Study leave as I mentioned last time was one of the most valuable items in my contract. It provided a time to reflect and refresh and to absorb many different inputs, valuable to me as a person, valuable to me as a Principal. New ideas are so important and are vital in keeping your time as a Principal fresh and exciting and definitely stopping the “mold” growing on your brain.

Study leave demands some forethought. One just can’t embark on it randomly with the hope that something creative will happen. My first Study Leave in 1992 was well planned, itinerary organised, interviews at schools set up and logistics put in place. Having started the process of setting up the school in 1986 and then finally opening it in 1989 after a major building program which was continuous, stretching well beyond 1992, I was pretty tired and needed a break. Full marks to the Council for recognising this. They wanted a refreshed principal who had a new bucket load of ideas to ensure the school was an exciting and creative place.

One of my tasks, about which I was really excited, was to visit and research schools which had been created by the famous educator Kurt Hahn. My own schooling had had a Hahn influence, my Headmaster being an admirer of Hahn. In fact, at my first meeting with prospective parents in 1988 I mentioned that St Philip’s College (SPC) would have a Hahnian ingredient. I was asked a couple of days later, by a prospective parent, what I meant by that and I was able to share how Hahn had started two schools with a focus on experiential learning, compassion, personal responsibility and real experience. He had also founded the Outward Bound movement and the Duke of Edinburgh Award Scheme. Beyond that he was also the founder of the United World Colleges. I wanted to know more about Hahn as a person and as an educator because I knew that he had had such an impact on so many young people. I knew he was a great educator, an original thinker, a man of enormous influence and dedication. He comfortably carried a complicated vision. Beyond all that he was a wonderful communicator.

In the year before I left for study leave I was rewarded with a visit from Jocelin Winthrop - Young who was a founder of the Round Square organisation and was then its Director. Jocelin spent two days at SPC and I spent hours listening to his stories about Hahn and Round Square. Jocelin had been a student of Hahn’s at two schools - initially Salem in Germany and then Gordonstoun in the North of Scotland. Hahn founded both schools.

The first was Salem, in Southern Germany which he founded in 1920 at the request of Prince Max of Baden who at the end of the First World War had served briefly as the last Chancellor of the German Empire. He had the task of getting Kaiser Wilhelm 2 to abdicate at the end of the War. After 5 weeks as Chancellor he retreated to his family home in Salem which was a stately castle. Though not a trained school teacher, Hahn was a natural educator with his own strong ideas and an inspirational leader. Salem which had been set up in Prince Max’s Castle became a successful and unique school. Hahn strongly criticised Hitler and and was consequently jailed. As a result of some influential people in England he was released but had to leave the country. He travelled to a favourite spot near Elgin in the north of Scotland where he established in 1932 Gordonstoun another boarding school. Jocelin also left Salem and became pupil number 1 at Gordonstoun. Another pupil who left Salem and moved to Gordonstoun was Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh.

I learnt so much from Jocelin. In fact during this visit he offered SPC membership of Round Square, a huge honour but being barely three years old as a school, we were unable to take it up. However a friendship had developed between us which lasted until his death 20 years later. Jocelin was able to open doors for me with Round Square Schools and I was able visit some of these on Study Leave. Over the years I never ceased to ask him questions about Hahn and continued to draw on his extensive knowledge. Jocelin had himself been a Principal. He was asked by Hahn to start a school in Greece at which the future King of Greece was to be a pupil. Developing relationships with other Principals for me was so valuable.

Obviously a really important destination on Study Leave was Gordonstoun. Despite Gordonstoun’s vast reputation I was surprised to find that the school was far from huge having about 500 pupils. I was given a thorough tour of the school and was fascinated to see the dedication of the school ensuring that students were given real responsibility, and many opportunities for adventure and to engage with genuine service. I have written before about the Gordonstoun Fire Service which was a real part of the local Fire Service. When students were on duty they had a pager and were dressed ready for action should they be called. The school had its own fire truck which they manned and which was normally driven by the Chaplain. Other services included Outdoor Leadership, Coastguards, Lifeguards, First Aid, Community Action, Conservation, Technical Support, Sport Leadership and Coaching. All senior students were expected to undertake service. Training was most important as was the knowledge that service will make people happy and will also make the students happy.

So much was learnt by me - Study Leave was really paying dividends. The Gordonstoun motto “plus est en vous” was seared into my brain and I used it as a second motto for the rest of my time at SPC. It means simply “there is more in you than you think”. It was discovered by Hahn in a church. The path, on the grounds to an old church, St Michael’s Kirk, was called “the Silent Walk” - a walk of reflection and no talking. We built a silent walk when I returned to school.

I had an informative meeting with the Principal and this was the start of a long, valuable relationship. I met him over the years at Round Square Conferences. We set up exchanges with Gordonstoun and our Cricketers travelled there to play. I also spent valuable time with the Warden of Gordonstoun whose key role was to work with the Principal ensuring the school was true to its philosophy. What an impressive approach putting such a high value on school philosophy. He had been a pupil under Hahn and had later run his own school. I met him on a variety of future occasions and always felt the bond of friendship. The visit to Gordonstoun was so enriching and the meeting of their staff later showed how powerful actually meeting and sharing with people could be; much more powerful than meeting on the internet. We hosted the son of one of the teachers I became friendly with, as a Gap student, not long after I returned to SPC. Obviously the visit enhanced my fascination with Hahn! I came away enriched and enthused and could start to feel refreshed.

Paul Mckeown was really keen that I visit Rannoch. His comment to me was not to worry about the noted British Public schools but to visit smaller ones where you could see clearly the work of educational idealists. Rannoch was a boarding school which had been set up by some dedicated teachers from Gordonstoun who wanted to follow a more thorough Hahnian style of education.

Rannoch is in a beautiful part of Scotland beside Loch Rannoch about an hour from Pitlochry. The school was small, about 250 but absolutely delightful with so much to recommend it. With both Gordonstoun and Rannoch we had many student exchanges and indeed my daughter was one who went to Rannoch. Visiting a school provides a context and then one can search for the meaning embodied in why the pioneers set up the school and what they achieved.

The Chapel at Rannoch was beautiful and filled with atmosphere. It in fact had been an old farm barn and was turned into a Chapel with student labour and no doubt conceptual input. It was indeed theirs and they were proud of it. A decade later we were given a generous grant of $50,000 which set us on the track to build our own Chapel with principally students, old students and staff tackling the work. I believe our Chapel has the same “people” atmosphere. Study leave is definitely filled with transferable experiences.

Hahnian belief in the importance of experiential education was summed up with a song at the Salem Round Square Conference in 2002 : ‘I hear I forget, I see I remember , I do I understand.’ Study Leave has a fair degree of the last two which is why it is so important. I guess testimony to this is that I’m writing this about leave 30 years ago - and I can still remember it well and certainly understand what I saw.

I think I have written enough for this week and will continue the story next week. However one comment I would like to make is that as I visited schools of a variety of sizes, history and reputation I was amazed at how well a School Principal of three years from the Australian Outback was welcomed and treated. I then realised that as Principals we are part of a world wide band of educators doing a task that only other Principals truely understand.

Chris Tudor

AISNT Historian & Principal Liason