Dorset, Somerset &amp; Bristol

<figure class="wp-block-image size-full"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" width="1500" height="1000" src="https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/dorsetsomerset/wp-content/uploads/sites/8/2024/04/00-Alastair-Tighe-AGT-landscape-portrait-with-flash.jpg" alt="Alistair Tighe, Wells Cathedral School" class="wp-image-95404" srcset="https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/dorsetsomerset/wp-content/uploads/sites/8/2024/04/00-Alastair-Tighe-AGT-landscape-portrait-with-flash.jpg 1500w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/dorsetsomerset/wp-content/uploads/sites/8/2024/04/00-Alastair-Tighe-AGT-landscape-portrait-with-flash-800x533.jpg 800w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/dorsetsomerset/wp-content/uploads/sites/8/2024/04/00-Alastair-Tighe-AGT-landscape-portrait-with-flash-1000x667.jpg 1000w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/dorsetsomerset/wp-content/uploads/sites/8/2024/04/00-Alastair-Tighe-AGT-landscape-portrait-with-flash-400x267.jpg 400w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/dorsetsomerset/wp-content/uploads/sites/8/2024/04/00-Alastair-Tighe-AGT-landscape-portrait-with-flash-768x512.jpg 768w" sizes="(max-width: 1500px) 100vw, 1500px" /></figure>



How long have you been at the school?



Five and a half years – since September 2018.



30 second elevator pitch for your school – sell it!&nbsp;



Inspired and nurtured&nbsp;by its history and beautiful setting but also forward-thinking and has a &#8216;family feel&#8217;, we have&nbsp;creativity at the heart of our broad curriculum, challenging everyone to be ‘the best they can be’ within a kind and inclusive community.



You’re given £1m, what are you going to spend it on?



Bursaries. We&#8217;re in the process of launching a major campaign to help fund bursaries to support even more pupils of talent to be able to benefit from a Wells’ education.



Describe your own school days



I was fortunate to attend my excellent local primary school before heading to Buckfast Abbey Prep School at the age of eight and subsequently to Downside School as a Music Scholar and Academic Exhibitioner. I was privileged to be taught in institutions which valued academic rigour alongside co-curricular endeavour, and music in particular, which is undoubtedly from where my love of music and the arts stems. One former teacher, Mr Moretti, now teaches maths at Wells and is a colleague; I don’t know who finds that situation the more unnerving!



What was the common theme of your school reports?



Hard-working but to be less wordy in my writing!



Best and worst subject at school?



I loved music and English, and enjoyed history and Latin. Maths and the sciences were not my ‘good friends’!



Where did you go to uni and what did you study?



Cambridge University (Magdalene College). I read English for Part 1, and Theology for Part 2, and also held the Organ Scholarship at the College throughout my undergraduate study.



<figure class="wp-block-image size-full"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" width="1000" height="749" src="https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/dorsetsomerset/wp-content/uploads/sites/8/2024/04/00-MagdaleneCollegeCam_Fotor.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-95409" srcset="https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/dorsetsomerset/wp-content/uploads/sites/8/2024/04/00-MagdaleneCollegeCam_Fotor.jpg 1000w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/dorsetsomerset/wp-content/uploads/sites/8/2024/04/00-MagdaleneCollegeCam_Fotor-800x599.jpg 800w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/dorsetsomerset/wp-content/uploads/sites/8/2024/04/00-MagdaleneCollegeCam_Fotor-400x300.jpg 400w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/dorsetsomerset/wp-content/uploads/sites/8/2024/04/00-MagdaleneCollegeCam_Fotor-768x575.jpg 768w" sizes="(max-width: 1000px) 100vw, 1000px" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Magdalene College Cambridge, Wiki Commons</figcaption></figure>



Highs and lows of student life?



