Wellbeing

We all know, use and have been asked then question; 'are you well?' Or it's more common; 'How are you?'

And we probably give the quick response; 'I'm fine, thanks', or possibly the grammatically incorrect 'I'm good, thanks'.

But what do we mean by that & are we, actually, being honest anyway? Are we well? Or has the question just become an unmeaning social construct, as simple as shaking hands? What would you do if you asked someone and they actually said that they weren't actually feeling so good … ?

And what does it mean to be 'well' anyway? Let's think about wellbeing in three different areas:

The most obvious one, the one definition of wellbeing that is, certainly, the oldest and most often discussed:

Physical Wellbeing

To be physically well is, I would think, a fairly obvious one. To not be ill. To not have a cold, or illness. We all know how we feel when we go down with something, be it a cold, flu, or something more serious. We know, at this level, when we are not physically well. And we have no problem seeking out help and support from professionals about this. And even to physical injury; it is clear and obvious when you have damaged something because you will probably be wearing some form of support, or showing a limp, etc.

The thing is, with physical wellbeing, on the surface, it is pretty clear whether you are well or not. And when you're not, you will most likely be quick to seek help and support.

Or is it? There is another level of physical wellbeing that is less obvious - the healthy lifestyle part of it. Are you well, in terms of eating healthy food, drinking enough water, not eating or drinking stuff you shouldn’t (like energy drinks), etc? Sandymoor is a Healthy School - we have a certificate & badge to show that we care about things like this. That is why we have banned pot noodles & similar foods in school; they are not healthy. They do not do you any good. And it's why we are continually going on about getting you to bring in bottles for water. Drinking water through the day is healthy. It contributes to you being well . . .

If all you eat is chocolate, sweets, crisps and junk like this, or have too much salt on your food, or drink energy drinks, then you are, in fact, simple, hard fact, damaging your inner body - causing damage to organs that are still growing and developing; organs that you need to be working well for the next 80+ years.

And healthy, active lifestyles are important too. All the research shows that we need to get our bodies active and working hard on a regular basis, to keep, in particular, our lungs and heart working well, It is important to get out of breath and sweaty on a regular basis, through exercise. Again, because if you don't, your heart & lungs are weakened & you need these to work well through your whole life. . .

But Physical wellbeing is only part of the story too. As a school, we have put the next category in as equally important:

Academic Wellbeing

This one doesn't appear in any lists on wellbeing you  can find on the internet, but as a school, we do believe it is important that you are 'well' academically. Succeeding in school, achieving the subjects and the grades you want &/or need, tasking responsibility for your learning and pushing yourself now, is an important element of your wellbeing. Now and into the future.

There is a direct link between how you achieve in school and elements of your future life success; Being successful in school, getting good grades has clear links to better jobs and salaries in the future. And better jobs lead to better lifestyles, with more choice for you.

But beyond that, we are trying to give you the skills to be hungry to learn new things, to be able to seek out new information and do something with it. To, in effect, be able to survive the changing world we live in, where there will be, for example, jobs you will be able to apply for that no-one in the world has yet imagined.

Doing well at school is a very important part of being well overall. We want you to be, to aspire to become the very best you can, but that requires you to have a positive attitude to that as well - education, school, doesn't happen to you, you need to participate and seize the opportunities we provide. You need to be hungry to get from us the most you can, so you can be the best you can be.

You must want to become better. But that rests on the last, and quite possibly, most important, aspect of wellbeing:

Emotional Wellbeing

Being emotionally 'well' is more complex than both the other categories put together and is much harder to define. It is also the newest of the wellbeing elements. There are still some people who deny emotional wellbeing is an issue anyhow - the old-school mentality of stiff upper lip, or just plough on and get on with things anyhow. The mental 'slap on the bottom'.

But study after study shows that mental wellbeing, emotional resilience, self-awareness and self-confidence are all keys to success and wellbeing overall. You can be a straight A student, in the peak of physical condition, but still not be well if you are not in control of your emotions or mental state.

And there is so much in this area that we do not have the time to go through. But . . .

Emotional wellbing is about being happy with yourself. Because of who you are, not because someone else wants you to be something. And that can be a friend (although I would not call someone who is only nice to you if you behave or look a certain way a friend anyhow…), or the pressures of media, from the celebrities and superstars through all the channels of social media.

