Blog
You are never too small to make a difference
Sometimes we don’t give our young people enough credit.
Students and staff donned their own clothes for #SportRelief2020 today following an outstanding display of student collaboration this week.
Traditionally, Valley Park only has a few non-uniform days each academic year, so this year, Head Girl Abby and Head Boy Ollie have been determined to challenge the status quo. Within two days, they'd written a charity plan for this week’s events, obtained signatures of the vast majority of students across all year groups and had presented them to me in support of their request.
I knew that something was afoot, of course – it would be hard to achieve over 1000 signatures without someone spotting it! However, I was nevertheless astounded by the complete article when it arrived. This was no scrap of paper with a few scribbled names; it was not some patchy survey. Instead, I received a professional-looking document, one sheet per tutor group, comprising an official proforma that even had the Valley Park logo on the top of every page!
I hope that, if you received a letter inviting you to take part in the non-uniform day, you enjoy the occasion of relative freedom from the uniform rules. If you see Ollie and Abby, be sure to thank them for their leadership – this was a great community effort for a fantastic cause.
We cannot all expect to have the global impact of someone inspirational like Greta Thunberg. Our tiny, individual efforts may feel insignificant to us, but they have a much bigger pay-off when we all pull together. What will be your contribution to our wider community?
I will leave the final words to Greta: “you are never too small to make a difference.”