Highs: meeting and becoming friends with some wonderfully interesting and talented people who ‘got’ what I got; performing amazing music repertoire in some stunning venues with very talented people; and conducting the College Choir for the installation of Nelson Mandela as Honorary Fellow. Lows: many late night essay-writing sessions after a concert performance!



If you weren’t a Head, what would you be?



I thought about trying to join the Foreign Office but if I was still in teaching I’d be a Director of Music.



What play, book or film should be on every child’s cultural bucket list?



<figure class="wp-block-image size-full"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" width="1481" height="1950" src="https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/dorsetsomerset/wp-content/uploads/sites/8/2024/04/00-dead-poets-e1714128975271.png" alt="dead poets society" class="wp-image-95277" srcset="https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/dorsetsomerset/wp-content/uploads/sites/8/2024/04/00-dead-poets-e1714128975271.png 1481w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/dorsetsomerset/wp-content/uploads/sites/8/2024/04/00-dead-poets-e1714128975271-608x800.png 608w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/dorsetsomerset/wp-content/uploads/sites/8/2024/04/00-dead-poets-e1714128975271-759x1000.png 759w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/dorsetsomerset/wp-content/uploads/sites/8/2024/04/00-dead-poets-e1714128975271-304x400.png 304w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/dorsetsomerset/wp-content/uploads/sites/8/2024/04/00-dead-poets-e1714128975271-768x1011.png 768w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/dorsetsomerset/wp-content/uploads/sites/8/2024/04/00-dead-poets-e1714128975271-1167x1536.png 1167w" sizes="(max-width: 1481px) 100vw, 1481px" /></figure>



Anything by Shakespeare, The Wind in the Willows and Dead Poets Society.



Who would you like to star as you in a movie of your life?&nbsp;



Given I don’t have a beard presumably that counts Jamie Dornan out? In which case, can I go for Ben Affleck or Paul Rudd?



What’s the best school trip (childhood or current) you’ve ever been on?&nbsp;



A trip when I was a school boy with the school choir to perform on Channel 4’s The Big Breakfast!



Tell us your favourite books – in childhood, uni and now



As a child Roald Dahl’s The BFG, at uni George Elliot’s Middlemarch, now Khaled Hossenini’s The Kite Runner and throughout, Kenneth Grahame’s The Wind in the Willows.



<figure class="wp-block-image size-full"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" width="1500" height="562" src="https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/dorsetsomerset/wp-content/uploads/sites/8/2024/04/alistair-tighe.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-95407" srcset="https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/dorsetsomerset/wp-content/uploads/sites/8/2024/04/alistair-tighe.jpg 1500w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/dorsetsomerset/wp-content/uploads/sites/8/2024/04/alistair-tighe-800x300.jpg 800w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/dorsetsomerset/wp-content/uploads/sites/8/2024/04/alistair-tighe-1000x375.jpg 1000w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/dorsetsomerset/wp-content/uploads/sites/8/2024/04/alistair-tighe-400x150.jpg 400w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/dorsetsomerset/wp-content/uploads/sites/8/2024/04/alistair-tighe-768x288.jpg 768w" sizes="(max-width: 1500px) 100vw, 1500px" /></figure>



If you want to hide from the kids and staff for half an hour, where do you go?&nbsp;&nbsp;



To play with our cocker spaniel, Nimrod.



The song you sing at full volume when everyone’s gone home?



Good Times by R&amp;B band Chic.



What advice would you give to your younger self?



Do more sport.



And your current students?



Be true to yourself, kind to others, and make each day count.



Wells Cathedral School is a day and boarding school with a specialist music school, for boys and girls aged from 2 to 18 years in England&#8217;s smallest city. <a href="https://dorsetsomerset.muddystilettos.co.uk/kids/school-reviews/wells-cathedral-school-wells/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Read our latest review</a> and find out about <a href="https://wells.cathedral.school/openday/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">upcoming open days here. </a>

Head’s Up: Alastair Tighe, Wells Cathedral School, Somerset

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