The Old Diocesan Issue 13 - Magazine - Page 8
Wealth
Who we are and
where we’re going
The new Chairman of the Bishops
Council, Niall Carroll, lays out a shared
vision for the school’s future – an
inspiring message that we encourage
everyone in the Bishops family to read
Photograph of the school gates
by Freddie Child-Villiers (2008S).
B
ishops belongs to a great
many people. To the boys
walking down the Avenue in
the afternoon, and to the families
who entrust the school with their
sons. To the staff who give far more
than any job could reasonably ask.
To Old Diocesans across the world
who still feel a catch in the throat
4 | THE OLD DIOCESAN
at the sight of the mountain. And
to the boys not yet born, who will
one day call this place their own.
It is that shared belonging across
generations that Council exists
to protect.
Neither Council nor the
executive works for a single
season. Council governs, while
the Principal and his team
lead and manage day to day.
Both serve the long-term good
of the whole Bishops community,
and of the boys still to come. This
is the horizon we keep in view,
whatever the passing question.
In late July, I chaired my first
Council meeting, where we
agreed on something simple
but important: a shared account
of who we are and where we are
going. We affirmed the purpose
Bishop Gray gave the school in
1849, expressed today as Inspiring
Individuals, Growing Good Men.
We set a vision: to be one of the
leading Anglican boys’ schools
in the world. And we reaffirmed
the five values meant to guide us
all: courage, humility, integrity,
kindness and respect.
Much of this echoes what I wrote
to the community earlier in the
year. What has changed is that
it is no longer one person’s view,
but the shared position of Council,
which we reached together. For
a community that had felt it was
changing faster than its shared
sense of self, agreeing plainly on
who we are, where we are going
and what we value is where
steadiness begins.
How we go about the work
matters just as much. Council’s
role is to protect the school’s
purpose, set its direction, and
safeguard its values and resources,
then back the Principal and his
staff, who carry the school every
day. The same is asked of all who
hold responsibility, Council and
executive alike: to respect what
we have inherited and build on
its strengths, even as we change
what genuinely needs to change.
