The Waddesdon Voice

Our school magazine, the Waddesdon Voice, is published termly. It showcases our students’ achievements and their contributions to the school community and beyond. As its name suggests, the Waddesdon Voice provides a mouthpiece for our students. Each edition offers you a rich range of articles, think-pieces and reflections on how our students make a positive impact on society.

“A man planted a fig tree in his garden and came again and again to see if there was any fruit on it, but he was always disappointed.”

So begins one of Jesus’ less wellknown parables in Luke. After a rather disappointing start, it continues with good, albeit rather boring gardening advice: that the soil around the tree needs tending to, and enriching, so that the fig tree can bear fruit.

Like good gardeners, good parents know that preparing and providing the right environment yields the best growth. Time spent talking with each other, establishing boundaries, providing space and building resilience all mean that children have the chance of growing up confidently and healthily.

And so it is for education in its fullest sense.

I believe that spending time creating the right environment and providing rich and varied opportunities enable children to grow healthily through adolescence so that they can bear fruit now, and in later life. It takes careful tending, pruning and patience for young people to become self-confident and respectful young adults. But the work is worth it.

This is why the termly offering of the Waddesdon Voice brings me so much personal and professional joy. Although it only gives a slice of school life, it is always a celebration of the ways we try to enrich the environment which contributes to our young people becoming their future selves. From the article on Sixth Form student leadership to the Big Gig, or Duke of Edinburgh, the Voice highlights opportunities that our young people are offered and grow through.

After Easter, we will open the new Jacob Rothschild Sixth Form Building. This is the work of many, many people, including those of you who have donated any amount of money. Thank you again. The environment it provides for our 16-19 year olds will enhance not only their studies, but also their sense of place in the world and the positive ways they can act in it.

To return to the parable, each one of us has the potential to bear good fruit. Whatever your age, circumstances or challenges, I hope that you will continue to learn, reflect and grow.

Happy Easter and Eid Mubarak.