PHILIP JONES EXPLAINS THE EXTRACURRICULAR CHALLENGE

Philip Jones, recently retired Headmaster of Christ College Brecon

Imagine the scene … after an overnight camp and a 6 am start, we have been up and down Snowdon in good time and in good shape. Now, despite the thick cloud, poor visibility and steady rain we are nearing the top of Cader Idris, nearly halfway through our attempt to climb the Welsh Three Peaks (the third being Pen-y-Fan in the Brecon Beacons) in 24 hours. It is tough going and we keep station by hearing rather than seeing the person a yard or two in front of us. We are a biggish party, 12 pupils and four members of staff interspersed among them. Despite poor conditions morale is high as it has been throughout the day. At the summit cairn, the conditions are truly foul. We huddle for a commemorative – and quick! – photograph before deciding not to retrace our steps down the final tricky 200 feet or so of the ascent and instead take a slightly different bearing on a safer path before re-joining the original route.


We are seduced by the good path and leave it too late to cut across to our original track, each attempt to do so faced by a steep rampart of rock. We keep trying, in poor visibility and in broken country, knowing we should go east but unable to do so. Worse, we have walked off the area of our carefully laminated map extract. Some of the group have taken a tumble. We are not exactly certain where we are. The situation has suddenly turned potentially difficult and we are aware that helicopters couldn’t fly in this weather.


Decision time … we will get off the hill safely and walk downhill. The party is quiet, no-one saying much other than an occasional quip of black humour. Once below the cloud base we see a distant valley, not Talyllyn as we want, but the Dysynni valley, but spirits rise in proportion to the visibility. At last a rough track which we follow for miles, still unable to contact our support minibus because of poor mobile phone reception. Eventually a farmhouse, a land line and we are picked up, driven back to base and dry clothes. Our anticipated descent of one and a half hours has taken nearly four. We won’t be back in Brecon in time to complete Pen-y-Fan. Failure … or is it?


The entire episode epitomises the huge value of extracurricular activities to young people. Firstly, the challenge (in this case twofold), the task itself and raising money for charity. Second, the fun to be had in planning and preparation with pupils and staff poring over maps, pounding up Pen-y-Fan together on practice walks, out of breath, suffering together. Third, the exposure – to voracious, serenity-shattering midges at Capel Curig the night before; to the evocative Everest memorabilia at Pen-y-Gwyrid Hotel, a shared drink and an awareness of Snowdon’s contribution to Everest in 1953; to very testing walking conditions demanding discipline and mutual support; to tensions when the most carefully laid plans go awry and realising that such things happen easily; for some, an element of fear; to critical decision-making
under some pressure. How easy it would have been to have kept trying to make our way east and become uncomfortable (at the very least!) when the tough, correct decision was to get everybody off the hill safely even at the expense of acknowledging the challenge would fail. As one of the boys put it, “it doesn’t matter. The hills will still be there tomorrow.”


Parallels to this episode are part and parcel of all outdoor activities. Not all end disappointingly as our Three Peaks did. Here at Christ College we would be foolish not to take advantage of our glorious location in the Brecon Beacons National Park. With the River Usk alongside the school our novice canoeists have their first experiences in safe water a stone’s throw away before graduating to white water further afield. From the Sports Hall climbing wall, quickly mastered, climbers move on to more testing artificial climbs and then the real thing on the famous faces of the Brecon Beacons or Snowdonia. Sailors begin at Llangorse Lake before moving to greater things. Exactly the same personal growth comes to those who play sport for the school, who share defeats and victories while keeping both in perspective, who find a moment to smile during the fiercest of contests and who look after visitors once the match is over.


The idea of progression, building confidence by mastering ever greater challenges is key. The aspiration is to establish in young boys and girls a willingness to embrace challenge, prepare for it, achieve it with competence and safety, have fun while doing it and ultimately find a deep fulfilment. A little over a month before the end of term a former pupil, Tori James who two years ago walked to the North Pole, aged 23, to raise money for Cancer Research, became the youngest British lady and the first Welsh lady to get to the top of Everest. The school basked in reflected glory and wrote to congratulate her, before getting a reply, “it’s your fault! It started at school with Geography Field Trips and the CCF, and just look where that’s taken me!”


Undoubtedly, the school’s Combined Cadet Force is very important in all of this. It is a point of principle that our winning teams in this year’s Cambrian Patrol, the national CCF/ACF climbing competition and the CADSAAM competition should be coeducational …. and this on merit and not for political correctness. The relationships, not to mention the sense of awe, experienced by all who attend the CCF Easter camp at Tom McLean’s centre, near Mallaig, Scotland, are life-long and character forming. Interdependence and mutual trust become realities, not vague words, as participants in extracurricular activities learn a lot about themselves in the process. Very similar sentiments to these were expressed by Air Chief Marshal Sir Clive Loader, Commanderin- Chief Air Command, when bringing to an end a very successful inspection of Christ College’s CCF during a recent visit.


Perhaps the final word should go to a colleague who greeted me outside the Senior Common Room the morning after our failed expedition. “Headmaster, you look a bit lost. Your house is round the corner on the left”.

Philip Jones was Headmaster of Christ College Brecon for eleven years. He retired in July 2007 after a lifetime in independent boarding schools. He has been succeeded by Mrs Emma Taylor from Dean Close School, Cheltenham.