Ahead of his arrival with his family this summer, we asked Bradfield College’s incoming Head, Jeremy Quartermain, some very important questions to introduce him to the Bradfield community and help us all get to know him a little better.
What attracted you to the role of Head at Bradfield College?
I have the extraordinary privilege of leading a wonderful school community at Rossall in the North West, so it was always going to take something very special to tempt me away. Intellectually and culturally, Bradfield College sparkles with ambition and fizzes with innovation and creativity. I love the fact that it is a school which is internationally-minded and yet so clearly committed to being of service to the local community. Whilst the facilities and resources are world class, school communities are about people and, in this respect, Bradfield is uniquely blessed. The warmth and friendliness of staff, pupils and governors is reflective of a community that values collegiality, compassion and kindness. The more you get to know Bradfield and its people, the more its appeal grows. There is a really authentic and ‘down to earth’ feel about the School.
Over the past few months, I have had the opportunity to meet a growing number of Bradfieldians and this has been an absolute joy. I would like to thank them all for making me feel so welcome and, as a family, we are incredibly excited to be joining the Bradfield community ahead of September.
What three words would your family and friends use to describe you?
I think they might say, ambitious, generous and talkative, but you will have the opportunity to ask them soon enough!
What are your favourite books and why?
This is an impossible question! I am a voracious reader, and it is usual for me to have a number of books on the go. I think that different books resonate with us at different stages of our lives. Growing up, I loved adventure novels and I found myself drawn to the works of Arthur Ransome and Willard Price. A little later, I became completely immersed in the world of Dickens and Tolstoy. David Copperfield and War and Peace were two novels that had a really profound influence upon my developing understanding of the human condition. There are so many brilliant contemporary writers whom I admire tremendously and these include J. M. Coetzee, Ian McEwan, Louis de Bernières, Zadie Smith, Jonathan Franzen, Julian Barnes, Jeanette Winterson and William Boyd.
Of course, when you become a parent, you have the opportunity to fall in love all over again with children’s books. I have an enduring affection for The Hungry Caterpillar and The Snow Kitten is a book that will always be very close to my heart. A week after my sixth birthday, my father passed away quite suddenly. We were halfway through reading The Snow Kitten together at bedtime. I could not carry on the story without him as that would have meant acknowledging a truth that I was not prepared to accept. Consequently, it was really precious to have the opportunity to read this story with Teigan, our youngest daughter, when she had just turned six. Completing what had been left unfinished all those years before felt life-affirming and made me feel close to my father once again. It is a rather gentle and ordinary story but one full of meaning and poignancy for me.
Beautiful works of literature may be quite frivolous in their purpose whereas books which tell us incredibly important things may have little or no literary merit. Arguably my favourite book of the moment is 100 Of The Best Show Tunes Ever! There is nothing I enjoy more than our girls gathering round the piano as we tackle songs from the world of music theatre. For me, that is the best of times.
I am a passionate advocate of the benefits of reading and my daughters tell me that I can be quite boring on the subject! Bradfield pupils are so fortunate to have the St Andrew’s Study Centre, and I have no doubt that it will help to engender a lifelong love of learning and, of course, reading.
It’s FA Cup Final month. You are moving from one powerhouse football school to another, but which football team do you support?
The North West is the true home of football and there is no club that serves its local community better than Fleetwood Town Football Club. Currently, I am fortunate enough to be one of the trustees of the Fleetwood Town Community Trust and this means that I get to see the superb work that the club undertakes with some of the most vulnerable people on the Fylde Coast.
Football is so much more than just a game, but nothing beats watching Fleetwood Town take on the likes of Barrow Town or Morecambe F.C. on a cold and wet Tuesday evening. The wind rushes in from the Irish Sea, gulls swirl overhead and no amount of polystyrene cups filled with scalding tea can protect you from the horizontal rain. That’s football at its most elemental. There is something real and raw about life in the lower divisions that appeals to me much more than the glitz, glamour and money of the Premier League.
As a boy, I supported Ipswich Town. The Tractor Boys and Portman Road will always have a special place in my heart. I used to walk past Terry Butcher’s house on my way home from primary school and this made me feel that I was in the presence of true greatness! People often forget that Ipswich Town won the FA Cup in 1978 and the UEFA Cup in 1981. Of course, this was during the Bobby Robson glory years when they also came runners-up in the league on two consecutive occasions. Sadly, this has been another pretty tough year for Ipswich, but there have been some quality performances against really formidable opponents – the recent draw against Chelsea being one such example.
Where are your favourite places to think and relax?
My wife’s family are from County Galway and their family farm looks out over the dramatic limestone escarpments of The Burren. Nothing compares to a summer day in the Aran Islands. Swimming in the crystal clear waters of Inisheer whilst gazing at the majestic peaks of Connemara is as close to perfection as you will ever experience.
If Inisheer provides refreshment for the soul then the shaded woods of Coole Park are where I tend to do a lot of walking, thinking and reflection. It was here, amongst the dappled glades of Lady Augustus’ beautiful country estate, that the likes of W.B. Yeats, George Bernard-Shaw and Seán O’Casey found their inspiration. For the past twenty years or so, I have been drawn back to Coole at least twice a year and this is where I feel at my most contemplative.
