Community

Chapel

‘It’s Chapel, but not as we know it.’ That sums up this very challenging year. At least we started the year in the Chapel building; that made a refreshing change from the Summer Term of 2020 when the College community was scattered across the globe and our worshiping life was restricted to YouTube services. However, though we came back into Chapel in September 2020, the new social distancing restrictions meant that we were limited to year group congregations. This means that the sense of the whole College community gathered together under one roof was last experienced in March 2020. Moreover, the year group congregations were still not allowed to sing hymns; that famous College ‘wall of praise’ has not been heard for over a year. What took its place was a new development - the Year Group choir. Occasionally, the congregation joined in with the choir by enthusiastically clapping the verses of ‘Shine Jesus Shine’. At least clapping was deemed to be Covid safe.

We brought the Autumn Term to a close at Christmas with a beautiful choir-led Carol Service for the Sixth Form which we were able to stream live. And then we were back to remote Chapel. Throughout this period our pupils were amazing. They wrote and recorded Chapel talks, readings and prayers. Once again, the Chapel experience bound the College community together during a very difficult time. All our prayers and hopes are now focused on a return to normality this coming year. My thanks go to our visiting preachers and all the pupils who amazed us with fantastic Chapel talks. On that note, I am happy to announce that the joint winners of The Jackson-Matthew’s Prize for the best Chapel address are Alexander Taylor on ‘Blessings’ and Georgia-Lili Robertson on ‘Forgiving One Another’.

Dr Adam Dunning

Forgive one another. Now, I could leave it there, but I’ve got seven minutes to fill and I have learned that sadly it is just not that simple. There are copious questions on this topic, such as: ‘Why should we forgive?’ ‘When is it right to forgive?’ And for me, the most challenging one: ‘How can I forgive?’. Now you’ll be glad to hear that I’m not going to stand here and retell an emotive story from my life about how I forgave someone and that now I am a better person for it. No, I’m going to use someone else’s. But before I do, an important distinction to make about forgiveness is that it is not just a feeling. It is an internal and external process as well as an action. This simply means that saying you forgive someone isn’t enough; you have to be ready to free yourself from the hook that binds you to your intangible trauma, no matter how long it takes or what form it may adopt.

Now to the story, which might be slightly eye opening before 9 o’clock on a Friday morning, but stay with me on this. In October 2018, a 22-year-old trainee doctor, Grace Spence Green, was walking through a shopping centre in London when an unthinkably traumatic event occurred that would change her life forever.

Unbeknownst to Grace, four hours prior to her arrival a suicidal man, under the influence of illegal substances, had tragically been planning the position and timing of a suicidal jump from the third floor of the shopping centre as a final option to free himself from his overwhelming emotional pain. Purely by chance, the man jumped and fell directly onto Grace, saving his life but with devastating consequences for Grace who had to endure hours of surgery and who was left paralysed from the chest down for life.

What seemed to capture the headlines and consequentially, the general public more than her catastrophic injuries, was the fact that she stated she felt no anger towards this man who had caused the course of her life to redirect. Despite initial anger and wanting to seek justice for the damage he had caused, Grace grew to believe that she had given him a second chance by saving his life. She came to the realisation that this was the life she was supposed to live; this was the course she was given to take. She forgave him. She stated that there was no point considering the ‘what ifs’ that could have prevented the situation and when she had come to terms with this, she was ready to forgive him and start the new chapter in her life.

Many of you will be wondering why she forgave this man and how she moved on with her life. The answer is disappointing I’m afraid: we will never know. The process of forgiveness is so personal only the forgiver will know when they are ready. Only they will know once they have truly forgiven.

Despite there being 62 passages in the bible containing the word forgive and 27 with the word forgiveness in it, not a single one tells us how to do it. So, the question that needs to be asked is not so much how but why should we forgive? Forgiveness can be interpreted as a creation of peace in the present. Forgiveness is designed to set us free. It is the acknowledgement of our trauma, our acceptance, and marks a turning over of a page in our life and starting a new chapter. Now I’ve made that sound really simple, but this process can take years.

In order to forgive you have to be specific about what it is that you are forgiving, as you cannot forgive something that did not happen to you. In Judaism, the family cannot forgive murders because they were not killed, they can only forgive the pain, anguish and grief that the loss caused them.

