'The last few months have produced uncertainty, confusion and difficulty for all of us. This piece of work, I believe, acts as a beacon through that dark storm. It shows exactly who our students are, how much they valued the time they had at XP School, and how these experiences have impacted upon, and shaped, their lives.
Before lockdown, in the middle of March, we returned to school after our early spring break. The first week back was scheduled to be mock exams. By the end of that week, the summer GCSE exams had been cancelled, and the school was to be closed indefinitely.
The sudden realisation that this was our Year 11’s last days at XP only hit home later. We said goodbye to students all too quickly and abruptly. Students said their goodbyes to each other, not really knowing what was going to happen next. A hastily organised whole year photo happened on the stairs, missing many members of the year group already in isolation.
Surely this wasn’t it? The end of five years at XP, ending so suddenly, in the blink of an eye, without any chance to prepare emotionally for such a momentous event. I cannot easily express the sadness I felt in this moment.
As it became obvious that the year was over and students wouldn’t return, I worried. Had we lost them? Was that it? Everything we did at XP, all of it! All of that exceptional connection between crew leader and students ending, in T.S. Eliot’s words, ‘not with a bang but whimper’?...'