Identity, Connection and Culture – how to beat division, polarisation and toxicity
Dear all
In our final assembly of the School year, we considered a lecture given earlier this year by Sir Gareth Southgate, the former England men’s football team Manager, which featured in my Speech Day address last weekend.
His lecture was all about the trends in today’s society that divide people by seeking to pit one group against another, rather than looking for the things we all have in common. His suggested antidote to these trends came in the form of three things: identity, connection, and culture. For each, he gave examples of his work with the England squad during his eight years in the job. First was identity. When building his team, Southgate adopted an approach most famously used by the All Blacks rugby team, by getting the players to talk about their heroes from the past who had worn the England shirt, and how they’d inspired them when they were young. The second thing he talked about was connection. Feeling that we belong to a community is a proven contributor to our wellbeing and happiness in life. Gareth Southgate’s third and final theme was culture. In his lecture, he talked about having respect for everyone, no matter their role or status; of living their values of courage, humility and integrity, especially when someone or something challenged them; and emphasising how everyone has a role in making small positive changes that add up to something bigger than the sum of their parts. He also talked about service and how giving is always better than taking in terms of personal development and wellbeing. We are all very lucky to be able to be part of a school that has been on this site for almost 500 years, and one that has carried the same values – Virtue, Learning, and Manners for over 400 of them. I don’t just mean the students when I write that: I mean everyone who is part of this community, myself included. One of the points I made in my Speech on Saturday reached back to a theme covered in assemblies back at the start of the school year, when we considered one of the key principles that underpins Stoicism – the freedom to choose how we respond to the things that happen to us in our lives. While we can never control everything that happens to us – good or bad – the Stoics believed that we always have a choice about how we respond. As I said to the students yesterday, as they headed off on their summer holidays, that’s not a bad reflection for all of us to take with us.
Have a great summer and from everyone at Brentwood School, good luck to those waiting for exam results and to anyone moving on next year, and we look forward to seeing everyone else for another school year, in September.
Best wishes
Michael Bond
