FROM OUR DEPUTY

MR SIMON BIRD, DEPUTY HEAD

FROM OUR DEPUTIES

No-one who sat with a teenager while they tackled the distance learning programme will have any illusions about just how difficult it is to acquire new skills and knowledge remotely. If you’re unconvinced, imagine trying to master calculus, learn to drive, speak Italian, or swim butterfly without having someone by your side talking you through it, gently correcting your mistakes and tailoring the next exercise to both build up your confidence and work on your weaknesses. That we were able to ride the storm of the second national lockdown and still maintain academic momentum was possible only thanks to an extraordinary combined effort between parents, pupils and staff. Never before has the partnership between School and home felt more real. That said, what you really learn at school is almost never what you think you’re learning. The individual nuggets of knowledge in each lesson may be interesting or useful in their own right, but they are very rarely the whole point of the process. Instead they feed into a broader educational purpose, because with the exception of a handful of specialist professions, for most of us the precise mechanics of equation-solving, verb formation, or soil erosion become less important to our adult selves than the self-esteem we have gained from grasping a difficult concept, or knowing we can wrestle sense from complexity. Furthermore, and this has never been more relevant, our studies help us develop the judgment to sift the truth from the competing cacophony of contradiction and conspiracy that assails us on news sites and over social media. In any event, learning — in the classroom sense at least — is only a fraction of what schools are about. Ask a teenager what’s really on their mind at any given point in the school day, and if they’re honest what emerges is a stream of social priorities, personal concerns and private ambitions. Don’t dismiss these: they are as vital a part of their education as anything else. Negotiating the friendship dynamics in the dorm, praying that they have been selected for the right team, dreading the talk they have to give on stage that evening, thinking about their own bodies, thinking about other people’s bodies … this stuff really matters. Even lunch is a minefield: mentally mapping your way around the canteen, calculating in which order to collect salad, pudding, water so as to emerge nonchalantly in the

ONE OF THE GREATEST AIMS Dining Hall at precisely the same EDUCATION SHOULD HAVE IS moment as your friends. Where TO DEVELOP IN OUR PUPILS THE ABILITY TO FIND LIGHT IN DARK to sit, what to talk about? No wonder teenagers sleep all the time, it’s utterly exhausting. But these PLACES daily interactions and confidential musings are the proving ground for the most important elements of education — the development of life-long self-confidence, the acquisition of interpersonal skills, the ability to set yourself challenges, and rise to them. They are a part of the lengthy process that gets pupils to the stage where they feel they belong at any table — kitchen, board, or cabinet — and can talk about anything with anyone. The music recitals, sports fixtures, House evenings, drama productions all have their own inherent value of course, not least because we enjoy them, but as a collective they are the potent educational force that shapes who we are, and who we subsequently become. If getting to grips with the passé composé is hard enough remotely, how much more challenging then to aspire to develop character in a school year beset by absence and restrictions? And yet, the human spirit prevails, and what the pages that follow highlight more than anything else is the boundless inventiveness and positivity of a school community whose energy remained unbowed by pandemic limitations. On the surface this was a year of frustration and false dawns, with the spectres of cancellations, face-masks, bubbles, and self-isolation haunting our everyday lives, but the reality was far, far more affirmative. School life has buzzed with undiminished activity, and more importantly has continued to be characterised by laughter and friendship, the soundtrack of children going about the important business of being children. One of the greatest aims education should have is to develop in our pupils the ability to find light in dark places. This year has brought that ambition into sharp relief and the response has been almost overwhelming. Never before have I been so proud to be part of the Cranleigh community.

DR ANDREA SAXEL, DEPUTY HEAD PASTORAL

Reflecting on my Cranleighan article from 2020, the first thought that entered my mind was, ‘well, that was quite naive of me, wasn’t it?’. I was convinced that the pandemic would have come to an end long before now, yet here we still are.

For Cranleighans, this has been a tough year, and they have struggled at times; the enormity of the impact of this experience should not be underestimated. Every time I have been frustrated by a misjudged action by a pupil, I have reminded myself that the last 18 months or so have amounted to a significant proportion of a Cranleighan’s lifetime so far. In comparison to adults, who have many more years of ‘normality’ in our memory bank from which to draw on, the impact on our young people will have been significant, even when, superficially, they have coped well.

