Thoughts from the year

Every couple of years I am lucky enough to be invited to attend an Old Cliftonian reunion hosted overseas.

We have met in Hong Kong, Singapore, the United States, and Israel. During Easter 2022 we were at last able to have the reunion in New York, postponed from 2020. While I was there I visited a local school and the drive back to the city took me through Times Square. As we crawled through traffic, my driver pointed up to one of the massive display boards showing a picture of Kim Kardashian and she asked me if the Kardashians were as big in the UK as they were in the US. Now, I have to accept that if you were putting together a pub quiz team and wanted someone to sparkle on popular culture, I might not be best to have at the top of your ‘phone-a-friend’ list. So I made some mumbling noises and our chat moved on.

What I did remember about Kim Kardashian was that she entered Forbes’ billionaires list last year. In fact, that worth has now almost doubled on the back of a career as an influencer, with over 300 million followers, almost equal in number to the entire population of the United States. The rise of the influencer started some 10 years ago and the total influencer marketing business is a 14 billion dollar industry with a dramatic ability to shape people’s decisions and purchasing choices.

In the end, we are all influenced by those around us. I decided not to buy tickets at the Everyman Cinema to watch the latest James Bond film, No Time to Die, influenced by Mr Simmons telling me that both he and his daughter fell asleep and missed the last hour. It is worth pausing here as this may be the only time in history when a comparison is drawn between Mr Simmons and Kim Kardashian.

As leavers, all of the Upper Sixth will have been influenced by their parents and their home life, by Housemasters and Housemistresses and by life at this school, the values of this place, interactions with teachers, coaches and, of course, each other. This has been a remarkable year, not because it has been extraordinary in the way that the preceding years have been with periods of lockdown, but because we have had the opportunity to see afresh and be influenced by all that we once thought of as regular parts of the school year. I was delighted to see so many students take the new opportunity of completing an Extended Project Qualification, ranging from Amelia Campbell’s project to research, design and build her own surfboard, to Eric Ding who undertook a project on whether artificial intelligence could replace teachers. Thankfully, he concluded that we might be necessary.

In sport, we had a year with some historic firsts. In April, Katie Dolman became the first girl ever to play for the first XI cricket side since Clifton’s earliest fixture against Sherborne in 1865. Her success and the amazing achievement of our Under 15 girls cricketers coming third at Lord’s in a competition that started with 900 other sides will have influenced other girls to take up the sport. In March, we had the first ever girls’ sevens tournament on the Close. We saw history being made when, following an amazing tackle by Kei Ki Chau, Tilly Edwards ran the length of the pitch to become the first girl ever to score a try on BS1, the main rugby pitch. Those girls, supported by coaching from staff and boys in the 1st XV, have already sufficiently influenced others for us to have had the first ever inter-House girls’ sevens tournament, which was won by Worcester House. Those of us lucky enough to be there for the boys’ 1st XV game away at Wellington watched that wonderful drop goal by Sam Worsley in the last few minutes to secure victory. Who could not be influenced by the feeling of achievement against the odds and the spirit of camaraderie both on the pitch and among the Clifton supporters? What a wonderful afternoon that was!

I have marvelled not only at the talent and engagement in sport but also in music, drama and throughout the cocurriculum. I think of Naomi Chung’s performance as soloist in Bach’s Concerto in D minor with an orchestra filled with so many brilliant musicians. We have had superb House plays and a wonderful week of The Addams Family musical back in Michaelmas 2021. I could not have been more impressed with those who volunteered to help out at the Year 5, 6 and 7 triathlon charity event, where we hosted some 700 pupils from the region. And in the middle of the morning Alex Warren came hobbling towards me in his socks to let me know that the Ten Tors team had returned, having completed their 45mile hike with the second best time in their group. They had done 35 miles the first day and finished off the last 10 miles on day two in just under two and a half hours. On family walks I usually estimate about one and a half miles an hour and I am only carrying myself - although admittedly there is more of me now than there was when I was in the Sixth Form!

These are, of course, just a few of the many highlights that have lit up my year and you will all have your own. As the leavers of 2022, you move on with a range of capabilities - skills you have learnt, facts you have crammed for exams, some of which may not quite have made it into the exam room and some of which will stay with you for life. You also leave with a set of behaviours and it is these behaviours that will really shape the future of your lives. I hope that as you journey into your future you influence the behaviours of others. Aim, then, to influence those around you in terms of their character, to be inclusive, to be encouraging and supportive, and above all else, to be kind.

Dr Tim Greene Head of College