At Commemoration this morning, Warden, Tom Beardmore-Gray, paid tribute to Dr Chris Stevens, who leaves Bradfield this summer after 10 years as Headmaster. Here is the Warden’s full address.
A warm welcome to this year’s Commemoration during this special 175th year for Bradfield College. On behalf of Council I would like to thank everyone who has contributed to the 175th anniversary celebrations. How proud our founder, Thomas Stevens, would be to see what has resulted from his foundation in 1850.
Bradfield has needed to meet a myriad of challenges during this 175th year. Your Council is acutely aware of the impact that the government’s decision to introduce VAT on independent school fees is having on Bradfield families. We are witnessing an era of rapid and unprecedented change in our sector. We are seeing schools close or merge on a weekly basis and there is no doubt that the independent schools sector will look very different a decade from now.
And yet Council members have had many reasons during this academic year to feel both proud of the Bradfield community we all treasure and immensely confident about the future. Only during the last two weeks I have witnessed how the Bradfield community can meet both adversity and prosperity in the best possible ways. I was present in this theatre thirteen days ago for the beautiful memorial service of a much loved Bradfield teacher, Jeremy Ball, who tragically died during the autumn. And I was here again on Thursday evening to witness the joy of current and old Bradfieldians coming together for a superb Gala evening. On both contrasting occasions I was personally very moved by the Bradfield spirit that was on show. The Bradfield spirit is undoubtedly something tangible and special.
I want to thank my Council colleagues, who have done so much to support the College this year. A number of long serving Council members are stepping down after many years of dedicated service and we will be recognising their contributions in the autumn. This morning I want to devote my time on this platform to the herculean efforts of Dr Chris Stevens, who steps down at the conclusion of this academic year after ten years as Headmaster of Bradfield.
I wonder how many of you were at Commemoration in 2015? This year’s leavers would have been only eight years old, those in Faulkner’s only three years old. I was here as a parent and I can remember the mood being somewhat sombre. One of my illustrious predecessors as Warden, Martin Young, could not hide Council’s dismay at losing Simon Henderson to Eton after only four years in post. Many staff and parents were wondering how the momentum generated by Simon’s leadership could be maintained, let alone enhanced.
Chris Stevens arrived in August 2015 from Marlborough, where he had been Deputy Head. It was clear from the moment Chris arrived that Bradfield had appointed someone with a formidable intellect who was very ambitious for Bradfield. Chris combined his intellectual capacity with a work ethic and attention to detail that began yielding tangible results very rapidly.
Under the umbrella of his strategy known as Education for Life he devoted his personal attention to the improvement of every aspect of a Bradfield pupil’s experience of the College. As a result of his personal determination for every pupil to reach their full academic potential, the academic results improved to the extent that Bradfield closed the gap with many competitor schools which were for decades preferred to Bradfield.
Chris has been just as focused on the pupil experience outside the classroom. During his tenure Bradfield’s sporting reputation has reached unprecedented heights. Spurred on by high profile successes, including several ISFA Cup Football trophies, Bradfield has consistently punched above its weight across a huge range of sporting endeavours. It has been particularly pleasing to see how girls’ sport at Bradfield has thrived in recent years. Chris has also given huge encouragement and profile to the sporting endeavours of Old Bradfieldians, who have had so much success in recent years. And of course, Chris has role modeled sporting endeavour by taking up long distance running and completing marathons for great causes associated with Bradfield.
The quality of music and drama provision has also been transformed under Chris’s leadership. I participated in the College’s production of Haydn’s Creation in March, an undertaking which would have been a long way beyond the College a decade ago. That is but a small example of the way in which music and drama enrich the College today. Bradfield is now attracting pupils who have so much to offer in these areas and this rising tide is lifting all ships. The results have been on display for us all to see in this very theatre over the course of the last month.
Chris’s unyielding focus on improvement was recognised by the Independent Schools Inspectorate during the last Inspection in 2022 when the College was rated Outstanding in all respects for the first time in its history.
Many have told me about Chris’s leadership of the College during the Covid pandemic. These were particularly difficult days for education leaders. Chris led from the front, providing reassurance and a sense of purpose in equal measure. I have heard many times about how impressive his communications to all stakeholders were at this time.
There have been countless improvements to the Bradfield estate during Chris’s time. Many of these improvements have been driven by the happy need to accommodate more pupils. Due to the momentum created by Chris’s leadership, the College’s pupil numbers have grown during each of the last 10 years. This growth has been accomplished with very little recourse to recruitment of pupils from overseas, which makes the achievement even more remarkable. Chris has tackled very important, but less appealing, maintenance projects, such as the Army roof, previously kicked down the road over many decades. His greatest achievement on the estate is without doubt the St Andrew’s Study Centre. Chris arrived at Bradfield with the determination and vision to take this project from a pipe dream to what we see today. It was a very complex project, but in my view Bradfield’s best estates project in living memory. I am so pleased that the portrait of Chris, recently completed as is the custom with departing Heads, will hang in this library as a testament to this achievement and an inspiration to future pupils.
When Chris arrived Bradfield College was a single school. He leaves behind the Bradfield Group, which is turning into a diversified charitable education group. The merger with St Andrew’s Prep in 2021 has been a great success and Chris can take a lot of credit for this. The way in which the two schools came together and now work in a collaborative manner for the greater benefit of all stakeholders is a model for the sector. During Chris’s time the College has expanded its horizons into the world of Education Technology with Campus XR and he has put a lot of personal effort into exploring international opportunities for Bradfield. The work that he has done to expand the College’s horizons is sure to bear much fruit in years to come.
So, by any metric you choose to use this has been an extraordinary decade for Bradfield and Chris leaves Bradfield in a much stronger position than he found it. I have no hesitation in saying on behalf of Council that Chris will rank amongst Bradfield’s finest Heads and that history will look very kindly on his era.
But perhaps more than anything this morning, I want to thank Chris on behalf of all of us for his utter commitment to the Bradfield community over such a long period of time. I think that it can be easy for any of us to forget the responsibilities associated with leading an institution of this size and profile. It is a complicated and demanding task. There are many stakeholders to manage. The Head has to be ready to respond around the clock on all manner of issues. He has to balance the needs and views of many competing constituents, but at the same time he is expected to hold the institution to high standards and to propel it forward. I know how much Chris has cared about Bradfield and all of its constituents, if anything he has cared too much. He has wanted the very best for Bradfield’s pupils and he has worked tirelessly to ensure that Bradfield provides the very best for them. Chris has sacrificed so much of his own time to fly the Bradfield flag locally, nationally and internationally, to entertain pupils, staff, parents and friends of Bradfield at Crossways and to ensure that all visitors to the College are welcomed and looked after. He is above all a person of great integrity who can be relied upon to do the right thing for the community he serves.
We all want to wish Chris and his family the very best for the future. Council has organised a book with photographic highlights from your decade at the helm and lots of comments from your many admirers. It gives me great pleasure to present this to you on behalf of Council and the whole Bradfield community. It comes with our gratitude and best wishes.
Tom Beardmore-Gray MA FCA
Warden
