Above : Interfaith Football Teams (left) and the Dulwich Remembrance Wall (right).
Chaplaincy J ohn F Kennedy once said: ‘For time and the world do not stand still. Change is the law of life. And those who look only to the past or the present are certain to miss the future.’ Certainly, the past, present and future need holding in balance, and in the ever- changing world of College life, all three tend to be present at once: whether we are commemorating the past, as we have been doing with the 100th anniversary of the start of World War I, or looking forward as Phase One of The Laboratory is completed and work begins on Phase Two.We live in a dynamic and changing environment, which makes life all the more exciting. Yet we also need to hold on to those things that anchor us and help us to weather change. For us, they might be the seasonal events we celebrate each year, the beginnings and endings of term that have their own rhythm and pattern. Plenty of those rhythms were in evidence again this year as we celebrated Harvest, Remembrance, Christmas, Easter – and then the start of exams and the end of the academic year, as another year group leaves us to begin a new chapter of their lives. And so, as I reflect on what turns out to be my last year as Chaplain at Dulwich College, I think of those events that have stood out for me, but also rooted us in the rhythm of the year and helped to anchor us as a community. Harvest time was colourful as always, with the Junior school celebrating in Chapel and collecting for our local Brixton Food Bank. This gave way to the season of Remembrance, when we were honoured to have Brigadier Rob Rider CBE OA speak to us about life in the army, the need for defence and the need to remember. The Chaplaincy set up a Remembrance Wall, which was well supported as we recalled those who had died for their country, an echo of the stunning and moving display of poppies that were amassed at the Tower of London. Christmas was celebrated again with our whole College Carol service at Southwark Cathedral, an event that draws our community together in a stunning building, and we were privileged to hear from the Revd Paul Dudley at the Revd Steve Padfield
Middle School St Stephen’s service. Paul is chaplain at the Shore school in Sydney and offered the boys his reflections on celebrating Christmas as a boy with a beach barbecue. Two important events in the Lent term were our annual Faith lunch and the Interfaith Hand-of-Friendship football matches. The Faith lunch was led by the boys this year, as several of them spoke on the theme of ‘Mutual Misunderstandings’. We often misunderstand one another, and the idea was to dispel the myths we commonly hold about those of another faith. Our thanks to Tohid Ismail, Henry Lewis, Jonathan Wolstenholme and Kayan Dave for speaking. The Interfaith football matches were met with a great deal of enthusiasm this year. The Hindu-Muslim match has a long history at Dulwich and this year the Christian and Jewish communities decided they wanted part of the action and so a tournament was born. After the first round, the Jewish and Hindu teams were triumphant, which led to a Christian-Muslim play-off and a tense Hindu-Jewish final. After a hard-fought battle, the Hindu team won on penalties and were proclaimed this year’s Interfaith football champions. Thanks to Nicholas Chitty, who stood out as an organiser and enthuser of this year’s tournament, leading the way with designer kit for the first time. The Summer term saw the Founder’s Day celebrations of the Shackleton adventure, but also the confirmation of five Dulwich boys. Congratulations go to James Atkinson, Jamie Crowfoot, Toby Reynolds, Angus Fraser and Zed Wakefield, who were confirmed by the Bishop of Woolwich, the Rt Revd Michael Ipgrave. As I mentioned earlier, this has become, rather unexpectedly, my final year at Dulwich. I leave in the summer for King’s Rochester, but I leave with thanks to all who have made my time at Dulwich such a rich experience. I have greatly valued my colleagues, particularly in the Religion and Theology and Music Departments, and I thank my assistant Jake Tasker for helping to expand and develop the Chaplaincy and for being my right-hand man!
Above : Dulwich College Singapore, which opened in August 2014.
INTERNATIONAL DULWICH: LOOKING BACKWARDS AND FORWARDS
Christopher Parsons C ommenting on the Dulwich international schools in Asia, Dr Joseph Spence, the Master, said recently: ‘From my first visit to Beijing, Shanghai and Suzhou in 2010, I’ve been in no doubt that while my core work will always be for the College in SE21, there is much for us to benefit from in extending our relations with our international schools – that commonwealth of schools of which I am so proud’. There are now seven Dulwich schools in Asia: five full schools, largely for the international communities in China, Korea and Singapore; and two international high schools for Chinese nationals aged 14-18 in Suzhou and Zhuhai in China. But in what ways is this a ‘commonwealth’ of schools? A commonwealth suggests a voluntary grouping of equals for mutual benefit. And indeed, the Dulwich schools overseas have matured into thriving institutions in their own right. This has been accomplished in little more than 10 years, since the opening of Dulwich College Shanghai in 2003. Ralph Mainard has been Deputy Master External of the College for the past 11 years and recalls the beginnings of the move into China: ‘The British Consul in Shanghai at that time was Paul Sizeland, an Old Alleynian, and he brought the then Master of the College, Graham Able, together with a British lawyer in China who had the resources to help establish a Dulwich College in PuDong, the fast-developing area of Shanghai to which the local authorities wished to attract foreign companies.’ Dulwich Shanghai opened as
a Kindergarten in 2003 but is now an all-through school with more than 1400 students. Dulwich Beijing followed in 2005, Suzhou in 2007, Seoul in 2010 and the latest international school, Dulwich College Singapore, opened its doors in August 2014 with 884 pupils on its first day. Ralph Mainard retires in July 2015 and will be succeeded as Deputy Master External by Dr Cameron Pyke, currently Head of Upper School. Ralph remembers many milestones in the careful development of the international project, not least his own time as acting Headmaster of Dulwich College Shanghai in 2005: ‘When the Head left in the middle of the academic year it was decided that stability and support should be provided from London, and I promptly packed my bags and left for Shanghai. There was much to do in my six months there, but at the same time I was continuing to oversee my work in London and travelling back to the UK every month or so. Sometimes I couldn’t remember whether an item I needed was in my house in Dulwich or my flat in Shanghai’. One of the key responsibilities of the Deputy Master External in London is to carry out inspection visits to the overseas schools each year, and Ralph estimates that he has travelled to China about 48 times. Dr Pyke has already begun to take on this responsibility and has been impressed by the schools he has visited: after a recent visit to Suzhou he noted, ‘I was struck by a vital educational culture and a high level of student engagement: the school feels very ‘Dulwich’.
141
140
Made with FlippingBook - Online catalogs