Q: I agree. The memories I’ve had with my friends over the last seven or eight years – I’d love to carry them through for the rest of my life. FA : My best friends from school are still my best friends. Friendships and relationships are the most important things that you will ever have in your lives Q: What have you most enjoyed about being Master? And, conversely, what have you least enjoyed? FA : I’ve really enjoyed learning different things. I’ve done so many jobs at the College, but what I haven’t really been involved in is whole-school budgeting, and I have found that really interesting. I have enjoyed looking at how we can raise funds to make sure that our bursary provisions stay the same. What have I found difficult about the role? I suppose anything is difficult if you know you’re only doing it for a year. Although we have really moved forward strategically in the last year, I suppose working inside a restricted timeframe has been a challenge – and an opportunity. Q: How has the College changed since you started? FA : I arrived here 15 years ago. In that time, the staff has changed significantly. We were probably about 20% women and we’re now 50:50. We’ve always been quite a liberal and open school in terms of our thinking and our approaches to things, and I’m glad to say I don’t think that has changed significantly. I think we might have become a bit gentler, and I’d say a greater focus on equity and respect, and making sure that we are thoughtful in our communications and treatment of each other. Academically, we have improved in the last 15
of concern around AI and how is that go- ing to change education. I think teachers will become more like facilitators. So much of learning is about soft skills: the ability to listen to each other, the ability to have really good conversations, the ability to negotiate, and the ability to look after each other and create human connections. Those things will continue to be a really important part of edu- cation. Sparking interest and passions comes from human interaction. That’s from seeing a teacher light up talking about something they really care passionately about. Being at school is about climbing the mountain. It’s about taking that path – maybe sometimes taking the wrong path – and learning from mistakes and continuing. When you reach the summit, you really feel that you have earned what you’ve achieved. AI gives you a quick, easy route to the top, but you don’t learn about endeavour. A lot of life is tricky and requires perseverance. I think that is go- ing to be a really important part of education in the future. Q: Thank you so much for your time. We appreciate it. FA: Thanks so much, guys. ◎
years significantly. So that’s something to be celebrate. We are thinking more actively about what life is like when you leave school too; we are much more mindful of making sure that we help students thrive after they leave. Q: Does the school have a political stance? Should a school have a position on political, moral or social issues? FA : There are times when schools need to take a moral viewpoint; less so a political viewpoint. There is a moral code that we all have to know and understand; that keeps a community together. And there are abhorrent things that happen in the world that we can’t pretend aren’t happening and we want to comment on. But also, we’re a very diverse community with lots of different viewpoints and lots of different political views. What’s really important is making sure that we create a school in which we are willing to listen to each other. The greatest skill that we can all develop within a community is being open to listening to each other’s ideas. Q: What do you think education will look like in 20 years’ time? FA: Education, inevitably, is going to change. There will be significant adjustments, but it will be the same in most ways. There’s a lot
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THE ALLEYNIAN 713
OPINION, INTERVIEWS & FEATURES
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