Belonging

11th May 2018

Blog readers who attended our ‘Evening With Victor Allen’ soirée last week will remember the heavy emphasis placed on the concept of ‘belonging’ by Victor, an expert in building resilience and emotional intelligence in our children as they learn to navigate then conquer the world.
Belonging is a small and relatively cheap value for us to build and nurture but it is enormously important in giving each child the best possible start. It starts at the beginning with our children having a sense of belonging surrounded by loving members of their family. Families all differ in their make-up and age range but it is that crucial sense of belonging and feeling a valued part of a family that transcends the need for a conventional formula and our children today have learnt to celebrate rather than hide the interesting differences that exist in each family group. We hear a lot about how life has changed for the worse but hearing the children talk about both their close and extended families always makes us smile for they learn so much from meeting and listening to a variety of wonderful personalities.
This week we welcomed some very valuable members of the family into school as we celebrated our annual Grandparents Day. The love and warmth was palpable as devoted grandparents, some of whom had flown in specially for the day, enjoyed some special time together with their grandchild, watching and joining in with lessons, meeting their child’s friends and teachers and generally experiencing a little bit of St Christopher’s life. Next time they talk on the phone, Skype or meet up there will be even more to talk about as each grandparent can now picture their grandchild’s school day and now can put names to faces. It was a joy to see ‘belonging’ in action and I feel we could have powered Epsom town had we been able to capture the loving energy in evidence in every single room.
Annie Thackray