But equally it is natural to feel rage and demand vengeance. Even this is part of the forgiveness process. Anger is important: it is the fire that cauterises our wounds, causing them to scar over and heal. Without that heat we will never truly heal. When we are able to forgive, we start to seek justice rather than revenge.

Now finally, we were given this gift of life, we were all put on this planet for a reason and created differently to bring a new positive dimension to life. So, without telling you what to do, I’d like to advise that you only have one life so make the most of it and don’t let tragic and unstoppable situations consume you. Forgive when you are ready: you’ll know how, and you’ll know when. Then you will have achieved the dignity of acting with justice.

In words familiar to us, in a world where you can be anything, be kind and be forgiving.

I want to start by asking everyone here in Chapel to try and think about the most important blessing you have in your life. If this Chapel service was your last, would you leave regretting any blessings you may have failed to embrace? Sadly, I am standing here today with only one week and two days left of my time at College and I knew that I needed to embrace speaking in Chapel as I would regret not taking this blessing if I hadn’t done so.

When I began writing this, I struggled at first to write down our blessings as it seemed most of them were taken away from us by Covid, but now, as we are approaching the summer, it’s becoming more apparent that many small blessings are slowly returning to us. In my opinion, I think the pandemic has given me a perspective on how lucky we are to be in the position we’re in today.

So, let’s break down what a blessing actually means. In the bible, blessings take many forms: God’s promise of abundance, of healing, of mercy, justice, and peace but if we take it out of a biblical context, a blessing can be understood to be something that makes a person happy or content.

With that in mind, over the Easter holiday and at the start of this term I had more time to reflect on my own blessings and what made me truly happy and content. Whenever I contemplate the many blessings that I am fortunate enough to have, one jumps straight to the front of my mind: the fact that I had nine whole years with my mum before she died. As it was her anniversary at Easter and now that I am coming up to nine years she’s not been with us, it made me think a lot about how time really is the blessing that we are all guilty of taking for granted. Before she died, she wrote a letter to my brothers and me, in which she wrote about how we need to make the most of every aspect of life. And now, as my College chapter is about to end, I’ve finally realised what she meant.

Blessings provide us with strength in our bad times, helping us heal from pain. Never miss a chance of helping someone, respecting them or caring about them because these souls bless us for our concern and these blessings act as our shield through hard times.

Victor Frankl, a famous Holocaust survivor, devoted his life to studying, understanding and promoting the meaning of life. His famous book, Man’s Search for Meaning, tells the story of how he survived the Holocaust by finding personal meaning in the experience, which gave him the will to live through it. I agree with him when he states, ‘Life can be made meaningful in a threefold way: first, through what we give to life… Second, by what we take from the world… And third, through the perspective we take on a future we can’t change.’ He also, wrote, ‘We must never forget that we may also find meaning in life even when confronted with a hopeless situation, when facing a fate that cannot be changed’.

It is certain that we have all faced challenges in our lives. But I believe it is the blessings that come from those challenges which is what’s most important and what should be treasured.

I want to end this talk with a reference to my favorite movie About Time. The movie ends with a line from the time travelling protagonist Tim: ‘I just try to live every day as if I’ve deliberately come back to this one day to enjoy it as if it was the full final day of my extraordinary life.’ I think everyone should try to adopt this mindset throughout their life.

With this in consideration, I feel blessed to be giving this talk to you. I want to urge you all to ‘live every day as if you’ve deliberately come back to it’; make the most of the opportunities you have in your years here at College because I cannot tell you how fast time really does travel in them. Don’t leave College without trying new things and branching out. But also find time to pause to appreciate the blessings College has to offer you.

ChatfeildRoberts Library

What an extraordinary time to start my first year as College Librarian. My first job was to create a Covid secure space that could still function as a library! The library team and I worked hard to set up an online booking system to allow pupils and staff access to the books. We also created an Upper College ‘bubble’ area providing our older students with a safe and welcoming place to study. I was so lucky to have such great people around me to guide and assist plus it is an amazing space to inherit.

