School_Matters_Issue_34

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“Having made a significant impact on my brother, who had the privilege of listening to one of his talks last year, Chris Hemmings’ book Be a Man made it quickly around my family. From the first chapter, I was eager to see if he could be invited to IPS. Chris drew on his own experiences of what it meant to be a boy constrained by the stereotypes society pushed upon him, and stressed the importance of change. He spoke of the damage ‘Lad culture’ can cause, not only to women but to men and their mental health as well, and of the need to change behaviour so that we can create a fairer society. From suppressing emotions and feelings to respecting the opposite gender, Chris put real emphasis on the prospect of widening our ‘sphere’; that is to say that we, as the young generation, are the ones who can make a real difference. Chris shed light on a topic that is usually hidden away and highlighted to us the ways in which we must adapt our daily lives in order to overcome such toxic aspects of society. Thank you to Chris for wiping our slates clean and giving us a fresh start in which we can reflect and make change. From such a thought-provoking and important talk, we have benefited hugely and must carry on the conversation in order to be the change we wish to see.” Ella Peters, LVI

CHRIS HEMMINGS VISITING SPEAKER We are grateful to Ella Peters, LVI for introducing Chris Hemmings to IPS. He spoke to Senior 10, LVI and UVI cohorts and addressed close to 300 pupils on the topic of ‘Toxic masculinity’. Chris spoke of his own experiences of feeling pressured by masculine expectation and reflected on the damage it caused to him and his friends, and the impact it had on female friends and family. In his talk he encouraged everyone to think critically about their behaviour, focusing on the need to establish a more empathetic environment and promote female agency. We thank him for his valuable address. Mr J-D Price, Deputy Head (Pastoral)

JUBILEE CENTRE ‘THANK YOU’ LETTERS The Jubilee Centre, based at the University of Birmingham, is a pioneering interdisciplinary research centre which seeks to promote “a moral concept of character in order to explore the importance of virtue for public and professional life.” The centre runs an annual competition for schools asking pupils to write thank you letters. This not only promotes the virtues associated with gratitude but also, in a digital age, promotes the practice of handwritten communication. The emphasis of the competition this year was to offer pupils the chance to show gratitude to those who have helped them and others during lockdown. Many IPS pupils wrote letters to parents, friends, siblings, teachers, pets, NHS workers, anonymous members of the community and celebrities like Marcus Rashford. The success criteria for the competition were: demonstration of gratitude, creativity and use of virtue vocabulary. The School was able to submit three entries as part of the national competition. Well done to everyone who entered. The pupils whose letters were put forward were Phoebe Wenlock, S7, Emily Zhou, S8 and Matthew Croston, S9. Congratulations to this trio and also to the pupils who received an internal commendation for their letters: Gabriela Febrer, S7, Emily Parker, S7, Augustin Rallon, S7, Jakob Steier, S7; Myrto Maurides, S8, Alice Maxwell, S8, Rowan McKittrick, S8; Emily Begley, S9, Rupert Hooper, S9, Catherine Zotov, S9; Emma Cortinovis, S10 and Sienna Harriss, S10. Mr Nicolas Walker, Gibbins Tutor

PUPILS THE STARS OF VIRTUAL OPEN DAY Although we couldn’t run our Open Days as planned this year, to compensate for the absence of these in-person opportunities to visit IPS, we released a number of new videos on a ‘Virtual Open Day’ page of our website designed to give prospective pupils and parents a better flavour of the school. As well as an address by the Head, video content now features a guided tour of the campus led by the Head Boy and Head Girl, as well as interviews on a variety of topics with pupils from Senior 8 to LVI who explain all that we have to offer both on and alongside the curriculum. The page also features information on subjects taken by

Senior 7 pupils, a campus map, and a variety of publications available to view as page-turnable pdfs. We thank all those pupils who contributed to the project which we are sure will be enjoyed by prospective pupils and their parents for a long time to come: Barney Mortimore, Aniela Marks- Delgardo, UVI and Araash Bhargava, S8, Aisling Glanville, S8, Ella Lewis, S8, Josiah Quartey, S8, Fraser Bates, S9, Matilda Allard, S9, Jay Mahan, S10, Zazzie Kjellberg-Khan, S10, Ella Peters, LVI and Leonie Hay, LVI. Mr Chris Banfield, Senior Master

Josiah Quartey, S8