Over the Easter Weekend Robbie Hayes (StA), AJ Richardson (L), Holly Kunzer (N) and Major Mansergh took two kayaks to the 70th annual 125 miles Devizes to Westminster International Canoe Marathon along the Kennett and Avon Canal and River Thames.

The race, which has been held annually since 1948, starts at Devizes wharf, and follows the Kennet and Avon canal for 54 miles to Reading, where it joins the Thames. After a further 54 miles it reaches Teddington Lock, and ends at Westminster Bridge 17 miles later. The race takes place over four days, requiring competitors to portage their boats around 77 locks.

The two Oundle crews prepared for the challenge undeterred by rain or snow throughout the autumn and winter with weekly Sunday morning training sessions on the River Nene. Their diligent preparation helped them get through the first 35 miles on day 1 of the race when they had to contend with heavy rain and chilling easterly winds.

When they woke at their campsite at 5.30am to begin day 2, the prospect was not promising. The Environmental Agency had raised the flood warning to Red for the River Thames, with continued rain and fast flowing water presenting challenging conditions. The paddlers set off and finished 20 further miles to reach Reading, where the organisers decided that the river levels were too dangerous to continue on to the Thames.

Despite the disappointing end to the race, the teams’ persistence in the face of adverse conditions helped raise £2360 for their chosen charity, Mary’s Meals.

Mary’s Meals provides meals for children attending school in the world’s poorest communities. The promise of a single meal while at school alleviates chronic hunger and encourages children to pursue an education and follow a route out of poverty. The donations raised from 65 supporters will provide meals for 168 children for a year.

The Oundle School Cricket Club took a group of 16 boys from four year groups on a 1st team development cricket tour to South Africa over the Easter holidays.

It was an outstanding trip with tough cricket played in fantastic weather against strong teams that were coming to the end of their season: Paul Roos Gimnasium School in Stellenbosch, New Orleans Secondary School in Paarl, PRG Academy, De Villiers Graaff High School in Villiersdorp and Newlands CC in Cape Town.

The Oundle squad won two of the five matches they played. The final game of the tour could have been a win, but it slipped out of their grasp towards the end. The squad were well on top halfway through the second innings, but bowled poorly at a crucial time, allowing the opposition to take the advantage and run away with the score.

At the start of the new cricket season, much was learned by the boys, and the experience will surely help them become better players.

The boys also enjoyed the opportunity to watch some world-class cricket from a box at the Newlands Test with South Africa vs Australia just a day before the cricket world shattering ball-tampering scandal erupted.

Off the cricket pitch, activities included a trip to the top of Table Mountain, a tour of Robben Island, and a chance to see lions that had been rescued from circus acts.

The highlight for many was the visit Mbekweni Township to coach cricket to some of the young schoolboys.

O Butterworth

 

The Head presented Sports Colours to pupils at an assembly marking the start of the Summer Term.

Sports Colours are awarded to pupils for excellent contribution to a recognised School sport. The awards are presented in the Sixth Form, although for exceptional performance they may be awarded to younger years. In order to qualify for an award, pupils must demonstrate qualities of good sportsmanship in addition to outstanding performance.

For performances in Football, Rugby, Badminton, Hockey, Netball and Squash the Head presented 27 full Colours. The full list of awards can be viewed below.

Sports Colours April 2018 | PDF

During the Easter holidays, the Modern Languages Department fanned out to four European cities on cultural visits and residential exchanges.

From the French department, 20 pupils from the Third and Fourth Forms went to Orléans with pupils from the Saint-Charles School. Pupils were matched with a partner with whom they stayed for one week, spending time getting to know the families, local culture and of course practising their French. During the week their host families took them out to visit Paris, play sports, and visit sites in and around Orléans, including Chateau de Chambord. French school days with their counterparts were different enough to be a real eye-opener for the Oundle pupils.

The Paris trip included a record 31 Lower Sixth Form French language pupils. Highlights included a bespoke art history tour of the Montmartre neighbourhood with their local  guides Jean-Manuel and Alain, a visit to the Rodin museum, a fashion show and a “sneaky” visit to the Sorbonne law faculty. Along the way they somehow managed to “infiltrate” a railway workers’ demonstration – perhaps the most French experience of all. Their theatre evening was spent attending a play called ‘Les Faux British’. In the end the group was thanked for being ‘Les Vrais British!’.

