“When you grow up in a place, you always think it’s mundane. Then you travel around and live in different places, and you realise that you’ve got it the wrong way ‘round.” – Irvine Welsh
This is always a breathless time of the school year. Each day is packed and this week hasn’t lived up to the description of March as coming in like a lion and leaving like a lamb. Make no mistake, the pupils of the BSP are roaring though March and there is no stopping them!
Many in the community will have taken the opportunity to see the wonderful Year 6 production of “The Wrong Way Round” performed with exceptional confidence and a wonderful celebration of singing, speech and dance. Among the laughs and catchy tunes was a key message that will not have been lost on the performers who were asking the audience to think beyond the self and to consider how the world can be made a better place for all of us.
In the Senior School we started the week with Fairtrade cake and ended with the My Freedom Day 5km run. To some extent Fairtrade is about challenging the norms of a certain type of economic activity, it’s about equity and fair rewards. Our 5km run was not an exercise in coming in first but a chance for us to enjoy the surroundings in which we work as spring begins to take hold and to enjoy being with friends or challenging oneself to achieve at the best individual level. In both cases working out what success looks like individual by individual.
This week we’ve also celebrated the achievements of sports players with two of our netballers winning national honours for France and our rugby players impressing many with their skills. Particular congratulations to our first ladies’ rugby team who were runners-up at the tournament in the Netherlands, not at all bad for their second tournament. We are equally proud of the way in which our Senior basketballers performed in Valencia against schools for whom basketball is their main sport.
In schools there is a real danger of getting things the wrong way round. This is of course possible when we divide performance into good and bad. Most performance, most behaviour is on a continuum, moving towards good or even better. Only one can be first across the line, but all can meet a personal challenge and reflect upon a good performance. On Wednesday, Year 7 had their second Parents’ Evening of the year, it’s a time when we can report on progress made and areas where more progress could be made. It is an opportunity to define what success means for the rest of the year as much as it is a time to discuss what has gone before. Failure and success are, as Kipling noted, imposters. If we can encourage all who learn here to be honest in their self-reflection and ambitious in their goal setting, then we will have successful young people. In all their actions this week our pupils have demonstrated that they know how to get things the right way round.
Nicholas Hammond
Headmaster
