5 minute read
Headmaster's Welcome
H E A D M A S T E R ' S W E L C O M E
In 2021-2022, Reading School has renewed its commitment to developing its efforts to evidence, showcase and promote the work taking place that underpins our school’s ethos and values. The Reading Way, which is characterised by a high-performance culture, a sense of belonging and a focus on partnerships has seen a resurgence as school life returns to relative normality. Indeed, opportunities to return to working together, benefitting from school trips, taking part in enrichment activities, along with contributing to the school and wider community have been very much welcomed and celebrated. Furthermore, local partnerships have been an area of development and focus to contribute to refreshed opportunities that enable organisational flourishing. Significantly, our partnerships have included our closest neighbours, the Royal Berkshire Hospital, who share history and heritage with our school. Our efforts to work alongside the hospital have developed since the pandemic when we hosted an ‘RBH Village’. This saw hospital staff being able to sleep, shower and eat on a specially designed campus on our school field providing key support during a challenging time. Reading School's partnership and support was recognised during the CARE Awards ceremony held in May 2022 at Reading Town Hall. The partnership between the hospital and school has continued to develop during this past year and has seen several joint events along with an exciting development that will see the school playing a part in a new Health and Wellbeing Centre being opened by the hospital on Craven Road. Further examples of partnerships that have been nurtured since January 2022 include: Connect Reading – becoming a member of a local organisation that brings the public, corporate and third sector together, to improve the local community, environment and economy. Berkshire Vision – following our school welcoming our first visually impaired student this September 2022, we have partnered with Berkshire Vision in order to co-host community events to benefit partially sighted children. The start of the partnership was marked with an art exhibition of art created by visually impaired artists in July 2022 which saw Mayors from across Berkshire and members of the local community come together to meet with partially sighted artists and explore their experiences of creating art with limited vision. University of Reading – creating new partnerships alongside the University’s Community Relations Manager, which has seen the school contribute to community sports events, benefit from guest speakers delivering lectures and a support service for Reading School’s Languages students in order to enrich their language skills.
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CreativeScrum – by partnering with a creative agency, our English corridor has been transformed to provide the whole school community with an inspirational English-themed space that contributes to a sense of belonging, learning and pride.
The Abbey School – by collaborating alongside a local independent girls’ school, we have been able to deliver joint 6th Form events that have contributed to the personal, social, emotional and health development of students from both schools. After September 2022, the partnership will develop its scope by planning for a joint social enterprise project between the schools and Henley Business School.
Furthermore, partnerships that have seen work between students, staff, and parents within the school have witnessed a renewed focus on the areas of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion along with Environmental Social Governance. A heightened awareness of social issues and diversity has seen several projects being delivered since January 2022 which have included cultural, religious, environmental and ethical events that benefit the school and its students. Thus, we seek to build upon partnerships with parents and the Reading Foundation to support families and young people from Ukraine. In addition, we are excited to work with Go Perform and the True Athlete project to develop integrity with impact. The 2022 work of the Society Office, the Community Relations Office, the Reading Foundation and Future Stories Community Enterprise symbolises our scaled commitment to partnerships.
The internal positive partnerships between our staff, alumni, current students, both day and boarding are key to future success and continuing good relations embedded through our traditional House system, co-curricular activities, electives, Floreat and Future Stories programme. Boarding is certainly at the core of the Reading School family and adds so much value to our institution. We have 87 boarders in South House and East Wing, supported by a superb set of staff. Integrity and community are two of the school’s values and undoubtedly our boarders put these in to action this year through the work of their Charity Committee. The support from the Reading Foundation, the ORA and the RSPA and governance are complemented and extended by external partnerships. Crucially, we seek to renew our commitment to being outward-facing beyond the local place and in 2022-2023, look forward to working further with the International Boys’ School Coalition and School for Tomorrow led by Dr Phil Cummins as well as our partner schools in Europe and Africa. A school of the future must bring alive its values and ethos while sharing with its internal and external communities, what these can look like. This edition of Floreat Redingensis seeks to paint a picture of what an outward-facing and high-achieving school and community can look like.
Excellence can be found anywhere. None of us are born excellent. It is earned through disciplined effort and character building. It requires grit, passion, lifelong learning, and commitment. What kind of excellence a person develops is an individual journey, it may be found in the classroom, on the pitch, or beyond. Thus, we cast our net wide for talented people and build methods to help every member of our community express their excellence. Lessons in character, leadership and culture flow both ways between Reading School and our valued partners.
Through partnership development, we aim to cultivate a purpose in every Reading School person. Arguably it is not just about winning on the pitch, in the exam room or classroom, or winning for yourself. Rather it is concerned with using success to give back to society and the community that nurtured you. Indeed, it is about using success to create a positive legacy. Importantly it is about expecting to invest in building platforms for others to launch their own future stories. We regularly see examples of the extraordinary capabilities, character, and courage of human beings, both superstars and unsung heroes, and Reading School helps us see those exemplars. Being a member of the Reading School community makes us proud of each other, and creates joy, solidarity, wellbeing, belonging, and connection. When we share inspirational and aspirational stories of teamwork and the human spirit, of the exceptional journeys to leadership, success, and giving back that Reading School people can experience through partnerships, relationships, and community, we are also sharing stories of who we all are at our best.