Emotional wellbeing is about accepting who you are. You are good enough and you do deserve to be happy. You do not depend on others, or things, to be good enough. Accepting you for who you are, looking in the mirror and liking what you see.

Emotional wellbeing is about being in charge. Do not let anyone else control you, put you down or stop you doing what you believe in. They are not a friend and are not someone to listen to.

Emotional wellbeing is about being resilient. In a world with anytime, anywhere access, where we expect to get things now, rather than have to wait, it can be difficult to believe, but things worth having are worth waiting for. You cannot be everything you aspire to right here, right now. You need to work at it, persevere and keep trying. There's a great phrase that says if you have not failed, you've never tried to do something worthwhile, because things worthwhile are hard.

So, are you well? The good news is that you are in control. If you are well, in all areas, then go you! Hats off to you! You have achieved it all; Can you please tell me (& everyone else) how you did it? And write a book about it - there are literally hundreds, if not thousands, or books out there on how to be happy. . .

But if you're like the rest of us, struggling in one, or even all three, of these areas, then that is absolutely fine - you're human and alive. And in control. The trick is to sit down and work out what you are not happy about and then do something about it. And remember that you don't have to ever do it alone. It is not a failure to admit that you need help, in any of these areas. After all, as I said, we will all seek help in the first category - Physical Wellbeing. Why not in the other two?

Collaboration

This week's assembly was on the topic of collaboration and working together:

There's a phrase that has been around since forever; one that comes up time and time again, but probably most recently in the popular media through the US version of the X factor. You may remember (if you watch it) the girl group - Fifth Harmony?

The phrase is :

We're better together

And it doesn't matter that it's so well known, so 'true' that we tend to ignore it. In fact, it is the most important concept out there & is, in fact, even more fundamental to the school's ethos than my usual mantra of 'Respect' & trust …

Because the fact is we are not alone, we do not work, we could not survive, if we were truly alone. No one person could live a modern life, with all its trimmings, on their own - no one person can know the sum totality of human knowledge, from medicine to engineering to agriculture.

We rely on others all the time. We are a social animal. We always have been and always will. From the first time we came down from the trees, our distant ancestors worked out that they could defend themselves against the wild animals by working together & they could feed themselves better by working as a team to hunt. Society is based on the principle of division of labour, where different people in the group take on different roles.

We are better together.

The very word, society, comes from a Latin word, socii, which directly translates to the English word - allies. People who co-operate to help a group achieve something they could not achieve alone. Like, for example, the collection of countries that grouped together in the first half of the 1940's to defeat Nazi Germany.

Our school community is a society; we work best when we work together. Like the wider society, there's not one person who can do everything to keep the school running smoothly & the staff all work closely together to help this. The result is that you all have the best possible opportunity to become the very best you can be.

And that's the point; there's so much more in the phrase 'Better Together' than just passively letting others get on with their lives. We have to actively work together, co-operate and collaborate to help others be the best they can be, so that we become the best we can be.

Collaboration is key.

It is also one of six identified social skills that are already crucial and will only become more important in the work place of the future. Your workplace.

For the record, the 6 social skills identified are:

• Collaboration
• Knowledge Construction
• Self-regulation
• Real-world problem-solving & innovation
• The use of ICT
• Skilled communication

But collaboration is the really important one.

In so many ways, we are programmed to compete, to try to outdo each other and overcome others to be 'the best'. And I'm not saying that competition is bad; quite the opposite - competition is a good, healthy thing and there are loads of situations where there can be only one winner, so to develop the skills of competition are also crucial, but we have those, almost built into our DNA, so don't need to spend too much time on these.

The problem is when we try to compete when there is no race, no competition to participate in. When there is no one winner, only losers. That's when collaboration is crucial.

In the classroom, for example. Here at Sandymoor, we have tables in clusters, where you work alongside and around colleagues. There is no competition there; or at least there shouldn't be… If someone on your table doesn't know something, there is nothing to be gained from gloating and letting them struggle, whereas if you help them, they can then carry on and learn and grow. And the flip side? Well, when you need help because you don't understand something, they will be more inclined to help you too. As a result, everyone gets better. Win-win, if you ask me.

