From the School Captains

In our Opening Address at the beginning of the year, we encouraged Girtonians to ‘Aspire to Star’ and try new things. We decided to focus on this mantra because of a particular phrase that resonated with us; ‘For those whom much is given, much is expected in return’, as espoused by our Founding Headmaster Mr Jones. 

Over the holidays, we’d like to further our encouragement to ‘Aspire to Star’ by asking students to work on becoming open-minded with the intention of becoming less judgemental. We hope to focus on supporting each other in becoming more comfortable in ourselves and working on our own flaws so that in turn, we don’t feel the need to make others feel uncomfortable or insecure about the flaws that we all inevitably have.

In the last few weeks, there has been a strong focus placed on bullying in support of the National Day of Action against Bullying and Violence. As part of this awareness day, we asked students to anonymously respond to questions about bullying. We were impressed by how well students recognised bullying and in particular, the empathy many Girtonians demonstrated in their comments. Many responses stated how bullies have their own insecurities and project them unto other people; how bullies might be jealous or uneducated; how bullies may not have been nurtured and supported by their family and friends; how bullies may have experienced lots of pain themselves; and how there is, in fact, nothing wrong with victims, they are merely the recipients of this projected behaviour. 

We hope, that by aiming to be less judgemental we may all learn to appreciate, support and celebrate one another and accept that we all have flaws and insecurities. So, over the holidays we urge you to take some time to really look at yourself, to own your flaws whatever they may be and work on improving yourself, knowing that no one is perfect. By doing this, you’ll find yourself wasting much less time judging others, and as a result, you may become someone you can be proud to be. 

 Have a safe, enjoyable and restful break.

Lucie Griffin (12 Frew)

Flynn Edwards (12 Millward)