Spring has sprung
31st March 2023Congratulations!
You’ve got to the end of another long term.
The spring term can be quite lovely, if we get that spring sunshine and see those daffodils and snowdrops early in the season. However, this year has not been that great. We’ve had poor weather; certainly, a very mixed bag. We are now, though, at the Easter break and when it comes the opportunity to rest up and recharge the batteries.
Some of you may well have been fasting or have given something up for Lent. Some of you may well still be fasting and following Ramadan. Not being at school, at college, at work, makes it that bit easier to adhere to your commitments. As I said a couple of weeks ago, you have my admiration.
Easter, or that mid-spring break, does represent the opportunity to think about the freshness of the metrological new year and the prospect of improving weather, lighter nights and the start of the growing season.
We don’t rely so much on the new growing season as our ancestors always did, as we have a global economy which allows us to access food from around the world, almost 365 days a year. Although the recent salad shortage does remind us of the balancing act that is feeding a growing global population. For us in schools and college the two weeks break over the Easter period is an opportunity just to reset ourselves before we have the incredibly difficult period of exams, leavers and arrivers – which includes induction and transition.
It is also the time for revision and some hard work, for our Year 11s, Year 12s and, of course those Year 13s, readying themselves for their examinations. It will be, as always, a very difficult period in the school/college calendar, so take that time, if you can, over the next couple of weeks to just pause and spend some time with your family and friends. Recharge those batteries and make sure that you come back ready to take on all of the inevitable challenges which will emerge.
The staff will be taking time to reflect and recharge. We know that our sole purpose is to ensure that our children and young people are cared for, supported and challenged and prepared for life beyond our doors. We commit ourselves to ensuring that we remain laser focused on the children and young people of this community – we have an amazing opportunity to change lives. In those dark days of winter, it’s hard to remember that, but now as we move into the spring and summer, we will take some time to reflect upon the importance of our work in the schools and the college, and how quite fundamentally we can affect real change, on a daily basis.
‘The beautiful spring came; and when Nature resumes her loveliness, the human soul is apt to revive also.’ Harriet Ann Jacobs
‘In the Spring, I have counted 136 different kinds of weather inside of 24 hours.’