The Roundup - Edition 43

A message from 
Rich Jones, Head.

For lesser mortals like me, October pretty much signals the end to the outdoor swimming season. Honestly, it gets too cold, too quickly and the older I get I develop a Slush Puppy-like brain freeze that is less than pleasant.

One of my last long swims was in my favourite river, the Waveney. My hidden spot is a glorious place, entirely bereft of other swimmers, anglers and stand-up paddle boarders; I can swim uninterrupted for miles. I agree with the writer Roger Deakin who said that this Suffolk river is “an untroubled kind of escape route, a way into another world that meanders alongside sneakily." I entirely second that.

However, a couple of weeks ago I am convinced that I spotted a rather sulky and angry looking pike below me. I accept that it wasn’t a great white shark ... but, it still made me think of an experiment that scientists did several years ago involving that rather mean spirited and aggressive fish.

Scientists put a pike in a tank with about 20 smaller fish, which the pike would ordinarily and easily scoff. Craftily, the scientists separated the pike from the smaller fish by inserting a layer of glass, which prevented the pike from reaching its dinner.

The hungry pike incessantly smashed itself against the glass trying to get a good meal out of the fish. As much as it tried, it was ineffective in breaking through the barrier. After many attempts, the pike became discouraged and slowed to a standstill. It stopped trying to break through the barrier; eventually it sank to the bottom of the tank, and just lay there.

At this point, the scientists removed the barrier allowing the pike to feast.

What happened next surprised everybody. The pike continued to ignore the smaller fish, even when they were swimming right next to it, past its array of gnarly teeth. The hunter remained at the bottom of the tank.

The pike eventually died of starvation even with plenty of tasty fish well within its reach.

It is a fascinating, if rather bleak, sounding story but I think it really taps into something that I hold dear as an educationalist and parent. It shows how easily we can become paralysed by imaginary barriers and even develop a learned helplessness. We may not even consider a whole set of possible solutions due to fear or some other self-concocted impediment.

It also helps us realise that we need to respond to changes in the environment.

If the pike had simply responded to change once the barrier was removed, it would have been merry and full. Instead, it starved to death since it held onto an assumption even when the realities of the situation had dramatically changed.

Sadly, some schools embrace that binary notion that there is simply just a right and wrong answer — and don’t ever be wrong. Eventually pupils become so paralysed that they can never find a better answer than the accepted “right” one, and thus learn to diminish their own ability to problem solve. In some schools they are taught to, simply, have the answer and thus aren’t really taught to figure out a way forward when there isn’t one.

That is not how things are at St Chris. Here we proudly and proactively make sure that when those inevitable stumbles happen and those blocks to progress occur, that we are there to support, to help clear the path and realign, refocus and provide a ladder enabling out our young people to believe that they always have value, insight and more guile than most of the adults surrounding them.

Simply, we make it our business to support, encourage and engage when there are changes and barriers. There will always be issues, impediments and challenge but our greatest antidote against disappointment and surrender is confidence and belief. A parent only yesterday stopped me to tell me that their son ‘didn’t get’ maths in his last school, but that now the block had gone and he was even (whisper it) ‘enjoying it’. I asked how the block was overcome – the mum said ‘relationships and belief, simple really’.

Interestingly, I think we all suffer from a degree of learned helplessness in our lives. Much of it fed and watered in our childhoods. Being the potential antidote for that mindset is pivotal for us at St Chris where support, wellness and confidence building sit proudly among maths challenges, field trips, robotics, critical thinking, student voice, LSP’s, peer mentors, junior officials, animal care, climbing walls, sport fixtures, soap making, musicals, relationships and the size and warmth of our community.

I take inspiration from the pike, not in its withdrawal, but as a reminder to defy my apparent limitations.

Have a wonderful half term break.

Your ideas.

Welcome to our Community Board! Last week we asked the Interesting Question:

"Is it possible to be creative without making any mistakes?"

Here are your responses below:

• Kate said: "Yes-Creativity is an Art form that can be judged by multiple different people-or indeed no one at all. Who is there to see the mistakes? If its creative is it even a mistake? Some of the best art work in the world was made by 'mistake'."
• Abi said: "No, but in the creative process, any 'mistake' can be a valuable piece in a different process, or further down the line, so to me, they were never really mistakes to begin with. Still, they would be considered mistakes by most people, and it's impossible to get rid of them entirely."
• Matt said: "Yes, but creativity is an experimental process, trying failing and improving being part of that, so to be most creative and push boundaries you have to be willing to fail."