A DAY IN THE LIFE OF.....

A DAY IN THE LIFE OF ...  ..Angus Wyatt and Alexandra Hayes

If you were at the Annual Parish Meeting you will have got a brief glimpse of Alex and Angus when they received the annual rent for Reade field, one reed, from Simon Page. It's a tradition now that the Royal Hospital School's head pupils perform each year. As they were both only two weeks away from the beginning of their final exams they didn't stay long. (Hmmm, …… a choice between the Parish Annual Meeting and revising for exams - a tough one!) Anyway, before they escaped they very generously agreed to be the first for our new “a day in the life of…”

We met up with them a few weeks later for a meal at the Compasses. They had both come straight from a choir practice and before that a “finals” French oral exam. How did that go I asked. “We prefer this discussion. Debating the merits of the death penalty is bad enough in English, but in French ...! Enough said. They were both still singing snatches of something rehearsed earlier and seemed to be visibly unwinding at the end of what had been a very hectic week, i.e normal life at RHS. Dressed in civvies (civilian clothes), they both seemed fairly relaxed about that day's exam and the prospect of being interviewed by two complete strangers. As they said “we feel we have ‘grown' into our uniforms over the last twelve months, we probably would have been a bit nervous about doing this a year ago”.
“So”, we asked, “as the two heads of school are your days fairly similar”
“In many ways yes, we share duties, we're both in the choir , we're both in the band……” Angus began. “But did you get up and go out for a run this morning”, Alex interrupted innocently.
“Did you get up for mess duty” came the instant reply. There is some friendly teasing and a healthy chunk of rivalry between these two, but clearly that of very good friends who support each other as a matter of course.

So, a typical day…..

To start with, you must understand that as far as the pupils are concerned the day's routines at RHS revolve almost exclusively around eating! Things are measured as “twenty minutes after lunch or half an hour before tea”. This is a subject which is particularly close to Alex's heart. Contrary to the evidence of a slim figure, she is a great advocate for the School's excellent food and confesses to never missing a meal if she can possibly help it.

Senior pupils can get up to suit themselves, as long as they are dressed, breakfasted and ready for Chapel by eight, and provided they have no formal duties. On the day we met them Angus did however, and was up by 06:45 for mess hall duty at 07:30. Most of the school still march to “mess” in squads for meals, one of many remaining traditions from the School's naval heritage. The logistics of moving hundreds of youngsters round a very large school within very tight time schedules, without ensuing chaos, means that this particular tradition might well be kept on as a matter of practical necessity. Mess duty for prefects is a combination of traffic management to keep the two serveries operating efficiently, (they serve over two thousand meals a day) and filling out a tick sheet for each squad as it arrives. These sheets are a small part of a continuous assessment process of the pupils in each of the individual boarding houses. There is a healthy and continuous competition running between the “Houses”, the annual winner of which is deemed the best overall in terms of smartness and bearing, marching and general behaviour, academic achievement and sports.

Alex with no immediate formal duties, started her day with a three mile run, breakfast and then an inspection of the St Vincent boarding house . These House inspections are similarly all part and parcel of the same assessment process and fall to the senior prefects to perform.

After breakfast comes school assembly on a Monday, or a brief Chapel service on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays, starting at 08:30 and lasting about twenty minutes. Friday's chapel is for congregational practice where the whole school practices its singing. This, it seems, is very popular and known by the pupils variously as “Congecaggapragga” or the “Holbrook Sound”. “Basically 680 pupils singing at the tops of their voices. We had Jerusalem this morning” adds Alex, “it was very loud - brilliant”! (Incidentally, if you haven't yet been to a School concert in the chapel then you ought to think about going. The rest of the school wont be there but the choir is superb and the performances are always very moving).

Lessons and study start at 08:50 with three lessons of 35 minutes, each with a five minute break between. “The break is important” says Angus, “it's a big school and getting from one end to the other can take a bit of time with everybody on the move at once”. Then break time, or “stand easy” for half an hour, followed by three more lessons and lunch at 13:10. If it's a Saturday morning Angus and Alex would be attending the ceremony of “The Flag” at the main entrance at 08:00, followed by a meeting with the Headmaster where the discussion tends towards the academic side of things and in particular the performance of the sixth form. There was no mention of meetings with the Bursar, but the comprehensive grasp of many of the financial aspects and logistics of the School's operation, that both talked about at length, was very impressive.

Between lunchtime and the afternoon lessons (or sports) is a busy time for both of them. There are various weekly meetings with the school prefects or heads of Houses. The prefects, (badge boys, petty officers, chief petty officers, warrant officers 2nd and 1st class), carry out a very significant role in the day-to-day running of the School. The Thursday slot is kept for a meeting with the deputy Headmaster when general administration and School discipline are the main topics. There are also extra choir practice sessions, tutorials, public speaking practice, drama rehearsals, (not forgetting a catch up with your friends), all to squeeze into the mix.

