Dear Parents
MANNERS
“Manners maketh the man”, goes the old adage but I think it is the nature of the man that determines his manners. An intrinsically good man will be well-mannered in the sense of exhibiting respect for others, acknowledging and engaging. He assists others because they need assistance, he greets people because we are all worthy of being noticed, of being welcomed, he thanks people because he wants to not because he has to.
We spoke about manners in today’s assembly. I explained that it is easy to greet mechanically but a greeting that is about noticing, connecting and welcoming is the truly respectful greeting that we all appreciate. I have been to schools where one is always greeted but often only by the peremptory “sir”, often in unison and without eye contact, something akin to the military. Our boys’ greetings must have value and sincerity, similarly, ”please” and “thank you” and remembering to say these to show respect and appreciation.
Our boys also stand at the start of a lesson to greet a teacher; we get very good feedback from visitors, impressed by the boys’ welcome and appreciative of their offers of assistance. Sometimes when in a large group they can forget to do this, especially if immersed in play outside. I think we do have to work on the greeting of parents – they will greet parents that they know by name but often “ignore” other parents.
Developing good, sincere manners that show care, interest and respect is a fourteen year process for us at the school, and even longer, for you as parents. But we do seem to get it right quite often: prospective parents or other people that I meet comment on the Bishops men that they work with: confident, hard working and well-mannered. Always good to hear.
Bringing up our boys is a combined process needing to be shared by home and school. Please discuss what I have mentioned here and encourage them at home and in your own social circles to be well-mannered, concentrating on the reasoning behind these practices.
NEWSLETTER
From next week we are going to try to send out our newsletter on Thursdays. From the many questions that we receive it is apparent that many are not reading it and we have been advised that Friday is not an optimal day (before the weekend) to ensure that it is opened.
Kind regards
GREG BROWN
HEADMASTER |
