Welcome back and thank you

8th September 2020

I wasn’t sure a weekly message from me would be welcome, however it does now indicate some sort of return to normality.

I’ll just take some time this week to say thank you for all that the staff, pupils and students have done since the return. It has been, undoubtedly, an intense period in our history and professionally we had to face up to, engage with and take on some challenges the like of which we or the generations before us have had to face down.

I know that we in schools and colleges are an optimistic bunch and sometimes, even within that context, I am more optimistic and positive than most, however it really is fair to say that we’ve had an enormous amount of ground to cover since the return from the summer break and, more importantly, the long lockdown COVID crisis; being much greater than any of us could have imagined.

We’ve installed one-way systems, engineered year-group bubbles, reconfigured classrooms and teaching spaces and all that in amongst all that noise out there in the media nationally. It’s been an unbelievable effort from each and every one of you.

Oh! and we’ve got to prepare for the start of term, the curriculum, the lessons, the systems and protocols which we’d have to put in place each and every year, with or without a global pandemic.

We won’t get it right all of the time and, as always, we would welcome comments and suggestions as to what we might reasonably do differently to create an even better environment for learning.

The staff positivity and the willingness to, not only, go that extra mile with children and young people but also for them to share thinking and then your engagement with all that we are trying to do, to ensure that our institutions are as safe as they possibly can be, in the present climate, is very much appreciated.

I really don’t like to get political but just an aside line and thinking about this time, there are only 120 U-turns now until Christmas.

I know that some people have a perception that in education all that we do is chunter and moan from the side-lines and don’t always offer positivity and constructive engagement. We have proved those doubters, those nay-sayers wrong and I really do think that education will be getting some good press this week and into this half term.

Let’s enjoy that and bask in a little reflective positivity.

‘I may not have gone where I intended to go, but I think I have ended up where I intended to be’. Douglas Adams

Take some time to reset and recharge the batteries this weekend and we are at it again on Monday, once again.