I am often asked, ‘Can you describe a typical HSW pupil?’

Since respecting a person’s individuality is a core value for us, such an answer is challenging. Everyone in our school community is unique – pleasingly so.

In one of my Social Science lessons recently, we concerned ourselves with a tricky question: What makes you you? The students’ answers were fascinating. There was a consensus around the room that there is an invisible quality to us all, a soul, a character, a personality – call it what you will, there is, through some strange and inexplicable reaction, an intangible and unique spirit that resulted from the coalescing of chemical compounds that made us. Whilst none of these elements within us are individually aware of what or who they are, they combine to create a curious consciousness. For that spirit, that self-awareness, to flourish, we need to be in an environment in which our individuality is truly celebrated and respected, for nothing threatens our uniqueness more than an unkind word or a perceived need to follow the crowd and ‘fit in’.

What makes us ‘us’ is fragile at times, it needs rejuvenating, topping up by the kindness of others and the belief of family and friends. But I very much hope there are some common threads to all of us here at No 17, The Downs – some things that do makes us all the same: we are truly known and accepted by those around us, we believe in our own abilities, and our spirits are free.

Can I describe a typical HSW pupil? No. But if I had to say what make us recognisable to others, it is that we are usually found smiling.

Yours,