Six Oundelians took part in this year’s Fourth Form German exchange to Hamburg. The link with this particular school is now into its second decade. The programme included visiting the historic city centre where the German exchange partners had prepared little presentations for every sight. Amongst them were St Michael’s cathedral, the town hall, the harbour and the old car tunnel underneath the river Elbe. The visit to Hamburg’s newest addition to its skyline, the impressive Elbphilharmonie building, was another highlight of the first day of sightseeing, where the view across the city and the harbor is breath-taking. The most exciting and impressive activity was the visit to a museum called ‘Dialog im Dunkeln’, where pupils experienced for an hour what it feels like to be blind – a truly fascinating experience. The exchange was once again a great success and our pupils can’t wait for their partners to come to Oundle later this term so that they can show them how they live and study here at School.

The Third Form trip to Spain began at Madrid’s most important statue El Oso y El Madrono, the iconic symbol of the city. From then on, Madrid did not disappoint, with trips to the splendid Royal Palace of Madrid, the botanical gardens, and the Almudena Cathedral. For many, the highlight was the tour of the Bernabeu, Real Madrid’s stadium, where they appreciated not only how much the Spanish love football, but also how good they are at it. The evenings were capped off with Spanish feasts, and on one night “the best sunset in Spain” by the Templo de Debod.

Fourteen of Oundle’s top chemists received awards in the 2018 UK Chemistry Olympiad, including one Gold, five Silver and eight Bronze awards.

The UK Chemistry Olympiad is run by the Royal Society of Chemistry and is the leading chemistry competition for students in secondary education.

The first challenge for successful entrants was a written test of their chemical knowledge, based on real-world chemistry problems.

As one of the country’s 30 highest-scoring pupils in the first round, Kadi Sun (F) was invited to attend an intense residential second round over three days at the University of Cambridge in early April, from where the selection for the UK Olympiad team was finally selected.

The annual Thommy Purbrook Charity Rugby Match was held on Sunday, led by captains Georgie Pitman (K) and Rosie Dawes (W). The girls adapted to a relatively new game, and the six tries reflected their high levels of skill and speed.

The captains of netball (Lily Craven, Sn), hockey (Lara Chapman, D), tennis (Miranda Joicey, W) and cricket (Alice Wilson, W), and Head of School Lucy Stock (N) were all at their best, showing their competitive spirit along with the other 30 girls committing to the fixture.

Both teams were ably assisted by rugby captains Luke Risman (F) and Hugo Darke Christopher (G), and the coaching, cheerleading and enthusiasm shown by all involved reflected the pupils' great teamwork and collaboration. The rest of the School supported on the sidelines, with pupils, parents and staff providing a loud and enthusiastic backdrop to the girls’ performance.

The match was won by the Wyatt and Sanderson team, 22-15, raising £2,000 for the Thommy Purbrook Scholarship Endowment Fund.

Sport is about desire, commitment and skill, but it is also about friendship, selflessness and making memories to be proud of. It has been ten years since Thommy’s death from meningitis when on a School trip, and while none of the pupils involved had met Thommy, her memory and legacy lives on, encouraging pupils to embrace the spirit and adventure of sport.

D Grewcock

On Friday the 4th of May, the Stahl Theatre’s annual Wontner Masterclass was led by sound designer Carolyn Downing, winner of an Olivier Award in 2014 for Best Sound Design for her work on Chimerica at the Almeida Theatre in London.

A group of 12 pupils from Third to Sixth Form were lucky enough to attend the Masterclass, which began with a thought-provoking talk by Ms Downing on the role of a sound designer, an important, yet usually overlooked element to the staging of a production. She explained the rehearsal process, and the complexity that comes from designing the sound for even the simplest of shows. To the audience, it can feel as if the sound is just “there”, but Ms Downing explained about how deciding where the sound comes from, what type of sound the audience hears and how the sound interacts with the movement on stage is very important sub-consciously to the audience's experience and enjoyment of the show.

Ms Downing then took the group up to the Stahl's new sound technology booth. It is a bit of kit which most of us hadn't seen before and it baffled most of us. The endless number of knobs, faders, screens and switches gave the group a true insight into how much there is to the sound design of a show. Ms Downing demonstrated the basics, such as how to change where the sound is coming from, the pan of the sound, and the special effects that can be added.

The next part of the class was more practical. We split up into small groups, were given a short extract from a play, and told to think as a sound designer. After hearing a lot about the complexity of sound design, it was very interesting to see the pupils coming up with their own ideas based on just how many ways there are to change a sound, and how that can affect a show, and the audience's emotion.

