The Value of Traditions
The importance of Loughborough Grammar School’s history and traditions is inescapable. When I arrived in Loughborough, I remember being impressed and intimidated in equal measure by the board listing Headmasters in the entrance to Hodson Hall. I noted immediately that I was only the 35th Headmaster in the school’s now 524 year history, meaning that I would be the ‘new boy’ for many years to come. I also could not help but alight on the name of my predecessor Thomas Mould, who served only one year from 1631 to 1632, and my relief at completing my second year and exceeding his tenure was palpable!
Opposite the board of Headmasters is a list of Head Boys dating back to 1922. Alas, there is only one space remaining for Alex Eveson (who has just been appointed to the post for 2019-20). However, I am determined that the full board will remain alongside the new one required from 2020, so that future generations of boys will continue to pass by and muse what it must have been like to attend Loughborough Grammar School in the 1930s or 60s.
I imagine that most parents are totally unaware of many of the traditions that their sons quickly accept during their LGS careers. It is amazing who easily boys accept them. For example, only Year 13 boys are allowed to walk on the grass in the Quad. This never requires policing: younger pupils would simply not think of abusing the privilege of the oldest boys. The Sixth Formers take their role in perpetuating our traditions very seriously. The Head Boy is the guardian of a large folder containing instructions handed down over more than two decades on his role for the year, including all of the speeches given at Prize Giving. At the Founder’s Dinner (for Year 13 pupils), there is also the tradition that the youngest boy in the year acts as toastmaster. And I would never dare mess with the format of the Leavers’ Assembly on the final day of each Summer Term when we sing the hymn ‘God be with you ‘til we meet again’. Despite this being the only time each year that we sing it, the boys’ volume is impressive as the leavers fight through their tears.
Admittedly, boys’ respect for our traditions doesn’t just happen by osmosis.
Mr Parton, who is of course an Old Loughburian himself, does much to foster Year 7s’ interest in our history through his compulsory tour of the Quad, and by the perpetuation of annual rites of passage such as the Pantomime, Blackpool rugby tour, Year 7 Fête and Pickering trip. Traditions provide boys with an understanding on their place in the continuity of Loughborough Grammar School over its distinguished history. Each year on the final day of Spring Term, all of the pupils from the Foundation senior schools attend the Burton Services in four different churches around Loughborough, where we remember our Founder, Thomas Burton, and the foresight of others who have contributed to what our schools have become. When your sons return for alumni reunions in ten, thirty or fifty years’ time, their lessons will have been forgotten. It will be the memories of these traditions and these unique experiences that will persist.
You may be aware that Mr Weitzel is the Grammar School’s Archivist and that there is a room behind the Library with a treasure trove of historical materials. In order that boys and alumni are better able to engage with our heritage, we have been working in recent months to digitise our archive, and I am delighted that this went live a week ago at www.lgs-heritage.org. We are very grateful to the Old Loughburians’ Association for giving a significant sum to facilitate this process. We have a huge number of materials so the contents of this website are just a start. At present, we have all copies of the Loughburian since the Second World War, whole school photographs dating back to 1892 and a selection of other documents. We are currently in the process of adding Prize Giving programmes and the 1850 contract to build the school!
The ‘Search’ facility is particularly useful, as every mention of a pupil has been entered into an online database. Pupils can therefore amuse themselves by putting their name into the search box to find every time they have been mentioned in the Loughburian. I hope that you might have some time to explore the new digital archive over the Bank Holiday weekend. I must admit that I have spent rather more time than I intended in recent days, deepening my knowledge of the Grammar School’s past!