Finding ourselves in new circumstances, good or bad, or facing fresh challenges, can feel overwhelming. It certainly did at 9pm on the Monday evening the Prime Minister announced school closure with immediate effect!  The uncertainty of tackling something without previous experience, adequate information, or under time pressure can be a major source of stress too.  Crises can also be opportunities, however, as long as we employ the right mind-set – the very mind-set we seek to develop in our young people.  A mind-set that views impediments and difficulties as a chance to build our skills, utilise the resources we have at our disposal, develop our resilience and cultivate our ability to ride out those curve balls that, at some point, life is bound to throw at us.   

All this is scaffolded for the children, of course, by removing as much uncertainty as possible, helping them keep a sense of perspective, sustaining them at the edge of the comfort zone, ensuring they know there is always a safety net in place, and encouraging them to seek support when required, rather than see this as a flaw.  Heraclitus of Ephesus, a great thinker, saw life as a river. He affirmed that, “you can never step in the same river twice”. This is because either you have changed and/or so has the river.   

If change is inevitable, we need to help children to develop the ability and ways of thinking required to adapt quickly and more effectively…..whilst enjoying the ride!  I hope we have modelled this approach in responding to our latest challenges. 

As a staff team, we have worked incredibly hard to ensure school life resumed as swiftly as possible. We have put in place the measures required to deliver both engaging learning sessions and other elements of an All Hallows education that help us all feel that we belong – and that we are nurtured and enveloped by those around us. In designing our provision, we have taken on board feedback from pupils, staff and parents around previous periods of remote learning with a view to making the children’s learning as involving and stimulating as possible, as well as increasingly interactive. We believe this will ensure that they receive the very best provision and support we can provide.   

So, thank you to my fantastic staff team for their determination, flexibility, creativity and their long days to ensure this particular curve ball was swiftly batted into touch.  They are a dedicated bunch! 

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