There's another great phrase I use time and time again, which also emphasises the importance of collaboration;

Shoulders of giants

It dates back almost 900 years, where a French philosopher first wrote it down, but I heard it by reading about one of my heroes - the famous Physicist; Isaac Newton. Both used it in the same context, to say that we can only see further, understand more, than those before us because we are standing on their shoulders, using their knowledge and understanding to make sense of what we are seeing. We are like dwarves, seeing further only because we are standing on the shoulders of giants.

We become bigger, better, by working with others, working alongside them and helping them as they help us. Our ancient ancestors learnt that, when attacked in their caves by packs of wild animals, so why is it sometimes so hard to do it now?

Try it.
Rather than fighting others, putting them down to make yourself look bigger, or refusing to help someone because you don't like them, try reaching out and helping them. At the very least, you never know when you might need them to repay the favour.

Digital Exercise Books

In the modern world, we use technology to replace old ways of doing things all the time,from the introduction of cordless telephones, through to mobile phones and, of course, the replacement of the typewriter with the computer.

But as we can see from the diagram (called the SAMR model of technology integration), simply replacing how we've done things in the past is the lowest level of utilising the power of modern technology.

And we can clearly see the changes, moving towards augmentation, with text messaging, and tools like PowerPoint changing how we present and communicate, but these are 'just' enhancements to how things have always been done, rather than actually changing how things are done - transformation. That's not saying that this is a bad thing, but it is frequently cited as a reason why technology in education is costly and has limited impact. It is only when we go into true transformation that we can begin to see the true impact of technology on education.

At Sandymoor, we were set up with the strap line of being a 'Fresh Approach to Education' and everything we do is explored from the beginning, asking if this is the best way to do something, or just the 'normal' way things are done. This has led to us keeping a lot of things the way they are normally done - we are not into throwing out the baby with the bath water, after all! We even have some very traditional systems, like a house system, prefects and formal assemblies. But where we see a benefit for doing things differently, we embrace the change, and plan to embed the change in how we do things. The use of technology is firmly in this bracket, because we believe that we can only prepare our students for their future by embracing technology and transforming learning through technology.

One of the first things a visitor to the school notices is the fact that we don't have traditional whiteboards on the walls and have no 'Interactive Whiteboards' (IWBs) anywhere. This is because these tools are firmly in the bracket of substitution (or, in the case of the outdated IWB, occasional augmentation); from blackboard & chalk to whiteboard & pen, then to 'interactive' whiteboard, with digital pens. And yes, students could interact with these whiteboards, but surely that's what students have always done when asked to come and write on the board? There is no transformation there! And there really is no difference in a student copying out from a teacher's chalked writing or a writing from a board pen - there is still the relatively mindless, static copying out of information, the student passive and the teacher the active in the act.

But from this summer term, we are taking the transformation on to the next level. We have rolled out digital exercise books to all students. These are in the form of OneNote ClassBooks, integrated into our Office 365 ecosystem. Students can access their digital exercise books from any web-enabled device, giving them full freedom to use their own personal devices. We are enforcing a system where each student has to bring with them a device to lessons; these can be their own device, or a leased, or loaned device through the school, but they need to have something to access their digital exercise book.

So, how does this transform the learning experience? Well, the ClassBook provides a whole range of additional ways for engagement and collaboration. First of all, the ClassBook allows the students to add text, video and audio to their notes, making their work much more multi-media focussed. We already have, for example, students creating audio notes in Spanish for their homework, so they can practice their vocabulary without being embarrassed by their peers. It also enables teachers to provide much richer feedback; with audio notes replacing the red (or if trendy, green) pen. It also allows students to record videos or pictures of experiments in science, or instructions in technology.

There are also collaboration spaces, where students can work together on projects, copying the finished work into their own space for posterity at the end. And to cap it all, the teacher has a whole section that becomes, in effect, a living, growing text book, where class notes, additional material and extension work available for all students to access.

And if a student wants to work on paper, or forgets their device? Simple - they can quickly and easily upload a photo of their work into their ClassBook, again keeping it for posterity. This happens to make marking so much easier too; the teacher doesn't have to carry home stacks of exercise books as everything is online in their ClassBook.

So many young people struggle with handwriting, and the handwriting becomes a barrier to learning, something that causes barriers to go up; in these cases, the technology opens doors for students, as opposed to closing them.