After lunch the School divides between juniors and seniors, one half attending another four lessons, the other playing sports, the schedules swapping on alternating days. Long gone are the days when sports meant rugby, football or cricket. There are now choices of sailing, kayaking, climbing wall, equestrian events, bowling and many others. These sports days are well liked as “school” finishes before lunch “and a sense of time off and relaxation takes over”.

If a ceremonial parade is due there will often be a practice on a Thursday afternoon for about an hour. The naval uniforms, “Divisions” and ceremonial parades are all taken very seriously and with a real sense of pride. The two heads of school and their deputies are responsible, together with the Head of Ceremonials, for keeping proper order on the parade ground. Alex having been at the School for only two years and with her background in the school band, “who are a law unto themselves”, admits to “not really having a parade ground voice, (in fact Alex sings mezzo soprano in the choir), and still occasionally saluting with her left hand”. Angus is completing his seventh year and armed with his longer experience and bass voice (they are both solo performers in the choir) probably fairs a little better on parade days. The main photo incidentally is of the two of them in full ceremonial rig after the first parade of term, the one below being with the First Sea Lord, Admiral Sir Jonathan Band.

On Friday afternoons years 9 & 10 attend CCF (Combined Cadet Force) training, known affectionately as “toy soldiers”, whilst the sixth form get private study time or can benefit from enrichment programmes. These seem to cover a diverse mix of subjects such as public speaking, history of art and even Russian. Alex is in fact doing Greek. Then tea from 5:45 to 6:30 and finally homework (prep) for anything between one and two hours for junior students and “anything that can be fitted in” for seniors coming up to exams.

As well as all these routine calls on their time, Alex and Angus can have quite a busy schedule representing the School “outside”. External duties and functions include things like our Parish Meeting and carrying the Queen's Banner at St Paul's Cathedral. For them and a lot of other pupils there are also prestigious overseas games tours, home fixtures, and appearances of the band and choir at national events and venues. Alex represents the School at equestrian events and Angus at cross country meetings. Being members of the choir both are very much looking forward to an upcoming event at the Royal Albert Hall. As Angus said, “performing at the Albert Hall is quite something on its own merit, but being invited to perform there with the Royal Philharmonic orchestra is something very special”. Clearly a great tribute to the head of musical
studies, Mr Peter Crompton.

Do they ever relax? And what about weekends? It seems that they are also pretty busy. Relaxation time is fairly limited but savoured all the more for that. Coincidentally, both were off the following day to Sizewell for an evaluation weekend with next year's prospective prefect candidates. As with all sixth formers at the School they live in Nelson House where, as Alex pointed out, “we can relax and just be another resident, whereas when we are out in the School we are constantly on duty and being judged accordingly – particularly if we slip up! Once you reach the sixth form it is really nice having a bit of space and privacy away from the rest of the school, particularly in respect of working towards our exams”.

Each student in Nelson has an individual room and there are good communal spaces, including an area for meals and even a bar. On Saturday evenings Nelson “stays in” with imaginatively themed party evenings including a good supper and a few drinks. These are presided over by Mrs Cousins, the deputy House mistress who, we gather, is a much loved surrogate mother figure and apparently a real paragon of all virtues. As well as being a lot of fun these evenings seem to encourage a real sense of community amongst the sixth form which is so fundamental to their role in the day-to-day running of the School. They also promote an interactive work ethic which no doubt greatly benefits the School's exam results.

As to future days, after this term finishes Angus is hoping to go straight on to read Geography at Exeter University, exam results willing. After that he is still undecided but is considering law, drama school, (“both acting professions” – this from Alex), or something closer to his intended geography course such as the US Geological Survey. Alex is staying on for a while to raise some funds by acting as a leasing agent for the “external” summer courses at the School. This will go towards a gap year to be spent teaching in Indonesia under the sponsorship of the International Humanities Organisation. After that she hopes to study Classics at Cambridge. “She is the brains of the outfit, it's a sort of brains and brawn pairing” says Angus laughing and flexing a few muscles.
After that …. “well I rather fancy being a sort of Indianna Jones character, .....well Lara Croft I suppose” jokes Alex. “No seriously, perhaps teaching in the classics or Greek or perhaps archaeology– I only seem to really enjoy long dead languages!

It was a real pleasure spending a couple of hours in the company of these two young people. Their enthusiasm for their school and appreciation of all that it has given them is clearly genuine. Their sense of excitement and anticipation for the forthcoming ceremonies and special events which will mark the end of their school careers was quite infectious.

We are grateful to them for giving up some of their precious free time in the midst of their exams. We wish them every possible success for their futures.