Many good things have happened this year around whole school reading, one of them being the relaunch of our Reading Diploma. Working alongside the English Department and our Heads of Department, to increase appeal and diversity, we looked again at the book choices on the three different levels of the Reading Diploma and added a wider range of books. We have 130 pupils and 52 staff members enrolled on the scheme. We also have a Carnegie Book Awards Shadowing Group, a Fourth Form Book Group and we welcomed Third Form into the library on a Wednesday after school for library inductions.

Our positive relationship with The Prep library continued to grow. I was honoured to be asked to be a judge for The Prep ‘500 Words’ writing competition and thoroughly enjoyed reading a wide range of stories and then meeting the winners. Our Year 8 pupils started to make lunchtime visits to spend some time in this amazing space. It has been a joy to meet the pupils and I cannot wait to work with them in the coming year.

To say that I am looking forward to this year is an understatement. It has been a pleasure working with the wonderful team here at College and we are so looking forward to opening up our doors and welcoming as many pupils as possible, into this glorious space.

Ms Laura Jones

Cheltenham Education Partnerships

Despite the challenges of lockdown, College has continued to work in partnership with schools in the State sector. At the heart of our partnership programme is our relationship with All Saints’ Academy, Cheltenham. In September the successful 7UP programme switched to a remote teaching programme with College teachers delivering remote extension lessons in English, Physics and Maths via Teams.

As a founding member of Cheltenham Education Partnership (CEP), College was pleased to welcome Mrs Emily Buirski as the group’s first administrator. Eleven

secondary schools have now joined CEP and College’s main contribution continues to be the outreach Latin programme.

A new CEP partnership project being planned for the coming year and which directly involves College, is the community orchestra. This will bring musicians together from across Cheltenham and the intention is that the orchestra will perform its first concert in the Town Hall in the Spring of 2022. Alongside this, the Chorister scheme, which has been suspended since March 2020, will also be up and running again, and there are plans to extend links this with a new community children’s choir which will meet at College on Saturday mornings.

In the Summer Term, Mrs Sarah Enright visited Year 6 at Naunton Park Primary School to work on a theme of Japan. Looking at slides of Japanese landscape, ink drawings, photographs and maps, the pupils identified the typical features in the art work such as the mountains, water, koi carp, fishing boats, bamboo and temples. The pupils worked on reproducing these features using ink, water and a very delicate hand. Once they had mastered controlling the brush in a very sophisticated and thoughtful manner, each pupil developed their own, individual compositions. They produced some wonderful work and were beautifully focused!

Finally, we are delighted to welcome Mrs Emma Hindle to the team as our new partnership administrator.

Dr Adam Dunning

Community Action

At times it seemed unlikely that the Community Action Programme would run, as a large proportion of the placements were closed to visitors. Instead of getting pupils out of the ‘College bubble’ and into the community, opportunities were needed closer to school. Needless to say, the programme had to be reinvented and despite the initial hurdles, 53 Lower Sixth students and 24 Fourth Form pupils volunteered in some way.

Fourth Form

Pupils undertook the Be Internet Citizens course led by Young Gloucestershire. The course covered topics such as emotional manipulation, polarisation and fake news, taught critical thinking and media literacy and encouraged young people to use their voice positively online. As the weather improved and restrictions lifted, pupils had the opportunity to volunteer beyond College boundaries; they were able to provide some much needed maintenance in a local churchyard and brighten up some tired benches at Cheltenham General Hospital with a lick of paint.

The last week of term saw a group of 16 pupils develop projects based around their charitable interests. In teams they planned their course of action, liaised with relevant agencies and staff to bring their projects to fruition and raised money through online giving and collections. The resourcefulness and enthusiasm of these young people has been amazing, giving them skills for life. Activities ranged from washing cars, collecting money in the town centre, a bake sale and cycle ride around Cheltenham racecourse. The amount raised in just FOUR days was more than £1,000 for the Cheltenham Animal Shelter and Age UK. We are truly proud of their hard work, persistence in overcoming obstacles and the satisfaction of raising money for charitable causes. Well done!

Students’ activities have ranged from writing letters and holding virtual meetings with residents from local homes, knitting hats for premature babies, raising money to send books to the Gogar Primary School library in Kenya, helping at sports clubs in The Prep, and supporting a local charity shop.

