From the Rector

Dear Parents,

Welcome to the first newsletter of the 2022 school year. I would like to extend a warm welcome to all ‘new’ PNBHS parents and to Old Boys who are now re-joining their old school as parents. For a number of our young men, and their parents, this first newsletter for the year will serve as not only an introduction to the year but also as an affirmation of our expectations and the opportunities we are able to offer our young men.

Our expectations have been made clear to the young men of the school, Year 9 pupils in particular. For many in Year 9 our school will be quite different to their previous school. That matters little – they are, to a man, expected to get on with life at PNBHS in the manner we expect them to. Most have started well; some are taking just a little bit of time to get to grips with what is expected of them.

Thank you to parents who have supported our intention to maintain high standards of academia, grooming and behaviour from the first day of the 2022 school year. It is clear that there is a direct correlation between basic standards being set and adhered to and the extensive list of successes that our young men and Old Boys achieve.

Unfortunately, we begin this year as we ended the last, with continuing disruptions and challenges caused by Covid-19. It has been a dispiriting couple of years for our young men with so many interruptions and cancellations. However, one only has to look at what is happening in other parts of the world to help put things into perspective.

Many of the challenges we have faced in recent times have been out of our control. Seneca and the Stoic philosophers would tell us not to dwell on those things we cannot control; what we can control, however, is our response to the challenges thrown in our way. As the Year 9 Social Studies classes have come through my office learning about the history and the traditions of the school, we have spoken about how we react to challenges or obstacles. We all lose, we all fail, I tell the boys, and so it is our reaction to a loss or a failure that says a great deal about our character. There is no use being a cry-baby who sulks and gives up the moment something gets hard.

We do understand that in order to achieve at any level, you also need to fail occasionally. When this does happen, and inevitably it will (although of course the politically correct world is attempting to purge the word ‘fail’ from our vocabulary; to many it is another four-letter word starting with ‘f’), it is how we respond to that failure that is important. Resilience, then, is a vital part of a young man’s armoury on the journey to manhood.

We cannot afford to be overly protective of our young people, and the recent Winter Olympics in Beijing reminded me of that wonderful phrase that the Scandinavians use: curling parents. In this analogy, the child is the stone that makes its way down the ice of life, with parents using the brooms to clear every possible obstacle or impediment so that the path is clear and smooth. While we all want what is best for our children, so too do we need to recognise that young men, in particular, will need to face and overcome challenges and obstacles as they work their way through their teenage years. The brooms will need to be put away for them to develop independence, resilience and problem-solving skills.

We look forward to seeing our young men develop over the year and look forward to sharing their successes throughout 2022.

D M Bovey

Rector