Pocklington School Newsletter Summer 2020 | Page 2

Headmaster’s Welcome
“Personne ne se rend compte que certaines
personnes dépensent une énergie énorme
simplement pour être normales” wrote Albert
Camus, celebrated French author of the last
century. This translates to “Nobody realises that
some people spend an enormous amount of
energy in simply being normal”. Normality
appears to be something we now all crave.
Certainly, the “normality” of having children in
schools is the one I am most eager to return to,
though that aside I suspect there are certain
other aspects to our lives that will be changed
for some time to come. And of course when
change in society happens, this ripples out into
all areas of our lives.
At Pocklington, I for one am confident we will
see pupils who are more adept at working
independently and making informed and
judicious use of their digital resources. I am sure
our teachers will make use of many new skills
learned during this pandemic period and apply
them to their teaching. I am sure the Black Lives
Matter protests and movement will help us to
learn and act in a more understanding and
informed fashion. As a school, I am sure we will
implement ideas that build on some of the
positive changes we have seen during this time.
At the very least, a future snow day certainly
does not mean school is closed! There will be a
myriad of learnings that will come from the
spring and early summer of 2020. I hope we
make the most of them.
I hope this newsletter gives you some sense of
normality in that, as you flick through the coming
pages you will see evidence of much of what
Pocklington has always been proud to celebrate.
Our pupils have been magnificent in managing
the demands of an online learning environment.
Our teachers have developed their techniques
as the term has progressed and have been
admirable in the variety of challenges they have
set. We have of course been conscious of the
need to balance screen time alongside broader
activities and so are pleased to have conducted
a range of co-curricular challenges. So I hope
events like the School Walk, House University
Challenge, Sports’ Day Week and of course the
Hockey vs Equestrian Lockdown Walk-Off
brightened your days.
We say a formal farewell to a number of
colleagues this term elsewhere in this newsletter.
I wish them all the very best of luck and thank
them for their outstanding service and
dedication to the school. We also say bon
voyage to Mr Ian Wright who, after 11 years of
leading the Prep School, departs these shores,
accompanied as ever by Mrs Wright. We say
farewell to Ian and Wendy with equal doses of
sadness and excitement. Sadness at their
departure but excitement for them as Ian’s next
role is as Head of Preparatory at St Andrew’s, Turi
in Kenya. Both Ian and Wendy have dedicated
themselves to the Pocklington School
Foundation in a range of different ways. They
believe wholly in the need to educate the whole
child and having been involved in boarding, the
Prep School and in our International Admissions
department, the Wrights understand better than
many others the range of pupils who attend our
school. I am grateful to both for their
outstanding support of the school. They leave
for Africa in the middle of August and we wish
them both the very best of luck.
Finally, I am writing this on the day we are
welcoming our Lower Sixth pupils back into
school for the first time in thirteen weeks, the
sun is shining and a one metre gap seems much
smaller than two. And that is a comforting
thought. Enjoy this newsletter.
Toby Seth, Headmaster
Congratulations to our Duke of
Edinburgh Award participants this year
who managed to donate 1391 volunteer
hours to the local community. The social
value of those hours being £6050.85!
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