Outdoor activities have been a large part of this year’s programme. We have a close relationship with our neighbour, Cheltenham General Hospital and were given the opportunity to develop a copse into a Forest School for nursery children of NHS staff. Under the guidance of Dr James Copeland-Jordan it proved to be a learning experience for our students. Much thought was given to how the environment was a haven for wildlife, thus needing appropriate plants and foliage to be planted.

Similarly, Thirlestaine Park Care Home were delighted with the tubs of flowers that six of our students designed and created for their garden festival. They really did look super!

College grounds also benefitted from our pupils help, working alongside the gardeners to develop aesthetic areas for relaxation.

Third Form

In Activities Week this year, the Third Form embarked on five days of creativity, challenge and community action. In addition to days of musical theatre, Dragon’s Den and a 12-mile Cotswold walk, the pupils undertook a range of small group volunteering projects in Cheltenham organised by the amazing Mrs Sue Kilby. Pupils worked with great respect and tenacity on the following projects: clearing flowerbeds and painting fences at the Riding for Disabled centre at the racecourse; gardening at St Faith’s Nursing Home, cleaning and playing with the children at the Family Space (Oasis Centre, Hester’s Way); painting walls and benches at Cheltenham General Hospital; and conserving graves with OC David Lyle (Thirlestaine, 1972) at St Mary’s church, Prestbury. College is hugely grateful to the placement hosts,

accompanying staff and Mrs Sue Kilby for facilitating this fantastic opportunity for the pupils.

Team Effort

Although there were only three weeks of the Spring Term when we were at school, Lower Sixth and Fourth Form worked together to create some gifts for our care homes. Daffodil posies were made for Mothering Sunday and a selection of Easter gifts delighted the residents of local care homes.

Despite the frustrations and restrictions that the pandemic has caused, it has been heart warming to see the relationships that have been forged during this time and how much it has meant to the residents of our homes and those who have appreciated our support and gifts during this time. Pupils are to be commended for their enthusiasm, resourcefulness and ‘can do’ attitude. Thank you.

Mrs Julia Hande

Societies

In our continued commitment towards an ever more inclusive College community, two important societies were launched this year:

Diversity Society

Diversity comes in many forms: gender, race, religion, sexual orientation, age, culture, socioeconomic background, neurological and physical and all of these contribute to an individual’s unique experience of the world. Diversity Soc was founded to provide a forum to consider and nurture diversity at College. In the Autumn Term, Dunyia Banda and Wanjiru Kariuki led a thoughtprovoking session on unconscious bias; in the Spring Term to mark the 25th anniversary of the passing of the Disability Discrimination Act, El Charles-Jones led an important session on disabilities; and in the Summer Term Olivia Fisher and Anabelle Wells fronted a super session on LGBTQ+ history. Despite the limitations imposed by Covid restrictions, the wonders of Teams actually facilitated more diverse, participation across the year groups, meaning that though we are sorry to see our leading Upper Sixth members depart, there are committed members from younger year groups keen to carry the torch forward!

Miss Jane Brodigan

Pride Society

This year we launched College’s first ever Pride and Allies Society to educate and inspire the College community with talks and discussions on LGBTQ+ culture within College and in the wider world. The reception of our fledgling group was incredible and important discussions were had about LGBTQ+ icons, art, representation and history as well as conversations about our own school culture. This society is hugely important as it allows pupils to be surrounded by likeminded and accepting people while learning about the paramount importance of events like the Stonewall riots and the legislation allowing same sex marriage. In our first year we held four Upper Sixth meetings at which a number of different students led discussions and later in the year, we led individual Lower Sixth and Fifth Form meetings where we discussed the hopes and goals for the LGBTQ+ community at College. This society is incredibly important as its presence alone demonstrates that LGBTQ+ pupils are not alone and, if they choose to, they can become part of an accepting and diverse community in Pride Soc and College at large.

Anabelle Wells

Seeing everyone in our books

The library is full of fantastically diverse stories, so please email library.staff@cheltenhamcollege.org for more ideas or use our library online catalogue Access-IT to reserve a copy https://uk.accessit.online/chl00/#!landingPage