The exam season is now in full flow, so it is an excellent
time to reflect on the last few months and to think about the future.
I have walked around the campus on a number of occasions
recently and have been amazed by your work ethic and the studious
atmosphere. All of you have found
various nooks and crannies where you can focus on your studies and I can see
the serious way in which you are approaching the next few weeks. As it is the 400th anniversary of
Shakespeare's death, I will endeavour to refer to him having been inspired by a
live show that was beamed to theatres on the actual day.
"There is nothing either
good or bad, but thinking makes it so," Hamlet.
Remember that however difficult it seems at the moment, it
will be worth the short-term sacrifice:
"Come what come may,
time and the hour runs through the roughest day," Macbeth.
It has been wonderful to have been able to respond to a
request to open our Library on Saturdays.
I am delighted that so many of you have used this facility from 10.00 am
until 4.00 pm. It is pleasing that the
numbers have gone up from 14 to 42 to 61 last week. Of course, I am extremely grateful to all of
the staff, particularly Karen, who have made this possible by giving up their
own time. Indeed, I am always thoroughly
grateful and in awe of the lengths our staff go to, to make sure that you are
well prepared for the future.
"Nothing will come of
nothing," King Lear.
Last month, I was privileged to be able to watch our Women's
1st XI play in the AoC cup final at St Andrew’s Stadium in
Birmingham. It was the second
consecutive year in which we have got to the final. This is an incredible achievement for a
college of our size. Whilst we lost by 5
goals to 4 to the same team as we played last year, I felt incredibly proud of
our players, our wonderful supporters and all of the parents who attended. That combined with our boys' team reaching
the semi-finals, I believe that these achievements are a testimony to our
wonderful PE Department and all of the teachers and coaches who run the
teams. This line from the Bard is an apt
description of what we witnessed:
"All the world's a stage,
and all the men and women merely players.
They have their exits and their
entrances;
And one man in his time plays
many parts," As You like It.
For me, that player was Misty
Russell who was selected as the player of the final (which in itself is unusual
from the losing team) but who was truly outstanding. A fantastic role model for all of the players
and supporters in the way in which she played (scored a hat-trick), the way in
which she encouraged her teammates and her sheer genuine modesty. You made us all really proud, Misty.
On Monday, I travelled with a
colleague to a garden party at Buckingham Palace to collect a plaque for our
College to offer the Duke of Edinburgh Award.
We are now a 'Licensed Organisation' to offer this award thanks to the
tremendous work of staff. It was brilliant
to see so many Gold Duke of Edinburgh Award winners and to listen to Hannah
Cockcroft, who is a world record holder and gold medal winner from the 2014
Paralympics. Hannah astounded us all by
telling us how hard she works and her motivation to ensure that she never loses
a race (she has only ever lost one race).
As ever, someone who is so talented and determined was incredibly
modest.
"If to do were as easy as to
know what were good to do, chapels had been churches, and poor men's cottage
Princes' palaces," The Merchant of
Venice.
Therein lies a message for all
of us!
Three weeks ago I went to listen
to the candidates in the hustings for the Student Executive. It was great to see a packed theatre and hear
such interesting ideas. It is always incredibly
difficult to speak in front of your peers and I thought that many of the
speeches were excellent. The current Student
Executive did a great job in organising the event and ensuring that people kept
to their time limit. Unfortunately, not
everyone can get elected and such is the democratic process that many excellent
presenters were unsuccessful. I hope to
meet with the new Student Executive and begin the exciting journey into the new
academic year.
We are now busy planning for the
new academic year to ensure that our College is ready for the next stage in our
development. This means that we have
appointed new staff, reorganised some of our current arrangements and made
decisions about the subjects that we will be offering, the timing and nature of
our internal examinations as well as reviewing the use of our existing
resources and catering arrangements.
Much of this is about trying to guess the future from a position of
strength:
"What light through yonder
window breaks?" Romeo and Juliet
As ever, we continue to hear
snippets of some (false) negative things said about us in some 11-18
schools. Our response as always is:
“Fi, thy calumnies taint us not”,
As You Like It
or
"Misery acquaints a man with
strange bedfellows," The Tempest
Finally, I cannot resist the
temptation to comment on my beloved Leeds United. Our season is disappointingly over and my
club is a shambles:
"The fault, dear Brutus,
lies not within the stars, but in ourselves, that we are underlings," Julius Caesar
I am really pleased about The
Tigers and hope that the club is successful at Wembley for our staff and
students, for the City in 2017 and for our College.
Returning to Shakespeare, my
advice to you is:
"To thine own self be true," Hamlet
and
"Love thrives not in the
heart that shadows dreadeth," The
Rape of Lucrecia,
Jay Trivedy
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