With Love From Chapel - summer Term - Week 2

The start of May is a difficult time for Rossallians. Not only do many of their international friends enjoy a day off school back home on 1st May (and it was a glorious day to be honest), but they also ‘miss out’ on the Monday Bank Holiday and get to attend school instead, while many of their neighbours (and their parents?) have a day off. 

However, we mark the Bank Holiday Monday with the rare pleasure of our Whole School Photograph. And while, as a mother, that fills me with panic because I worry about crinkled shirt collars and unpolished shoes, as one of the people IN the photos, it is one of the most amazing moments in school life. At no other occasion does every single member of staff and every single child in the school come together, stand together, smile together - and it is a magnificent feeling. 

Some of our students will have come straight out of their IB exams in the morning, while the littlest will be rolled over in the ‘baby-cart’ from the nursery; and what is a logistical nightmare is a strange feeling of unity and community for everyone else. Everyone will be smiling nicely at the same time in the assurance that they are part of a gigantic family. And in many years to come, our students can ask their grandchildren to find them in the crowd - we have all been there and done that - because, essentially, we are a huge family, taking a huge family photo.

There is something very comforting about being part of a huge family because it means there is always somewhere and someone to come back to, to contact, to get in touch with - even after years away, you can always come home.