Senior School

After two and a half years of COVID-related lockdowns and restrictions, I am daily reminded of the more subtle impacts COVID has had on our community. Measures that were designed to (and indeed did successfully) help keep our community safe had other, more subtle and problematic impacts. Separating cohorts helped prevent the wholesale spread of COVID across the School… but many of our students’ relationships with peers in other year groups are weaker than they once were. Limiting participation in different types of music ensembles allowed our students to socially distance… but for many the steady development of musical skills and knowledge was interrupted. Perhaps most importantly for our young people, years of engaging with others primarily in the online world has hampered their ability to do so face to face, with all the benefits of social-emotional learning that naturally occur when young people are together. 

All, however, is not lost. As the great poet Dylan Thomas wrote “Do not go gentle into that good night. Rage, rage against the dying of the light.” As the adults in our young people’s lives we must sometimes help them act against their teenage inclinations by encouraging them to take part in activities that we know will be to their benefit. As a School we are proud to boast over forty different co-curricular activities, including Sport (look out for Summer Sport registrations soon), Music (including seven different ensembles), STEM, F1 in Schools, Debating, Chess, Performing and Visual Arts and much more. I urge parents to start a conversation with their children about their co-curricular participation here at School and to write to their Tutors for assistance in signing up. The life of this School consists of more than formal classes. Our co-curricular programs are where the richness of relationships and community are formed, and where our students learn to do life together. 

While the impacts of COVID are real and continue to be felt, as a community we must work together to overcome them for the benefit of our children and young people. Please start the conversation at your house today. 

Mr Owen Laffin

Deputy Head - Head of Senior School