It has been a delight to welcome staff and students for the new academic year, particularly those who are new to our community. It has been wonderful to see people catching up with one another, making new friends and trying new activities.
The Senior School started the term by coming together to reflect on this summer’s drought, wildfires and devastating flooding in Nepal. The climate crisis can feel overwhelming, not least because it is difficult to know what any one of us can do about it. But perhaps that is the wrong approach. We may not be able to solve it individually, but we can all contribute.
The Abbey has been taking important steps forward in this critical area, driven by our Sustainability Lead, Dr Cuthbertson. It was powerful to highlight to students how they can get involved in what we are doing, whether by contributing to our Climate Action Plan or joining the Eco Council. Dr Cuthbertson has also created the Climate Action Committee, a working group of students, staff, a parent and a governor seeking to make the school as sustainable as possible. We warmly welcome community engagement and ideas.
Contribution comes in many forms. We also focused as term started on three people who inspired us over the summer. Two emerged from Glasgow Commonwealth Games – and neither had won a medal.
One was Moira Cross, at 96 the oldest of the 4000 volunteers who helped make the Glasgow games happen. Moira has volunteered at previous Commonwealth Games and has no intention of stopping yet. Such commitment, character and contribution make her at least as inspiring as the athletes themselves.
There was another person at the Commonwealth Games whom I think Moira would have understood. Archie Goodburn, a 25-year-old swimmer, made the final of the 50-metres breaststroke and was deeply disappointed to come seventh. Yet when the spotlight fell on him, he used it to talk about something much bigger than sport. Two years ago, Archie was diagnosed with incurable brain cancer. He used his moment to campaign for better research and treatment to save other young lives – an ambition far bigger than sporting success.
And perhaps that’s the connection between a 25-year-old swimmer and a 96-year-old volunteer. Archie could quite easily have decided to focus on himself and his health. Moira could quite reasonably have decided that, at 96, she had done her bit. But they didn’t. Neither left Glasgow with a gold medal. Both left having given something more important to others.
Our third inspiration was Dolly Parton, who sadly died this summer at the age of 80. Beyond her extraordinary and trailblazing career as a singer and songwriter, her generosity may be an even more remarkable legacy. Born one of 12 children into intense poverty, to a father who could not read or write, Dolly created the Imagination Library, which has given more than 300 million books to children under five all over the world. She donated $1 million to Covid research at Vanderbilt University, supporting early work connected to the Moderna vaccine, and gave money in all sorts of other powerful ways. We agreed that we should all try to ‘be more Dolly’ and that she epitomised Abbey values of confidence, purpose and joy. Not to mention girl power.
Moira, Archie and Dolly could hardly be more different. Yet all three remind us that a life is measured not only by what we achieve, but by what we contribute: by joining in, caring about other people and choosing to make a difference. As a new school year begins, perhaps that is a resolution worth making.
We closed our first assembly with a superb and very apt poem by Beatrice, one of our Poets Laureate. It seems the perfect way to welcome everyone back – and to wish you all the very best for the term ahead.
Resolutions
I will underline the date and title
I will stick all of my sheets in
I will not lose my PE kit
I won’t throw my textbooks in the bin
I will be kind and polite, and hold doors open
I will never hand in my homework late
I’ll be on time for every lesson
All of my teachers, I shall not ragebait
I will not lose my water bottle
My planner, laptop or pencil case
I will be eager, cheerful and jolly
The teachers will get sick of seeing my face
I’ll put my hand up in every lesson
Join a new club, try something new
I’ll have 50 ROSAs, and no infractions
With confidence, purpose and joy, in whatever I do
Resolutions of the new school year
Easily made, easily broken
We start off with such promise and cheer
But time and work wear down the unspoken
Nevertheless, we shall do our best
Giving everything, in all that we do
New form rooms, new teachers, new uniform perhaps
We’ll be well behaved, and won’t stage a coup
Welcome back to the Abbey
The new school year’s begun
Be it your first or your last
Work hard and have fun!
– Beatrice (Upper IV)
