It was a great pleasure to be at the Sixth Form recognition lunch on Friday, to congratulate twenty or so young men who have worked well in various areas of school life and to hear from them about their commitments to studies and other activities. In every case that truism was in evidence, that high levels of determination and success in one area breeds success in others. Nowhere is this more true than for our outstanding hockey players: notably, the Under 18 team have now won National titles for both indoor and outdoor hockey two years in a row. It’s a remarkable achievement which the captain put down to the team having grown together through the School, and above all to the excellent Director of Hockey, Dr Stagno, whose belief, discipline and determination, all expressed without hysteria or fuss, are such a driving force. Congratulations to them all.
I have praised some other Upper Sixth students, the School Captain team, plenty of times in these blogs. Do listen to their podcast, by the way. One of the things they (and others) are turning their mind to is where our efforts on Equity, Diversity and Inclusion are best spent.
Let me explain. We know we are a diverse community – or at least we are in some ways: as an academically selective boys’ school, we cannot claim to be fully ‘inclusive’, nor even logically claim that we aim to be. But showing respect and tolerance, and thinking calmly about issues, ‘disagreeing well’ if we disagree, these are all hallmarks of a civilised learning community. Jake and Dan had wanted to make a particular mark of International Women’s Day, which is a good thing for a boys’ school to do, and had off their own bat invited Nickie Aitken MP to speak at Assembly, which she did brilliantly.
But how many ‘special days’ can one reasonably mark – or certainly pause our normal routines for? Having spent a (very good, student-led) Cultural Day examining and discussing all our youngest pupils’ cultural, ethnic and faith backgrounds back in October, one might argue that singling out some for celebration is unnecessary. Of course we do mark our own Founder’s Day (coming up on Friday), but the task the boys have taken on is to identify where the greatest impact and most important focus should be and plan next year accordingly. Not easy, because what is an urgent issue for one person will loom less large for another, but as an educational institution we need to make some decisions, so we will – and as always, best if at least informed by the students!