Some will say that this is all well and good, but is at the cost of traditional skills. Not necessarily; handwriting is still an important skill to develop and one that the use of digital exercise books enhances, rather than degrades. This is because we can separate the skill from the content - when handwriting is being taught, this becomes the focus and rather than being assumed to be taught can become something that is explicitly developed. The same for grammar and spelling, where it can be easier to see, and correct, without impacting on the content. The development of spelling and grammatical skills is not degraded by the use of technology. Again, by the fact that we separate the knowledge & understanding from the skills development, we can spend more quality time focussing on and enhancing student understanding of the importance of grammar & spelling.

Change

With the Easter Break looming, the clocks now back on British Summer Time and the first glimpses of new growth on the trees and plants, I certainly have started looking forward to warmer weather, longer days and sun …

But this is because we are coming out of winter. The seasons tick off their timing, winter to spring, spring to summer, summer to autumn and then back to winter's icy grip. The revolving door of time, the ever changing, yet unchanging characteristic of nature, the reassurance of the changing seasons. The seasons change, but we are reassured by their predictability.

What about real changes? Changes that make a difference and cannot be reversed? Growing up is one such change, for example. As I have said before, we start off life as a completely helpless babe, entirely dependent on others for everything and as we grow, we start to be able to make choices, take control of things. And it's then that we discover that being in control is hard. We don’t always get what we want, when we want it, so we learn to hate change. Change becomes a signal for unpleasantness, for more difficult things.

But we have to fight that; change is the very essence of the universe, at the very centre of everything and is impossible to fight. If we waste time energy & effort in holding back change, we are wasting opportunities and chances that pass us by. Like King Canute, trying to hold back change will only result in futility as profound as trying to hold back the tide.

(Historical aside: King Canute was a king who reigned over 1,000 years ago - a Viking king, who controlled what is now modern day Denmark, Norway & England - one of the most powerful people in the world. He was thought to be a good king, with great power, but even he could not control the changing nature of time, as demonstrated in his attempting to stop the tide from coming in…)

Change is, paradoxically, unchanging. There will always be change, whether it's global warming, the next version of Windows, or new houses growing up where there were once fields. Change, the only reliable, unchanging fact of living.

So how do we respond to change? As I said, we naturally learn to fear it, to see it as something to dread. But if we change our mindset, look ahead and seek out the opportunities the change brings, we can make so much more of what the future delivers us.

As a school, we are growing, changing, rapidly. That is what we have to do; moving from the temporaries, into this amazing building, was a huge change. And it was not simply looked forward to; some were worried about the space, having got used to the smallness of the old buildings, for example, and feared losing their way, or being caught somewhere they shouldn't be when we moved. And the new students & staff. But such is the way of things and we all adapted and now feel like this building is home, is our 'normality'. So we are now planning to grow again; we have over 100 new students joining us this coming September, and after Easter, we will start the process of getting to know them, so they feel part of our family before they even arrive. It will have a lovely new feel to the school, with almost 300 students in the corridors and classrooms! New friends and new opportunities.

As you know, we have also, last week, started to recruit all the new staff who will be joining us to help you all on your journey. We have, to date, had over 150 applications for 9 posts. Last week, we interviewed 23 people, putting them through a rigorous process to make sure we recruited only the best to join us in our growth.

(I am not arrogant enough to think that everyone who applied for a job here will read this, but if any are, I would like to thank them for taking the time to apply; it is not an easy task to find the time to complete an application form, think about the upheaval that moving jobs will make, and apply, in the complete uncertainty of the outcome. Everyone I met on interview was, in their own right, a truly unique individual, and not once did I think I had chosen badly to shortlist. To the successful candidates, I look forward to working with you as we continue to grow and develop this amazing school & to the unsuccessful ones, I wish you all the best in your own personal journeys - who knows; our paths may cross again.)

The process continues, as we recruit more staff this week & after Easter; in September, we will have over 50 people working in the school, all committed and passionate about helping everyone here be nothing but the best they can possibly be.

One of the questions I posed to the candidates last week was 'What, actually, do teachers do?'. This question was inspired, I must admit, by the great performance poet, Taylor Mali - look him up; he's simply amazing!

A simple question, with a hard answer, especially one that is short and to the point. But one candidate hit the nail on the head, and that is why we appointed them. The answer they gave was:

To be strong for the students, especially when they can't be strong themselves.

