Thought for the Day - Opportunity

Thought for the Day Thursday 10 September 2020 Opportunity For the benefit of new boys joining the School, every Thursday assembly ends with a short Thought for the Day. This is a reflective address delivered by a member of the Upper Sixth or by a member of staff, with the intention of providing the opportunity to pause for thought and reflection around the topic of the week. I always afford myself the privilege of giving the first Thought for the Day of the school year. Our theme this week is opportunity and so I thought I would consider this in the light of the lockdown which has affected us all.

We have just been through one of the most extraordinary periods of time in our modern history. At the start of the new school year this time last year, none of us could have predicted that the future would have been so unusual and that our lives would have been unavoidably disrupted for so long. Our vocabulary has widened enormously. Coronavirus, Covid, R-rate and furlough were pretty much unknown and unspoken words before February of this year, and the Oxford English Dictionary has a plethora of new entries for its next edition: covidiot (someone who ignores social distancing advice), quaranteams (online teams created during lockdown) and, my favourite, Blursday (an unspecified day because of lockdown’s disorientating effect on time).

The lockdown was an understandable response to an international pandemic crisis. The Coronavirus outbreak was something of an unknown and, when faced with such a dangerous entity, it was natural for the Government to follow the lead of other countries in enforcing such draconian isolation measures, although whether this was done soon enough is for debate at a later stage. But there is no denying that the Lockdown has been injurious in so many respects. The economy has stalled, we are in recession, the job market is a very challenging one and the Government has racked up enormous levels of debt through the furlough support scheme.

Although the RGS managed to maintain a decent level of education for students while they were on lockdown, this has not been the case for the vast majority of school children throughout the country. Latest analysis suggests that school children are at least three months and in many cases up to six months behind in their studies and in their academic progress. The health of the nation has deteriorated significantly. The inability to socialise with others has had a major effect on the mental health, particularly of young people, the physical health of the population who have been cooped up in their houses for such a long period of time has worsened and, with hospitals focusing on Covid-19 cases, treatments for other diseases such as cancer and heart disease have taken a back seat. Our freedoms have been curtailed and our focus on other extremely important events such as Brexit and climate change has been lost to a great extent.

It is very easy to look back on the past five months with one’s head in one’s hands. But it is important to recognise the positives which have been associated with the Lockdown.

The most important is that it has saved lives. Our hospitals have not been overwhelmed and the spread of the Coronavirus seems to have been controlled. Although the easing of lockdown has seen a rise in cases, the numbers of people becoming seriously ill is currently at a very low level. And we hope that, with the Government’s new social distancing regulations, that trend will continue as we go from autumn into winter. Pollution levels dropped dramatically. I was able to go out cycling much more during the lockdown and what a pleasure that was. There were so few cars on even the busiest roads – I have a photo of the M25 taken from a bridge near Wisley in which the motorway is completely free of traffic. And it stayed that way from quite a few minutes. It was magical, less traffic means less pollution – it was a pleasure to cycle through fresh air again.

Social cohesion, community spirit and acts of charity increased hugely. Who would have thought that a 99-year-old man would raise over 30 million pounds for NHS charities? Now I know that it was the media storm behind Sir Captain Tom which made this possible but he was one of so many who wanted to do their bit during lockdown in support of others.

Manning food banks, sewing scrubs for health professionals, making PPE equipment, sometimes just checking in with elderly neighbours.

Our theme for the week is opportunity. The lockdown gave us all plenty of opportunities, both personally and as a community. The School was able to embrace new technology in the way we delivered lessons, making us as future proof as we can possibly be should we be required to enter a localised lockdown again. Normally such a seismic shift in the way we educate takes months or even years to come into existence. We had to do it within days – it was a remarkable feat and I hope you appreciate the extraordinary skill and efforts of your teachers in making it happen. We had to find new ways of interacting together during our isolation both in school-directed events or in terms of personal friendships. The rendition of Bach’s double violin concerto played by RGS musicians in their homes was remarkable.

Virtual visits to care homes did huge amounts of good to residents who have been affected worse than any other group in the country.

Lockdown also afforded us that precious commodity, time. We no longer had to dash to catch a train, or run to join the lunch queue, or collect our teaching equipment ready for dash to the other side of School. Life was a little calmer. We had time to share with our families, time to talk and, I guess, time to argue on occasions, but having that time together has been a privilege. We had time to do those things we have always wanted to do but couldn’t because of our normally busy lifestyles. You may have seen that Dr Batchelar has been teaching himself the piano, but so many people have found the time to engage in hobbies or to do those jobs which they had been putting off.

Whatever your thoughts about the lockdown, it has changed our lives; it has changed the way we view our usual freedoms and it has given us opportunities which we wouldn’t normally have had.

Our Bible passage said, ‘Be careful how you live, not as unwise but as wise, making the most of every opportunity’. And here we are at the start of a new school year. I would urge you

all to accept that things haven’t been ideal for us all over the past few months, and it’s not ideal now - it’s been hard on everyone, but we should be to be grateful for the opportunities which the lockdown has given us. And, in a sense, that appreciation of those things which we could or couldn’t do during our isolation should give us the momentum to grasp every opportunity that we can over the next school year.

Such a lot is on offer at the RGS - I always say that if you leave the School with great GCSE and A Level results but have not been involved in the wider life of the School then you have missed out. Now that we have experienced a time when we have missed out, when we have been severely restricted in what we could do, let us make the most of our new freedom and take every opportunity we can to try new experiences, to engage, to contribute and to make our lives and that of others, richer as a result.

Time is precious – let’s not waste it.

Dr JM Cox Headmaster