching fewer, mainly exam, classes, he became responsible for the MTS marketing operation, promoting the School in its different constituencies and building on the growing links with existing parents. Jon built on the strong work of

Jon Rippier 2003 was a memorable year for many reasons: the exceptionally hot European summer when “la Canicule” broke temperature records across Europe, the original London Congestion Charge was introduced by a Labour London mayor, and the UK public fretted about the ethics of getting involved in foreign wars. How little seems to have changed since then, but how much has changed in the world of education and at MTS in the intervening years. 2003 was also the year that Jon Rippier joined MTS after completing his PGCE in Modern Languages at the Institute of Education. He had graduated in Politics with French, an unusual combination for a languages teacher, but one that gave him useful insight into French social and cultural affairs that always infused his lessons. It also enabled Jon to offer a popular General Studies course in International Politics for several years. Jon joined an experienced team as the impressionable rookie after two placements in inner-city schools in East London, but he soon settled into his new surroundings; his exceptional spoken French and his command of European and world politics immediately ensured his kudos amongst some genuinely heavyweight linguists. Jon’s congenial manner and easy rapport with the boys meant that he got the most out of any set, be it a top Sixth Form literature class or a bottom set IGCSE class which needed careful handling and gentle encouragement. Jon initially threw himself into the extra curricular life of the School, resurrecting the Amnesty International society, organising the Fourth Form French trip to Burgundy and co-directing the Asian Cultural Show, which raised large amounts for charity over many years. In the summer of 2004, retiring Head Master Jon Gabitass, recalling that Jon had initially trained as a journalist after graduation, approached him with the offer of editing the Taylorian , which had not appeared for four years. Jon accepted the challenge and this moment, which would prove of considerable importance as the years passed, was the start of another branch of Jon’s journey at MTS. Jon’s core role at this stage remained as

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Taylorian 2023