Year 7 Pastoral Guardian

In Alessia Cara’s self-love anthem, 'Scars To Your Beautiful', she sings, “You should know you’re beautiful just the way you are... you don’t have to change a thing... the world could change its heart…”  Imagine, if those powerful words resonated within the minds of our young people every time they doubted the worth of their bodies, compared themselves to others, or measured themselves against unrealistic and toxic standards. Imagine, how an unwavering belief in and acceptance of themselves could profoundly influence their 

self-worth and trajectory through life. 

Body Image Awareness Week provides an opportunity to celebrate and respect our individual bodies. The relationship we have with our bodies evolves and how we view and accept ourselves greatly influences how we engage with others and our world. In a nutshell, when we define ourselves by numbers (our weight, height, waist size or even number of followers or likes to social media posts), or torture ourselves mentally or physically in the quest for ‘physical perfection’, we diminish ourselves and devalue the true worth of the miracle that our body is. After all, our bodies in their myriad shapes, sizes and colours allow us to do what is most essential in our lives: to love others, to laugh, to practice compassion and kindness, to be curious, to be changemakers.

The understanding that we are more than our physical appearance has been reinforced while Year 7s have been reading the novel ‘Wonder’ in English this term. Through the novel, Auggie Pullman’s family, peers - and ultimately the reader- learn not to define him by his Treacher Collins Syndrome symptoms, but to see him as an intelligent, inquisitive, funny and loveable young boy. So much rich conversation about the necessity for accepting others, kindness and compassion and not judging others by physical appearances has been had in classes. Moreover, just like the last line of Alessia Cara’s song, ‘If the world could change its heart', loving and accepting ourselves would not be an imagination, but a reality for all. 

Next term, I will be taking long-service leave. It has been a real privilege and joy to be your daughter’s Pastoral Guardian this year, and I look forward to walking alongside and guiding her through 2022. Mr Alex Bush, who is very much looking forward to working with your daughters, will be the Acting Year 7 Pastoral Guardian.

Best wishes for the rest of the year.