ALUMNI PROFILE – MICK FENWICK – HEADTEACHER AT STOKESLEY SCHOOL AND SIXTH FORM COLLEGE
Our ‘Alumni and Friends’ community is incredibly important to us, forming a group of people who have diverged from their time at Richmond School into a fascinatingly wide range of career and life paths. They often provide inspiration for our current students, as well as an opportunity for other alumni to look back and reminisce about their times at Richmond School. Some time ago, we had the chance to talk to Mick Fenwick, Headteacher at Stokesley School and Sixth Form College, one of the Areté Learning Trust schools, about his time as a student at Richmond. A smooth path as a student and teacher into the higher levels of educational senior leadership? Not at all! Read on to find out more…
RS: You were at Richmond School from 1992 to 1999. Tell us about some memories of your time there – formative events, teachers, trips. What was it like? What were you like as a student?
MF: I remember standing up in an assembly at the end of my time at Richmond Methodist Primary School, telling people I was looking forward to all the different subjects we’d be studying at Richmond. Then saying I was nervous about playing rugby! Funnily enough, playing rugby became a significant part of my life all the way up to Year 11 at Richmond.
Lower School was great. It almost felt like going back in time because of the historic buildings – I loved history. It felt quite grand – posh even! There are really strong memories of some of the activities there. One that stands out is being taught the ‘Thriller’ dance by PE teacher Alan Woodbridge. The whole year group had been taught it and the experience of everyone lying down and opening their coffins before standing up and doing the dance was something I won’t forget!
As I moved up to the main site in Year 8, my two main passions were history and sport. Teacher Carl Watts was hugely influential here, being both my history teacher and rugby coach. It was a year group with some big characters and I remember the sense of pride I had when I was awarded rugby player of the year in Year 9. I also remember Carl Watts trying to get some strength in my legs by putting Adam Amos on my back and getting me to carry him up ‘The Dip’!
RS: So, from being fearful of playing rugby at the end of Year 6 to player of the year in Year 9!
MF: It was Carl Watts’ coaching. He was so committed and passionate. So generous with his time and so dedicated to getting to know his players and to develop them as young people. I could say the same about many of the staff at Richmond – it’s what made my time there so positive. It felt like a community – a family.
RS: What about later on – Years 10 and 11?
MF: I took German – the legendary Mrs Garnett was a big influence there. History with Carl Watts, geography with another character – Mr Edmondson. He had a dance move – the Mississippi Flip – that he saved until we’d finished our GCSEs. That was quite a sight! DT, then business studies with Mrs Wardle – she recently commented that I used to talk too much to the girl I sat next to – Judith Gedye.
I did well in my GCSEs – mainly As and Bs. It was a time of sporting transition for me as well. My mum and dad were very involved in Richmond sport – my dad as a footballer and mum as a hockey and cricket player. With talk of the new astroturf at the school, my mum suggested I gave hockey a go. Tony Potter and Fred Ashcroft became big influences, giving up so much time for us to play hockey at weekends. I played first team hockey with TP all the way up until I left for university.
Things weren’t so easy at home, though. My dad lost his business because of a big contractor going bust and we ended up having to move out of the family home into rented accommodation. It was about this time – Year 10 / 11 – that Dave Crane started to have an influence in my life.
RS: You’ve mentioned the word legend before – Dave had such a huge influence on so many people’s lives.
MF: Absolutely. He was such an important figure to me – I recently wrote to Lesley, his wife, after his funeral. I also remember sending him a copy of the press release I wrote after being made deputy headteacher at Malton School. I wrote extensively about the part he had played in my success and wanted him to know.
A strong memory is of Dave getting up on stage with us in a bright orange wig to dance to YMCA at the Sixth Form Christmas celebration. I’d organised a performance with a group of mates – Richard Jefferson, Duncan Alexander, Andrew Shipley. There’s still a video that I had converted from VHS from our final year with Richard, Duncan, Dave and our new recruits Norm Hunter and Michael Bastow (Ed: see link at the end). Dave’s sense of fun was just fantastic.
Dave also played a part in introducing me to another aspect of my life that’s so important to me nowadays – the outdoors. He nominated me for a three week outward bound course at the end of Year 10. I was in quite a difficult place at that time and I think Dave recognised that. The course gave a me a love of the outdoors, as well as the resilience to finish my GCSEs.
