Headteacher’s Blog 16.10.23
“For these are all our children, we will all profit by or pay for what they become.”
― James Baldwin
Bohunt Horsham is proud to be part of Bohunt Education Trust; across the Trust all schools hold the same vision which is to create students who are game-changers. Students at Bohunt Horsham have heard us talk a lot about game-changers, in assemblies, at school events, in lessons, during their tutor sessions. I know what it means to me, it is a term that describes our goal to work alongside families and help shape our young people into adults who will go out and make the world a better place. As it is such a common phrase in our school, I wondered what the phrase meant to our students, so I headed out into the corridor and asked the first few students who passed me the same question, what does the phrase game-changer mean to you?
Scarlett – Year 11: ‘Someone who impacts people in a good way and is a role model, who gets recognition but does not seek it.’ Scarlett’s example: Jane Austen.
Jesse – Year 9: ‘Someone who goes above and beyond in everything they do.’ Jesse’s example: Sam M in Year 9 and almost all his classmates.
Chloe C – Year 8: ‘Making a change in your learning.’ Chloe’s example: her friend Kimberley.
Megan – Year 9: ‘Someone who does something really important for the better.’ Megan’s example: Malala Yousafzai.
Aiden – Year 7: ‘Someone who makes the world a better place.’ Aiden’s example: Elon Musk.
Kaan – Year 9: ‘Someone who has a positive unique influence on others and can represent their community well.’ Kaan’s example: himself!
It seems to me that even a random cross section of Bohunt Horsham students were pretty clear on what a game-changer meant to them and to the wider school community. This got me thinking, what does it take to be a game-changer? Perhaps more importantly, what does it take to create one? One of the biggest attributes of a game-changer in school is kindness. For us, kindness is the outward expression of our core value of respect. Disrespect is a lack of kindness and so it makes sense that showing kindness is demonstrating respect. I would go as far as to say that kindness is exactly what the world, even far beyond our school community, needs right now.
In the seven weeks since term started, the 975 students of Bohunt Horsham have been recognised for acts of kindness that go beyond our basic expectations 1259 times. I took a look at what some of those moments of recognition were for. Rachel and Emily in Year 11 were recognised for work they did in science to support Year 7 students who are learning practical skills for the first time. Caoimhe in Year 7 was recognised for staying behind and helping her art teacher to clear up after a particularly messy lesson, even though she’d already cleared up her own area. Madisen in Year 8 was recognised for helping other students in her group in geography. Zach in Year 7 was recognised in Mandarin for helping his classmate who was struggling. Zach in Year 10 was recognised in art for helping a student who didn’t have everything he needed and lending him some of his own resources. Mawgan in Year 8 was recognised by an English teacher for holding the door open for her. Gray in Year 11 was recognised at lunchtime for saying thank you to the duty staff.
These are just a few examples of the hundreds of small ways in which our students are demonstrating that they are learning that they can make the world a better place through their own actions. They are building their maturity and starting to recognise the responsibility they have to the community around them. Of course, they don’t always get it right. Making mistakes is a huge part of the learning process and we help them with that by building in reminders, consequences and support where a minority of students are struggling with developing the maturity they will need as they grow into adults and join the world around them.
Being a game-changer isn’t just about small acts of kindness though, it is also about having a social conscience. We teach social responsibility through our personal development curriculum, through visiting speakers such as the amazing and awe-inspiring Darran Saunders who has spoken to every single student in years 8 – 11 about her experiences as a mother who lost her son to a senseless act of violence some years back. We teach social responsibility through our peer mentoring systems and our litter duties and through our assemblies on key messages such as road safety, the dangers of the online world and of course through charitable fundraising drives. Over the last four years, our school has striven to give back to the local, national and global communities it serves through charitable giving, often organised by groups of students.
Just last year, we held eight major fundraising events in school. Students enjoyed participating in the sponsored run, the movie night, the silent disco, the Christmas market, Christmas accessory day and the whole school sponsored walk amongst other events, but in doing so they learned about the importance of the work carried out by charities such as St Catherine’s Hospice, Holbrook Animal Rescue Centre, Save the Children, Little Life Savers, Cancer Research and The Olive Tree Cancer Support Centre. They also raised almost £8,000 for these charities in the process.
Why is helping our students develop maturity, demonstrate kindness and learn about social responsibility such a key part of what we do alongside teaching English, Maths and Mandarin? Because schools, like families and wider society all hold a responsibility to raise the children of a community. The children of a community are its future and our students are learning how to make that a future we can all be proud of.
