Mrs Howe (Head of the Junior School) explains why the Junior School have been focusing on our school value of being bold at the start of the academic year.

At BGS we are BOLD:

• We are brave
• We use our voices, intellect and actions to create positive change
• We seek to be independent learners
• We aim to be authentic and develop self-confidence
• We step out of our comfort zones and take risks

Being Bold is one of our school values and we have been thinking about what this means to us in the Junior School as we start the academic year.  

Have you ever been in a situation where you are the lone voice, perhaps seeing something from a different perspective or thinking an answer is different to those around you? In a recent assembly, we decided to carry out a very simple and rudimental inquiry with the Junior School pupils to find out how this feels and how easy or difficult it is to be that lone voice. The pupils were shown identical pictures of elephants and asked how many differences they could spot. They were then asked to identify those differences. Of course, there were no differences, but were any of our pupils bold enough to say so?  

Well, as to be expected many of the pupils ‘saw’ differences that they thought were there, most likely through a strong sense of trust in the adults around them; we are adults - teachers no less - we would never try to trick them!  But quite a few of our older pupils spoke out and said that they did not think there were any differences. It was interesting that it was our older pupils. The strength to stand up and give a different answer takes confidence which takes time to evolve. Our Year 6 pupils have been with us longer and have grown up in a culture of learning that encourages and empowers them to challenge ideas and take risks in their learning. Naturally we went on to talk about how those pupils who answered differently from the crowd had shown they were bold, they were independent learners who had stepped out of their comfort zones and taken a risk.

Staying on the elephant theme from the pictures at the beginning of assembly, we took a step back in time and indulged ourselves by reading Elmer by David McKee. An all-time favourite (the book was greeted by a hiss of “yesssss”) this story is nuanced and multi-layered, weaving through themes of identity, diversity and acceptance. Desperate to fit in and be like the rest of the herd, Elmer disguises his famous patchwork colours to be more like everyone else. We thought about how the story of Elmer linked to our value of being bold and in particular the statement that ‘we aim to be authentic and develop self-confidence’.

Establishing self-confidence takes time and it is something we continually strive to develop in our pupils. There are many factors in developing this attribute: accepting who you are and not comparing yourself with others, taking care of yourself in both mind and body, practising positive self-talk and facing your fears all help in developing a belief in your own abilities. If only Elmer had been a pupil at BGS … but then generations of children would have been robbed of this heart-warming and uplifting story!