Added values

It is always a highlight of my week to attend our youngest boys’ assembly at North Avenue.  Each Friday, and similarly for juniors at West Avenue on Thursday mornings, boys’ progress and successes are celebrated.  It is not uncommon among the prizes and certificates for achievement in reading, writing, Maths, drama, sport and other areas to see acts of kindness and care rewarded and celebrated by teachers and pupils.

On this morning, achievement and morality were hand-in-hand – quite a lesson for such young boys.  Year 2 boys were sharing some empathetic first person narratives they had written in response to their reading of Roald Dahl’s Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.  Their teacher had skilfully combined literary response, with creative writing, with moral dilemma.

The boys had to imagine themselves as, Charlie, the son of the poor, starving Bucket family, finding some money in the snow, explain how they would spend it and consider the consequences of their decision.  Not only was their writing full of imaginative similes – scattered like acrobatic Oompa-Loompas at Willy Wonka’s works – it engaged with issues of poverty, charity and hope.

A quick dash down the road back to The Grove just in time for Senior School assembly delivered on this occasion by Year 9.  Their chosen topic: Alan Turing.

Not only did they celebrate Turing’s decisive role in the outcome of World War Two, they also tackled openly and sensitively society’s attitude towards Turing’s sexuality.  These 13 and 14 year-old boys skilfully delivered to the rest of the Senior School a message not just of the victory of intellect and endurance but also one of tolerance and respect for others and their differences.

If you are member of the NSB community, I hope these insights won’t surprise you.  If you’re not, I hope they might just cause you to think about the pre-conceptions you may have about a school for boys.

It is perfectly possible to recognise boys’ characteristics and strengths, to play to these and to celebrate them without this being at the expense of such values as we would seek to develop in our young men: sensitivity, compassion and care.