Away from academic matters, I have found myself thinking about fairness. As adults we know that, unfortunately, life is not always fair. This is true if we consider the life chances of a child born into poverty compared to one born into a financially secure home, or whether we consider something less serious, like the fortunes of our favourite sport team.

Children develop a strong sense of fairness from an early age. All of us with children in our lives have heard the cry “it’s not fair!” delivered at moments of upset or frustration. Children may sometimes miss things that adults notice, but they are always alert to unfair treatment, and they will very often speak up about this.

Fairness is essential in a school. In lessons, we expect all children to have a fair chance to do their best. In co-curricular activities our children expect to have a fair chance of being picked for a sports team, to play in an ensemble, or to secure a part in the production. And beyond lessons and activities, children expect fairness in their interactions with others: they are quick to call out unkindness and prejudice because they know that these things are unfair.

The fairness that our children experience at school does not happen by accident. We have caring and motivated Heads and Assistant Heads of Year, alongside an excellent medical team and welfare manager, Rebecca, all led by Miss Young and Mrs Ewington. This pastoral team dedicate a great deal of their time to ensuring that every child has a fair chance to succeed and is treated fairly by others. And of course, our teachers are aiming to do the same in every lesson they deliver too.

This is an awful lot of staff time to throw at a concept, but I am certain that it is worth it. Our pupils will only put real effort into lessons and activities if they think that they have a fair chance of success. They will only try new things if they believe they will have the same opportunity as other pupils. And the kindness and support that they show to one another every day are rooted firmly in this deep sense of fairness.

I am not naive enough to believe that we always succeed in achieving absolute fairness all of the time, and sometimes, one person's perception of fairness is not the same as another's. But fairness is always a high priority for all our staff, and we will always try to rectify things where unfairness has occurred.

So, perhaps I should have called this Update: life is not fair, but school should be!

With best wishes,
Magnus Anderson
Headmaster