Hi everyone,

 

Over the course of this year, I’m really looking forward to visiting all of our schools and sharing a collective worship with our children built around three very simple words:

Notice. Welcome. Belong. The collective worship uses Paddington to explore a simple but important idea: what does it really mean to belong?

 

 

 

When Paddington arrives at the station, thousands of people might see him, but Mrs Brown notices him. She stops. She pays attention. She wonders what he might need.

The Browns then welcome him. Not simply by saying hello, but through their actions: learning his name, explaining what is happening, sharing and helping him to take part.

And, eventually, something deeper happens. Paddington belongs.

That distinction is the bit I really want our children to think about as I visit them this year. And the more I have thought about it, the more I think it is worth all of us thinking about too.

Being included says: “I can join in.”

Belonging says: “I matter here.”

Schools are incredibly busy places. There is always another lesson, meeting, email, deadline or problem needing our attention. In the middle of all that activity, it can be surprisingly easy to see hundreds of people in a week without really noticing them.

Yet some of the things that make the biggest difference to how it feels to work or learn somewhere are incredibly small.

• Someone remembering your name.

• Someone noticing that you’re new and explaining how something works.

• Someone making space for you in a conversation.

• Someone asking what you think.

• Someone noticing when you’re struggling.

• Someone making it clear that they are genuinely glad you’re there.

 

That is how belonging gets built. You can be yourself and belong

There is another part of the Paddington story that I particularly like. Paddington belongs as Paddington.

Paddington doesn’t have to become the same as everybody else in order to fit in. Paddington keeps a connection to Peru and Aunt Lucy, as well as the red hat, the suitcase and a love of marmalade. The message I’ll share with our children is a simple one: You can be yourself and belong.

 

 

I think there is something important in that for Infinity too.

Being one Trust shouldn’t mean twenty schools becoming the same. Nor should it mean children or colleagues having to fit one mould. For me, Unity is about creating an Infinity family in which our differences are welcomed, our individual schools and communities retain what makes them special, and each person knows that they matter. So the promise I’m going to ask our children across Infinity to think about this year is:

 

Perhaps that can be our challenge as adults too.

Among all the things on your list this week, find one person to really notice. Help somebody feel welcome. Do something small that tells another person, whether that’s a child, colleague, parent or visitor: You matter here.

As I make my way around all of our schools this year, I’m really looking forward to exploring these ideas with our children and hearing what Notice. Welcome. Belong. means to them. But even more than that, I hope they see us living it. Because if they do, those three simple words might become much more than the theme of a collective worship.

They can become part of what it feels like to belong to Infinity.

Have a lovely week everyone, and thank you, as always, for everything you are doing for our children and for each other.

Gavin