There were some amazing people around me at that time, giving me the help I needed to get through OK. Dave Crane especially, but my form tutor Chris Thompson and many other staff were brilliant too. I was definitely ready for the Sixth Form.
That’s where things went wrong…
RS: Ah. OK. I wasn’t expecting that!
MF: I chose to study history, maths and PE, but I found I was quite quickly out of my depth in maths. I was working as a lifeguard at Richmond pool with some people who were a bit older than me – their influence maybe pulled me away from school a bit. It was an accumulation of lots of things – losing the family home and the issues with my dad’s business made family life unsettled. A good friend Duncan had been diagnosed with cancer – he sadly died, actually – we planted a tree in his memory at the back of the Sixth Form. Effectively I went off the rails.
I was still trying to do positive things in the Sixth Form though, for example organising the year book. Despite this I was denied the chance to go for Head Boy. In retrospect it was the right decision because I wasn’t pulling my weight academically, but at the time it really affected me. I dropped maths and my attendance tailed off. In the end I was projected a D in PE and an E in history. I was given an ultimatum quite late on in Sixth Form and decided to try to change things. I still loved history – Grahame Berry and Carl Watts were my teachers, though Carl left at the end of Year 12. It didn’t help that I was a bit of a storyteller – I tended to write my history essays as stories. I ended up with a D in history. I managed to turn PE around though – I achieved an A. I was pleased not to have let down Al Woodbridge and Chris Thompson who had been such influential figures to me as PE teacher and form tutor. So, I left Sixth Form with 14 UCAS points – my options were a bit limited!
RS: So, what happened next?
MF: I’d done some work experience in Year 10 with Johnathan Fry, a financial adviser up on the Gallowfields Trading Estate. He employed me over that summer and I developed an interest and skills in web design and IT. It gave me an alternative route, though ever since I started at Richmond I had wanted to be a PE teacher.
After much discussion with my parents we decided that IT and computing was the better route, so I ended up at Sheffield Hallam University studying Computer Networks and Technology. At the end of the first week, I looked at one of the PowerPoint slides with images of memory chips and CPUs and just said: “This isn’t me – I’ve made a big mistake.” I then defaulted to what I’d done during my A Levels and found lots of different ways of avoiding something I didn’t enjoy. I worked at a bar – Berlin’s – people used to go there before going to the Gatecrasher club . I worked there so much, they offered to put me on a bar managers course and manage a bar in Mexborough! I basically stopped going to lectures, though I did manage to leave Sheffield with the first year’s credits. Another ultimatum – this time from my parents – work out what you want to do, or come home and get a job. We talked things through and I got a place at De Montfort University in Bedford, through clearing, to study on a new four year teaching qualification. This was a real commitment – no second subject and teaching from the very start. Four years to become a PE teacher.
RS: A fresh start doing something you’d always wanted to do…
MF: Well no, actually. I moved down to Bedford and immediately felt very isolated. I didn’t get into halls so I shared a house from the start with people I didn’t know. I went to the lectures but wasn’t really engaged. I didn’t make many friends because I’d done my fresher’s year the year before. I started working as a lifeguard again, which took me away from the course. In the third year I started to realise I had to make this work, so I did end up graduating, but with a 2:2 – not great for a PE teacher. In retrospect I hadn’t enjoyed the academic side of the course, but had always loved the actual teaching – I did placements in some really challenging schools. I’d coasted through up to here, though – not applied myself – all the way since my A Levels.
After I graduated, I felt I wasn’t ready to go home, so I got a job at Towers School in Ashford, Kent. I had two really good years there. I learned to organise myself, I became a qualified gymnastics coach and things got a bit more positive. After those two years I felt like I wanted to come back up north to settle down a bit.
I started work at Thirsk school. Straight away it felt like home. I was coming over to Richmond School for fixtures and seeing staff that I had fond memories of – Dave Clarke and Richard Meacher, amongst many others.
Down south, educational technology was ahead of where it was at Thirsk. I commented on this fact so often that I eventually became the ICT Development Coordinator at the school, rolling out IT systems to help with attendance monitoring and helping to decrease staff workload. My year at Sheffield opened doors – I taught a bit of IT as well as PE and started to gain some responsibility – as deputy subject lead and with the Development Coordinator role.