To finish off the Masterclass, Ms Downing demonstrated a piece of software that controlled cuing of sounds, looping, volume and other effects. This software has been used in many previous Stahl productions, and as many of us are regulars on stage and off, it was a necessary and interesting look at what happens when a sound is simply played on stage, in contrast to what goes on behind the scenes to actually make it happen.

Ms Downing delivered a truly engaging and fascinating look into a seriously complex world of what happens in sound, leaving many from the group with a new found interest and respect for what a sound designer really does.

Charlie Cobb (L)

The Theology and Philosophy Society hosted a talk by Old Oundelian Rupert Shortt (B 83) who came to speak on the topic of his recent book, God is No Thing.

The focus of his talk was about the so-call New Atheists, such as Old Oundelian Richard Dawkins. He said that their attacks on Christian beliefs miss the mark because they treat God as though he was a scientific hypothesis. He argued that their criticisms are invalid because "God is No Thing", meaning he is not a part of the physical universe, so science is not equipped to study his existence.

An extensive and wide-ranging discussion followed where our pupils debated Rupert's thesis based on their studies of the subject in their Pre-U course.

Mr Shortt will return to Oundle later this term as guest speaker at the Rugby Group annual meeting for Heads of Theology, Philosophy and Religion.

Mr Shortt is the religion editor of the Times Literary Supplement, a visiting Fellow of Oxford University, and a published writer of books and newspaper journals.

Nearly one hundred budding science enthusiasts had the opportunity to visit the cutting edge facilities on the SciTec campus during two full day sessions.

Nine feeder prep schools visited SciTec for the annual STEM Experience.

This year’s event was slightly different in that the competition element between schools was removed and the pupils were split into mixed groups from different schools.

The pupils were involved in challenges in the traditional physical sciences, plus an engineering challenge in the Patrick Engineering Centre. The four activities included extracting cheek DNA, analysis of reaction rates, crumple zones to protect fresh eggs and programming a robotic arm to pick up a ping pong ball and deliver it to a target.

The third annual Imperial College STEM Challenge was held for 54 pupils from five local schools. In the morning they were treated to a fantastic lecture on the solar system by astrophysicist Scott Marley.

After lunch, the pupils went into the labs, and in mixed teams spent the afternoon collaborating on the design and build of a device made from junk materials that would be able to lift an Oxo cube using a simple chemical reaction.

Imperial College continues to use STEM facilities at Oundle School as a regional hub for the East Midlands area. This is the first hub school for Imperial College outside of London and the South East, and it is already acting as conduit for potential new links between Imperial College and state schools in the area.

On Thursday 10 May, the Quadrivium Society hosted Professor Nigel Biggar, Regius Professor of moral and pastoral theology at the University of Oxford.

Prof Biggar discussed what he calls a balanced reappraisal of the British Empire’s legacy. While acknowledging the atrocities that occurred under the Empire’s watch, he also led pupils through the advances in the rule of law that the Empire provided, alongside education, objective moral improvement and free trade. He pointed out that colonial administrators collaborated with local leaders to impose both beneficial and abhorrent practices. For instance the institution of slavery was developed by European powers in partnership with African elites who sold their captives into bondage. In the end, it was the European leadership that took the decision to end a lucrative business and abolish the importation of slaves. 

He compared the British record with those of other nations' empires, European and non-European, usually favourably. Most of all, he rejected the notion that the Empire was a single coherent project, detailing instead the various economic, moral, religious, social and international strands to hundreds of years of global interaction.

The talk was pitched just right for the Oundelian audience of 50, who listened attentively in the Adamson Centre's Raymond Lee International Suite, and asked a stream of questions of the speaker afterwards - always the best gauge of success. 

Quadrivium is the ambitious Lower Sixth Extension Course, and the elder sibling of the Third Form's Trivium programme. Quad pupils come from all subject backgrounds and the aim is to prepare pupils for university, by exploring many advanced aspects of a subject through the year on a single, broad theme. Each course is bespoke with a single teacher and small sets, taking pupils well beyond their curricular subjects and overlapping with many areas of interest across disciplinary boundaries. 

W D Gunson

A poem by Lara Wise (D) was Commended for the Hippocrates Poetry and Medicine Young Poet Award.