That is, indeed, what we are about!

We do have one major change after Easter, one to do with technology. I have stated this time and time again, and now we are getting there. After Easter, you will all be required to have a device, whether a laptop, ipad, tablet, or whatever, in the lesson. The teachers will not be able to provide you with one from a trolley. There are 4 ways you can do this:

Bring in your own device. This is by far the best option, in truth, as it's yours, then, and you know how it works. Your parents will need to check their home insurance, but it is usually possible to add this to most policies.

If you don’t have one, then your parents can lease one through the school. ParentMail letters went out a few weeks ago about this & for about £10 per month, you can have a device to use, with insurance included & it is yours to keep.

Or your parents can loan a device from the school. These cannot be taken home, however, but will be yours, personally, for your use during the day.

Or, finally, you can go to Mr Thow or Mr Connor and book out a device for use. This can only by at the start of school, or during break or lunch, however, and will not be a personal device - you will be given what is available.

But not having a device will not be accepted and will be followed up with a consequence, the same as if you had forgotten a pen or pencil. This technology is your future in work & we are building systems to help you have that important edge when it comes to it.

 

For details of the school's reason why we are insisting that students have devices in lessons, please read the following blog: http://blogs.msdn.com/b/ukschools/archive/2015/03/31/andrew-howard-why-is-1-1-not-personal-enough.aspx


 

Being yourself

This week's assembly, following the last one on labels:

Now, I know that there has been so much written about the topic of 'being yourself', so many self-help books, and so many people offering to help you 'find yourself'. This is a hot topic, one that many people keep away from. But it is important and while I am sure that the vast majority of what I say will go in one ear and out the other, I do ask that you listen today.

Over the last few weeks, the newspaper I read has been launching a campaign called 'Time To Mind', to try to make the government look at youth mental health and wellbeing much more seriously than ever before. We all recognise that growing up is hard, but it has become so 'true', so embedded in our culture, that as adults, we tend to take the line that it was hard for us, so you just need to get on with it and it will soon be all over - it all gets better when you're an adult.

The trouble is, this is wrong on two counts. First of all, just because of the amount of money spent on 'self-help', the number of books offering to solve all our problems, clearly shows that, in fact, being an adult isn't the answer to any problems! If you have not got yourself sorted as a teenager, you'll not be sorted as an adult, either.

But more importantly, things are, actually, harder for you than they were for us. Growing up is hard. The pressures of finding out who you are, wrestling with self-doubt, fighting to have an opinion, to be able to make decisions, are all the same as when we were young. But society has changed. Things are harder. As a generation, you are more aware of the need to achieve as an adult than ever before - the infringement of media, television, music & movie stars all make us aware that there is so much more for us to aspire to. The high profile nature of exams, and the need to succeed, are much more to the front of people's minds, and then there's the 24-7 nature of the internet, selfies, online chat, body image and bullying make a toxic mix that can swamp anyone.

The thing is, however, you can take control - you can do something about this. You are, in fact, in control and can make decisions about your health.

I was reading an article over the weekend about a woman who really got a bad deal online … she was, as a teenager, just browsing through YouTube, as you do, and saw a link to a video titled the ugliest woman in the world. Clicking on it, as you would, it slowly dawned on her that the video was about herself! Now, I don't know about you, but that would simply be devastating - I do not know how she did it, but she took control, set up a website and YouTube channel to let people know who the ugliest woman in the world was & it now has almost a quarter of a million followers & has given talks around the world on how to stand up for yourself, how to define yourself, rather than being defined by others. Lizzie Velasquez is her name - look her up.

And that is the point. As a school, we hold Healthy School status, and this is in recognition of the fact that we care about your health. And want you to have the facts and skills to do something about your health. And health is not just about eating the right things and taking exercise. Yes, these are important, but doing something positive to make your mind healthy is actually more important than anything. How you are feeling, what you are thinking, has such a powerful control of your body! There are studies after studies that show clearly that positive thinking, a healthy mind, has huge impact on everything else. At the most extreme, a survey of the mental state of cancer patients shows that, to put it simply, the patients with a positive self-image, a positive mental outlook and a clear determined mind, knowing that they are in control were more likely to survive treatment, and go on to live better lives, than those with negative outlooks.

