A.O.S.A. 2005 ANNUAL REPORT

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When I was asked to become your President I was deeply moved and very honoured. My first problem was, of course, what to talk about today. Unlike most of your presidents, I cannot talk about my days at Ayton, but I did decide I would add a bit about my schooldays later, if only so you can understand that your tribulations at Ayton were shared by me in another place. I could talk about farming but I do that too often and though I hope I never moan, farmers have a reputation for doing just that, so I had better not. I could of course talk about the weather but that may not be popular with those of you, including your Chairman, who have spent the last two nights under canvas. So finally I felt I had to talk about the end of your school. It will not be comfortable for many of you and is very difficult for me but there is a need among us all to put an end to that chapter. I also need to try to set the record straight about some of the rumours, which, even yesterday, were circulating among some Old Scholars.

I am, I think, the fifth president of the AOSA who was neither an Old Scholar nor a member of staff. The other four were Messrs. Hodgkin 1890/91, Thistlethwaite 1903/4, Backhouse 1904/5 and Kitching 1906/7, probably School Committee members from their well-known Quaker names. My connection is as a spouse, and later a parent of Old Scholars. Later still Chairman of the School Committee - and not only chairman of the School Committee but in the words of one Old Scholar to Jane, “the bloody fool who closed the school.” Now just in case the person who said that is here today or reads this later, let me say, it is by no means the worst thing I have been called over the closure of the school, nor does it cause me offence, because it is really an expression of the frustration everyone felt over the closure, and the deep respect you all have for the education you received at Ayton. Whether it is a natural human need, or a recently developed human expedience, I know not, but it seems that we are being encouraged to seek someone to blame for all our ills. From tripping on a broken paving stone to closing schools - a responsible person has to be found, and if, in the case of Ayton, blaming me helps individuals to cope with their grief, so be it.

But as you all know - and I have been asked often enough - I have not blamed anyone, for I believe that everyone involved in Ayton gave of their best but sadly that was not enough. Others could perhaps have done better, but either they did not seek nomination to the committee, apply for jobs or find other ways to help. The sadness is that often they now are the ones that are the most knowledgeable about the errors of those who tried. If ever I wish to apportion blame, then first I have to prove to myself that it was not my fault before looking for others: that is often a revealing exercise.

Perhaps today is also an occasion for me to put what I see as a failure behind me. My father had a little rhyme:

They said ‘twas a thing that could not be done,
And he quietly said that he knew it,
But he tackled the thing that could not be done,
And found he could not do it.

Which is very true of the situation I faced when asked to take the chair of the committee. But as it had to you, Ayton had given a lot to my family and I felt it deserved a try from me. Given a fair wind there was, in the view of the committee and staff I worked with over those years, a real chance that we could pull through.

Here I would particularly like to record my immense admiration for, and appreciation of, the work of Alice Meager, our last Head, and John Roberts, our last Bursar. They had the courage to take on what, even at the time of their appointment, could have been seen as a dead end job, to fight for the School’s survival, and finally to organise its closure in such a sensitive and effective way. I am so pleased that Alice is here today and John came yesterday, though he was unable to stay; they deserve our heartfelt thanks.

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