“The lessons from the peace process are clear; whatever life throws at us, our individual responses will be all the stronger for working together and sharing the load.”
Queen Elizabeth II
We live in a world that often appears to be ever more individualised. To some extent schools are part of this move to the personal above the communal, our older pupils are currently taking public exams, an exercise in individual performance if ever there was one. The pressure on their shoulders is significant in these high stakes tests which can define the range of opportunities that are available to them in the future. All indications suggest that our pupils have prepared effectively and have been taught well, the results will not be known until late in the summer.
Others have been focusing on community rather than individuality. This week I have been fortunate to spendtime with Year 8 in the Alps where we have had great fun clambering up mountains, rafting white water and taking in the scenery from atop a horse. Year 6, Year 7 and Year 9 have been doing similar exciting activities. Our adventure trips provide a genuine opportunity for young people to find out that there is more in them than they think. Many have faced down fear, others have pushed themselves harder than ever before. Perhaps more significant is that all of the pupils have had to live communally, have had to share, and have had to work as a team.
We are often told that major companies now value character and the ability to work with others as much as individual brilliance. These adventure experiences give pupils the chance to work out for themselves how effective they are in a team and how well they cope living with others. From tasks as mundane as cleaning the dormitory or stacking the plates, to helping each other over tricky parts of a via ferrata, they will have found out a good deal about themselves. Better to do this now than wait until they are in a more challenging or less supported environment. It may only have been a week, but it will perhaps, represent a significant element in their school career, a time in which skills and behaviours have been learned that will carry them to future successes.
In the week when we remember the courage and comradeship of those who landed on D Day it is perhaps a time in which we are right to consider how we can work together to achieve our goals. It has a been busy and rewarding. Once we are back and have time to catch up on sleep we will reflect on all that we have learned and put it to use in our lives in school and beyond.
Nicholas Hammond
Headmaster
