After Harrow

Good examination results widen a pupil’s choice of university but, in the context of a lifetime, they do not determine success. This is why, along with a number of other independent schools, Harrow withdrew from the league tables in 2012.

As a School with 400 years of history, our ambitions for Harrovians can take the long view: what sort of friend, colleague, husband or father will this boy be? Will he live a life of learning, leadership, service and personal fulfilment, in his youth, middle-age and later years too? Is the world a better place because he is part of it?

While many of these attributes are difficult to measure, for most Harrovians the first big step after School is a university career. Virtually all of our boys take up places at selective institutions, including Oxbridge and the Ivy League: we believe these destinations speak for themselves.

And what of later life? We continue to produce young men who go on to be leaders in their chosen professions and of good influence in the world, taking inspiration from those who have gone before them.

On Anteros, the statue on Piccadilly Circus dedicated to the great 19th-century reformer and Old Harrovian, the 7th Earl of Shaftesbury, the inscription reads, ‘…during a public life of half a century he devoted the influence of his station, the strong sympathies of his heart and the great powers of his mind to honouring God by serving his fellow men. An example to his order, a blessing to this people and a name to be by them ever gratefully remembered.’

Inspired by great men of the past such as this, the Harrovians of today work towards how they themselves will be remembered. Confidence, creativity and strength of character, the ability to work in a team, to lead and to serve others are the things that really count in life: they are the criteria through which a Harrovian is measured.