Headteacher’s message

If it’s any consolation I am in the same position as you in many respects. Late last week I received a letter from my son’s secondary school that was almost identical to the one we send out (based, as it is, on a Public Health England template). Like ours it did not mention the specifics of cases because no further action was required in response to the letter.

I am lucky to have no one in my household who is clinically vulnerable. I am very well aware that many of you do and that you are having to make difficult decisions which balance the health of those involved against your child’s education. I cannot supersede government advice, but that does not mean that I cannot feel empathy for those who are really struggling to come to terms with the effects of this pandemic.

Every day I remember that I am lucky to have a job: many of my musician friends have not worked for some time and other family members have been laid off or furloughed. That notwithstanding I still find this job stressful from time to time, especially over the last months. On Monday as part of our ‘recovery curriculum’ I spoke with my PSE class about grief, loss and facing adversity. We eventually got into philosophy. Some see philosophy as an academic subject, but I see it as a survival guide for life and a good way to manage stress. On this occasion my Y8s and I considered Stoicism. As you may be aware, the Stoics believed that we have little control over events, but that we can control our response to these same events. This sparked a debate when one young man challenged me saying that, ‘if someone punches me in the nose, I don’t have any choice but to get angry’. Another student countered suggesting that, while it was difficult to manage your emotions in this scenario, it is, technically, possible. He then slightly undermined his own point by getting pretty angry in the discussion which ensued.

I feel that philosophy is more important now for young people than it has ever been.

Despite everything, myself and Mr Cole ensure that every day we get into a number of lessons to support teachers and generally get a feel for the challenges they face. This week we took a deep dive into psychology provision and really enjoyed getting to know the joys and challenges of delivering this curriculum for our students. Elsewhere I happened across some Y11 artists who were creating artist studies (see insert) based on the work of Joel Penkman. I had to leave the lesson after a while as her work is based on food and my stomach was rumbling loudly enough to disrupt the lesson.

And then there were the lessons where the heroic classroom staff endeavoured to teach both actually and virtually at the same time. This is nowhere near as easy as it sounds, as we do not have the technology to allow a teacher’s voice and image to be tracked as they move around. This explains why I watched one teacher resolutely holding a laptop in front of his face for the best part of 100 minutes.

On top of Stoicism it is children who get you through the day. Here are the things which have kept me going this week.

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3. A bunch of year 10 boys who, for no apparent reason, walked towards me down the corridor in slow motion a la Reservoir Dogs. Maddie who announced she was off to the opticians. When I asked why she thought she needed glasses she stared into the middle distance and stammered, ‘who said that?’ Molly, who it turns out, has the same obsession with the film composer John Williams as I do.

Have a great weekend. We are Highfields.