Focus on Education March 2021 No. 2

I remember a wise colleague telling me when I first became a head that one of the most important things I would do would be appointing new staff.

This time of year is always busy for recruitment in education as we consider timetable needs and seek to replace the valued members of our team who are leaving – for reasons of retirement, promotion or relocation. We are fortunate to attract strong fields and I have been especially heartened to see top graduates training for the profession and now seeking employment.

I often ask young recruits whether it is a love of the subject or a love of working with young people, which is more important and whether this is the first of several careers or a vocation. Passion for our subject is of course vital, as we aim to inspire and to challenge, but it is the enjoyment of working with children and seeing their immense potential, which trumps everything else. And that, for most teachers, is still a vocation.

As a teacher and headmaster, I have been privileged to work with some very gifted and amazing people (both teaching and support staff) who care deeply for those in their care. Never has this been more apparent than during the last year when so much has been asked and so much given. A head can have an exciting vision and all sorts of wonderful ideas, but he or she is wholly reliant on the support and dedication of his or her staff for their realisation. I see my role as enabling the best from the staff, whilst also doing my best for them.

The success of a school depends so much on the quality of relationships within its community: between the staff, at all levels; between the staff and the students; between the students themselves; and with their parents. As staff, we role model those healthy and productive working relationships, and mutually supportive colleagues in turn support their students. Happy staff = happy students is no facile equation.

Whether teachers or support staff, we all share a common goal: to make the school experience as good as it can be for our young people and to give them the best possible start in life. We want them to be world-changers and a force for good! Therefore, I am very grateful to all staff for the way we have gone about testing both on Friday last week and today so that we can ensure a safe return to school for all our community at HGS.

Stay well and safe.

Be kind to yourself and each other.

Dr Bird

Wellbeing Advice

Focus on Education March 2021

We seem to be heading in the right direction! Let’s really hope that those words “cautious” and “irreversible” will be the theme of the next few weeks as different aspects of society gradually re-open.

We are truly delighted that children’s education has been prioritised and that we can welcome all our students back to school next week. Now that we are permitted to conduct some testing before  March 8th, it is exciting to know that our corridors will again be filled with happy chatter and purposeful activity from 8.30am on that Monday.

We do not underestimate how important that moment is. Students (and staff) have risen with impressive resilience and good humour to the challenges, and they have continued to make some excellent academic progress with their teachers via remote learning. However, they long to see their friends, to play team sports again, to make live music with each other and to benefit from some of the spontaneity that is missing when you have continually to mute and unmute (and to remember to do the latter!).

We have done our best to sustain a sense of positive and active community, even whilst apart – as is amply reflected in our Assembly programme, Games programme and other communal events and opportunities. Our students’ well-being is every bit as important as their academic progress, as they will not anyway flourish in their studies without a feeling of self-worth, value and belonging.

So, as we re-open, we shall be very aware that some may be anxious about returning to school after this second long lockdown. It will be really important that students again follow guidance very carefully as we observe social distancing measures wherever possible and carefully consider each other’s needs and feelings.

Please do not hesitate to contact your son or daughter’s Form Tutor if you have any concerns, before or after 8 March. We are keen that the final weeks of term should be as productive and happy as possible.

With the good news about vaccines, blue skies above us, and bulbs beginning to bloom, the outlook is suddenly far rosier and refreshing.

Stay well and safe.

Be kind to yourself and each other.

Dr Bird

An open letter from Education Secretary Gavin Williamson

Please see the following open letter from Education Secretary Gavin Williamson to parents, carers and guardians:

An open letter from Education Secretary Gavin Williamson to parents, carers and guardians – Education in the media (blog.gov.uk)

Focus on Education February 2021 No.3

“I feel I have done nothing, when I am doing everything.” So said a nurse earlier this week as she expressed her guilt over her inability to save lives, despite giving all in her power to do so.

It is now over a year since we grew concerned over the return of our Ski trip to Italy and the links to the outbreak of Covid in Europe.  For most of us, it has been a battle ever since one which, from one day to the next, we have alternately been winning or losing. At the best of times, most of us are not immune to self-doubt or imposter syndrome, especially when we stop to think about the role entrusted to us, either in our work or simply as a responsible parent. Over the past year, however, many of us will have summoned all our hidden reserves of resilience and energy, and we may still have ended up with a feeling of inadequacy, when faced with the enormity of the challenges before us.

Whatever we feel, every effort we make in this marathon does of course make a difference, both for ourselves and for those around us. I said to staff at the beginning of term that this pandemic would clearly have a lasting impact, but that so too would all their efforts on behalf of our students. I have been humbled by their dedication as a team, and by their determination to give of their best – and we have all been proud of the ways in which our students have responded.

I have received some lovely feedback from parents and staff including this summarised snap shot:

“Whilst there hasn’t been much to look forward to during these unpredictable times, we just wanted to share some positive feedback at how well you and the staff at HGS have navigated through it all. When restrictions are eventually lifted, hopefully we can all enjoy happier times being less socially distant, with a good cuppa!”

It was the last bit I particularly appreciated, as I am sure we all long for the day when we can again savour the simple pleasure of sharing a cup of tea with a friend.

