Just an ordinary man
It’s books and languages for the current headmaster of Nicosia’s English School
There is an old fashioned peace and quiet in the 1930s house that goes with the job of headmaster at Nicosia’s English School. It’s a lovely house made of golden stone with a pillared portico that wouldn’t look out of place in a Cotswold village. It is reminiscent of a country vicarage with that comfortable shabbiness that makes you want to curl up on a sofa with a book. Indeed, a number of previous heads have been men of the cloth.
For Stuart Haggett MA, the current head, the day starts early at 6am. He is a man of habit. It’s his daily ritual to potter to the kitchen at break of day, brew his tea, and, as he has for the last thirty years, take a cuppa to his wife Joy.
The pleasure for him here in Cyprus is the view and the weather. He says he can’t help but feel content when looking at a blue sky and the line of distant mountains across the school’s lush gardens. A time to reflect before the noise and hubbub of the day.
There are not many who can boast, as he can in his long career, that apart from a short period of eighteen months, he has always been able to walk or cycle to work. Stuart has always been a teacher and he still loves it. The walk to his office must be barely 100 paces and he’ll be at his desk by 7am.
Times have moved on from the days when the school day would begin each morning with a traditional assembly, singing hymns from Ancient and Modern, but there is still an assembly at the school at 7.45 a couple of days a week. This is not the religious affair it once was. There is a sensitivity now to the bi-communalism and multi-faith of the students. The school actively recruits students from both sides of the Green Line and a bus brings Turkish Cypriots from the crossing point each day. There is still a prayer but it is one that highlights this inclusivity and looks to broader horizons. Stuart will take time to address the pupils for five minutes. His main message to young people is: “Follow your own path and be true to yourself”.
Having studied French and German at Cambridge in the 1960s he still has a continuing love affair with French. He is one of those rare breed of headteachers who continues to gain pleasure from working at the chalkface. Or as it now is, the whiteboard. He obviously still gains his greatest satisfaction from teaching his French AS class.
Mornings will often include meetings with students. His philosophy is that the school should be a community and his door open to anyone who needs him. He believes that children need structure to their lives. Its something he imposes on himself too. No breakfast, just coffee breaks until 2pm for his first meal of the day. He worries about his level of fitness and his waistline.
The main school day finishes at 1.30pm. Haggett thinks it is an advantage to be able to teach students in the mornings when they are at their freshest. His afternoon will be spent relaxing, reading, resting until the second part of the day begins at 4pm with The English Institute. That part of the school focuses on the language skills required for success. Language has an important place in Stuart’s world and he wishes that childen would read more.
He loves reading and has recently finished We Need to Talk About Kevin by Lionel Schriver. He said this book raised important issues for anyone involved in education. It is a tale of a boy who kills his classmates and his mother’s anguish trying to understand her role in producing this “monster”.
He found the book disturbing and challenging but it reinforced in him the belief that children should not go unchallenged over their behaviour, that they need guidance and stability in their lives to succeed, and above all they need a sense of purpose. He has a strong belief in the family but he admits that in his own life – he gained a scholarship at the age of 11 to a boarding school and had to live away from his parents – it was school that had the deepest influence on his future career and academic achievement. It took him out of a small village in Wiltshire and expanded his horizons both socially and educationally.
Unless he has a board meeting or the inevitable cocktail party Haggett’s day will finish around 6pm. He likes nothing better then to sit on the upstairs terrace of the house, watching the sun set over the sounds and sights of the city with a gin and tonic in his hand. A city that will contain many past pupils and many more to come. It is the pleasure of teaching to know that sometimes you can make a difference. Stuart is modest about this but he clearly cares deeply for the futures of his students. Sometimes in these afternoons old students will return to chat and talk of their lives, discuss their UCAS forms, their plans for the future.
His favourite evening will be a quiet supper, listening to Vivaldi, catching up on the cricket scores, and in bed, he hopes, by 10pm. He still finds the Cypriot habit of eating and partying late difficult. He sleeps well but not after a heavy meal late at night. He is a man of simple pleasures and routine. As he found out when he once had a psychometric test done on him, the assessor told him, “you are a disappointingly normal person”. Haggett would be very pleased to be described that, he enjoys being an ordinary man.
