I left my school yesterday after just under 4 years as an Assistant Head Teacher there. Lots of students came and said good bye to me. As they do. I recieved parting gifts, cards and boxes and boxes of chocolates.
I hung around at break, lunch and after school for students to come and speak to me if they wished. I did my usual daily, walk around school. Aside from the tears, pleas for hugs and asking for me to add them to instagram/snapchat a few students said some really interesting things to me…
- Sir, seriously, we are really going to miss your face here, you made it seem like we can make it too. (Asian boys, year 11.)
- Sir, you opened up discussions in my household that I can now defend properly. (Black boy, year 10.)
- Being here, showing us that you can be yourself and proper smart, makes me think I don’t need to change who I am to be successful. (Asian girls, year 11/12.)
- You have continually showed us, that talking about equity, is much clearer than equality. (Year 9/10/11 white girls.)
- Sir, you make England loving. (Year 11 Looked After Unaccompanied Asylum Seeker.)
This is why, we need to keep up with BAMEed, all of our students benefit from diversity.
- They need to see us
- They need to believe they can be us
- They need to be assured that they will get all chances because of their skills and nothing else
- They need to know we believe in them and the system
Full post here.