Maybe it’s cold outside
12th December 2022
The end of term is now in sight. I know that we’ve all been working especially hard last week to ensure that our run in towards the end of term is as strong as possible; be that in our usual lessons or though the exams being undertaken at Oakwood and Thomas Rotherham College. As always, thanks go out to the staff, pupils, students and their families for the hard work, resilience and good humour.
And goodness me, brrrrrr it’s cold outside. To be honest, I very much prefer the clear, cold days, as opposed to the wet and windy days of winter. However, I’m very much aware that this year, possibly more than many other years, this particularly cold snap will be having a significant impact upon some of our most vulnerable in society; be it those vulnerable to the cold, for example the old and the ill, or those with financial difficulties, which might mean that keeping the heating on could result in eye watering energy bills. To read the NHS guidance this week, which primarily focused on encouraging people to heat their houses properly is, I think, quite shocking in 2022. But that’s where we are at. I hope that people can do the right thing, protect themselves and that we as a nation can, in turn, do the right thing by them. We are only as strong as our weakest link. We are only as strong, as a society, as our most vulnerable.
Despite the challenges of the season we have lots of really ‘warm’ things to look forward to. Many of you will be starting to plan for Christmas and, if not Christmas, the winter break. At home we don’t go for significant Christmas decorations, but the Christmas tree is now up, albeit without decorations (as of Friday).
And we’ve got the football to bring us some warmth too.
It seems really, really strange to be sitting in the depths of winter, with this cold blast, and be watching football being played in temperatures of over 30°C. The England team seems to have brought some warmth to the nation and (depending upon when you read this) that they have continued to progress into a mid-week semi-final.
As we look forward to the end of term can I ask that we all stay strong, stay resilient and focus on getting the basics right over the next few days. We know that our children and young people not only value, but need, our communication and our actions to be consistent. We will maintain high standards in the work that we ask children and young people to undertake and the behaviours we expect them to exhibit.
‘I like the cold weather. It means you get work done’. Noam Chomsky