Silver-tongued pupils given ten seconds to talk their way out of trouble Mr Elliott was appointed head of Perse Upper School in 2008. It charges full fees of around £13,700 a year. Famous old boys at the school - once a male-only bastion - include Pink Floyd guitarist David Gilmour, critic FR Leavis and theatre director Sir Peter Hall. Mr Elliott is already known for counter-intuitive ideas about education, such as his claim that children need a measure of boredom, as this sparks their creativity and encourages the development of emotional intelligence and empathy. He has also previously urged students to embrace failure, saying that while it was "virtually impossible" to fail public exams, what he described as "productive failure" should in fact be central to learning. The head has said that more needed to be done to teach young people to deal with life's "ups and downs" and that by failing at school, students can "develop a sense of perspective to help them deal with disappointments in the adult world."