Head’s Blog 12.02.21

And so we come to the end of the half term.  I very much hope the boys and staff enjoy their week away from their computers.  I have been impressed again by the boys’ resilience and hard work, particularly from the examination years as they have added uncertainty to deal with; Ms Bainbridge has written to Year 11 and 13 parents today with an update but we will not know more until Monday 22^nd February.  I am also grateful for the continued commitment of the staff and for your support with keeping the boys focused.

One of the events we are missing this week would have been the second Diversity Day.  The School Council had been planning this event and this afternoon’s assembly would have been based on it.  I was pleased to learn that Faaris and Max from Year 12 have contributed to the conversation on Diversity as part of the Votes for Schools Youth Advisory Board.  Votes for Schools is used in some of our PSHE lessons to structure debate around important issues.  The focus of the meeting was diversity and black history in examinations and internet safety and the results of the conversation are being passed to The Black Curriculum and the National Cyber Security Centre.  It is very impressive that the boys have been selected for this and that they are playing such an active role in these important conversations.

We are very lucky to work in such a diverse community and, as such, we feel it is important not only to be non-racist but anti-racist in our approach.  To that end, we are now working with Flair to gather data from boys and staff to gain a greater understanding of how inclusive we are and what we can do to continue to move forward with this complex issue.

Finally, the latest issue of the Barometer is out today. Boys from all year groups are welcome to submit articles and I encourage them to do so.  Last week I spoke about the importance of reading as a break but penning an article for The Barometer would also be a good use of the half term.  This edition also includes the fourteen best entries from the Lockdown Cooking Competition.  I have been following the posts in the Team over the last few weeks and I am delighted that so many boys chose to take part.  I really enjoyed seeing boys asking each other online where they can buy a particular type of olive oil, reminiscences about cooking with family members and boys trying cooking for the first time.

So for those of you who would like a break from the kitchen this weekend, your sons now have no excuse not to step up!

With best wishes, Seth