Page 3 - Southwell School_The Chronicle July 2020

FROM THE HEADMASTER’S DESK
CBEING PURPOSEFUL
reating and witnessing student activity and outcomes and not understand or know the reasons you are doing through purposeful action is an extremely enjoyable something.
aspect of my role at Southwell. Our strong sense of routines enacted through an all-round learning timetable is the platform that allows purposeful and meaningful activity to occur within it. Some people just let things happen, purposeful people make things happen. Through this term I have spent time with our students and staff emphasizing the need to find meaning to the tasks and activities they are involved in, which in turn leads to purposeful thinking, action and positive outcomes.
Purposefulness is having a clear focus and understanding of why we do things. From relaxing, to intense moments of study, to things we enjoy and don’t enjoy, if we can create meaning to our activity it creates purpose.
Without a sense of purpose, you can become a rudderless ship, become distracted, establish low levels of resilience
So many students at Southwell inspire their peers and teachers through their purposeful action. This attitude allows them to achieve great things and is infectious. This attitude creates a vision or goal for what our students want to achieve and allows them to act in a concentrated and focused way, with motivation naturally enhanced. From wearing a uniform with pride, writing with intent to improve, to giving one’s best in cross country Physical Education lessons - knowing why we are doing things underpins the purpose and task, which ultimately produces a positive outcome and feeling of accomplishment.
Purposefulness is in action thousands of times a day at Southwell and the images below epitomise this.
Per aspera ad Astrum Jason Speedy
Individual purpose in a mathematical model. Collective purpose in a science experiment.