Please see the following article on the BBC Website regarding the A Level and GCSE Exams for Summer 2022:

Exams: Covid grade inflation to be wound back over two years – BBC News

Please also see the link below from the DfE and Ofqual which outlines the specific changes to next Summer’s A Level and GCSE Exams:

Proposed changes to the assessment of GCSEs, AS and A levels in 2022 (publishing.service.gov.uk)

Some worrying news for you today, I’m afraid. At some stage this week, possibly as early as tomorrow, the United States is going to be invaded. By aliens. They are massing right now, as I write. Trillions of them. Not millions, trillions. Preparing for an initial assault on 15 States, from Georgia to Washington, and targeting the capital, New York. Worryingly for America, there is absolutely no defence against these hordes.

Not that they haven’t had time to prepare though. When this massive army attacks in the next few days, it will not have been unforeseen. America’s top scientists have been predicting this alien arrival for nearly two decades. Seventeen years to be precise; that is how long they have been warning about the onslaught. Pinpointing the timing of the invasion to within a week. This week.

You should be afraid. Just like every Sci-Fi movie you have ever seen, these alien invaders are terrifying to behold. Large, bulbous red eyes on the outside of their head. Not one but two sets of jaws, like pincers, protruding from their face. They communicate with each other in a deafening high-pitched shriek that drives humans crazy. Waving six black spiny limbs, and wearing full-body exoskeleton armour. Yet once they land, they become shape-shifters, with the ability to change their appearance. Hideous. Scientists who are monitoring the advance have named them The Brood. Are you scared yet?

No need to be. Unlike all those Sci-Fi movies, these aliens won’t be descending from outer space. Instead, they will appear in your house – often in the bath or shower. For they are just spiders. All a bit futile really.  Running around the edge of the bath often in pairs, but nothing to be worried about. It is the time of year when they head in doors and in our house, I have to relocate them back outside after a few shouts and screams from my daughter and wife!

I am sure you weren’t actually frightened. Unless you have a fear of spiders, in which case, I apologise. However, seeing my daughter’s and wife’s reactions to each and every spider in our house (to be fair some are quite big) did make me think about how easily we become fearful of the unknown. Understandably so, as our brains are hard-wired for it. Thousands of years of evolution have taught us that it is better to be cautious than curious.

Hence, we get scared at the prospect of potentially hostile aliens. Until we discover they are just familiar spiders. At which point, our anxieties die away, and our brain says, “Move on – nothing to fear here.”

At the moment, there is so much talk about fear amongst our generation. It is dressed up in different words these days, anxiety, worries, concerns, stress, even poor mental health. But the underlying theme is that we have become increasingly anxious and unsettled because of the pandemic.

I am sure, to a degree, that is true. This has been a massively disrupted nearly two-year period and some people cope better with uncertainty and change than others. I am equally sure that much of it is over-hyped by the media, who, let us face it, know that fear sells their product. If the human brain is wired to be anxious about the unknown, it will naturally try to do two things. Constantly scan the horizon for new, unfamiliar (and therefore potentially scary) things. And then seek to understand them, so they aren’t frightening any more.

Unfortunately, the media know that they can get our attention far more easily by presenting a fresh set of new things to worry about every time we log on, rather than by offering reassurances. It is easy to find a hundred stories today that predict the pandemic is going to ruin our lives. Journalists happy to claim (with very little evidence) that the lockdowns and School closures have left the world’s teenagers broken, lonely wrecks. That cancelled exams have most likely guaranteed that students are all going to be homeless, broke, and miserable by 30.

The pandemic has been calamitous for many people. Those who have lost loved ones, or who were severely ill themselves. Those who have lost jobs or income. Those who have struggled with isolation or loneliness. But it is all too easy, when you are constantly bombarded with stories of sadness for others, to start to catastrophise ourselves. To get increasingly anxious without really questioning why.

So, if we do find ourself feeling agitated or uneasy at the moment, we should take the time to question exactly what it is that we are worried about. May our fears always have names.

My point is that it is all too easy to lump all the things that challenge us into one huge mass of misery. Life can be challenging at times and there is no doubt the pandemic has added more burdens this past year or so. But the way to deal with those challenges is to call them out, one by one. To identify and then deal with them individually.

