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Dear Parents, Guardians & Carers,
Returning from a brief time away from School last week, it was an absolute pleasure to receive so many kind messages from children and parents and to see so many happy faces. My thanks indeed for your kindness and compassion.
During this week’s Prep and Pre-Prep assemblies, I thanked the children for making the school such a welcoming place and I took the opportunity to compare this to the report that almost ten million children feared returning to school after the recent half term break. Whilst there were a raft of reasons for this anxiety, the most prevalent, by far, was the fear they felt for the physical environment – the unkindness and unpleasantness of their peers.
Our assemblies offer the opportunity for us to explore what makes a good community and we returned, as we often do, to the importance of kindness and consideration for others. We linked this with a challenge to perform some ‘random acts of kindness’ in the days and weeks ahead.
At the other end of the scale, this connects with our ongoing work to educate and develop the children’s understanding, and ability to deal with, incidents of unkindness. Whilst we will never cease in our pursuit of a community of absolute kindness and harmony, we appreciate that, firstly, we are all human beings and liable to make mistakes and, secondly, we are dealing with children who are more likely to err as they learn and develop.
Last week’s National Anti-Bullying Week, had a particular focus on respect and kindness and we took the time to explore the three key terms of Bullying, Respect and Kindness.
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Bullying
In the first instance, we identified that sometimes we get bullying confused with a lack of respect and unkindness. Whilst we would prefer it if these things did not happen, they are, unfortunately, sometimes a part of life, especially so when we are a little tired, when we do not understand, or when we are feeling less confident ourselves. We agreed that following our regular terminology (choices and consequences being key components of the behaviour policy), these will be occasions when we had made ‘poor choices’ and are an opportunity to learn so that we are better set next time around. All agreed that this is not bullying.
A definition of bullying from the government website ‘Stop Bullying’ identifies bullying as unwanted, aggressive behaviour that involves a real or perceived power imbalance.
It goes on to identify that to be considered bullying, the behaviour must be aggressive and include an ‘Imbalance of Power’ (children who bully use their power, such as physical strength, access to embarrassing information, or popularity, to control or harm others) and ‘Repetition’ (bullying behaviours happen more than once or have the potential to happen more than once).
Respect
We then moved on to respect. Respect is an important component of our relationships with others and our personal identity. We agreed that respecting someone else is simply accepting who they are and not expecting them to be someone they are not. We reflected that we would not want to be expected to change our own beliefs and practices in return.
Kindness
The children were swift to identify that kindness is the quality of being friendly, generous and considerate to other people. It is about thinking about other people before ourselves and about trying to help. We identified acts of kindness can be grand and impressive or tiny and quiet, but they all matter and they all cost nothing.
Personally, I feel that the children within the School are, in the overwhelming majority of cases, kind and respectful. That said, there are still occasions when words and actions fall short of the expected. When these happen in front of staff during lessons or at break time, it is straightforward for us to address them and the individuals involved (for the record, there are between 8 and 10 members of staff physically on duty across the School at break times).
Of course, such interactions do not always occur in these circumstances but rather when travelling between lessons or on occasions such as when making one’s way to the changing rooms. To address these incidents, we rely on the children to inform us of any concerns or issues. This, we understand can for many reasons be challenging and our point of focus over the next few weeks will be on ensuring that the children are confident and capable of standing up for what is right and reporting any worries, without the fear of undermining friendships.
Informing the School must never replace the children telling you, as their parents but, if we can work together to encourage them to speak to their teachers and staff immediately, we will be better able to act and intervene to ensure a positive outcome. I hope that you will be able to remind your children of the importance of such actions.
As ever, I thank you for your support and hope that you will not hesitate to contact me, or indeed any member of staff, if you wish to discuss the contents of this message or any other matter.
With my thanks as always and very best wishes.
Rob Morse
Head of Prep
Latest From Truro School
Messages & Downloads
Early Years and Key Stage 1 Nativity Plays
We would like to invite our audience for this year’s Nativity Plays to join us 15 minutes earlier to enjoy singing from the Truro Cathedral Choristers.
KS1 Information Afternoon: Tuesday 26 November
A reminder for parents of children in Key Stage 1 (Year 1 and Year 2) that you are invited to a Prep School information afternoon on Tuesday 26 November. Please join Mr Morse for refreshments at 2pm in the Treliske House Library before a brief tour around the School. Mr Morse will talk you through the daily routine and the opportunities that the children enjoy, and Mr Keveren will be on hand to assist with both the tour and Q&A.
If you would like to join us on the 26 November, please reply to Simone Weston, Head of Prep Admissions, at [email protected].
News from the FTS
Friday 29 November – Prep Coffee Morning and Christmas Jumper Swish
We will be requesting donations of any outgrown festive jumpers for the attention of the FTS at the prep office this week.
Friday 6 December – Christmas Fair
We will be requesting donations of the following:
Please see the posters below for more information on our forthcoming FTS Events.
Truro Foodbank at Christmas
This festive season, we have a wonderful opportunity to support those in our community who may be struggling. We are encouraging all pupils to bring in donations of food and toiletries to help Truro Foodbank, a local charity dedicated to providing essential supplies to families in need.
Suggested Donation Items:
You can also find inspiration from the traditional reverse advent calendar. Please click on the link below to view this or see the poster in our Upcoming Events section below.
It should be noted that they do not require any Christmas items, so NO mince pies, puddings or variety biscuit boxes, please!
In response to our School Council’s suggestion, we are excited to make this year’s collection a Class Competition! Each class will compete to bring in the most donations of food and toiletries. Every class will have its own collection area, and the class that collects the most items by Friday, 13th December will be celebrated as our Donation Champions.
Every single donation makes a difference, so bring in as many items as you can. Let’s make this a fun and friendly competition and show just how generous and caring our school community can be.
Thank you in advance for your kindness and support. Together, we can make a real difference and bring a brighter holiday season to those in need.
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