Like all of my colleagues at HSW, I take a couple of break duties every week. After dishing out the obligatory biscuits and fruit to the orderly queues of discerning patrons, I enjoy a few minutes of conversation. What fine, affable company our students are! We catch up, exchange ideas and jokes, catch the zeitgeist. I watch as they relax together and I am struck by how remarkably polite and respectful they are – not just to me, but to each other. Twenty-five years of service in schools has delivered me innumerable breaktime duties – and many of them I have spent refereeing, adjudicating and even policing. But R&R time is spent differently here. There is a light and jovial buzz, a very positive energy to be found in the playground. I have often said that the strength of our school is the warm and respectful relationships between our staff and students – and that is most certainly true – but the way students interact with each other is the true test of whether a school is getting it right or not. In this respect, we are indeed the very best school I have encountered. The weather may soon turn and we will be donning coats in no time, but the camaraderie and joy found throughout our campus is restorative and heart-warming.

Yours,