Pastoral

RESILIENCE & OPPORTUNITY

As you thumb through the pages of this year’s edition of KPS KIF I am sure your hearts will be warmed. If a picture paints a thousand words, then the 2021/22 edition is a veritable tome, highlighting through wonderful photos just how life at KPS came roaring back after a testing couple of pandemic years.

Starting my tenure as Principal of the Kingswood Foundation during this time of course had its challenges, but as Mr Brearey points out, the children of KPS have shown tremendous resilience, and continued to develop both academically and pastorally. Through a myriad of opportunities for Drama, Art, DT, Science, Languages and Sport, the experience of a KPS pupil is truly one of depth and breadth that enables each child to flourish.

The magnificent new Nursery and Prep buildings are now filled with the voices of happy youngsters being looked after by talented and dedicated staff. How blessed we are to have such wonderful facilities, on the edge of the Cotswold Way in the beautiful city of Bath. The four pillars of our Foundation strategic plan provide the framework that will inform the exciting years ahead as we care for each individual, educate children for life, serve our local community, and strive to live sustainably.

Looking to the future, 2023 marks the 275th anniversary of Kingswood School, during which time we look forward to engaging with our Kingswood families, present and past, to join our celebratory events. It is a privilege for me to lead this inclusive and unpretentious community, confident in our plans to continue to offer an education of breadth, balance and wellbeing. My heartfelt thanks to all our KPS parents for your ongoing support, and of course to Mr Brearey and his team for their joyful enterprise which, year after year, prepares happy young people to thrive as they graduate from KPS to the Senior School.

...buildings are now filled with the voices of happy youngsters being looked after by talented and dedicated staff.

KINGSWOOD & COMMUNITY

I joined Kingswood at a time when Covid kept us separated in bubbles and I could only meet a couple of year groups at a time.

Ahighlight in that first term were the times when we gathered as a whole community on the Summerhill Lawn: first in a moving age-appropriate Remembrance Service where each class laid a wreath that they had made; and then in an end of term assembly when the whole school joined me in a dramatic telling of the Christmas story. A few staff members shed a tear on seeing those first moments of being together after so much time of separation. Learning to live in community is an important aspect of a Kingswood education; being there to share joy together and support one another in sadness. It was a real joy to witness the celebration of the Queen’s Jubilee and I so admired the children’s sense of occasion, care, and respect when we met to give thanks for the Queen’s life. A more recent highlight has been watching the older children become buddies to younger children and older monitors supporting the youngest in their now whole school assemblies, learning through helping and through being helped.

John Wesley our Founder envisaged an authentic community in which each person can flourish and in Jesus’ words, ‘live life in all its fullness’. A community in which we come with all our individual gifts and talents, where we can think differently but love alike.

We learn together, grow together, flourish together in a loving, caring and kind community. This is the place that I have discovered at Kingswood.