Executive

Hilary Moriarty, BA (Hons) MA PGCFE

BSA National Director

It is a great pleasure to be the National Director of the Boarding Schools' Association. I am very much enjoying the range and variety of conversations with colleagues in member schools and with the national organisations with which BSA has contact.

Since starting, I have been involved in meetings at the DCSF and with CSCI, and with a focus group examining public perceptions of both organisations. I also had the pleasure of addressing a large audience at the Heathfield St, Mary's Conference on 'The Boarding Community'.
I am delighted to see the number of applicants for the Association's training courses and conferences, which seem to be more popular than ever this year.

I look forward to meeting you should you be attending any of these, and to talking to you should you have occasion to call the office.
Meanwhile, I wish all members a happy, productive and successful year.

Alex Thomson OBE

BSA Director of Training

Alex Thomson read Geography at the University of Edinburgh before completing his PGCE at the University of Leeds.  After five years teaching Geography and Mathematics in schools in Wiltshire, he joined the Educational & Training Branch of the Army.  His twenty six years of service included roles as Director of Adult Education for the Army in Northern Ireland, Chief Examinations Officer for the Army’s Junior Officer Education and Training Scheme, Senior Educational Adviser to the Officer Selection Board in Westbury, and most recently, he was the Children’s Services Director for British Forces in Germany.

He is a traditional Army ‘schoolie’ having maintained his links with children’s education throughout his military career.  He served as the single military officer in the HQ of Service Children Education in Germany, where he was responsible for coordinating inspections, resourcing and SEN support, worked on the closure of Service schools in Berlin, and has acted as the Chair of a number of School Advisory Committees.  In his most recent appointment, he continued to develop his knowledge of children’s and adult education, and has represented the military on joint DCSF/OfSTED/LA/MOD committees concerned with the ECM agenda.

In addition to promoting education and training within the MOD, he has also practised what he preached as he has completed a Diploma in Education at the University of Wales, Cardiff, is a Chartered Fellow of the CIPD and a Member of the Institute for Learning.

Alex was made OBE in the 2009 New Year Honours List in recognition of his service to Armed Forces children and families in Germany.

Christian Heinrich, Chairman 2012-2013

Headmaster, Cumnor House School 

I am very much looking forward to serving as the Chairman of the BSA for 2012-13.

The BSA exists as a channel for sharing the experience of member schools; to promote the value of boarding to a wider audience; and to act as a lobbying force and as an adviser to the government and bureaucracy of the day. It provides outstanding training and up-to-date information for staff faced with necessary but frequently updated regulations. The wide range and diversity of the member schools of the BSA is, in itself, a strength but also self-evidently contributes to a strong and abiding belief in the efficacy of boarding.

The core values associated with boarding have not changed. The opportunity to educate the whole child - to teach and learn both within and outside the classroom - is as exciting as ever. Promoting individuality and giving time, space and a breadth of education to each child within a caring community is as vital as ever. Clearly the reasons for choosing to board and the boarding environment itself are in continual but predictable flux; it is the social change outside of our schools and its pace that are unprecedented and opaque. Children now being educated within boarding preparatory schools are likely to be citizens of the 22nd century, let alone the 21st.

It seems more germane than ever to prepare our pupils for their virtually unimaginable lives through provision of a sense of their own import, potential and responsibilities as individuals within a community and where better to do that, than within the boarding setting? This we must do in partnership with parents and families, with great care and rigour and a love of what we do and why we do it.

Christian Heinrich was educated at Kent University and Westminster College, Oxford. He has been head of Cumnor House School in Sussex since 2001. He was previously deputy head of Summer Fields, Oxford. He is married, with four children.

THE EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE 2012 – 2013

Christian Heinrich, Chairman, IAPS, Cumnor House School

Ray McGovern, Vice Chairman, SBSA, Sexey's School

Richard Harman, Vice Chairman, HMC, Uppingham School

Trefor Llewellyn, Honorary Treasurer, HMC, Bradfield College

Deputies Committee 2012/2013