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Our capacity to bring about change, to make a difference with one small action is infinite. It is something we talk about with schools and parish communities, children and young people all the time. It’s enshrined in the concept of courageous advocacy.
One of the great pleasures of recent months has been the return to actual advisory visits to schools, and to physical conversations with school leaders, parish teams, children, young people and staff. In those conversations it is the time of year in school life when we look back across the school year and ask ourselves, ‘What have we achieved?’ How many times I’ve heard this term, ‘Well I didn’t get as far as I wanted with the school development plan’.
I would suggest that now, even more so than ever in all that we have all experienced in the last eighteen months, the question should not be, ‘How far did I get with the school development plan?’ (for if we knew then what we know now, we’d have surely written different things on it!) Nor even, ‘What have we achieved?’, but actually, ‘What difference have we made to those we serve?’
Your answers to this question would be a host of the diverse, creative, innovative and compassionate practice seen across schools in this diocese. Everything from virtual sports days; to the headteacher who shares celebration worship on line and then runs to classrooms delivering certificates at the appropriate point; to parents’ tea and welcome sessions in small groups on playgrounds; to clergy hosting virtual ‘I wonder’ discussions for children; to walk and talk mentoring sessions. A vast range.
Matthew 5:13-16 says,
“You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.”
Do not hide your light. Know that each action you take makes a difference. Each creative way through you find in this different context, each new route you plot to move forward. Celebrate them and be proud of them.
Many of us in education are sometimes more inclined to consider that which we have not yet done, that which still sits ‘on the list’ or on the school development plan. As we all look back across this academic year, let us share together that which we have all done to make a difference to those we serve.
Thank you for the gifts you’ve given me through which I can make a difference.
Help me to use them for your will.
Help me, Lord to recognise and celebrate each small step I take,
To spend more time rejoicing in that, than I do on dwelling on the list of that which is not yet done.
Amen
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