Dorset, Somerset &amp; Bristol

<figure class="wp-block-image size-full"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" width="1500" height="1424" src="https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/dorsetsomerset/wp-content/uploads/sites/8/2024/10/00-bath-academy-Tim-Naylor-Recent-Photo.jpg" alt="bath-academy-Tim-Naylor principal Bath somerset" class="wp-image-101688" srcset="https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/dorsetsomerset/wp-content/uploads/sites/8/2024/10/00-bath-academy-Tim-Naylor-Recent-Photo.jpg 1500w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/dorsetsomerset/wp-content/uploads/sites/8/2024/10/00-bath-academy-Tim-Naylor-Recent-Photo-800x759.jpg 800w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/dorsetsomerset/wp-content/uploads/sites/8/2024/10/00-bath-academy-Tim-Naylor-Recent-Photo-1000x949.jpg 1000w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/dorsetsomerset/wp-content/uploads/sites/8/2024/10/00-bath-academy-Tim-Naylor-Recent-Photo-400x380.jpg 400w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/dorsetsomerset/wp-content/uploads/sites/8/2024/10/00-bath-academy-Tim-Naylor-Recent-Photo-768x729.jpg 768w" sizes="(max-width: 1500px) 100vw, 1500px" /></figure>



How long you have been at the school?



15 years this year.



What are the top 3 things to tackle in your inbox? 



Parents of prospective students’ queries forwarded on from the admissions department, sales pitches, and spam!



30 second elevator pitch for your school – sell it! 



We are proud of each and every student’s determination and drive for success, and this year’s results reflect their can-do attitude and the quality of our tailored teaching. Last September (Class of 2024) an impressive 85% of our students gained places at their first choice university, and 54% gained places at Russell Group universities.



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



Jason Statham, Ryan Gosling or Anthony Hopkins.



You’ve been given a £1m donation for the school, what will you spend it on? 



Another boarding house in another beautiful Georgian building not far from our other central boarding house.



Describe your own childhood school days



I was lucky enough to go to Ampleforth – a boarding school on the North Yorkshire Moors run by Benedictine monks (the community was originally at Westminster Abbey before they were sent into exile under Queen Elizabeth I). My earliest memory of Ampleforth was being dropped off on a dark, dank and windswept night with my trunk to be greeted by the temporary housemaster, David Morland, a 32-year-old monk and Oxford philosopher, who chain-smoked roll-ups.



What was the common theme of your school reports? 



I recently found a stash of reports that my parents had saved. The consistent refrain was ‘Tim gets all the answers right but works at half the speed required.’ Back then ‘slow-processing’ didn’t exist.



Favourite/worst teachers at your childhood school and why? 



The teachers who were most passionate when delivering their subjects were the more favoured. Probably why Maths was never my favourite subject! The best quality of a good teacher is their ability to encourage. Students learn from teachers they like and their influence is far-reaching. We should aim to encourage our students, helping them to move from a ‘felt minus’ to a ‘felt plus’ so they feel adequate to perform the tasks of life and make their own personal contribution to society.



Best and worst subject at school? 



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English Literature and Religious Studies were my favourite, by far, and Maths was my worst, alas. Literature excited me as it dealt with people’s lives. I avidly read Albert Camus and Andre Gide and any other mildly subversive writers I could find.



Where did you study after school?



Bristol University, before completing further studies in Philosophy and Theology in Italy, as well postgraduate qualifications in Psychology at Royal Holloway, University of London, City University and Applied Educational Leadership and Management at the Institute of Education, University of London.



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



I have been lucky enough to have multiple careers, following 10 years of monastic life, caring for ill parents necessitated a return to civilian life. A group of career psychologists convinced me to consider teaching so I then dipped a tentative toe in the water by initially lecturing to undergraduates in Forensic Psychology. I loved teaching from the very first day and I have now been in Education for 30+ years.



Describe what’s on your work desk… 



A laptop, a cup of coffee and a plan of important tasks.



And what’s in the top drawer? 



My favourite fountain pen, notepad, and photos of previous Bath Academy events like our latest Summer Ball. There’s an excellent photo of me with a cow hat on my head – don’t ask.



Tell us your favourite book



Thomas Merton was a big school hero of mine. After school at Oakham he was sent down from Cambridge in the &#8217;30s for getting a local girl pregnant and banished to the USA by his family. Aspiring to be a novelist, he graduated from Columbia, fell in with a group of Catholic anarchists in New York, became a Trappist monk and a best-selling writer. His biography [The Seven Storey Mountain] inspired a whole post-war generation.



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



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The English Patient by Michael Ondaatje.



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



The verdant and historic Queen Square is five metre’s walk from our front door, and Royal Victoria Park is five minute’s walk in the other direction. Both full of trees, birdsong, and fresh air.



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



Velvet Underground – Stephanie Says. I’ve spent more hours than I care to admit listening to Lou Reed and The Velvet Underground.



What advice would you give to your younger self? 



Don’t sweat the small things/dance more!



And your current students? 



We look not for academic brilliance, but for the burning desire to learn in our prospective students. In finding an environment that provides acceptance, encouragement and respect, students’ feelings often change to optimism and motivation if they have felt unsupported previously, and in turn, this helps them to make a creative contribution to the world in which we live. So, in summation, your story isn’t already written and can be changed at any point – work hard and you’ll reap the rewards! One of my favourite all time quotes is: ‘The trouble with most therapy is that it helps you feel better. But you don’t get better. You have to back it up with: Action, Action, Action.’ – Albert Ellis







<a href="https://www.bathacademy.co.uk/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Bath Academy</a> is an independent Sixth Form college housed in a Grade 1 listed Georgian townhouse in the centre of Bath. It offers a highly personalised education for those wanting to do A Levels, university foundation programmes, and for aspiring medics. <a href="https://dorsetsomerset.muddystilettos.co.uk/kids/school-reviews/bath-academy-bath/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Read our review.</a> Every day’s an <a href="https://www.bathacademy.co.uk/admissions/open-days/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Open Day</a> at Bath Academy. Contact them to find out more, <a href="mailto:info@bathacademy.co.uk">info@bathacademy.co.uk</a>.

Head’s Up: Muddy meets Tim Naylor, Head of Bath Academy

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