There are no faceless cyborgs invading America. Just perfectly familiar, if somewhat irritating, spiders finding their way into our homes at this point of the year. Likewise, there is little cause for anxiety over not knowing what a global pandemic might mean for us anymore. It is now just a series of smaller, more manageable irritations. Cancelled exams, annoying bubbles, too much time stuck at home. Name the things you fear and you immediately diminish them. Describe them and you start to control them.

Give your brain what it really wants – answers, not more questions. Good mental health is not living a life with no challenges. Good mental health is being able to deal with the challenges that life inevitably hands us. Turn your anxieties from aliens to spiders, and you are halfway there.

Stay well and safe.

Be kind to yourself and others.

Best wishes,

Dr Bird

I imagine you were as struck as I was by the down-to-earth charm of 18-year-old Emma Raducanu. She was as incredulous as the rest of us over her spectacular and unprecedented rise to fame in the US Open, and equally remarkable was her natural poise in front of the camera. She comes across as a thoroughly nice person and I very much hope that she will not have her head turned by her sudden riches and all the media attention. She has the very real potential to be a fantastic role model for hundreds if not thousands of young tennis players not just here in the UK but globally. A real leader and example to others.

There can be a fine line between natural self-confidence and arrogance, and I am pleased to say that at HGS our students are often commended for the former. This perhaps stems partly from the healthy challenges which we set down on their path, and partly from our encouragement to get involved in activities outside the classroom, to try out new things and to learn from the experience. Some will still waver in their self-esteem and at times need to be convinced of their abilities and their potential. Some also need to be reminded of their many personal qualities and to understand that an element of self-doubt is actually quite normal and helps us to become stronger as human beings. And those who appear outwardly the most sure of themselves will undoubtedly have their own insecurities too.

Leadership in a school takes many forms. It can be the moment that a Year 9 student offers a helping hand to a Year 8 student who has fallen in the playground. It can be the time when a team Captain encourages his or her players to dig deep and score the winning goal against an equally matched opposition. It can be using one’s initiative and looking to invite outside speakers to the school. It can be deciding to go the other direction on a Duke of Edinburgh expedition as the rain beats against you and other members of the team have becoming exhausted.

Within the community, everyone has an opportunity to lead at various times. One of the greatest strengths of HGS is the variety of activities that we offer in addition to those related to the subjects studied. Our teachers, working with their Heads of Department, will plan a variety of trips and activities that are designed to augment student’s learning. Students may find themselves being inspired by the Ski Trip team up a mountain, on the Football pitch, at Whitemoor Lakes or in Paris or Berlin (when we can travel abroad once more).

In all these situations, students will often be required to lead, as well as required to follow. And it is the job of teachers here to guide them in how to lead effectively, with compassion, and with respect. Leadership is not shouting to get the person in front of you to do what you want. Leadership is not being arrogant and abusing a position of authority or preferment of prestige.

No. Leadership is about caring for those around you, and making decisions in their best interest, sometimes having to do so knowing it won’t always be popular, but always communicating with those who you support. Over the course of a student’s career at school, we will encourage them to lead, and guide, we will support and coach them.

The culmination of their time at HGS may see them take on leadership roles in their house or year. It may see them as sports captains for example Cricket or Football. Schools will each year appoint leaders of the entire community. At HGS, these are called Senior Prefects. We will expect our Senior Prefects to lead with compassion, kindness and respect. We will expect them to have to speak truths in an uncomfortable circumstance. We will expect them to hold up the rules and expectations of our school. But ultimately, we want them to be here for their fellow students.

It is absolutely right that we should encourage our children to be proud of their achievements, yet never to be boastful. Indeed, humility is one of the finest qualities we could hope for in them and one to respect and admire in others, wherever they appear in any hierarchy.

 “Well rounded individuals, confident but not arrogant, such a good reflection on the school.”

This is feedback we have regularly received in the past about our students. I will finish where I started and that is talking about Emma Raducanu. She has all the hallmarks of a great leader and is someone to look up to following her win in New York. The individuals who leave us are our finest ambassadors: a great credit to the school and also to their parents.

Stay well and safe.

Be kind to yourself and others.

Best wishes,

Dr Bird

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This is a work in progress and more content will be added over the coming year.