But what does that mean to us? Well, it is simple, and, in fact, links to my last assembly on labels. First of all, you need to know, to understand, to believe that no-one can hurt you, mentally, without you actually giving them permission to do so. Yes, physically, someone can punch, kick or assault you. If they do, our policy is simple - whoever makes the first physical assault, whatever the grounds, is issued with a minimum of a one-day external exclusion. There is never a reason to physically attack another person.

But mentally? That is where you are in control. First of all, you can choose to take yourself away from the situation, to put a distance between you and them. Yes, with the internet, this is harder, but almost all chat room / messenger technology specifically allows you to block individuals.

Secondly, you can report it and seek help. Yes, I know, you are all, almost without exception, going to tell me that this never works, that all it does is bring on more, and anyhow, it's grassing and you don't grass.

Well, let me tackle all three of these areas:

It does work. Simple. Here, we have a clear code of conduct that states that intimidation, harassment or bullying are not tolerated. Any student who feels it is fine to intimidate another, to call them names, to make their life horrible, is not welcome here. There is a big 'but' here, however. You need to not retaliate. To not let the words make you angry. Instead, report, report, report. The school systems for you to report are simple - go online and fill out an incident report and it will be dealt with.

Second; it will only bring on more if you let it. As soon as you report it, someone will investigate, will talk to people, will provide you with support. The people picking on you will try to have a go at you, will try to stop you reporting it, but only to save their own skin!

And this leads me to the last; grassing. As a concept, I do understand it, I do get why it has become accepted, but as a way to do things, it always strikes me as a really, really stupid standpoint to take. Especially if you are a victim of harassment. The only people who win if grassing stops people acting are the bullies, the people making your lives miserable are being protected by your wrong impression that it's a bad thing to tell.

If someone is calling you fat, or stupid, or ugly; if they are spreading rumours about you, or posting messages about you online, then we will act. Trying to put people down in order to make yourself look better is the lowest, nastiest, worst characteristic as person can have and there is no space for such people here.

So, take control, don't let others control how you feel and look for the good things to focus on. That way, you can be happy and achieve whatever you put your mind to.

To finish, then, a couple sections from two poems. The writers of the words are separated by over 150 years, but the message is the same from both people - take control of your life, be in charge of who you are and don't let anyone else dictate to you who you are.

First of all, a few lines from a poem I've read before: If, Rudyard Kipling.

If you can keep your head when all about you

Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,

If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you …

If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken

Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,

Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,

And stoop and build them up with worn out tools …

And finally, I am sure you will quickly work out who wrote these lines:

I stay out too late

Got nothing on my brain,

That's what people say.

But I keep cruising

Can't stop, won't stop moving

It's like I got this music

In my mind

Saying "It's going to be all right."

Because the players are going to play,

And the haters are going to hate

Baby, I'm just going to shake,

I shake it off.

And if you didn't get it, that was Taylor Swift, "Shake it Off". . . (I bet you've never heard her quoted like that before...)

Labels

This week's theme for assembly was on 'Labels':

Labels are everywhere and we use them all the time. They are used in so many ways that the whole concept of labelling is embedded deep into our culture - you can't go anywhere without seeing labels or being labelled.

And if we look way, way back, it becomes clear why we label - as a species, when we came down from the trees and started to explore the world around us, the bewildering array of new and different things could well have ended our evolutionary progress before we got very far indeed, as it so frequently has. The thing is, the world is such a complex place, so full of new things, that our brains could easily become overwhelmed by the variety. Or we could become so limited that our very existence would be at risk. As an example of this, there is a species of bird that will only eat a specific fruit from one type of tree. It doesn't matter that there are other trees, or that there are other fruit that this bird could eat, but no; they do not have the ability to look and compare and judge that another fruit is, in effect, the same or similar to the one they eat. And as a result, they are now at risk of extinction because the fruit from this one tree is changing due to global warming and they are not recognising the new fruit as something edible.

We must have, at some point, evolved the ability to look at things and recognise similarities - that fruit looks similar to this one, which I like, so I will probably like that one too. . . And so we evolve.

It's also important to be able to compare and contrast things so that we can spot things even if they don’t look like we expect them to do so. If I'm hunting an elephant, for example, I need to be able to find the elephant, even if it's partially hidden in a bush; this can only happen because our brains can look at a bush with an elephant hiding in it and spot the patterns that would indicate that there is an elephant in there. If we didn’t have that compare and contrast ability, we would not have seen the elephant, because we would only be looking for a whole elephant, like the one we have a mental picture of in our heads.

