In September 2019, the year started like any other for the Sixth Form. Year 12 met with Norwich, Blackheath and Bromley High Schools for the annual Inspire East Conference at Churchill College, Cambridge where motivational speaker Hayley Barnard challenged them to “Dare to Dream, but Dream with a Plan” and told them that, “If you don’t ask you don’t get!”
Joining Year 13 in the Common Room they put this into practice from day one; investigating career paths and university courses, attending open days and completing work experience, reading articles and books that interested them, taking MOOCs, Massive Open On-line Courses, delivered remotely by universities from Stanford to Queensland to demonstrate super-curricular knowledge and planning for the future. Some travelled to Riga as part of the Erasmus programme, took part in the ‘Now’s the Time’ MedVet conference or the immersive Gatsby experience in London. In October, some of us were lucky enough to travel together to California exploring San Francisco and Silicon Valley, pictures of which you will find below.
At Christmas, our musicians performed with the Orchestra of the Swan at the concert in All Saints, Northampton, and the Senior Hall was packed for the House Plays followed by Christmas lunch with music and crackers in the Dining Hall.
In the new year, the Sixth Form sat on the sofas in the Common Room or in the ‘UCAS hub’ in the sunshine, making plans for the future. Live hustings were held in the Hall for the School Student Leadership Team, votes and interviews were held, the new team was appointed.
And then, the world changed.
Suddenly, comparisons with the Roaring Twenties became horribly real. For Spanish Flu read COVID-19. Two weeks before Easter, the school closed. Together, we embraced Guided Home Learning and learned to engage with live lessons and assemblies on Teams and Google Classroom.
At home with their families, the Sixth Form adjusted to social distancing, isolation, and communicating with friends and family via Zoom and Facetime.
Things got worse as the virus took hold and then, gradually they started to get better. The rules were relaxed, we spent some time in school socially distanced during the Summer Term, and then we were back in school in the Autumn. How we all appreciated being back together and realised how much friendships and informal conversations with those around us mattered.
Year group bubbles meant that the Leadership roles the Sixth Form would have expected to take were limited to what could be achieved remotely. They took the time to explore all that the virtual world had on offer. Opportunities to connect with other GDST schools meant that students were able to attend seminars and access a programme of speakers that would have been impossible for a single school to offer. This Sixth Form cohort is better prepared for the independent learning required at university and in the wider world than any that has gone before.
Another lockdown and then, back in school before Easter, Year 13 planned their Leavers’ Week celebrations and started to make the Leavers’ Film. A nostalgic time travel theme saw the cohort revisit key moments in their High School careers and enact rites of passage that were only imagined by this cohort. Memories were made, Year 13 left and Year 12, with a new School Student Leadership Team and House Captains, took the reins and began to take the Sixth Form forward. Sports Day was a spectacular success, records were broken, the House spirit revived, and year group bubbles enjoyed picnics.
The familiar rhythm of school life returned and plans for the future were made but with a new appreciation of what we all mean to each other and how we needed each other to get through the pandemic to this point.
But just when all was getting back on track, a Covid case in 6.1 last week has meant that a number of students are back at home self-isolating.
We are looking forward to welcoming them back on Monday for the last two weeks of term. We will also be celebrating with Mr Viesel, who has been appointed to the role of Director of Sixth Form from September and is currently on paternity leave following the birth of his daughter.
He is very much looking forward to exciting times ahead as the Sixth Form moves forward taking the gains made at this exceptional time into the new school year.
Not just back to where we were before but back kinder, stronger, with greater collaboration, real and virtual, and really understanding the true meaning and value of community.
As many of you know I am retiring in August and moving on to new challenges. I have thoroughly enjoyed my 11 years at the High School, teaching Physics, leading the Science Faculty, and most recently the Sixth Form. I have always felt it to be the best job in the school. Supporting our students as they plan for the world ahead and seeing them develop and then leave as confident, articulate, ambitious individuals ready to take their place in the world in whatever is their chosen field is a great privilege. I look forward to hearing about the directions this cohort takes next year and their future successes.
Mrs Cantwell
Director of Sixth Form