“ I was forewarned ,” she says of the time immediately prior to moving to Winchester , but she was equally reassured that her “ Frenchiness ” would add a refreshing touch . Her innate philanthropic streak was immediately and instinctively pounced upon by Clare Talks , Director of Community Service , who convinced her to take on the Blue Apple Theatre . She said she would try , and after her first Monday evening taking the boys down the road , she saw Winchester for the community that it is , and absolutely loved it . Community Service usually takes place on Wednesday afternoons , as a substitute for CCF . However , the Blue Apple Theatre requires boys , and Coline , to give up their Monday evenings , for two hours , on a volunteer basis . No boy is forced to do it , yet no matter how great the academic pressure , boys continue to sign on to the ever-growing waiting list . The Blue Apple Theatre Community Service option is open to those in VI Book 2 and VI Book 1 . There is always a don in charge of Community Service options , but it is the boys themselves who are vested with the responsibility for getting themselves to this particular community service activity , where they are very much encouraged to develop the confidence to form strong relationships with their fellow actors . Not that it required much encouragement , according to Coline , for after the initial walls and insecurities are broken , there is a huge amount of shared fun and camaraderie to be had . “ The boys gain a lot of confidence from the activity , and I myself gained a lot of confidence through acting ,” says Coline . “ They can often be so busy with their day-to-day school lives that they forget what the application of the school ’ s values is about . The Blue Apple Theatre reminds them of that .” Coline has noted during her time at Win Coll that , beyond the lessons learned in the div room , or indeed through extra-curricular activities , it is through the strength of the Community Service programme that boys truly learn how to develop . But she has also noted the immeasurable value that service for the wider community has , not just for those receiving , but as much for those who are giving . She had been invited to speak of her experience with the Blue Apple Theatre in Chapel , one morning , where she told the boys of a Canadian philosopher by the name of Jean Vanier , who wrote Accueillir notre humanité (‘ Becoming Human ’). She referred to the writer ’ s encouragement to all of us to have the courage to break the walls that surround us in order to be free to discover our common humanity . “ When we love and respect people ,” Coline recites , “ revealing to them their value , they can begin to come out from behind the walls that protect them .” Winchester College has the potential , and some would sadly say the right , to have very big walls indeed . A charming old boarding school in the heart of Hampshire would have every ability to alienate those around them from the wonderful experiences that lie within it , whilst also preventing the boys from interacting with the bountiful world around them . Thankfully , the ethos of the founder of the school , who lent his name to our collective , ensured that those walls were kept as low as possible throughout its history . He would have agreed with Coline during her lesson , and with Vanier , that to include rather than exclude others , we should try to befriend the vulnerable , welcome their gifts , learn from them and feel transformed , as this is the only way to achieve a simpler and more profound understanding of what it means to be human . The nature of tangible service towards the wider community runs deep in a school that has traditionally produced more academics and archbishops than CEOs and Prime Ministers . Whether it is directly in the subconscious syllabus , or whether it lies in the housemaster ’ s choices of the boys that join the house each year , pupils are encouraged to find their art and manifest it fully , both by the school and by their peers . It is perhaps in the very breeding of such a community that the boys themselves find activities such as the Blue Apple Theatre compelling enough to queue up for on Monday evenings . And perhaps it is in the opportunities that such communities foster that those who arrive as teachers learn as much about themselves as the students do , as Coline would testify . “ If it hadn ’ t been for Winchester College , I don ’ t know whether I would have ever had the chance to experience such a thing in my life .”
The Wykeham Journal 2016 45