A Message From The Rector

By Richard Hall | Posted: Friday August 2, 2019

Decision making - how does anyone make a good decision?

This week has been dominated by the Open Night and Open Morning visits. Looking out at the parent and student visitors, I wondered how do we teach our young people to make good decisions?

Alongside that, I have spent time this week with a group of boys who have not made a good decision. In fact they have made several bad ones in a row. Frustratingly, they knew they were doing it too; they chose to do it anyway.

When is the 'penny drop' moment? That connection between the decision and the consequence is made before the action. These actions are proof of the concept of karma.

Often sadly, awareness of consequences only develops afterwards.  That is too late.

 We all know that we need to guide a student to make better decisions. I ask, "What opportunity do we give them to make serious decisions?"  Now I need to add, I don't think choosing a secondary school is the time to let him run free, but I believe you need to use a guided process to make that call about which school is best for your boy.

As current parents though, shortly option selection for 2020 will happen and that will be a crucial time for him to step forward and lead some of those key decisions.

So this weekend let him choose between:

• Helping with the dishes, or using the internet.
• Tidying his room, or eating.
• Completing all of his homework and assignments or going for a driving lesson.

Who knows, you might have a weekend of the dishes being done, his room being tidy and all of his assignments and homework completed. A modern miracle!

Enjoy the weekend, stay warm.