I’m sure that we all have our favourite High Performance Learning characteristic. Mine is one that sounds as if it shouldn’t be allowed in school, but absolutely should be: intellectual playfulness.
Not messing about. Not wasting time. But the kind of playfulness that takes an idea, turns it round, changes its form, and helps us understand it better.
I want you to think for a moment about a time when you were misunderstood.
Perhaps you said something as a joke, and it came across as rude. Perhaps you tried to explain yourself, but somehow made it worse. Perhaps someone judged you not on what you meant, but on what they thought they had heard.
It’s horrible, isn’t it — to be heard, but not understood?
What will you be doing on Christmas Eve, Christmas Day and Boxing Day, after you’ve opened your presents, eaten your Christmas dinner, maybe taken the dog for a walk?
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Have you ever stopped to really listen to the quiet whispers of nature? Nature is filled with wisdom and lessons for those who are willing to look closely.
What frightens you?
When I was a child, I was frightened of the Cross.
The crucifix - that is, the image of the cross with the crucified Jesus - in the church I attended as a child, was a very powerful piece of art. I wish I could show you a picture of it. Made of bronze, it shows Our Lord with his head bowed in death. One other detail I can remember is that His right foot is bent round, so that the nail can pierce both His feet.*
As we prepare to celebrate the patronal feast day of St Benedict this Friday 21 March, I want to talk to you about an important principle found in the Rule of St Benedict, which has shaped Christian hospitality for centuries: the idea of welcoming the stranger.
I don’t know if you’ve seen any good films recently. I don’t go to the cinema very often, but there is a movie which has just been released which I simply must see, and that is A Complete Unknown, the biopic of the American singer-songwriter Bob Dylan, starring Timothée Chalamet.
This week’s theme for the school is Veritas - Truth, and we heard in this week's assembly, a reflection on this theme and its application to the Christian life.
All people who follow a religion believe that there is such a thing as an objective Truth. Christians believe that this Truth (with a capital T) has its identity in the person of Jesus Christ.