It is for us, as adults, to help inspire young people about how they can make a real difference

Well the results of the pre-Christmas Blackheath High School mock election are in. The good news is that, in many ways, the future is extremely bright.

In the Junior School, the Enviro Safe Party romped home with a victory, promising to help our school to become more environmentally friendly and plastic-aware. Running close behind, were parties promising to bring us kindness, unity and to make a real difference: a salutary message for our national politicians. At Seniors, where the Mock Election parties shadowed the national picture, some interesting trends emerged. Best voter turnout was in Year 7 (75%) and Year 13 (74%), although to be fair to Year 11, they may have been distracted by Mocks of a different kind! Victory went to the Liberal Democrats with 38.9% of the vote and Greens in 2nd place. Neither of the two major national parties were favoured by the Blackheath High School electorate and interestingly, not one single vote, in the entire school, went to the Brexit Party.

There is a clear message here for us from our student voice: sustainability should be top of our agenda. In my end of term letter you will see we have plans afoot for our 140th Birthday year to listen to that particular mandate. Longer term, it poses us, and schools in general, an interesting challenge. We want to engage young people in politics and current affairs, but many of them feel disconnected from our political establishment and that they will inherit a national picture not of their making or preference. To be honest, this is not a new challenge at all. Many young people in the 1960s and 1970s would certainly have argued the same. It is for us, as adults, to help inspire young people about the ways in which they can make a real difference and create the changes they want to see in the world: in politics but also in a myriad of other ways. For me, that is an incredibly inspiring and privileged mission and one full of hope and optimism.

I wish you all a wonderful festive break and send my very best wishes for a successful and happy 2020. Thank you for everything you do to make the Blackheath High School community so special.