Over recent weeks, I have caught up at Open Days, Community Events and wider pastures with a host of former pupils,, and we’ve had some really good conversations. What’s surprised me is that whilst I am more than keen to discover what they are doing now, and how their own parents are doing, their interest always returns to “How’s the school doing?” Given the inability for any of us to insulate what we do from social media, and my own preference to use a host of communication channels too, I get very few questions about the ‘retirement’ I’ve never had. In short, this former pupil and my fellow forebears of the current school remain fascinated by how school is doing, and almost universally that is attributed to the start they made at Claires Court on their subsequent educational journey to fame, fortune and favour. I jest of course, but there remains a huge amount of truth in #ItStartedAtCC.

The thing about Open Events is that I genuinely have no idea who I am actually going to meet and talk to, though at least that’s probably narrowed down by the likelihood of the adult concerned living locally. What social media more generally offers is a digital meeting space, where for example with LinkedIn, I am likely to bump into rather more because the visiting distance across the ether can be pretty infinite. So what follows is a mix of in-person or virtual meets, and I am always deeply grateful that the adults concerned are almost certainly of the view that ‘I will remember them’. The point about schools in general, and Claires Court in particular, is that we exist because fundamental to everything we do is the academic mission we serve for the parents of the children they place with us. The clue is in my title too, “Academic Principal”, and that does govern my working/waking hours (are they really any different/), so here goes..

Professor Jonathan Trevor

Saïd Business School

University of Oxford

I first met Jonathan Trevor in 1983, he was only 7 and in Year 2. His mother was a teacher locally and as Jonathan moved through from Junior to Senior school, so a shy young learner became both more confident and accomplished. Jonathan left us at the end of Year 11 (S3 as it was known in 1993) just as we were acquiring Maidenhead College, and before our own Sixth Form opened in 1994. Move on 30 years, and he is now Associate Dean for Practice and Affiliates, and Professor of Management Practice, Saïd Business School, University of Oxford. He teaches on international executive education programmes and the Oxford MBA, Management Diplomas, and Executive MBA. He’s a published author too, and his track record of study includes a Master’s degree from Warwick, additional Masters studies at Université Toulouse and MIT, his PhD whilst at Cambridge and work experiences including some heavy shifting in the city, army supply chain at Sandhurst and was 2022 Shimomura Fellow at the Development Bank of Japan, Tokyo. And all this pretty much started when Jonathan studied Commerce GCSE at Claires Court, with my brother Hugh and Mike Miller – who knew such a subject existed and could inspire one of so many to enter ‘trade’ – how very unfashionable in 1993!

Gemma Giles

Head of Innovation at Sainsburys

Gemma Giles joined Claires Court for her secondary education from Juniper Hill primary school, and was one of the first students to study Food Technology at A level, joining Sheffield Hallam University in 2010, graduating with 1st Class honours. Gemma has been the Head of Innovation at Sainsbury’s for the past 3 years, and during the time I have known her, she has never resisted a challenge, be that performing arts with Jackie Palmer, working as a swimming instructor in our own Holiday Club – her school CV says it all “Competed at ISA national level in cross country, swimming, netball and athletics. Also represented the school in rowing, hockey, cricket and biathlon. Captained the swim team. Deputy Head Girl for the senior school”. The lesson to learn here is that A level students in England are no longer permitted in the state sector to study Food & Nutrition/Food Technology. In one of the mind-boggling reforms led by Michael Gove, when he took over as Education Secretary in 2010, was to ban this ‘soft subject’, it’s thought a misaligned afford to force students to study Chemistry instead, to keep the labs full at University. The UK still leads the world in this area of creativity, and Gemma is a shining example that sometimes, the subject studied opens up pathways you could never have considered beforehand.

Dawa Balogun

Legal Counsel

When the Reverend Tunde Balogun and family first moved into Ray Mill Road East, they had arrived into the country to ‘plant a new church’, which thrives now in Uxbridge. Their community chose to support the boys’ education at Claires Court, and their oldest, Dawalola joined us directly into Year 7 for his secondary and sixth form education. I still recall his mother, Toyin looking at me with steel in her eyes: “Mr Wilding, we know he is good at sport – but he is with you to study hard!” Dawa won an academic scholarship to study in the USA at Sport Management & Business Bachelors degree at Georgia Southern University in 2017, his second degree being back at Brunel University London studying law (LLB/JD Hons) in 2020. Dawa has been using his legal knowledge in his role as Legal In-House Counsel at The Kingsborough Centre for almost three years, but he is best known for his amazing Kix football academy in Uxbridge. Whilst Boris had become PM, and was busy proroguing Parliament, Dawa persuaded the local MP to visit his project and witness at first hand how to engage very young, underprivileged children through sport. When asked how on earth he had managed to prioritise the Prime Minister’s attention at the time, Dawa’s response was priceless “How did I do it? By God’s grace. #GottaBeAGeniusGottaBeExtraordinary”

My penultimate #ItStartedAtCC could be as ever one of hundreds, but I’m choosing Emma Sparks, a founding student and the only girl in our entry cohort of 17 into the Sixth Form in 1994. Emma studied Music A level with us, and left behind the Sparks Music Trophy on her departure, a Speech Day award to recognise the most talented musical student of the year. Whilst with us for her secondary school education for 7 years,  Emma played, sang, danced and did everything backstage as well, and since then she has remained in the business ever since. Her first two degrees were Music based at Goldsmiths, initially BMus and then MA in Arts Administration and Cultural policy (2004), before tweaking that a little more at Henley Management College with a PgDip in Applied Management in 2012. The cup shown above is indeed the Sparks Trophy, and I really do hope Emma is able to come back to see the Sixth Form she helped found, with ten times the Sixth Form numbers, and where both A level Music and A level Music Tech are now offered. The show below is testament to the incredibly well established Arts & Music scene at Claires Court, it being this week’s “Showtime” Autumn production 2024.

And finally, let’s close with rising singing star, Josh Roberts. I taught Josh’s dad, Piers in the 1980s, our first ever international rugby player (Holland) and perhaps the school’s greatest fan. Josh’s mum, Katie joined the teaching team at Junior Boys, It’s fair to say that Josh himself had amazing sports skills too, but those were not the drivers in his time rising up through secondary school, nor what enabled him to gain AAB at A levels in Art Photography, Music Tech and Drama. Josh chose to pursue a Career Musician degree at Falmouth University, graduating in 2023 and launching his first single at that time. Through his last five  years at school, Josh chose to play in public, busking at our various fireworks and fete events and plying his trade, learning how to entertain. It’s fair to say that, given that you need to take the chances when you can, Josh is doing just that, and as the advert below highlights, he’s playing live tonight in Guildford, and of course we wish him every success – 

#ItStartedAtCC.

There are literally hundreds of success stories such as these, the first 5 in a new book I am writing to cover how best to describe the successful outcomes for so many from our school. Some stories can’t yet be told, where adult men and women are working for the government in roles to keep our country safe, and those are probably examples of the highest award, when service above self applies.