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Head Master's Blog

We hope that you enjoy reading these blog posts written by our Head Master, Mr Barker.

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  • Mobile Phones in Schools

    Published 23/02/24, by Ellie Hastings

    Those of you who read the papers or follow the news may know that on Monday schools received new guidance on prohibiting mobile phone use during the school day. The announcement from Education Secretary Gillian Keegan led to some dramatic headlines.

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  • Doing the Right Thing When No One is Looking

    Published 09/02/24, by Ellie Hastings

    The line ‘Integrity is doing the right thing when, even when no one is looking.’ is commonly misattributed to the author of The Chronicles of Narnia C S Lewis. Although Lewis covered a similar theme in his work Mere Christianity the quote is actually taken from ‘Shattering the Glass Slipper’ the work of contemporary motivational speaker Charles Marshall. Whilst many of us will be familiar with work of C S Lewis far fewer, myself included will have read Marshall. Of course, the truth of an aphorism is not dependent on its authorship but the idea itself.

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  • The Fragility of Freedom and the Power of Language

    Published 01/02/24, by Ellie Hastings

    Last Friday was Holocaust Memorial Day. In the United Kingdom Holocaust Memorial Day is a National Day of Commemoration dedicated to remembering those who were persecuted by the Nazi’s. It is marked every year on 27 January the anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau.

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  • Thank you Mr Robertson

    Published 12/01/24, by Ellie Hastings

    This week, for the fourth time in three years, Warwick School has found itself dealing with the loss of a much-loved member of our community.  Tragically Mr Robertson (Dan) lost his battle with liver cancer on Tuesday. He leaves behind a wife, our colleague, teacher, and friend Kat, and two children.  I am incredibly grateful that we were able to share news of his illness with the community before the Christmas holiday. This gave those closest to him an opportunity to contact him, and I know that the messages he received from pupils meant a huge amount to him. That his last days were calm peaceful and pain free, that he enjoyed Christmas with his family, and died surrounded by those he loved, is some consolation. 

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  • Christmas traditions

    Published 14/12/23, by Ellie Hastings

    The Christmas holidays are here.  Every family has its own Christmas traditions.  This year for the first time in 44 years I will be spending Christmas Day, not at Mum and Dad’s or the ‘in laws’ but at my house.  My ‘little’ sister, the 42-year-old barrister and her family are flying over from Connecticut to spend the ‘holidays’ with us and Mum and Dad will be joining us for the day.  The pressure is on.  Especially because roast dinner is the crowning glory in my limited kitchen repertoire and Christmas Dinner will be my responsibility.   Rather than seeking to combine three sets of Christmas traditions, an impossible task, perhaps I should set out to create new ones, ones that are uniquely ours and in doing so perhaps I should seek inspiration in celebrations from around the world. 

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  • Lest We Forget

    Published 10/11/23, by Ellie Hastings

    Warwick School has two towering memorial stones in Chapel to remember the Old Warwickians who died in the First and Second World Wars. At the time, the school worked hard to trace every casualty, and ensure no-one was missed from the list of names. However, this was not an easy task; the World Wars were huge, international conflicts, fought long before the advent of easy, instant communication. And tragically, we now know that a number of names were missed off these original memorial stones.

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  • A Word on Humility

    Published 19/10/23, by Adam Vigh

    You have probably heard of Aesop’s Fables. The Fables are a collection of stories credited to Greek storyteller Aesop, who lived in ancient Greece between 620 and 564BCE. Tradition says he was born a slave, but developed a real talent for fables, stories that were used to teach truths in a simple, understandable way. 

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  • Running your own race - advice for starting Year 7

    Published 15/09/23, by Ellie Hastings

    Just a week into the new school year and already the summer seems like a distant memory. Every year on the day before the start of term we welcome our new Year 7 cohort and give them a chance to familiarise themselves with the site, spend some time with their tutors and generally get themselves ready for the move to secondary school and its accompanying challenges.

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  • Viewing the World Through a Different Lens

    Published 09/06/23, by Alicia Peacock
    This year I enjoyed an opportunity to visit Exeter Cathedral and see Luke Jerram’s Gaia. In Greek Mythology Gaia is the personification of the Earth and Jerram’s Gaia is a touring artwork measuring 7 meters in diameter and created from detailed NASA imagery of the Earth’s surface. The artwork is 1.8 million times smaller than the real Earth with each centimetre describing 18KM of the Earth’s surface. Jerram claims that by standing 211m away from Gaia you can see the Earth as it appears from the moon.
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  • Understanding the Actions of Others

    Published 26/05/23, by Alicia Peacock
    How do you react to behaviour that has a negative impact on you? Anger, judgement, and blame?  How productive is this reaction?  What if the slights you’ve experienced or the harm they have done was not inflicted intentionally?  What if the perpetrator thought that they were doing the right thing – for them or even possibly for you?
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  • Why Do We Travel?

    Published 21/04/23, by Alicia Peacock
    Picture the scene. 
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  • The leaders of tomorrow

    Published 23/03/23, by Ellie Hastings

    What do the following all have in common?

    Nelson Mandela, Mahatma Ghandi, Margaret Thatcher, Martin Luther King Jnr, Greta Thunberg, Winston Churchill, Jacinda Ardern

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