I applied for the ‘Leading from the Middle’ management scheme, where one of the leaders was Jim Jack, ex-head at Richmond – small world! Something clicked with me about leadership here. Looking back, it had always been there – I’d always wanted to be the captain of the rugby and hockey teams, and to lead things as a Sixth Form student. Building teams and managing change started to really fascinate me – the scheme set me off on the journey I’m on now!
RS: So, senior leadership quite quickly?
MF: Yes. I applied for an Assistant Headship in Hartlepool. They were rebuilding the school and wanted someone to manage the ICT infrastructure and lead the learning strategies. My then head of department said that I could apply but he doubted that I’d get shortlisted. The phone call telling him I’d got the job wasn’t easy! He was and still is a great head of PE. I don’t think he liked seeing the IT and management side of things take me away from PE, but that was the direction I wanted to head in.
I worked in Hartlepool for eight years. I took on the curriculum, the timetable – I became acting SENCO. I also completed my NPQH.
RS: Did you have ambitions to be a Headteacher at this point?
MF: Yes, I think I did. When I left the school in Ashford the Headteacher, Malcolm Ramsey, said in his speech: “This young man will be an assistant head within five years.” He was right. I was there within three years – I was 28. I wasn’t ready. My head of department was right, really. I hadn’t been a head of subject and had very little experience. It was timing. They wanted someone young with fresh ideas. I had the confidence and was in the right place at the right time.
Hartlepool was a great place to learn how to be a leader. It was a challenging school with some amazing people – students and staff. It opened me up to my own journey and made me realise that my A Levels and my degree weren’t representative of my potential. Looking back at those times niggled at me. It made me want to prove to myself and to my parents that I was capable of more than what I had done in Sixth Form and at university. It set up a drive in me – to try and push myself further in leadership.
RS: So, definitely on a path into higher senior leadership. Bring us up to date…
MF: I applied for numerous deputy head posts. I came close on a few occasions, but eventually a post came up at a school in Malton. As I was being shown around by the Head, it was obvious there was something special about the place. He knew the name of every student we passed. He seemed to be the type of leader, with the same values and ethos and vision, that I wanted to be. I really wanted that job!
I had the flu during the two-day interview. I got home at the end and just went straight to bed – I was shattered. I was woken by the phone call offering me the job, then fell asleep again. I had to wait until I received the confirmation email before I believed it – I genuinely thought I’d dreamt the phone call!
That was the start of seven years at Malton as Deputy Head – responsible for the quality of education and the operational running of the school. It was fabulous – seven of the best years of my life. As well as the management side, I was able to use my Mountain Leader qualification and Duke of Edinburgh experience to take thousands of students through D of E. My family was growing up – three children with my wife Jenny, an art teacher who I’d met at Thirsk. So many brilliant things happened there.
Eventually, Rob Williams, the Head at Malton, said that a Master’s degree might be a way of increasing my chances of moving on and gaining a headship. Finally, I saw this as the opportunity to prove what I was capable of. I hadn’t given my parents the opportunity to come and see me graduate and now I had that chance. I’m pleased to say I have just received my final grade and achieved a distinction in my Master’s degree – an MA in Education from Leeds University.
Rob was and still is a fantastic Headteacher. He showed me that a compassionate, calm, methodical, values-driven way of leading really was possible and was the best way to run a school.
RS: And then Stokesley?
MF: Yes, exactly! Almost full circle, Richmond and Stokesley being in the same trust. Becoming the Head of a North Yorkshire secondary school was genuinely exciting, having had such a positive and affirming experience at Richmond – even in the slightly darker times in Sixth Form – I always knew I was cared for and well supported. To have the opportunity to give that kind of experience to thousands of young people in the Stokesley community is the thing that drives me on – all rooted in those values that Richmond instilled.
Thank you to Mick for being so candid and detailed about his journey to becoming Headteacher at Stokesley. A real insight into a not-entirely-smooth path to senior leadership as well as a genuine account of the influence teachers can have on the lives of young people as they progress through their time at school.
To see the 1998 performance of YMCA, click on the link below. Remember, this was before mobile phones, recorded using a giant, shoulder mounted VHS video tape recorder!