But this essential skill has evolved and become more complex as our world has become more complex and has changed as our society has changed. We are, by nature, a cataloguing, list making, labelling animal because it is what got us where we are. The trouble is, we can't stop labelling!

Labels can be useful - the labels on medicine telling us not to take it, the labels (or signs) warning us about danger, are all perfectly useful. Scientists who study patterns, looking for new discoveries; the elusive cure for cancer, say, or the solution to the world energy crisis will be found by labelling, cataloguing and looking for those patterns…

And labelling happens all the time in our day to day lives; in the supermarket, the food labels helping us make healthy choices, labels that help us clean our clothes effectively at the right temperature and in the right way. Labels can even be pretty harmless; I am wearing labels; my watch, my suit, even my socks, are all labelled, branded. So what? I can buy the most expensive item of clothing and it could well have been made in a factory somewhere in the world right next to a similar item being made for Primark - how do I know?

But this is where it starts to go wrong, and labelling can be something harmful. I, personally, do not think that I am any better than someone else, just because I am wearing an Armani watch, but the wearing of specific labels can frequently be interpreted in this way. It is why so many schools have very strict rules on clothing; because there are some people who feel that by wearing a particular brand of shoes, or trainers, that this makes them better, bigger than someone else. I do not understand this logic at all, but it is there, in quite a significantly childish way. And it is promoted by advertising and the media - the footballer who promotes a particular brand, the supermodel who wears a particular perfume. I am not naive enough to think that just because I might buy David Beckham's latest clothing item that I will suddenly look like him … …

When we label to discriminate, to separate and isolate, it becomes something wrong and harmful. Our original evolutionary drive to compare was to help us see similarities, but we far too frequently use this essential skill to separate and isolate. To label myself a Manchester United fan, for example, would isolate myself from those of you who follow other local teams. (This is why I am a Rugby Union fan & refuse to be drawn into the tribal labelling that exists in football).

We are all labelled, all the time. This is to understand how we are, how we behave, but if we lose sight of the fact that we are all, in fact, individuals, with our own unique set of strengths, weaknesses and priorities, then we see that labelling people is pretty useless and frequently counterproductive.

That is why, here at Sandymoor, we refuse to label people. We do not have sets, and you are not taught in groups that label you. Instead, your teachers treat you all as individuals, tailoring your experience to your needs.

That is why we hold you, individually, to account here at Sandymoor. We do not label you and treat you differently just because of who you are. Too many schools do that. The 'Oh, that's so and so - they always behave like that' or the 'Don't try that - it'll be too hard for you'. This is so important, because when people do limit us, they put chains on our imagination that are hard to break. I remember to this day a senior teacher at my school saying to my parents that there were limits to my future - this person stated that sixth form would be of limited use to me because I wasn't bright enough to go to university … and here I am, with three degrees to my name … believe me when I tell you that I will never limit you, or let anyone else limit you.

At Sandymoor, we will never limit you or assume you have boundaries to your potential - instead, we will always work with you to help you achieve what you desire. As I've said many times before, the only limit to your future is your imagination. And some hard work ,of course, but without imagination, without a goal to aspire to, all the hard work in the world will get you nowhere.

Bullying, intimidation, harassment - all the things we have a zero tolerance policy towards - all start with making assumptions, labelling people, not looking at the individual, but treating them like someone, something different. Bullying starts with trying to limit the victim, let them feel that they are somehow less, somehow deserving of it all. And we will not tolerate this in any area.

So, at Sandymoor, no-one will ever say to you that you have limits on what you can achieve. No-one will ever put you in a class and then put a limiting label on that class. This is why we do not set, why we do not have a top, middle & bottom group. No-one will ever say that you shouldn't try something because it's beyond you or that you would never be able to understand. Instead, we promise to work with you, alongside you, to help you achieve your dreams and aspirations. Dare to dream, dare to aspire and we will support you all the way.

Following the Rules

The first assembly after half term was a revisit of rules and responsibilities;

Ok, so we all hate following the rules, don't we? The signs that say 'Please don't walk on the grass' make me want to, just because the sign says I can't!