Launched in 2010, the Hippocrates Young Poets Prize is an annual international award for an unpublished poem on a medical subject. 

Lara’s poem, “In Quarantine”, drew upon her experiences as a patient in hospitals and doctors’ waiting rooms when she was younger.

Entries for the 2018 Hippocrates Young Poet Award were received from Canada, England, India, Indonesia, Ireland, Jamaica, Malaysia, Nigeria, Pakistan, and the USA. Toronto poet Alisha Kaplan shortlisted and commended eight young poets from the USA and the UK for the prize. As for other Hippocrates Poetry Awards, the poems judged for the Hippocrates Young Poet Award are anonymous. 

With a prize fund of £500 for the Young Poets Award and £5500 for winning poems in the Open and Health Professional categories, the Hippocrates Prize is one of the highest value poetry awards in the world for a single poem. Since it was launched in 2010, the Hippocrates Prize has attracted over 8000 entries from over 60 countries.

The 2018 Hippocrates Awards are organised by the Hippocrates Initiative in partnership with the Arts and Humanities Initiative of Harvard Medical School, with support from the Cardiovascular Research Trust. 

In 2017, a poem by Izzy Wythe (N) was shortlisted for the award.

The sheer anarchic joy of Alan Parker’s Bugsy Malone burst on to the Stahl stage last week.  Performed by 43 of the finest budding musical theatre stars from First and Second Form, this dazzling production, directed and choreographed by Hattie Hopper and Jo Henderson featured some outstanding central performances.

Nathan Raudnitz (L) was effortlessly suave and in control as the eponymous hero, Bugsy. He seemed so at home in the role that the scripted lines were as easily and naturally delivered as the occasional ad lib, much to the delight of the enthusiastic audience. Luke Seymour (L) excelled as Fat Sam, oozing an appropriate gangster-like presence and energy as he inhabited the stage with all the grandeur and assurance of a proud lion. Jamie Aubury (L) made the perfect comic side-kick to Seymour’s Fat Sam in the form of Knuckles. And Thomas Kemp’s (L) hauntingly innocent rendition of ‘Tomorrow’, as wannbe dancer Fizzy will live long in the memory. 

In fact, there were so many memorable moments: the reveal of Paul Laughton’s wonderful set as we first entered Fat Sam’s Grand Slam; the ‘hoods’ dance to ‘Bad Guys’; the glittering dancing girls in ‘My Name is Tallulah’; the untimely death of Knuckles, and many more.

With such strength throughout this vast ensemble of performers, there was never a dull moment.  The numerous scene changes were expertly managed by a small army of backstage crew, and the wonderful live band created a wonderfully timeless jazz band, speakeasy feel.

This exuberant production made for a fitting swansong for musical director James Thomas and Hattie Hopper, who both will be leaving this year.

N Jones

In glorious spring weather, this year’s Have a Go Day brought 500 visitors to the School, hosted by more than 200 pupils, to take part in a huge variety of activities during the weekend of 22 and 23 April.

They enjoyed various activities including swimming, badminton, basketball, archery, football, indoor rowing, crazy golf, face painting, boccia, yoga, music and art activities, as well as the chance to take traction engine rides around the School’s grounds.

HAGD offers an encouraging environment in which visitors with special needs and their families can try their hand at new sports and activities. Those who had been before made a bee-line for their favourite sport as soon as they arrived. Others liked to try their hand at a varied number of activities such as archery, yoga cricket and with football, always being a popular choice.

To cap it off, the School’s photographers and theatre wardrobe team set up a photo booth for visitors to take away a souvenir as a memory of their day.

The Oundle School Junior Mathematics team were the winners of the Regional Final of the Team Mathematical Challenge this month at the King’s School, Peterborough. 

The standard of competition was excellent with many strong mathematicians from local schools in Peterborough and further afield. Schools from as far as away as Oakham, Uppingham Community College and University Academy Holbeach joined in the annual event, which is organised by the UK Mathematics Trust. 

Pupils found the questions slightly more challenging this year as they demanded strong number work, geometric reasoning and problem-solving skills to unravel some practical problems. Over 25 schools were represented in the competition, which is aimed at high achieving pupils in Years 8 and 9, although one strong primary school team also competed. 

The winning team now progress to the national final to be held at the Royal Horticultural Halls, London in late June.

This year the Carnegie Medal Shadowing Scheme involved the entire Third Form, and culminated in a whole year assembly featuring presentations about each of the eight shortlisted books.

