This week at Bradford Grammar School, a team of teachers, led ably by one of our Geographers, Mr David Alcock, provided a ‘Hopeful Education Day’ for our Year 10s. Some sessions were entitled: “How can we challenge the fear instinct? … Hopeful stories … Standing on the shoulders of giants … How can we create a more hopeful world? … [and] … Making it personal: learning from lockdown”. I am delighted to say that the day was very well received and chimed an optimistic note at the end of a long autumn term.
Mr Alcock is a champion of hope in the curriculum and his blog Hopeful Education – alcockblog is well worth ten minutes of your time. As a fellow Geography Teacher, I know too well the defeatism that can, if unchecked, creep into our lessons and young minds. Geography does not corner the market on disaster, destruction and death, nor on creeping narratives of imminent (often climatic) catastrophe, but it can undoubtedly leave one a little deflated to say the least and in mourning for the state of things (or is that just my teaching?). This, however, is not the whole story, and where textbooks once covered China’s One Child Policy to lift the spirits of young Malthusians, a new increasingly complete understanding of the world is now offering a more balanced and ultimately hopeful world view.
In his blog, Mr Alcock writes:
“How should we respond when young people express their worries about the future of the world to us? There is, of course, a need to listen, empathise, and support. But what if the education system can do more than that? What if we can instil hope – active hope – so that our young people can be more confident about the future?
Hopeful Education aims to do just that, by encouraging young people to understand progress, believe in humanity, and help to create a better world”.
There is idealism here, and it is not misplaced. The notion of “active hope” is to my mind, critical. In his blog, Mr Alcock quotes the author David Orr: “Hope is a verb with its sleeves rolled up” – an antidote to pessimism and resignation, and a reminder to us that we have agency and an opportunity to make things better. Run this theme alongside the slow burn good news, embraced by Geography, from the writings and resources of Hans Rosling and the Gapminder Foundation, mentioned before in a previous HM Blog BGS: Tradition and Innovation (bradfordgrammar.com), and the far horizon need not look so scary after all, provided those sleeves stay rolled up.
Our BGS Hopeful Education Day fits, therefore, into a larger body of curriculum work, and not just on the Geography corridor, several other departments carry the torch too. More broadly, School ethos encourages us to maintain a positive, optimistic and hopeful approach to life, even in the tougher moments. You cannot keep a good school down. Inevitably, I am going to mention the pandemic and our collective response. And why not? I am fiercely proud of what we – colleagues, pupils and families, and our wider community of OBs and friends – have achieved this past autumn term and previously too, keeping the academic, pastoral and co-curricular wheels turning in the face of relentless pressure.
Since September we have continued to prioritise safety and welfare, but also steer a course as close to ‘normal’ as possible. COVID-safe routines at BGS have, we think, enabled our pupils to benefit from a largely familiar and comforting School experience. And as term progressed, we have been able to expand the co-curricular offering, including at weekends, and soon to include all manner of end of term seasonal recitals and concerts. I was also heartened to hear, at a meeting with colleagues this week, about our online outreach and volunteering work, and plans for expansion in this area next term.
Bradford Grammar School’s ongoing relationship with community minded partnerships has stood the test of COVID-19. The visit of OB Peter Higgins to School recently to drum up the good cause that is Mary’s Meals, and raise a few quid too, stands alongside other positive action in support of YoungMinds, Women’s Health Matters and Martin House Hospice, for example, and serves as an indicator of the strength our altruistic spirit at a time when it would be all too easy to look inwardly. Perhaps this explains why, in part at least, the messages of hope being fostered this week gain traction at BGS. We aspire to be a positively minded community and led by our values, we seek to make a difference, and to not be cast down by any obstacle.
Our motto, Hoc Age, mentioned occasionally (!) in HM blogs, can from the outside be interpreted through a lens of northern dour – ‘ger on wi’t’ etc..! Brusque, stoic, persistent. Okay, fair cop, it is a bit of that. But more. Positive talk and activity at BGS this past week are predicated upon hope and optimism for the future. It has been an uphill term in many respects, but we have come good. With confidence, look now forward to making our mark in 2021.
“I am fiercely proud of what we – colleagues, pupils and families, and our wider community of OBs and friends – have achieved this past autumn term and previously too, keeping the academic, pastoral and co-curricular wheels turning in the face of relentless pressure.”
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