Beccy Newton, Junior School Head
Who else struggled to sleep the night before school started?
I did, and I always do!
That is something of a confession from someone who genuinely loves school and has lived through lots of wonderful “first days back”. Surely, after all these years, I should have the first day of term completely under control?
And yet there are still the familiar little butterflies. The anticipation of a new beginning, the excitement of seeing everything we have planned come to life, and the inevitable wondering: how will the year unfold? What will our girls achieve? What new opportunities and challenges will it bring?
I suspect I am not alone. Perhaps some of our girls lay awake thinking about new classes, new teachers, friendships and all that a new year brings. Perhaps parents were wondering how their daughters would settle and what the year might hold. And perhaps, despite our experience, some of our staff had a few nerves too.
It is worth remembering that this is entirely normal. Transitions and periods of change can make us feel anxious precisely because we don’t yet know what to expect. Research into school transitions suggests that these feelings are common, and that they tend to ease as new routines become familiar.
Perhaps we should also rethink what we mean by confidence.
We can sometimes imagine that confident people don’t feel nervous. I think the opposite can be true. Confidence is not necessarily the absence of nerves; sometimes it is simply the willingness to carry on alongside them.
Being nervous can also be a sign that something matters. We care about the audition, the exam, the new friendship, the new class, the new responsibility. We care about getting it right.
This is something I particularly value about an all-girls education. At its best, it creates a culture in which girls can take intellectual and personal risks: to put forward an idea before they are completely certain, to try something unfamiliar, to lead, to fail, and to try again.
The research around girls’ schools is interesting here. The GSA (Girls’ Schools Association) points to evidence around wellbeing, self-efficacy, motivation and girls’ engagement in their learning. But perhaps the most important thing we can give our girls is not simply confidence, but the freedom to develop it through experience, challenge and the knowledge that they belong here.
And that applies to all of us.
A new academic year is a new beginning for everyone. We don’t stop feeling nervous simply because we get older or more experienced. There will always be new challenges, new responsibilities and occasions when we don’t quite know what lies ahead.
So, if there were a few butterflies on the first morning, perhaps we shouldn’t be too quick to dismiss them.
They may simply be a reminder that we care.
And as we begin another year together, I rather like the idea that the teachers, the parents and the girls may all have arrived with a few little butterflies of their own.