Every English set read one of the shortlisted books and created a presentation that evaluated the literary qualities of the book, conveyed the impact on the reader, and aimed to make the case for their book to win the Carnegie Medal.

Now in its 81st year, the Carnegie Medal is awarded to books of exceptional literary quality for young people. There is often great variety in the selected shortlist, spanning different continents, historical periods, genres, age ranges. As many of the pupils discovered, the books can be hard-hitting, mature, and controversial; the shortlist exposes pupils to cutting-edge contemporary fiction that provokes and inspires, and that may become the classics of the future.

The award-winning author Kevin Crossley-Holland adjudicated each set’s presentation to determine who had made the most convincing case for their book to win the Medal. He made a careful assessment of the pupils’ literary analysis, conviction and presentation style, and judged 3Wy as winners for their presentation on After the Fire by Will Hill.

Mr Crossley-Holland also talked about the inspiration for his popular Arthur series, and about his deep interest in Norse mythology. His most recent book is a lavishly illustrated and impressive volume of enduring tales.

Mr Crossley-Holland is a distinguished lecturer, author, poet, and translator of Anglo-Saxon literature. As an author for young people, he has won the Carnegie Medal in 1985 for his book for young readers, Storm, the Guardian Children’s Prize and Whitbread Prize for The Seeing Stone, and was shortlisted for the 2008 Carnegie Medal for Gatty’s Tale, among other notable awards.

To cap the event, he even brought his own Carnegie Medal to show the pupils and English teachers, who were equally enthused about Mr Crossley-Holland’s books.

In pony racing there are two series; the point-to-point series, held at point-to-point courses from spring until early summer, and then more competitive series at racecourses around the country, before or after the main day’s horse racing. I am the Midlands Champion for the point-to-point series and currently ranked fifth for the racecourse series. In the past I have won at courses such as Cheltenham and Ascot.

My pony, Miss Wonderful, is a Thoroughbred and was going to be a racehorse, but she didn’t grow big enough, and luckily was the right height to pony race. Ponies have to be 148cm or below and ridden by riders 16 years and under. All the riders are disciplined in the rules of racing and have to wear the same equipment and saddlery as professional jockeys. We race on the flat for a distance of around a mile.

All of us have to reach a certain standard of riding to be competent enough to race. This means passing courses that are normally held at the British Racing School at Newmarket. During the school holidays I also ride racehorses at a local trainer’s for experience.  

Our pony races are only slightly slower than those of the professional adult jockeys and the bigger horses, and we reach speeds of around 35 miles per hour. It is incredibly exciting and dangerous! So far this season I have had three wins and three seconds from six starts. I am hoping for a career in the racing industry.

Violet Barton (K)

This year’s Royal Society of Biology’s Challenge competition had more than 48,000 entrants, and for the first time it included Second Form pupils alongside the usual Third and Fourth Form competitors.

Strong performances are from those pupils whose knowledge of the subject has been increased by reading books and magazines, watching natural history programmes and taking notice of the news media for items of biological interest. Given the greater number of participants nationally, the department was pleased that this year more Oundle pupils were awarded Gold certificates than in previous years. The results are a strong indication of how many of our pupils are generally aware of our natural flora and fauna beyond the demands of the examination specification.

In the Sixth Form, two pupils received Gold Medals in the Royal Society of Biology’s British Biology Olympiad, where pupils with an interest in Biology are challenged and motivated to expand and extend their talents beyond the demands of the A-level examination specification.

In February, after many weeks of arguing their way through the early rounds against all of the other houses, the junior teams gathered to present their arguments for the inter-house Mather Cup final. The motion for debate was 'This House believes that universities should ban speakers with extreme views'. Mya Onyett and Polly Brown were proposing the motion for Kirkeby, whilst Anjolaoluwatikitan Solola with Mary Cummins opposed the motion for Sanderson. Both teams presented their ideas with passion, clarity and detailed consideration of this important question. However, the arguments proposed by Kirkeby were stronger, with a clear and nuanced definition of the motion allowing them to avoid accusations of censorship. Kirkbey was judged the winner and Sanderson achieved an extremely well-fought second place.

Senior Debaters were equally busy. In the latter part of the Easter Term, Raj Sira (L) and Ali Bourne (L) enjoyed taking part in Oxford Schools Final day. In addition, the ESU Mace team of Lucy Stock (N) and Rose Asquith (Sn) debated their way into the Regional Finals of the ESU Mace held at Bedford School.

