Sitting in my office gazing out at the Plane Tree in the garden of No11 The Close in the drizzle you could be forgiven for thinking that this is just another ordinary summer at school. As the end of the long break threatens and exams data washes into school the turn of the academic year is under way. Soon the masses of boys and girls will arrive, many with new uniforms and unfamiliar bags, the teachers will have to try to remember classroom routines and the school’s pulse will quicken. That all sounds very familiar, and so it should. Except this has not been a normal summer, and I am not referring to the weather alone…
Both of our exam groups, in Year 11 and Year 13, faced significant challenges during the course of the last 2 years, and both have shown themselves capable of great things. Last week our Upper Sixth girls and boys scored our best exam outcomes yet, just about equalling the high water mark established through teacher assessments in 2021. They will now be excitedly planning for the next steps at university and the wider world. This week it was the turn of the boys who have taken their GCSEs with us to receive their grades and again the good news was fairly relentless; lots and lots of happy boys and girls will be joining us in September having come through the trial of exams and triumphed.
A glance in the rear view mirror reminds me what they have had to contend with. Year 13 lost their chance to sit GCSE of course, and both year groups lost around 14 weeks or so of face to face learning in spring/summer 2020 and then again in the early spring of 2021. Both groups had to endure mass vaccination, waves of infection, restrictions on learning, constriction of extra-curricular experience and a higher than usual level of staff absence. Other year groups have had to overcome a similar range of hurdles, but at less critical times in their school calendar. Then take into account the particular context, as both of these groups were in the vanguard of significant changes at their school. Our Year 11 boys are our first large year group through, having led the expansion of the school for the past 5 years. Year 13 is not only our largest year group ever, but also our first girls have taken their A levels. In both cases the youngsters would have been justified to view themselves as guinea pigs, and yet they have done themselves (and all of us) proud.
So although the rights of passage appear routine in summer 2022, the hinterland for our students is anything but. No matter – from here on the future should be in their hands, whether they are moving into the BWS Sixth Form or taking a different path beyond Salisbury.
SDS
