The Roundup - Edition 47

A message from 
Rich Jones, Head.

I was away on an inspection this week and had to travel down to South London.

On my 1 hour and 30 minute journey to the school I decided to set myself the challenge of not reading my book, not checking my emails and not playing on my phone, in fact, I decided to switch it off. Could I just…sit there?

I remember, as a child, long car and coach journeys to my Grandparents up north. I remember each Saturday taking the diesel-stinking 358 bus from Portishead to Bristol, which seemed to stop at every single opportunity, to play rugby. I remember being wedged into the back of an old Volvo with my two brothers on ‘relaxing’ family holidays to Devon, with the car feeling like it was going into re-entry if my Dad tried to overtake anyone. All these interminable journeys were taken without any distractions, without mini computers, without games and the internet. I wondered if I could, as a 50-year-old man, do the same.

I have to say it was painfully hard to do. I really didn’t know what to do with myself at first, and it took more willpower than you’d imagine to not reach down for my phone, click it on, just to double-check the train times. However, after 20 minutes or so, I found myself relaxing into the process and, perhaps, to old familiar ways. I stared out of the window, and watched as we whizzed past fields, industrial estates and towns. I realised how little time I had spent watching the scenery on a very familiar journey. I then spent some time, like I did as a child, watching the condensation drip down in interesting ways. I spent time thinking with my mind drifting. I then simply people watched; harassed and late workers, parents grappling their kids, old men visiting Lords and even a bunch of school kids huddled together in grumpy silence. Everyone, and I mean everyone, was on their phones.

I am part of the last ever generation who have a memory of a pre-internet world. I have many recollections of being bored in my youth, being at a ‘loose end’ – it was standard practice in the 80s and 90s. The amount of time, dedication and energy my brothers, friends and I would spend on finding ways to entertain ourselves was huge. The stories we created, the games we invented, the bike rides, the battles, the adventures and the journeys we took were all created out of boredom. Now, I am fully aware of the potential for me to look at the past with some wonderful sepia-toned notions of something more simplistic but that is not my point.

I guess my point is this.

I think young people today have to spend just as much energy, if not more, to find stillness now, to create space for themselves and to not be utterly distracted in the modern world. The search for boredom is a challenging thing indeed. To be able to sit with our own thoughts in today’s world is a task. This profound shift between generations will surely have weighty impacts on our world; on art, on creativity, on relationships and on our relationship with ourselves.

At St Chris we are careful to ensure our students have time and have space. The world is in an awful big hurry these days but when I look at our clubs, our Opps, our sports fixtures and Bake Off competitions, our Forest School, our student-led Morning Talks and our decision regarding mobile phones in January, I think it shows our commitment to give our people (students and staff alike) time to be present, time to be creative, to shine, to think, to imagine and be, well, unhurriedly curious.

St Chris doesn’t want simple, plain academic success, certainly not at the expense of contentment, of pacing and exploration. In fact, we believe success happens BECAUSE of that space. There are very few places where that happens and I am proud of that…