They were also honoured, along with George Brettle (B), to take part in the Grocer’s Company Greatest Grocer balloon-style debate held in the impressive surrounds of Grocer’s Hall and compered by the historian Lucy Worsley. Lucy, Rose and George presented a persuasive pitch for Sir William Laxton as a philanthropic and visionary educationalist, but were elbowed out by the rival claims of Houlbon for the first Governor of the Bank of England.

The Senior Debating Humphreys Gavel competition came to a close in the Summer Term. A vigorous semi final on the themes of privacy laws and trade tariffs was succeeded by an equally hotly contested final with the motion “This House would move to Mars”. The Crosby team of Dan Mikhaylov and Pelham Cox ultimately snatched victory from School House’s Ed Hodgson and Henry Stringer.

The Senior Debating Dinner, which concluded the formal calendar, was addressed by Mr Adam Begley, author and biographer. A warmly witty foray into the perils of the trans-Atlantic language divide contained also a serious exhortation to cherish and hone the skills of rich and persuasive speech.

Following her earlier success in competitions with her horse Newbridges Master Brown, Third Form pupil, Matilda Lanni (L) was selected to represent Great Britain with the U18 team at the Nations Cup in late May. Mattie was selected after an impressive performance at the British Showjumping Youth trials earlier this year.

Eleven teams from all over Europe competed at Lamprechtshausen, in the Austrian Alps, in one of the three Nations Cups held across the year, all of which are qualifiers for the European Championships.

Fielding the youngest team in the competition, Britain stood in second place after the first round, just two time penalties behind the leaders, Germany.

Withstanding the pressure of the occasion, three members of the team, including Matilda, returned clear rounds in round two, something none of the other older and more experienced riders were able to do, leaving Britain as outright winners, without the fourth member even needing to jump.

Sir John Timpson (Sidney 1960) returned to School to deliver this year’s Oundle Lecture to Lower Sixth Form pupils, staff, Old Oundelians and parents. His inspiring talk received sustained applause in appreciation for how he has built a successful business with kindness and compassion, and applied his values more widely to help communities and institutions thrive.

Beginning with his school career, Sir John made it clear that as a schoolboy there was no indication that he would later achieve business success. He said he made a mess in the famed workshops, the 5th XI was the best standard he attained, and he was too shy to get into trouble and attract notice. 

When he finished school he joined the family business, working on the shoe production line and then behind the counter, building experience of different levels of business and customer service. After university his first job at C & J Clark in Street took him back into shoe production where he made his first - and only pair - of brown leather shoes, which he wore for the evening’s lecture and dinner - despite black tie dress.

Founded in 1870, the family business expanded, evolved and suffered the usual boardroom dramas, sales and acquisitions of most long-running businesses over the years. A management buyout by Sir John in 1983 eventually led to the business once again being wholly owned by the Timpson family. The business no longer sells shoes, but retains the shoe repair service. Together with key cutting, Sir John said that he had unwittingly developed a business that could not be replaced by internet commerce. 

The Timpson Group now has 2000 shops with diversified services. But what distinguishes Timpsons is not its success as a wholly owned family business, but its success as a company that is routinely in The Times’ list of the top 10 best UK companies to work for. Sir John calls his approach “upside down management”, otherwise known as “common sense”. The people who work for the company are “colleagues”, and are given the freedom “to do their best”. Shop managers do not issue orders, they give support and help their colleagues overcome personal problems that might be leading to poor performance in the workplace. Incentives and rewards include holiday homes for free use by colleagues, days off for personal occasions, and paid-for “dreams come true” surprises, such as trips, dental treatments and even a divorce for one colleague. 

Sir John attributes his maverick tendencies, and the ethos and direction that the company took, to his late wife Alex, who was “captain” of the family. Their ideas and commitment to help people do their best extended to work with schools and the NHS, and together they fostered 90 children over 31 years. Their son James is the next generation to work in the business, and he has already made important initiatives, such as the company’s policy to employ ex-offenders, with many beginning their training for the job while still in prison. Ten percent of Timpson colleagues are recruited from prison.

Sir John convinced the aspiring entrepreneurs in the audience that it makes business sense to build a business plan with kindness and consideration. Sir John has created wealth that cannot be measured by a balance sheet, and he has made money while showing kindness. 

“Doing good is good for business,” he concluded.