Headteacher’s Blog 28.09.22
“To know how much there is to know is the beginning of learning to live.”
Dorothy West
At the beginning of this academic year, I said something to staff in my welcome speech and to Bohunt Horsham families in the first communication home that I had been thinking about all summer. We are all learning and doing the best that we can. In schools, you have hundreds of human interactions a day, you make thousands of decisions every single day, most of those you’re likely to get right and some will be wrong. What I believe, completely and utterly, is that when we get those decisions right, it’s on purpose and when we get them wrong, it’s by accident.
The photograph that accompanies this blog post is a great example of how I know this to be true. At first glance, this photograph shows an absolutely jubilant Year 8 football team. Look again and what you’ll see is a story of what is so special about this school community. The Year 8 football team haven’t been able to play fixtures before, we haven’t had our school field handed over, last year we had a PE team of one and so the team were nervously and excitedly awaiting their first ever competitive match for the school. There was an unexpected staff absence and so it looked as if the team weren’t going to be able to be accompanied to their away game. We sent out an eleventh hour, desperate plea to see if anyone had football experience and was free and willing to take them to their match after school that day. Within four minutes, our premises team had volunteered. They didn’t know the students by name so they drafted a learning support assistant to come along with them.
These three members of our staff team drew up formations, talked tactics on the bus and brought even more nervous excitement to the game than the Year 8 players did. They ran the line, they cheered them on, they ensured that their playing was excellent, their communication was key and most importantly, that they played with such respect that the other team’s coach remarked upon it. The team won, 9:1. That is a moment those students will remember.
The students won’t forget that when it was important to them, someone stepped in, stepped up and made it happen and it reminded me that the team we have here is incredibly special. We have a team of 65 staff members this year, all doing different roles, with a range of backgrounds and experiences but what we all have in common is our values. We believe in the infinite potential of young people; we believe that to learn they must first feel safe and happy, that they can and should show respect to themselves, one another and the world around them and that they can achieve anything they set their minds to. I know this because it is an integral part of our recruitment process but most of all I know it because I see it in the hundreds of human interactions that go on around this building every moment of every day.
This isn’t just about the three members of staff that made time to ensure those young footballers got to experience their moment; it’s about the fact that this story is just one example demonstrating the way that our staff team cares, goes the extra mile and wants the best for our children. That’s what enables me to say, with absolute confidence, what I said to staff and the families of our students at the start of the year. When we get it right, it’s on purpose and when we get it wrong, it’s by accident.
