Scottish Catholic Observer

Matthew Bartlett took over at the prestigious Jesuit private school at the end of October and told the SCO that he was already looking at how to create more bursaries for students from less privileged backgrounds.

“We can’t be sitting on our hill looking down on the city,” he said. “Not that we have done, but we need to ask how can we contribute to the life of the city and share benefits that we have.

“We already offer greater bursary provision than any other independent school in Glasgow but I’m committed to increasing that. I think there’s almost no limit to what we could hope to achieve.”

Mr Bartlett said he would be looking to engage with school alumni to get financial support for more bursaries and trying to raise awareness of the school’s bursary programme in schools across Glasgow.

Headhunted for the role at St Aloysius’ after more than a quarter century of distinguished service in schools in England, he said he was hugely excited about the job as it brought together the two most important things in his life: “my vocation as a teacher, leader, and my faith.”

Although moving to St Aloysius’ from the ‘outstanding’ Dover Grammar School for Girls, one of the top state schools in England, he himself was the first member of his Midlands family to attend university.

“I was fortunate to go to sixth-form college where they were aspirational, as they say,” he said. “And someone suggested I try for Cambridge. I’d been thinking ‘I wonder if I’ll go to university’ at that point, as it wasn’t the done thing in my family, but I did, and I got in. It reminds me that you should never undersell yourself.”

After studying history at Cambridge, he briefly became an accountant at the prestigious PricewaterhouseCoopers, but did not last.

“I didn’t not enjoy it,” he said. “But I started to think is this what I want to do for the next 30, 40 years? So I retrained as teacher and it changed my life.”

He began as a history teacher, and he still teaches the subject.

“History has taught me a huge amount about how people behave, what motivates them, and as a head I deal with that every day,” he said.

“I keep teaching because the most important thing that happens in any school is what happens in the classroom.

“As a head, it’s my job to keep all the bureaucracy and the rest of it away from the teachers as much as possible.”

Although he’s new to the Scottish education system, he’s optimistic about it.

“The broader Scottish education system is still highly regarded worldwide but it’s in a time of transition,” he said. “One of the advantages Scotland has is that being smaller we can change more quickly and I think all schools have to make sure their voices are heard and they’re not servants of policy but helping develop it.”

Among the things he’s most excited about is the school’s £7.5 million sports complex, which is due to open next year.

“It is regrettable there was a policy of selling off playing fields [in the state sector],” he said. “Because one of the great strengths of independent education is that we field goodness knows how many teams each Saturday as they allow young people to build up skills and learn to communicate.

“Also if we’re honest about the health of people in this area, there is a real need for PE, sport and exercise to transform people’s physical wellbeing because it’s still a big issue in many parts of the city.”

He’s even more excited about the power of the school’s Catholic ethos to inspire its pupils.

“You see it in the quality of human relationships here. The way in which we interact with each other, the respect for people. It’s about trying to shape individuals to give something back.

“That’s ultimately how the success of the school will be judged, not by getting the best exam result but inspiring people to be better because you have a vision for something greater.”

[email protected]

—This story ran in full in the November 11 edition print of the SCO, available in parishes.