What a pleasure it’s been to welcome the School community back to ECS for the start of the new term and the new academic year. The faces are smiley (some of them sun-tanned), the uniforms are (very) smart, the (new, larger) shoes are shiny, and the excitement levels and sense of anticipation are high. We are all set for a terrific year, and I am looking forward to it very much. To those returning families – welcome back. To those families new to ECS (and we have lots this year) – a very warm welcome. I hope that you will quickly feel at-ease and at home here, and that you will soon get that feeling (both reassuring and exciting in equal measure) of belonging to something really rather special.
I welcomed the Prep School at the start of the first day of term during Headmaster’s Assembly in the Quire of the Cathedral. I asked them what their ‘new year’ resolution was going to be. I shared mine with them, and they all know that they are allowed to (politely) tell me off if they see me looking at my phone when walking between the Pre-Prep and the Prep. I suggested to them that high on their list ought to be our ECS Habits. If you take what we expect from our pupils (both as learners and as members of a close-knit community) and boil that right down, you are left with these 10 core habits. And, if you are mindful of those habits and aim to stick to them in all that you do, you won’t go far wrong. In the Pre-Prep we have ECS Golden Rules; in the Prep we have ECS Habits: they complement each other brilliantly and both are reproduced in your blue School Calendars. Here’s what I reminded the pupils of on day 1:
| Pre-Prep Golden Rules | Prep School Habits |
| We are kind and helpful We are gentle We listen We look after property We are honest We work hard |
The habit of hard work The habit of honouring your commitments The habit of having a go and keeping going The habit of taking part The habit of listening The habit of being honest, modest and kind The habit of asking for help The habit of looking after other people The habit of looking after your surroundings The habit of looking after yourself |
The School’s aims and vision are clear (if you fancy reminding yourself, you can find them on our website under ‘about us’), and, as part of our aim to provide a first-rate all-round educational experience where we prize and promote the development of character and the education of the whole child, I am very clear that our job is to work with families to help our pupils acquire the right habits for life. Thank you for all that you will do this year to work alongside us to help us do just that.
Here’s to a brilliant year.
Mr James Featherstone
Headmaster