But following rules is part of being one of a group, whether that's a family, a work place, a country or a school. The 'rules' are a set of guiding principles that a particular group of people agree to follow & they are not always bad!

Especially because a world with no rules at all would not be a good idea. It may sound great when you first think about it, but after a while, it quickly becomes more of a nightmare. The film series The Purge, where, for one day a year, there are no rules, shows what a world would be like without the mutual agreement to follow a set of laws. . .

Think about games for example. When we, as a family, play games, the youngest always wants to play by a slightly different set of rules; maybe that's why she always wins at Ludo … !

 

Or if we look at sports, all sports have a set of rules, in order for the game to progress with a clear flow and outcome. And yes, I know it's popular for the overpaid so-called stars of football to challenge the rules, but all their posturing and complaining doesn't affect the outcome or sway the referee. (as an aside, this is one of the reasons why I prefer rugby - one of the rules of rugby is that the referee's decision is final and binding, so there's never the toddler-like tantrums when someone falls foul of a rule during the game).

And there are rules we follow just by being part of the country. It's part of being 'British' - the unwritten rule that we will follow the rules, or laws,  and suffer the consequences if we're caught breaking them.

I may not like them all, I may not even agree with some of them, but that is completely irrelevant. As an adult member of society, I have to abide by the laws of the land. If I don't like it, I have the freedom to leave and go to another country. Or I can petition, become active and work to change the rules. Maybe I could even become a politician, go to parliament and work to change the rules. People have done so before; the abolition of slavery, equal rights for women, universal education and health care for all, etc. . .

But in the meantime, I accept the rules and live by them, or suffer the consequences if I don't. I know, for example, that if I am caught speeding on the roads, I will be fined & I know that, no matter how urgent, I must never answer an email or text while driving. It may be an important meeting that I'm running late for, but to speed to get there is not allowed by the rules & there are consequences if I'm caught breaking them. Even if I don't know it's against the rules; not knowing is not an excuse. . . There are people who think it is perfectly fine to break the rules on a regular basis - shoplift something just because they like the look of it & don't have the money to buy it, perhaps, or to drive without insurance because they can't afford the premiums. But these people are, in fact, hurting everyone else - goods in shops cost more because the shop has to make up for the lost income & my insurance for my car costs more to cover the people who cause accidents without insurance.

To decide to not follow the rules is a truly selfish act, thinking entirely of yourself, rather than others & not caring about harming others in the process.

And when you go to work in a company, you enter into a contract. The contract states that, providing you perform certain tasks, then you will get paid. But along with that, every company will have a set of rules that every employer agrees to abide by in order to be paid. In most companies, these rules are more commonly referred to as a 'Code of Conduct', because it's assumed that it's more of a mutual agreement to behave and act in a certain way in support of the company.

There's a lot in the news at the moment about how some politicians are not following their code of conduct and are suffering the consequences.

At Sandymoor, we have a Professional Conduct document that sets out the standards that all employees are expected to work with in order to support everything the school stands for.

And as students, you, too, have a set of standards that you are expected to work with as a Sandymoor student. You signed a home-school agreement when you first joined the school that sets out some of those standards of conduct. These are:

• Come to school expecting and wanting to learn.
• Approach each lesson in a positive manner, ready to listen and to be involved.
• Bring to each lesson all the books and equipment required.
• Keep books and files in suitable order within school or at home.
• Be conscientious in the completion of work in school or at home.
• Want to make progress and to seek help and advice when necessary.
• Take time in thinking about how they learn best.

You also agree to work with us in your standards of behaviour and dress & these are also written out and have been shared with you and your families. By being a Sandymoor student, you agree to live according to these rules, this code of conduct. And you agree to accept the consequences of not doing so.

I have spent some not inconsiderable time over the half term break preparing a single document that has the Professional Conduct expected from everyone who is part of the Sandymoor Community, both staff and students. This single document is designed to be a one-stop location for all our conduct & it is designed to show the (you, the) students that we are not expecting anything significantly above and beyond what any employer would expect of an employee (& indeed what I expect of every member of staff at Sandymoor).

To view this document, please click here.

And when you are challenged by a member of staff, either about your uniform, your behaviour or the quality of your work, all that is happening is that the member of staff is following their code of conduct in pointing out to you that you are not. . .