Written by This festive fortnight sees numerous end-of-term events across John Taylor MAT. Many of those events are school-specific: Christmas Fayres and concerts, nativities and other fun and games, but several are times we share together as a family of schools.
This Friday sees our latest Exceptional Achievement Awards assembly, with more recipients than ever before. With accomplishments ranging from sporting success and creative talent through to demonstrations of resilience through challenging times, it is an opportunity to celebrate some of the amazing children and young people it is our privilege to work alongside.
Next week sees our annual Christmas Concert, with choirs and musicians from across our schools coming together for an evening of carol singing and performances that really generate the festive cheer in all who are there to see it.
Both of these celebratory events mark an enormous amount of hard work. The Achievement Awards showcase talent, but also its application. As the adage goes:
“the only place where ‘success’ comes before ‘work’ is in a dictionary”.
Vince Lombardi.
All the pupils and students in receipt of our awards have worked incredibly hard. Likewise, the final performance at next week’s Christmas Concert is only possible through the hours of practice and rehearsal that pupils have undertaken. In both cases, we see the output – but we have to acknowledge the input we don’t see.
This is true beyond our schools of course. Following their latest defeat at last weekend, Gary Neville commented on Sky Sports that:
“Teams get what their work deserves in the Premier League. Manchester United sit thirteenth in the table, and their running stats show they are sixteenth for distance covered. They’re where they should be for their level of effort.”
For many years now, we have sought to inculcate the children and young people we educate and care for with a simple recipe for success: “turn up, work hard, be nice”. All the individuals, young and old, in our communities can follow this recipe if they choose. It doesn’t take talent or specific abilities, and it doesn’t take economic or other advantages. Moreover, we all know what turning up, working hard, and being nice look and feel like.
One of our Trust values is tenacity and resilience. This, in effect, equates to “turn up, work hard, be nice – every day, even when it is difficult.” So many in our communities and schools do this every day.
As the term closes, with so much to celebrate, I want to use this blog as an opportunity to thank all those who turn up, work hard, and are nice. They make our schools and communities the positive places that they are, and make them a pleasure and privilege to serve.
Thanks, as always, for reading – and have a wonderful Christmas and New Year.
Mike.
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