HEADMASTER’S STATEMENT
IN T RODUCT I O N
WELCOME
Headmaster’s Statement ‘It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of light, it was the season of darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair’. Dickens’ eloquent and moving depiction of the divisions underpinning 18th Century Europe seems particularly apposite as I reflect on this past year. A year of such great contrasts: highs and lows, cast from a time of crisis, bringing out the best of our community and yet asking so much from it. It would be wrong of me not to acknowledge the enormous suffering faced by so many of our number at St Dunstan’s. For some, the disease of Covid 19 has struck directly, causing illness and loss of life within families near and far. For all of us, the indirect impacts of the pandemic have been significant. Lockdowns for the young have been shown to be particularly egregious. To be deprived of the social affirmation and interaction so necessary at a young age, has been an enormous psychological burden to bear. When coupled to an internet-age, where social media becomes the crutch onto which growing hands must grasp, we see the perfect storm for the sort of problems we are now seeing as a country. Forget the third wave; I see a new pandemic for the nation, and one that needs more than lockdowns to keep it from our door. It needs a creative, compassionate and courageous approach to the care of our young, to educational thinking and its leadership.
Fortunately, it does seem as though the DNA of St Dunstan’s has been particularly well programmed to respond to the challenges the pandemic has thrown at us. I have long championed the importance of a values-driven education. An education that, first and foremost, roots outcomes in the development of good character, open-mindedness, creative-thinking and resilience. An education that is academically ambitious and stimulating but not at any cost. An education that develops young men and women who can cope with the vagaries of life and in an increasingly uncertain world. It is an education like this that has been shown to come into its own during the pandemic. Any school can create a narrow-minded and self-satisfying culture that drives for academic attainment as its sole goal. It takes a brave and integrous school to say that everything else matters just as much. The Forder Programme, The Festival, Adventure Week – we do these things not because they are elaborate extras that can be delivered by a well-resourced school, but because they genuinely matter. They matter because they scaffold the enlivenment of our values and as such help develop young men and women with the skills required to withstand the challenges of life. The CHRONICLE 2021
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