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Richard will be stepping down from his role as Vice Principal in August. We want to take this opportunity to thank Richard for his hard work and dedication to the role.

Experienced, measured, a dedicated teacher and Senior Leader, Richard is a person of deep integrity. The CLC Leadership Team has benefited from his balanced, clarifying and calming presence and leadership for over eleven years, latterly including the navigating of all that the pandemic brought.

In 2014, Richard took on greater ‘whole school’ responsibilities that those of his VP predecessors, including that of DSL, and his role has continued to evolve in response to the needs of College over the past eleven years. We have been sincerely grateful for his expertise, adaptability and willingness to take on new responsibilities during this period. Since his commencement in role, Richard has built on his considerable experience elsewhere, and has brought his intelligence, his imagination, his excellent organisation skills and his eye for balancing the fine detail with the ‘big picture’ to almost every aspect of College life.

In addition to his qualifications and credentials (NPQH included), he has the gift of being able to see and grasp intuitively the interconnectedness of different aspects of school activity, see problems coming, and take action. He has an easy manner with parents, pupils, and colleagues. He is courteous and thoughtful, judging what battles to fight on any particular day. At times, particularly in disciplinary matters, Richard’s has required the highest skills in diplomacy, communication, support and firmness.

Pupils know his standards are high and consistent. His Prayers are always interesting, and bring clearly moral messages and insights to different generations of audience without contrivance but with impact and appeal. His dry humour is gentle but pithy, managing to reflect the ironies and fallibilities of human beings with affection, and with little tolerance for the fake, the pompous or the superficial.

He is a reflective practitioner in all that he does. His teaching of Biology has been a constant theme throughout his tenure, and his pupils have paid tribute to his knowledge and his supportive approach in the classroom. He has remained fully up to date in his teaching methods as we have made the digital transition and is highly regarded as a classroom teacher.

In short, Richard has shown loyalty, patience, trust and stamina in the face of a great deal of ambitious work to take the College forward and we are very pleased that he has decided to remain at College to support this transition and to maintain continuity. Richard will continue with strategic project work in support of the Leadership Team and bringing his extensive experience of College to a wide portfolio which will include the responsibilities of Head of LC1 and LC2, EVC and as a Deputy DSL.