From the Head's Desk - September

Many of you will have had a lovely summer holiday and last year I described a hair raising experience on a ferry in Croatia. This year I am sadly bereft of equally dramatic stories, although keeping my patience while shopping in 47 degree heat in Palermo had the potential to be dramatic. What I want to share is my exasperation with luggage allowances. Paying for extra bags really irritates me, being a miser and skinflint, therefore I occupied much of my time before going away with finding the best possible system to pack as much as possible into 55x35x22cm. I was not remotely interested in what clothes to take - chargers, earbuds, toothbrush are all fairly small, my main issue was books. I know I could have a kindle, I have got one, but the books I like to read are more of a physical presence. That’s not to be pretentious but its just that many are not made for e-books. I am happy to share that I take at least six books of several hundred pages each on holiday, with the intention of using my down time to devour them one after the other. I am also happy to share that any other holiday items were passed onto my children to maximise space for some of the bigger ones, and one was carried, like a weapon of knowledge, onto the plane as it wouldn’t fit into the bag, which had it been opened would have projectile vomited its contents across the departure gate like some form of primordial lizard.

I have always loved reading, no matter what it was. Academic or not I was very happy to be given a book. This did not stop me doing many other things but it was a place to return to that gave me great pleasure no matter what was going on in my life or around me. I would argue that out of almost any pursuit I can think of, reading is the one that you can derive the most from. Whether it is the escapism, the excitement, the pain, the joy, the laughter, the acquisition of knowledge or advancement of your ability that a book gives.

Many of you will be inwardly panicking as you don’t like reading or you think you cannot do it but fear not because audio books can offer you the opportunity to read while doing other things, or relax before bed. This option is also perfectly valid, the mechanical act of reading in a comfortable place with a mug of your favourite drink can be replicated by listening to the same book in the same place. Some of you will be saying that television, YouTube, the internet has replaced the book in the way we experience things. I am not going to fully disagree with you but consider this, a television programme, a film or a YouTube clip contains only a fraction of the story it is possible to convey from even a moderately sized novel or non-fiction book. Furthermore, the depth of complexity that is present in any book of any moderate size, be it a story or factual book, far outweighs in sophistication anything you can get from a visual image or images. One statistic I have mentioned before is that the evidence shows us that year on year exam courses and universities are having to reduce content or reduce the level of ability expected from students as, year on year, they are welcoming Year 11s and 13s and university undergraduates who cannot process ideas. More accurately they have a 20 second response to a far more complex problem. Think of all the people on the internet and on marches who think they know everything, but scrape the surface and they will almost certainly know less than they should. Remember that opinions without evidence are worthless and sometimes dangerous.

Reading also allows you to increase your vocabulary and express yourself in a multiplicity of ways. I have again always loved language, the origins of words and the use of words is fascinating. My eldest daughter is an intelligent young woman but her use of language sometimes mystifies me. I asked her on holiday to wear a hat as we were going out into the sun for a fairly long time. Her response was ‘this fit is fire and if you make me wear that I will look butters’. Now for the unenlightened amongst you this makes no sense but, I am lead to believe, it suggests that her sartorial arrangement was such that it ascended to the heady heights of the fashion conscious and were I to insist upon millinery being an adjunct it would place her irrevocably in a position whereby her appearance and social kudos would descend to unspeakable levels of repugnance and disgust- or simply, what I am wearing is cool, the hat makes me look hideous.  

I want to encourage you all then, even if it is baby steps, to increase your reading in one way or another.  The average attainment of those who read is consistently higher than those who do not - in some cases students gain a grade or more if they develop a pattern of reading. In 2023 in the UK, just 2 in 5 said they enjoyed reading - the lowest level since records began post World War Two. 3 in 10 read daily, which has also dropped to its lowest level and what is read is less and less challenging as pupils find longer words and synonyms outside of their daily conversation increasingly hard to understand. Think about this, if you read, or listen to books, for 20 minutes a day that is the equivalent of around 1.8 million words in a year! That’s more than the longest novel ever published, the Remembrance of Things Past by Proust, and some of his sentences are half a page long!! Start small and ask for help if you are unsure. Across the school, in different ways, we are going to encourage you to read more and I guarantee you will feel the benefits.