Final update of the year
‘The flourishing of each and every pupil, is our garden at its very best, and we remain diligent in our custodianship of all that has been and will be planted in the future.’
The bulk of this week’s Head’s Update is an extract taken from my Speech Day address. It seemed useful to include it, not least because I am rather taken with the analogy, but also because the thanks are so important and you would have only heard this if your child is in Year 7 or above.
It has been wonderful seeing so many parents, grandparents and relatives at Speech Day, The Ball, supporting your children at Sports Day and at the end of year proms in the last couple of weeks. We are truly grateful of your ongoing support of the School and the whole School community. I wish you a very safe and peaceful summer and look forward the start of a bright new school year in September, when we will have many new members of school joining us and lots of opportunities ahead.
‘This brings me to the analogy of school being like a garden … From the seedlings of our Early Years at Longdon, where roots are planted in the fertile earth; via the consistent tending and care of the middle educational years; to those facing external examinations where careful pruning and harvesting is undertaken; all has so much in common with the work of the gardener.
Gardeners are the faithful, they face the predictable and unpredictable with belligerent optimism. They never lose sight of the beauty they’re going to create - the growth, the magic, the continuity - and such is the work of educators. It has been said that to forget how to dig the earth is to forget ourselves and to that I would add, to fail to educate our youngsters is to forget our future.
The amazing range of achievements of our pupils, the flourishing of each and every pupil, is our garden at its very best, and we remain diligent in our custodianship of all that has been and will be planted in the future.
A fruitful garden needs stewardship, it needs constant attention and hard work. And to that end, I want to thank all those who work in and for the School for all they do. Your contribution is both vast and invaluable and quite simply, changes lives. We are blessed with superb pupils of whom we are inordinately proud, but their achievements are enabled by a team of tremendously caring and committed people - teachers and support staff alike - and of course you, our parents, to whom we owe a debt of gratitude for trusting us with your most precious children every day.
I would also like to thank the Friends of LCS whose tireless work … enables us to move ever quicker towards our strategic aims. I would also like to thank our governors whose generosity of spirit is matched only by their expertise and wisdom. Thanks also to the Cathedral, without whom we simply would not be here, and in whose spiritual and practical support we find such strength. We also thank Bishop Jan for being our guest speaker here today.
As an aside, I wrote this speech whilst sitting on a coach with the choristers on the way to St. Paul’s Cathedral in London where they were singing as part of a celebration for the 370th Clergy Support Trust Festival. As I wrote, there was lively conversation all around me (phones were not allowed) and the chatter was covering such diverse topics as auctioneering, how chocolate is made, how to hide a dead body (buried underneath protected species of plants if you were interested!), wax works and the Trooping of the Colour. Such is the vibrancy of children, the joy of education and the glorious community that is LCS. I, for one, am extraordinarily grateful to be part of it.
Inservi Deo et laetare
