RESPONDING TO THE WAR IN UKRAINE : A SEVENOAKS SCHOOL PERSPECTIVE
The seismic events of 24 February were felt deeply by members of our school community .
As an international school , we have over 50 pupils with a Ukrainian or Russian background , for whom the war in Ukraine and the repressive situation in Russia have had , and continue to have , very real personal consequences . But as Russia invaded , the sense of shock was shared by all , without exception .
As Head of Russian , I have always told my pupils that the thing I love most about Russia is the people : earthy , generous and kind . My initial concern was that members of our community should not demonise all Russians through Putin ’ s shameful actions . That word – ‘ shame ’ – is the one that has dominated all my conversations with Russian friends since February , along with anger , disbelief and despair .
With such huge geopolitical events – played out in real time as we scroll through live news feeds and wait impatiently for updates – there is a sense of wanting to react , wanting to contribute , wanting to help in some way . One of the first things we did was to create a ‘ wall of hope ’ outside ML2 , our main Russian classroom . Hundreds of blank blue and yellow post-it notes covered the wall outside , and many pupils and staff took the opportunity to leave a message of hope and support . In some ways this might seem a futile gesture in the face of a mighty army , a thousand miles away . In other ways it was a very visual demonstration of our solidarity with the oppressed , and a daily reminder in the months that have followed that , although our normal life might be continuing here in Sevenoaks , life for our Ukrainian brothers and sisters is anything but normal .
In our Russian department , a good number of lessons that we would have usually dedicated purely to language study instead focused on the events in Ukraine and Russia . We often study the concepts of propaganda and free speech in the abstract , but to see it happening in real time was as powerful as it was horrific .
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