“Patience is the best remedy for every trouble.”
Plautus
Seventy one percent. Good as an exam result and even better as a return on an investment made. Over the last few months our young investors club have been tracking stocks and shares, scrutinising performance and ensuring that they have been making the very best of their fictional funds. The winning team managed to increase their initial stake by a whopping 71%. At a time when we are being told that world economies are bouncing back it is very good indeed to see our team reading the market so very well. Down in Nursery this week it was also exciting to see the planting of beans both in soil and hydroponically and what a treat to see these seeds grow with the correct levels of care. In both cases important lessons to be learned about patience, scrutiny and prudence.
Next week we will start to see a slow and steady resumption of more normal school activity. A few extra-curricular activities that we have not seen for a while will creep back allowing for days to be a little more enjoyable and varied. This is perhaps the first sign of green shoots, slight encouragement that we will soon enough be able to go back to our normal rich and varied school life. Whilst the Nursery beans may well have grown into fine strong plants by the time we are fully operational, this week has perhaps given us some cause for hope. As the term progresses our levels of activity will go up and down, rather like the investment club’s shares, but overall progress is clearly back towards normality. As we start to speak of activity weeks, trips, after school sport and even more music our optimism builds. All this needs to be tempered with an eye to still stringent rules to keep everyone safe.
If one lesson has been learned during the course of this year it is probably around patience. In a world where attention spans are getting ever shorter our young people have had to develop a fund of this valuable resource or at least learn to tolerate waiting. They have had to deal with uncertainty, suspense and restrictions on their activities, some will have found new outlets and others will simply be itching to be out there once again. Education rewards those who are ready to apply themselves with a view to making wise investments of both time and effort. It will be very interesting indeed to see how this generation who have learned through adversity will use these remarkable qualities. Great achievements will no doubt come their way, their determination and resilience will serve them well and will perhaps benefit not just themselves but others, and some of them will also know how to grow some really nice beans.
Nicholas Hammond
Headmaster