Whilst the pandemic has continued to impact on all of us, it has also facilitated more opportunities for reflection and questioning, particularly in terms of mental health, diversity, inclusivity and tolerance. We continue to raise awareness around mental health issues and we continue to challenge racism, homophobia, sexism and every other form of discrimination and bullying through our PSHE programme and the excellent work carried out by the pupil-led committees of Cranleigh Being, Eco-Group and Alliance. The new group of leaders are proactive and innovative in their approach to tackling intolerance head-on, in order to make Cranleigh the most safe and inclusive school it can be.

The murder of Sarah Everard, coincided with the inception of ‘Everyone’s Invited’, a website dedicated to exposing the extent of sexual harassment, abuse, assault and rape, prevalent amongst school age children, often within their peer group. This has shone a spotlight directly onto schools, particularly independent schools, though this is clearly a wider societal issue. That spotlight has exposed a ‘rape culture’ within schools and in broader society where social attitudes have the effect of normalising or trivialisal assault and abuse. Put simply, this means ‘rape-jokes’, ‘victim-blaming’ and more. Whilst, as adults, we may be horrified to contemplate such terminology, the reality is, as soon as a child has a smartphone, this terminology will soon start to become part of their world, via peers, older friends and social media. The vast majority of school pupils will have heard rape jokes by the age of 13, often with little understanding of what rape actually is, and certainly with no understanding of the short and long-term impact on the victims of such crimes.

The Warwick University rape-chat scandal exposed the fact that even educated young men can easily find themselves in the position where their online ‘banter’ can escalate as they engage in oneupmanship with each other in order make increasingly shocking or ‘funnier’ comments about their female friends and their desire to rape them. The argument that none of them would ever genuinely contemplate harming their friends, and that these are ‘only jokes’, meant to be kept between themselves, simply does not hold up when it comes to rape culture. When rape crimes are normalised or trivialised, it becomes difficult to spot the person within a group with predatory intentions, as everyone else’s comments simply fuel the notion that they are entitled to have sex with a girl or woman without her consent.

These are complex concepts to discuss with young people, particularly our younger year groups; however, we simply don’t have a choice if we want to keep everyone safe from harm.

At Cranleigh, we were fortunate in that we had been working with an external collaborator in this area and had put together a programme to tackle rape culture amongst school age children, as well as teaching them about consent. In a short period of time we delivered age-specific lectures to every child in the School. We followed this up with small in-house conversations with two young external speakers, enabling every child to ask questions in a safe, inclusive space.

These talks highlighted that schools need to be brave when it comes to such sensitive topics. Cranleigh has taught consent through its PSHE programme for many years, However, in these talks we were factual, direct, unambiguous and used language that our pupils understood, rather than use traditional resources that shy away from being direct. These were hard-hitting talks, but I can say with confidence that our pupils now have a much clearer understanding of consent and how to navigate this tricky concept going forward. This will hopefully lead to safer, healthier and more fulfilling relationships for life.

During this period of time, some pupils have asked ‘Why not tackle male mental health?’ This is, of course, a valid question and the answer is that we are tackling this issue, albeit separately. However, I am certain that tackling rape culture and teaching about consent will have a positive effect on male mental health; learning to talk about complex concepts such as these will help young men and young women learn to empathise with each other better, and their relationships will become stronger and healthier. when young men come to talk to me about their mental health issues, they are often accompanied by one of their female friends, who has insisted they seek help. Learning how to communicate better with their female peers now, will in turn make them better friends, partners, husbands and fathers in the future. The impact of this on male mental health can only be a good one.

IN COMPARISON TO ADULTS, WHO HAVE MANY MORE YEARS OF ‘NORMALITY’ IN OUR MEMORY BANK FROM WHICH TO DRAW ON, THE IMPACT ON OUR YOUNG PEOPLE WILL HAVE BEEN SIGNIFICANT, EVEN WHEN, SUPERFICIALLY, THEY HAVE COPED WELL