If ever there was a time to consider that life is not predictable, ‘now’ in December 2021 is it! My school’s academic term is coming to a close, we have 11 teachers and 11 support staff off currently, which represents circa 10% of our front of class workforce. Just shy of 25% of the children are not able to be in school, partly because they are unwell (7%), partly because their families have been touched by the Omichrom variant, and part because of the need to form a family bubble for the protection of vulnerable family members at home. We’ve been tracking the more general % for the locality, which are rapidly spiking this week, hence the family precautionary measures keeping a larger number at home.
Of course life must go on and the fat that we’ve been able to celebrate Christmas virtually using our pupils ‘on screen’ has in part permitted that drawing together. If you have the time, please check out the spiritual messages that Rev. Sally Lynch (Seniors @St Lukes) and Rev. Jeremy Harris Juniors (@All Saints)

One of our teaching staff in the Outdoor Education unit, James Wragg has chosen to cycle around the coastline of GB, starting in Suffolk some 19 days ago. For our end of term assemblies, James Shared the following video of his ‘making good progress’ and it gives a great take on how life is all about making on course adjustments, rather than assumptions about the pre-laid plans always coming through on song.

James has chosen to cycle anticlockwise around the GB coastline, starting from Suffolk and this is his ‘phone home’ message after day 19. It brought tears to my eyes and pride to my heart.

As James makes clear in his conversation, we all have to check our steps on our journey if not every day, then most days. That’s a great reminder for us for the future, when increasingly industry seeks not to seek new recruits whose amazing qualifications dazzle, but whose pragmatic common sense is non-existent. So long as learning curves still are an excepted understanding of a challenge that the commercial world embraces, in addition to sector knowledge in your industry, you also need bags of experience and common sense at a relatively low level. And you can only get that by putting yourself about a bit – like cycling around GB – go Mr Wragg, GOOOO!