Meetings. There are an awful lot of them in a week. This week perhaps more than ever. I suspect that we have just about covered every variety of this particular activity, individual, board, group, standing up and sitting down. I have never counted up the number of meetings that take place at the BSP each week, but it most probably tops the hundreds. To give a flavour of the vast variety of meetings, this week has seen department meetings, parent teacher meetings, faculty meetings, coaching group meetings, CPD meetings, and even governor meetings. Most of them will have been useful and they may well have led to positive outcomes.

One element of my week that I particularly enjoy is my meetings with our Heads of School, the Head Girl and Head Boy. During our meetings I am given a clear picture of what they see from their perspective regarding the school’s performance, and I am constantly intrigued by the range and scope of topics they would like to cover. This week we ranged from Christmas decorations to exam anxiety, a heady mixture that speaks to this time of year. In the middle of the week there were a range of Governor meetings: Governance and Nominations, Alumni and Engagement and a Board Meeting. These meetings are an invaluable part of the School’s activity. Plans are considered, reports presented, and scrutiny follows. This week the Governors had the opportunity to learn more about the important work done by the Senior School Learning Support Department.
Year 8 Parents had the chance to meet with teachers this week accompanied by their children and next it is the turn of Year 9. A valuable opportunity for congratulations, encouragement, and advice to be passed on as we draw to the end of this important term for academic learning. Next week’s meeting will be the final Parents’ Evening of the calendar year and I would like to extend a thank you to all who have contributed to making these meetings so valuable, especially all who provide the ever-necessary tea and coffee!

Whilst we may sometimes question the necessity of meetings, good ones are essential for enabling collaboration, creativity, and innovation. They can often foster relationships and ensure proper information exchange. They provide real benefits. But they do take time. So, as we reach the end of another busy week, I’d like to say thank you to all who have contributed to that oft-maligned activity that is the meeting for their time and thought and contributions.

Nicholas Hammond

Headmaster

www.britishschool.fr

“If we are to teach real peace in this world, and if we are to carry on a real war against war, we shall have to begin with the children…”

Mahatma Ghandi

Every now and again I see something that reminds me I should sing the praises of being a through school. In normal parlance that is a school that has the capacity to educate from Nursery to Upper VI (Year 13). This week I happened to bump into some of our youngest pupils, Nursery and Reception who had enjoyed an exciting morning of theatre in the Senior School’s drama studio. Games had been played and I’m told there was a puppet show too. Much of the work being done by our Sixth Formers who revelled in the opportunity to entertain their younger school mates. Many thanks to the teachers from both sites who made this wonderful learning opportunity happen.

I hope that there is a reciprocal benefit to such exchanges. Our younger pupils gain an idea of what their future learning path might look like and the older ones are reminded of their own school days, a time when everyone was willing to have a go and the anxiety of adolescence hadn’t yet struck. It is opportunities such as this that allow young people to develop a habit of service and gives them the chance to hone their leadership skills.

As I write, Year 9 have nearly gone to sleep following a busy day on the battlefields of the Western front. We make this annual pilgrimage to the sites of memory and mourning in Belgium and Northern France not to glorify conflict but to reflect upon the stories of individuals who went well beyond what might have been expected of them. There are tales of courage but more often it is those who have demonstrated bravery through their devotion to friends and comrades that make the most significant impression. As we stood and looked at the names on the Thiepval Memorial we had the chance to reflect on the courage shown by young people in the face of extraordinary danger.

Sadly our young people are growing up in a world that has failed to learn the lessons of the Twentieth Century’s global conflicts. Perhaps through relatively small acts of service, by doing things for other people, they will view their roles as being that of peaceful leaders focused on providing the best for the many as opposed to slipping into conflict. Tomorrow we will visit sites around the city of Ypres and we will once more see the echoes of the present in the past. In all of this we will take hope from the stories of those who remained true to their comrades, put others before self and sought the common good.

Nicholas Hammond

Headmaster

www.britishschool.fr

It has been a week of anniversaries. Most obviously, given the profusion of poppies and bleuets in school it is clear that we are in the important season of remembrance. A time in which anniversaries both individual and collective are observed. A time to consider the cost of conflict and the impact that it has on families and communities. A time to keep silence, if only for a minute. When we have the opportunity to meet together as a community, as we did during our assembly and observe silence then we are reminded of the power of the collective will. Whilst our school is generally a joyful place, it is important that we have more sombre moments too. Our thanks to Max whose rendition of the Last Post made the occasion all the more memorable.

Four hundred years ago Shakespeare’s First Folio was published. Arguably one of the most important moments in the development of English Literature and an event that enhanced the world’s cultural wealth. Also a moment when, not only memorable phrases entered our language, but when a rich vein of (as yet unheard) insults were recorded for posterity. Shakespeare was both famous for his invention of words and for the savagery of his quill. Among the seventeen hundred words he is said to have invented are words that are part of our everyday lexicon, words that are so everyday as to be unremarkable: addiction, arch-villain, bandit, fashionable, gossip, hint, majestic, swagger, tranquil, unreal and zany to name but a small selection. The insults might not have dated quite so well, although there is a certain style to “I scorn you, scurvy companion”, and “More of your conversation would infect my brain”, has a certain brutal resonance. Who wouldn’t feel a sneaking satisfaction in having come up with “You starvelling, you eel-skin, you dried neat’s-tongue, you bull’s-pizzle, you stock-fish–O for breath to utter what is like thee!-you tailor’s-yard, you sheath, you bow-case, you vile standing tuck!”

Much of what was written by way of insults by Shakespeare would perhaps count in modern parlance as banter. A phenomenon that has taken root in schools across the world, a bit of fun, a source of amusement, a laugh and almost always the source of mean, unkind and bullying behaviours. Jokes are not always shared or understood and pain results. More often than not this happens without the Shakespearean wit and from behind the emboldening shield of the keyboard. Next week we will have anti-bullying week, we will sport odd socks and we will talk about banter, about how, all too often these supposedly harmless words can cut as savagely as any well-wrought Shakespearean insult. About the fact that we need to be as kind with our words as we are with our actions.

At this time of remembrance, it is important that we look to the healing power of dialogue and recognise that our words have the power to create peace and provide kindness.

Nicholas Hammond

Headmaster

www.britishschool.fr