In the meantime, I know our students were ready for a break.  As a family, you are unlikely to have had many plans, but I hope that means you were able to take at least some time out simply to relax with one another: “The time to relax is when you don’t have time for it.” (Sydney J Harris)

As the snow melts and disappears until next year and the snowdrops bloom, let us all look forward to the return of spring and an ever-improving, sunnier outlook.

We will be in touch again as soon as we know what the return to school will look like after the Prime Minister’s press conference tonight.

Stay well and safe.

Be kind to yourself and each other.

Dr Bird

Safer Internet Day

Please click here to access some excellent resources and guidance.

Every Little Work Experience helps!

Congratulations to Abdul Zeeshan in Year 10 who recently took part in the Tesco Property virtual work experience programme. Tesco have written to us to recognise Abdul’s fantastic work, dedication and enthusiasm during his placement. Abdul attended a number of workshops and career talks, which helped to develop his employability skills. Tesco were very impressed with Abdul’s work ethic and engagement and wrote to us to say that he is an absolute credit to HGS.

Well done and congratulations Abdul.

 

Focus on Education February 2021 No.2

Everyone a Leader

Leadership currently is more important than ever, and we shall no doubt have our own views about the effectiveness of political leadership in such hugely complex times. I am sure we have also all been fascinated, as well as alarmed, by what we have witnessed in the United States over the last month or so. Leaders the world over have had to navigate uncharted waters and to take responsibility for unfamiliar and critical decisions since last spring. We have all looked for trust, openness and integrity, as well as humility when it has been necessary to react to a new challenge and to nimbly alter course. (How many times have we heard the term ‘U-turn’ over the last tortuous months?)

There is a sense in which we are all leaders, sometimes with a very uncomfortable lack of control over what is going on in the world and in our immediate surrounds. Yet we can all aim to exert control over our reactions and response, and to support others, especially our children.

I know hard our staff and students are working as we continue with Remote Learning. I also know how hard Remote Learning is and what a struggle it can be for everyone involved – students, staff, parents and siblings alike. For a real time example, you should see my house when we are all working from home! I hope our students have enjoyed and fully engaged with their online assemblies, their online Form times and online Games sessions. There have been some excellent events such as the Lockdown Games (House Competition), Get off your screen and workout sessions, Children’s Mental Health Week as well as Walking for Mental and Physical Wellbeing in Lockdown advice and guidance.

Keep going, keep smiling and look up as there is a shared sense of community and the future is not cancelled but it is bright. It is full of hope as better times lie ahead for us all.

Stay well and safe.

Be kind to yourself and each other.

Dr Bird

Cambridge University Success

Our congratulations to Adnaan Ilyas who has received an offer to read History and Politics at King’s College, Cambridge for September 2021. This is a wonderful achievement and is a real testament to Adnaan and his teachers who have all worked extremely hard in these very different times.

Well done!

Focus on Education February 2021: No.1

Suffering and compassion

However hard we try to remain positive and full of hope, we cannot pretend that life is a bundle of laughs currently. Whereas many of us knew few people who had tested positive last spring, the situation has changed enormously and most of us will now know either someone who has sadly died or who has lost a loved one to this horrid disease. Many of the individual tales that lie behind the statistics are heart breaking and we are aware of the trauma and the tragedy to which ITU medical staff are exposed to on a daily basis. We probably have friends and family working in ITU and/or Covid Wards and these tales are real and devastating. My sister-in-law works as a Consultant at New Cross Hospital and the burden is a heavy one for her and her colleagues.

We cannot simply turn off the news and ignore the suffering, nor can we suggest to our children that everything is OK – because we know it isn’t. Wednesday marked Holocaust Memorial Day when we remembered the unspeakable suffering and slaughter of millions. This year’s theme is ‘Be the light in the darkness’. It encourages us to reflect not only on the depths to which humanity can sink, but also on the ways in which individuals and communities resisted that darkness to ‘be the light’ before, during and after genocide. World events currently may leave us feeling helpless, but we have also witnessed the very best of which humanity is capable in many acts of compassion and kindness.

We marked Holocaust Memorial Day through our online assembly and on our own in a moment of silence and of reflection, remembering the suffering of those who have been killed and of those who have survived. Even better, we can find time to educate ourselves more about the stories of those who suffered perhaps by visiting the Holocaust Memorial Day website www.hmd.org.uk. Or we could read a book about other similar experiences like Morris Gleitzman’s ‘Once’ or Anne Frank’s Diary or Tom Palmers ‘After the War’. We can make ourselves aware of the kind of ‘hate- speech’ that still exists today. The type of language designed to make us think of other people as different, or a threat, or as aliens. Being alert to it can help us all to recognise it, to reject it, to challenge it, and to confront it. However, most of all we must never forget. In the words of the Holocaust survivor and poet Elie Wiesel, “If we forget the dead will be killed a second time”.

We are determined that our young people should not only feel a sense of togetherness and belonging despite being separated, but that we also become a kinder and more considerate community – looking after each other and caring for those less fortunate than ourselves. We have often spoken as a society about learning lessons from this nightmare and it is vital that those positive lessons become embedded after the pandemic in the values and actions of our school. We want to ensure that diversity is celebrated and that all our students feel fully included and valued.

As we remain confined to our homes, juggling the demands of work and school with limited opportunities for many of our leisure pursuits, let there be ample kindness and light in your family this weekend.

Stay well and safe. Be kind to yourself and each other.

Dr Bird