The month of May is mainly driven by academics and exams, and students plough through this challenging and stressful time with the support of teachers and friends. Many students also present their projects to the whole school, which carries pressure for them. The ending of the school year commenced after classes finished on June 4th. This has many features which repeat themselves over the years, though they feel new and fresh because they are performed by different groups of people who add their own touch. It is a special period which extends for more than two weeks and in which a great variety of activities happen, including concerts, plays, day-trips, an informal performance evening, speeches, a whole school clean-up, meetings with returners and leavers, project presentations, class presentations, introduction to classes for next year, a leavers hike, and special meals. Living and working together requires that we earnestly explore the true spirit of cooperation as a necessity for the wellbeing of everyone. Even as we end the year, this is tested daily in the way the school functions and is organised, and we have forums where questions and challenges can be brought up and investigated by staff and students together.

This is also the time of the year where we review the pastoral and academic aspects of the school, and naturally ideas and improvements for the following academic year emerge. These are widely discussed among staff and conveyed to the returning students when necessary. Staff have several meetings with the returners to start creating the culture that we wish to have for the coming academic year and to convey the responsibility that the returners will have in relation to the newcomers. Staff also meet the leaving students to wish them well in their new endeavours and get feedback about different aspects of the school and their journey whilst here. At Brockwood we give extra attention to creating a culture where staff and students can feel at home, in order to make learning about ourselves more conducive, but this means that leaving school can be as significant as leaving home. The basis of this culture is sensitivity and humility, so we can freely explore how our actions affect people around us and the world. This is a crucial part of the education we offer, and we hope that students carry this quality and feeling with them when they leave the school. 

This academic year has to a large extent been driven by the worldwide pandemic, though once the students arrived, we were able to form a residential bubble and a safe, uninterrupted learning environment. We have witnessed how swiftly we can adapt to new environments and create new realities and ways of life. A worldwide increase in mental health issues and a sense of isolation, coupled with the environmental, political and economic crises, has exposed the fragility and shallowness of the system we live in and has given us the opportunity to question the false sense of security that much of the world operates on. The School has not been an exception to the world affairs, and as a result we had to face topics that mirror the state of the world. During the year, staff and students have taken the opportunity to inquire into deep and entrenched issues in order to understand where real security lies and what the role of uncertainty is in life. Part of this understanding is to look at how emotions arise when we feel attached to people, places or ideas. This can be challenging, though necessary, in order to unshackle ourselves from the stifling chains of attachment.

On behalf of the Brockwood Park School Staff