We finish term on 8 July, and I write this, I am considering what I would like to say to our pupils at our final assembly. I should particularly like to thank them for their collective good-humour, resilience, diligence, and sense of fair play, amidst yet another extraordinary school year.
I remember writing this column this time last year and, optimist that I am, I was looking forward to a September that would allow us to start getting back to normal.
Well, as we all know, this is far from what happened, and I am reminded of an old proverb – ‘there’s many a slip ‘twixt cup and lip’- which I thought was a Northern English saying but has been attributed to 17th century Robert Burton in his work The Anatomy of Melancholy- a fitting book for the period in which we have been living. Anyway, a year on, this is what I learned during this academic year.
Cancelling big events at the last minute can severely upset people.
We had to cancel Speech Day and our Carol Service at the end of term and the genuine disappointment from pupils as well as parents indicated how crucial such events are for a school community and for community engagement. All are now again in the calendar for the academic year of 2022-23, so fingers crossed that there are no glitches now!
The whole point of a 3-18 school is so that there can be interaction between the different year groups.
One of the many virtues of our fabulous school is that the Sixth Form girls assist in the after-school care of the ‘littluns’ but we were still unable to do this last September as we remained concerned about spreading infection across year groups. Again, this was met with much disappointment all round, and we were all mightily relieved when we were able to reinstate this service again.
Hybrid learning is a wonderful innovation and is here to stay, but it cannot be a substitute for faceto-face teaching.
We have learned a great deal about educational technology during the last two and a half years, and it is clear that ‘Snow Days’ in the future will not mean a day off from learning. However, after the exhausting half in, half out scenarios that played out during the first two terms, our pupils were heartily glad to be back in the classroom, and our staff were heard to say that, after what has happened, society at large has realised that teachers are vital to the lifeforce of the country.
Nothing helps one’s ability to speed read and assimilate information at a rate of knots like a governmental missive late in the evening
This happened many times, with messages needing to be given out to all stakeholders ASAP. I had always thought that I was adept at comprehending complex material quickly, but nothing had prepared me for the ability to make sense of pages of quasi-medical advice in record time, so that parents, staff and pupils could make sense of it in the morning. The job of Headteacher is one of Jack of all trades
During the last academic year, Heads have been disease control operators, diagnosticians, interpreters of gobbledygook, hoarders of precious PPE and test kits, and major cheerleader when everyone is about to drop with exhaustion.
Here’s to 202-23. I am not making any grand prognostications; I just wish us all to have a healthy and happy start to the new year and to be able to do things that you would expect a school to be able to do. Every day is an Open Day at Durham High School. Call 0191 384 3226 or email enquiries@dhsfg.org.uk to find out more or arrange a visit.