School_Matters_Issue_35

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PRIZE GIVING This year’s Prize Giving, Mr Christopher Wolsey’s first as Headmaster, took place in the Sports Hall with a much reduced audience as a result of social distancing measures. While the parents of prize-winners and UVI leavers were given priority for attendance, a professionally produced live stream of the event had been arranged both for pupils watching from Tutor bases across the School as well as to those pupils and parents viewing from home or workplace. The running order of the

reminded the audience of the School’s ‘Three Cs’ – curriculum, context and culture – and proposed a fourth: community. The centrality of community “to who we are and what we can become” had been foregrounded as never before through the many challenges of the pandemic, he explained. Invoking President Franklin D Roosevelt’s assertion that “a calm sea does not a skilled sailor make”, Mr Wolsey reflected on the strengths derived from steering a course through the many difficulties of the last year. This process had accentuated our awareness of, and engagement with, our community, to mutual benefit. He praised the efforts of pupils, parents, staff and governors to help and support one another and went on to stress the School’s energy going forward, its commitment to wellbeing and ongoing dialogue with all its stakeholders. What lay ahead was growth underpinned by self-reflection. Highlighting IPS’s growing footprint in the local community, Mr Wolsey paid tribute to Miss Rhead, Director of Outreach and Partnerships [see pp. 9-12 – Ed.] and all the pupils involved: “The positive difference we make to the lives of others is really what defines us.” Thanking current and departing staff for their contribution and commitment – including Mrs Marshall’s retirement from the role of SMT Secretary after 18 years’ service to the School – Mr Wolsey also celebrated his predecessor, Mrs Sylvester-Johnson: “She is the true colossus of Ibstock Place School, it is she who has driven the development of this extraordinary school and to whom we owe an enormous debt of gratitude.”

The Headmaster

Commitment to community is something that Ms Anderson, whether as an MP, a Wandsworth councillor or Head of Community Services at the Katherine Low Settlement in Battersea, has demonstrated so impressively in her professional life. In her address prior to presenting the prizes and awards, she had two main pieces of advice to offer leavers. The first was: “Join in with your community.” The second: “Have courage”. Here, she drew on examples of time spent volunteering during the Bosnian war in Serbia in the mid-1990s, several years spent bringing up a family of four in Kenya, and (perhaps most daunting of all?) seeking selection to become an MP. It was an inspiring morning that celebrated individual achievement as well as community togetherness, strength and resilience through adversity. Ms Anderson quoted Maya Angelou’s perceptive observation: “You may not control all the events around you, but you can decide not to be reduced by them.” We thank her so much for being our guest speaker this year.

Fleur Anderson, MP

programme was adjusted so that the entertainment preceded rather than followed the presentation of prizes. These changes notwithstanding, the warmth of applause in the hall during the ceremony was as great as ever, despite the fewer hands expressing it, and the quality of entertainment was superb. Congratulations to Veronica Boyle, UVI, Francesca Chittenden, S7, Charlotte Sanderson, S10, Rosie Wright, PVI and Max Eastland-Park, UVI on their singing and playing. [Indeed, Veronica had only days earlier been awarded a Distinction in her Singing ABRSM Diploma: outstanding! – Ed.] It was with great pleasure that Mr Wolsey welcomed our Guest Speaker Ms Fleur Anderson, MP for Putney, Roehampton and Southfields. Ms Anderson had visited IPS a few weeks previously when she kindly agreed to meet members of the Sixth Form studying Politics. Mr Wolsey

The House Captains of Brearley House collect this year’s Richard Hastie-Smith Trophy