Comment

It seems hardly possible that I have been at Sherborne for only 18 months. Simultaneously, I find it incredible that 18 months have flown by since my arrival as a boarding school ‘ newbie ’ in September 2019. This cognitive dissonance, along with a sense of continually adjusted expectations, is what I think will forever define my first five terms at the School.

With feet barely touching the ground I have gone from living in my own seaside house near to a large, busy city to a life in rural Dorset and in fairly short order then into a Boarding House. On the one hand, it was and is everything I had been led to expect and that I hoped and wanted. On the other, it was absolutely nothing like I anticipated. Yes, the term time life is 24/7 and yes, the bonds with the boys are more intense. But with bubbles and remote learning and social distancing the House has been silent for half of my time as a Resident Tutor, and I’ ve spent a lot more time on my own than would normally be the case and there ’ s been a lot less (no) standing on the sides of pitches or in theatres. Curiously, though, as I sit and look out over the Courts from my desk and reflect, I feel that in many ways the School has been enriched and that I and my department(s) have thrived along with it, despite at times feeling overwhelmed and at others frustrated beyond belief.

Reflecting on this, I think that it all comes down to our choices about how we respond. Whilst it might seem that the right thing to do in the midst of a global pandemic is to ‘batten down the hatches ’ and keep it simple, delivering the minimum and keeping things just ‘ticking over ’ , I disagree, and I think that the School’ s response, much more positively, has been to seize the opportunities afforded by the crisis we have all been living through. In History we have become almost entirely paperless, saving hours of standing by copiers, avoiding the messiness of paper strewn desks and rumpled folders and, importantly, any number of trees. We ’ ve also embraced OneNote if not quite as a friend, then not as a fearful enemy to be avoided at all costs; quite a turnaround for a subject whose natural inclination is pretty much in the ‘ quill and parchment’ category! As I carry out Learning walks and online lesson drop ins and see every teacher operating effectively and delivering great lessons using a platform that six months ago they had never used, I can ’t help but feel proud. We ’ ve also added a new (and brilliant) member to our department in the shape of Will MackenzieGreen, partly as a result of ‘losing ’ Matthew Jamieson to run the response to COVID-19.

The Extended Project Qualification (EPQ) has managed to deliver a Taught Element and Supervisor programme - to an entire year group cohort - not only entirely remotely but at an accelerated pace. Any one of those three would have seemed over-ambitious 18 months ago but it was not only successful but astoundingly so with an excellent retention rate (around 80%) and by far the best results ever for this qualification that the School has seen. As a result I have got to know a large number of boys and teachers who I would never normally have come across in my role and made bonds and forged friendships that have kept me smiling on some of the less triumphant days (usually the ones where the government announces something relating to education). The EPQ profile has also had a huge boost and is likely to continue to grow, resulting in my being able to add Peter Garland to the EPQ team as a Senior Supervisor to support the qualification.

Likewise, in Abbey House the bubbles have meant lots more duties and more circulating and more involvement of Tutors in the running of things that Prefects might normally have done and socialising in House rather than together or with Sherborne Girls. As a result, despite two periods of remote learning, I’ ve spent a vast amount of time with the boys and got to know them really rapidly and really well. The back to front nature of things has also

meant that being here for six months in an empty Boarding House meant that in September I felt that they were coming to ‘ my ’ home as much as I was living in theirs. I’ ve also spent much more time with Hugh and Claire Tatham than I would probably otherwise have done and have been so pleased to find kindred spirits who believe as fiercely as I do in promoting the well being and ‘ well rounded-ness ’ of the boys. The bubbles have meant re-thinking rather than retracting and the development of new approaches, including my own support of ‘ mobile mentoring ’ means that the boys have had a rich offering of social time and group activities, got to know their bubbles extremely well and discovered a real bond within and between some year groups. Extended periods and bubbles have also allowed a different approach to rooming with the Third Form for the first time not all together in a dorm, and year groups in different parts of the House.

Outside of my own little Sherborne ‘bubble ’ of Abbey, EPQ and History, the pattern continues and the restrictions imposed have led to a flowering of imagination and skill as the School has done so, so much more than simply ‘ cope ’ . I’ ve been able to enjoy fantastic House productions performed as radio plays, some breath-taking recorded choral music and Friday performances put together by the extraordinary talents of the boys and the music department, attend online department debates and discussions outside my own subject area, eavesdrop on HAP presentations, watch weekly montages, contribute to House sport challenges and even made a guest ‘ appearance ’ on Radio Sherborne ’ s Politics Show. Not one of those very rewarding experiences was within my expectations or would have been likely without the challenges presented by COVID-19. Even some of the less pleasurable things, such as volunteering as a tester, have had their positives. Not only have I hugely enjoyed the sense of camaraderie of all pitching in together to help and alongside the fairly brutal memory of the return to school testing schedule sits the memory of many hours sitting at my station (Station 1) next to Stephen Byrne (Station 2) while we discussed puppies, children, beaches, philosophy and all manner of things in between processing tests –time I never would have got under any other circumstances that I can think of.

Martin Luther King, Jr said The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy. I think this is true and that history shows it is true not only of people but of groups and institutions. We speak of the ‘ greatest generation ’ of those who lived in Britain through World War Two and whilst comparisons to COVID-19 are spurious and superficial, it is true that in Sherborne the past 18 months has had a seismic impact. Our response to it has been phenomenal and this has only been possible due to the incredible commitment and hard work of so many people in every area of our community and the parental support. I am blown away by the quality of those around me and of what we have been able to achieve together. At the time of typing my fellow teachers and I are pulling off another feat almost beyond human endurance of producing TAG grades for the boys, and I know that, somehow, we will do this, too.

As the end seems to be in sight and others here start to talk about returning to ‘ normal’ , I return to my sense of cognitive dissonance – for me this IS normal, and I can ’t really imagine things to be different. I await the arrival of this ‘ normal’ and, inevitably, for my expectations to once more be turned on their head. I do so, though, confident in the knowledge that I will be able to seize the opportunity to make ‘ my ’ little corner of Sherborne even better and to enjoy watching as we choose to respond with energy and enthusiasm to the as-yetunknown challenges and opportunities ahead. So. No, it’ s really not much like I expected it to be. It’ s much more complicated and so much better than that.

Charlotte Allen Head of History and EPQ Co-ordinator