page_title: Douglas Robb (schoolmaster)
section_title: Career
hierarchical_section_title: Douglas Robb (schoolmaster) / Career
caption_attribution_description: English: Colour postcard published c. 1920 of the Gresham's School, Holt, Main Building, including Big School, completed and opened 1903.
context_page_description: Douglas Robert Kenneth Robb is an English schoolmaster who is currently headmaster of Gresham's School. Before that, he was a housemaster at Oundle School and then head of Oswestry School.
context_section_description: Robb began his teaching career in Zimbabwe, teaching Economics at Prince Edward School, Harare, from 1994 to 1996. After a severe motorcycling accident in Harare, which led to sepsis, he returned to Britain and was rugby coach at Fettes College in Scotland from 1996 to 1997. He then spent a year at the Moray House School of Education, where he gained a Postgraduate Certificate in Education in Economics, and taught Economics at Loughborough Grammar School for two years. Following this Robb spent ten years at Oundle School, where he taught Government and Politics from 2000 to 2010, and serving as Housemaster of Bramston House for eight of those years. While at Oundle, he enrolled at the University of Cambridge and gained the degree of Master of Education in 2009. In 2010 he was appointed as Headmaster of Oswestry School in Shropshire, and in September 2014 transferred as head to Gresham's School, Holt, Norfolk.
  In February 2018, Robb came to national attention with a blog in which he was critical of millennials, their sense of entitlement, and their lack of grit. He added later "We try as a school not to molly-coddle our students". The Times made a headline out of his comment "If your child is a lazy toerag then I’m going to tell them". His comments aroused widespread criticism, including from former pupils, who responded: "Negative stereotypes of millennials are two a penny and you don’t have to look far to find them [it is] disheartening for anyone to hear, especially from their headteacher." Another former student claimed, "As Gresham’s does cost £34,000-a-year, the headmaster of the boarding school may simply be in a privileged bubble".
  At the event marking the end of the Gresham's School academic year 2017–2018, Robb welcomed two old boys of the school as special guests, England rugby stars Tom and Ben Youngs, and the widow of mountaineer Tom Bourdillon, who opened a new outdoor activity centre, with a standard armed forces assault course, a zip wire, abseiling facilities, and a climbing tower.
  Robb married his wife Lucinda shortly after his return from Africa and with her has three children. His reported interests are travel, shooting, skiing, golf, and team and racquet sports.
caption: Gresham’s School
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