Despite its Elizabethan language, and its origin during the dark days of World War 2, Queen Margaret’s school prayer still has much to offer us as we embark on this new school year:

Lord God, when thou givest to thy servants to endeavour any great matter, grant us also to know that it is not the beginning, but the continuing of the same, until it be thoroughly finished, that yieldeth the true glory.

As teachers and students we lay foundations, we do the hard mahi. We often can’t see the end product in front of us. Yet I am reminded that, in any growth process, the fruit is the final thing to appear. And our students - as they grow in resilience - need to view the path of learning as a marathon and not a sprint. It is not the beginning but the continuing of the same, until it is thoroughly finished, that yields the true glory.

Sustainability means using our resources wisely, actively participating in the beauty and fragility of Creation, understanding and working with those slow and sustainable rhythms inherent in the natural world that sustains us.

I was hugely inspired at the recent inauguration of America’s 46th President, Joe Biden. Not only by the 78-year-old who had fought two unsuccessful previous campaigns for the presidency, overcome a speech impediment, who had lost his wife and daughter tragically in a car accident, then another son to cancer. His time had come at the culmination of all that in this his 79th year. I was equally moved by the words of the 22-year-old self-described ‘skinny black girl, descendant of slaves and a daughter of a single parent’ who also had overcome a speech impediment, before becoming National Youth Poet Laureate.

I end with the Amanda Gorman’s words of Light, which echo our school motto (Luce Veritatis - Light of Truth).

When day comes, we step out of the shade, aflame and unafraid.

The new dawn blooms as we free it.

For there is always light,

if only we’re brave enough to see it.

If only we’re brave enough to be it.