Stephen Borthwick (schoolmaster)

Stephen Robert Borthwick FRSA (23 September 1951 - 15 December 2020) was an English schoolmaster, successively head of Aldenham School and Epsom College, after teaching at Rugby, Bloxham, Marlborough, and Bishop's Stortford College.
He was a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and at the time of his death was chairman of the Diocesan Board of Education of Hereford.
Life
Borthwick was born at Windsor on 23 September 1951, the son of Sydney Borthwick. He was educated at a grammar school in Surrey and at the University College of Wales, Bangor, where he took a degree in physics, having also studied the history and philosophy of science. From there, he joined Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, in 1973.
In 1974, he married Glynis Francis in Brecknockshire.
After teaching physics at Rugby and Bloxham Schools, Borthwick became head of the physics and technology department at Marlborough College and then deputy head of Bishop's Stortford College. His first headship was at Aldenham,
In September 2002, as a headmaster, Borthwick was highly critical of the standard of marking by the OCR Examinations Board, commenting to The Independent: "We had 170 pupils taking A-levels this year and we've had to put in 236 remark requests. Of those, 183 were with OCR. In March 2005, he challenged an Ofsted inspection of his school, not accepting it as a fair and accurate representation of the facts. Asked by The Sunday Times in October 2007 "Should we support city academies?", Borthwick's reply was "not yet", as establishing a new city academy would be a diversion, and he had to give priority to the children at his own school. In 2009, The Daily Telegraph quoted him on the benefits of rugby, when his school hosted the finals of the National Schools Rugby Tournament.
While still in post at Epsom, Borthwick championed both co-education and links with state schools, and Epsom College worked closely with Lambeth Academy. He was also influential in the creation of Epsom College Malaysia. Borthwick announced the project in December 2009, stating: "A high calibre project team has been put in place to oversee the establishment of this exciting new venture for us." Planned to open in 2012, the new school in Kuala Lumpur would follow a British curriculum and teach about 900 children between the ages of 11 and 18, mostly boarders. In 2010, Borthwick said it was planned to employ teaching staff mostly from the United Kingdom.
In 2010, some universities announced that A-Level grades given to school students resitting exams would be ignored, and Borthwick replied in The Sunday Times that he might now advise pupils against applying to study medicine.
Borthwick was elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts In 2010, he said in an interview that if he had not had a career in education, he might have been an acoustic engineer. and in 2012 he retired from the school to the Wye Valley,

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