Principal’s Message The return to school in March meant that just
It is curious to reflect on the second year of Covid disruption in the life of the School. In many ways, 2020-21 was a more peculiar year than 2019-20. The Michaelmas term 2020 was characterised by bubbles (of pupils) and the difficulty of running much beyond the classroom, and therefore featured neither external competitive matches, nor concerts, nor plays. The UK locked down in November and schools continued in a new normal in which it was more difficult not only to look outwards, but it was also harder for pupils to look upwards or downwards, since they could not interact with those outside their year group (bubble). This meant houserooms were closed (and repurposed in some cases) and pupils were based instead in ‘form rooms’. An exhausted end of the Michaelmas term was succeeded by pre-Christmas announcements about the Lent term, which, after one day, turned into a second lockdown. While our practice in the first lockdown made us (even) slicker about moving education online, we knew with greater clarity and certainty, the second time around, what we would be missing; there was therefore a sense of sadness about the sport, music and drama clubs and societies, and the socialisation that would be foregone. 4 | The Old Berkhamstedian 2022
as nature was coming back to life, so did the School. It was good to be back. The Summer term even brought the freedom to have sports fixtures – and watching cricket on chilly May days on Chesham Fields was joyful! By the end of term, however, rising case numbers meant that we had to cancel Prize Day in the marquee for a second year. The see-saw of freedom (the French have a terrific word for it – ‘déconfinement’) and re-regulation over the year was disorientating. We managed to continue with Duke of Edinburgh almost unchecked, but there have been huge gaps in sports fixtures, and of course in music and drama. The value of some apparently mundane elements of school life have been re-emphasised: pupils being able to talk to pupils of other year groups in their houserooms, and to share their lives with each other. It has been particularly good to have that cross-year group interaction back. Like many organisations, we have seen the use of IT continue to develop much more quickly than we could have predicted. Every pupil in Y5-Y13 (1,550 of them!) has their own Microsoft Surface device. We’ve cut the number of photocopies or printed pages done by the School by 65%. We’ve fallen into an excellent relationship with Hertfordshire Virtual Schools (who oversee the education of ‘looked-after’, i.e. fostered or in-care, children) and we now run booster camps for these at Easter and in the summer. We’ve grown our provision for children from very different socio-economic backgrounds and we now have 26 children in the School on life-changing, 100%+ bursaries thanks to the generosity of the community in contributing to the Anniversary Fund, and the re-directing of the School’s own bursary pot. These pupils come to the School
