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Leathersellers’ Review 2024–2025
RICHARD RUSSELL
Reflecting on two decades of service as Headmaster of Colfe’s School in the year of his retirement
Richard Russell with students
“I’m slightly suspicious of people who claim that they’ve always wanted to teach,” says Richard Russell, who will retire this year after two decades as Headmaster of Colfe’s School in south- east London. “Like a lot of teachers, I never intended to go into the profession – but it was the only job I could find that allowed me to carry on doing archaeology in Greece. I’ve never had a problem with others who drift into teaching for similar reasons.” Most journeys through life don’t conform to a straight line; in fact it’s the independent thinker and the pragmatist who welcomes, even celebrates the detours, both deliberate and accidental – just ask any good classicist. Richard began his teaching career at Sevenoaks School where he spent 15 years, first teaching Classics and eventually serving as Director of Studies, a role in which he was instrumental in building the popularity of the International Baccalaureate. The freedom and flexibility for Sevenoaks to be an early adopter and to chart a separate course from others was an opportunity that being an independent school made practicable. “Not to say that it wouldn’t have been possible in
a state school, but certainly a lot more difficult,” says Richard, “and I’ve always recognised that this independence is hard won; the competition is fierce so you have to be able to develop and define the identity of a school, as clear and as authentically as possible, so that parents, pupils, and staff know what you stand for.” Helping to define a sense of identity for a school, in an intensely competitive environment, would become one of the pre-eminent themes of Richard’s leadership, particularly at Colfe’s School which he joined as Headmaster in 2005 after seven years as Deputy Warden of Forest School in Waltham Forest, east London. 2025 marks 25 years of co-education at Colfe’s, as the school welcomed 23 Year 7 girls in 1999. It would, however, take time to fully develop its co-educational character and the benefits that this bestowed on the school community, now home to over 1300 pupils. Colfe’s is located on the border between Lewisham and Greenwich and competes with 11 selective schools within a ten- mile radius. In that context it was essential to find a voice that
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