Boarding pupils up in arms over corporate logo
Boys protest against the ‘modernising’ headmaster who replaced coat of arms and oversaw master exodus
FOR the headmaster of one of the country’s leading boarding schools, the last day of term should be a time to relax and look forward to the summer break.
But not so for John Moule, the head of the £38,000-a-year Radley College, who faced a full-scale pupil rebellion prompted by complaints that he is tearing up the school’s traditions by replacing its coat of arms with a modern “corporate” logo.
While Mr Moule, 47 – known as the college Warden – gave a speech to pupils in the grounds of the Oxfordshire boarding school last Friday, a plane flew overhead with a banner bearing the legend: “Make Radley great again”. Boys in their final year at the school had chipped in to raise £700 to pay for the pilot, aircraft and banner in a final act of revolt against Mr Moule.
“He was brought in as a moderniser… but he has made some unpopular and drastic changes in the past few years,” a source close to the school told The Daily Telegraph.
“He has completely done away with the school’s crest and its Latin motto and decided that they need to have a new logo, as part of a corporatestyle rebranding. I think it is his idea of modernising – ‘We must have a logo’. But the motto and crest were deeply important to the school.” The college motto, “Sicut Serpentes, Sicut Columbae”, meaning “Be ye wise as serpents, and harmless as doves”, is from Matthew 10:16 and adorns the centre of the crest. The new logo takes just one element of the crest – the cross keys – featured as a reminder that the school is dedicated to St Peter.
Mr Moule made his “vision” the centrepiece of his plans to modernise Radley College by expanding its pupil intake to include “an increased number of boys from different backgrounds, boys with different outlooks and experiences, from different social, cultural and economic circumstances”.
As part of the changes, the school’s entry system is being overhauled, provoking concern about the future of the traditional “list” system, where parents registering their child at birth for Radley College are guaranteed a place.
Another reason for pupil dislike of Mr Moule’s changes is the “exodus” under his reign of well-liked teachers – “popular members of staff most of whom were quirky and old-schoolstyle masters”. Mr Moule has also been accused of presiding over “repeated bad press” since his arrival in 2014. Last summer, Radley College was caught up in an exam “cheating” scandal after a whistleblower alleged that pupils’ work had been altered by a teacher.
The incident was the latest in a series of damaging disclosures concerning exam maladministration at leading independent schools, which saw two senior academics at Eton and Winchester College suspended for leaking exam questions ahead of forthcoming papers. Radley College was found to have committed “technical” breaches in its GCSE art course after being investigated three times following complaints. In the wake of the investigation, Radley brought in invigilators to oversee future exams. In 2016, the school was at the centre of a sex scandal after a married history teacher was shamed by a love rival who suspected he had been conducting an affair with his wife, a head of department.
Richard Jackson was said to have discovered that his 41-year-old wife, Theresa, then head of history, had been cheating on him with Richard Greed, 53, a former housemaster who is also head of rugby. Keen to exact his revenge, the cuckolded husband sneaked into the school’s main building, Radley Hall, and smashed all but a single bottle of Mr Greed’s prized wine collection, which was stored in the cellar.
Mr Moule, who was educated at a comprehensive school in Telford and is married with three children, was previously headmaster of Bedford School, a £32,000-a-year all-boys’ boarding school. Radley College declined to comment.
‘He has made some unpopular and drastic changes’