Dear OFS Community,
Welcome to 2022 – it’s simply wonderful to be back feeling the buzz of school life made more special considering where we were this time last year! I started the term by inviting everyone to think differently about fresh starts and New Year resolutions. All too often we jump into writing lists of promises that we hope to keep but often fall at an early hurdle. However, there are other ways to build change into our lives.
I like the sentiment of this clip as it suggests theming our aims and even thinking about them in seasons. Finding an overarching theme to guide the coming 3 months can help steer and guide our choices and decisions.
In an attempt to explain this to the school, I shared an experience that the Calvey family jumped into over the Christmas break. My daughter loves plants and gardening and so the 5 of us booked a course in ‘building your own terrarium’.
It was a wonderfully peaceful, engaging and cathartic couple of hours as we were guided through creating a mini habitat. I was amazed to learn that a terrarium was created and sealed back in 1972 that is totally self-sustaining and clearly still thriving:
Now, I’m not sure that my creation will still be around in 2072! However, it was wonderful to pause, arrange and plant up a tiny environment that will take on a life of its own. This inspired me to bin my lists of promises and simply engage with the word ‘care’ for this season. Caring can involve my health, making better choices with what I eat; it can be taking time to listen more to others around me; it could be making more time to read or follow a hobby and yes, it can be checking on the state of the new little world in my terrarium.
I have challenged everyone to find their own theme to steer the coming season – what could yours be?
House X-Country
On Wednesday, Middle and Upper School took to the grounds to work off any excesses of ‘Christmas cheer’ and what a stunning day it proved to be. Not a cloud in the sky, although it was a little squelchy underfoot! This is the perfect sport to explore and build ‘Resilience’, as we all have a little voice that can often encourage us to slow down, stop or quit! It’s well worth finding a new voice that can answer with ‘not yet’!
Congratulations to Hastings House who took home the trophy - what a great start to the House Competition!
Interesting Visitors
We had some visitors appear in Pre Prep today who left quite a mess! It turns out that Donna & Blitzen are looking for something of a break after the Christmas rush and found Orley Farm whilst heading home to the North Pole!
Reception pupils came across hoof prints left in the corridors and followed them to the meadow. What a great start to their project this term as they explore ‘The Land of Snow & Ice’ as their theme for the term.
We’ve enjoyed crisp beautiful days this week and I’m certainly so thankful to have our community back and buzzing – having caught some of the wider news stories this week of broken lockdown rules and scandals, I’m thankful for the healthy distraction that comes from living and working in the Orley Farm Way! Have a lovely weekend.
Tim Calvey