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More haste, less speed

When I was about ten years old, I could tell you almost any athletics world record you cared to ask, male or female. I don’t know why I could memorise Pietro Mennea’s then record 200m time of 19.72 seconds but I could. And why do I still recall Jarmila Kratochvilova as the record holder in the women’s 800m? In fact I just know that her time of 1:53.28 set in 1983 has never been beaten! It is a fairly useless gift, albeit handy in a quiz occasionally, but I guess I am a little obsessed with speed and who is the fastest. The Guinness Book of Records still excites me I must confess.

And I know I am not the only one who has speed as a benchmark for success. There are many professionals who want to be quicker, more efficient and more productive. But does speed equal success? This week has sped along like an unstoppable juggernaut and it has been a challenge to keep up. We all have working weeks like this and, like me, you might resort to ticking off job lists just to feel like you are winning. But there is a danger. Rushing from one task to the next, simply to get through them, often leads to carelessness and a lack of thoroughness. Pupils do this in school sometimes and we need to remind them.

Rushing around is not more efficient. In fact it often leads to stress and can negatively affect others around us because the only thing we are really thinking about is ourselves. When we stop rushing, though, the slower pace means we enjoy life more. Things are more interesting. We worry less. We care for others more. We make fewer mistakes because we’re more focused.

As we approach the end of term, a little tired but with many things still to do, we must work hard not to rush. We may not want our children to be tortoises but they need to know that being a hare is worse. What we must do is help them to become more self-aware so that they can spot signs of rushing and learn strategies for slowing down. More haste, less speed everyone!

One event at school this week which did move at breakneck speed was Wednesday’s St Andrew’s Has Got Talent. And there was no loss of quality here – what a show! A huge number of pupils auditioned, the lucky ones performed to the whole school and the variety was fantastic. We saw ballet dancing, tap dancing and street; we heard singers, violinists, pianists, a trumpet, saxophone, guitar and a harp; we sniggered at jokes and marvelled at magic; we watched playlets and scenes and heard rapping and classical recitals. And we even saw ‘the worm’ and some daredevil mountain biking. Thank you to Mr Cousins, Mrs Radley and Mrs Shouksmith. St Andrew’s is positively brimming with talent!

World records may not have been broken but Monday’s regional athletics meeting at Hurst on Monday was a wonderful competition and a super experience for our young Androvian athletes. It was the turn of the seniors today and I just hope the rain did not affect them adversely. Roll on Sports Day – with sunny weather please.

It was great to see the Reception children releasing butterflies. Studying the topic ‘minibeasts’, the pupils grew the butterflies from caterpillars and took delight in setting them free on the Headmaster’s Lawn. The life cycle and intellectual curiosity in action!

The Saturday activities programme reaches its conclusion tomorrow. See you there. Happy weekend everyone!