Mr Mossman's Reflections

Relationships matter

Surprisingly, I didn’t like Latin until half way though Year 9. My teacher was Mr M. He was young(ish), funny and knew his stuff. But I was in a class of thirty and the mobile classroom was too stuffy, so I continued to use a well-honed trick of hiding at the back of the room and slowly sliding underneath my desk. I felt that I had developed the power of invisibility.

And then my crazy dog, Luke, changed everything.

Luke was a terror. He would chase anything on four legs/wheels and had the awful habit of locking his jaws permanently to whatever he caught. He was a horrendous risk for cows, lorries and particularly other dogs.

I liked to walk Luke along the local river, jauntily making my way beneath the willows and high banks, an antique walking stick in my hand– don’t judge my early nerdiness. Occasionally, I would take the gamble and let Luke off the lead thinking I could see any hazards ahead. A mistake. One day, over the top of the banks he went, like a little black, muscular bullet…and the howls began. I ran to the top and to my horror there was my Latin teacher, Mr M, and his lovely border collie – with Luke seemingly attached permanently to its neck. Mr M immediately leapt into action. He grabbed my stick and set about whacking Luke with some force. The stick snapped and Luke went flying. And with that broken stick and crazed animal began a much closer interaction between Mr M and myself. We had something in common (Luke induced PTSD) and suddenly, weirdly, I wanted to learn. Latin became my thing.   

I am sure we can all think of a teacher who successfully built a connection. They inspired us and made us love their subject, because they took the time to get to know us, made a joke with us or congratulated us on our successes. Of course, relationships between classmates are also immensely important, as is the relationship between teachers and parents.  Such positive relationships are essential when it comes to education; excellent connections lead to excellent results and excellent emotional wellbeing.  Positive relationships act as the vital breeding ground of the skills that are essential for the workplace of the future:  communication, collaboration and creativity. They also give the vital sense of belonging that makes us feel more confident, want to engage, take risks and show resilience when things go wrong. Worryingly, just over 60% of students nationally feel a sense of school belonging, with it being lower for girls than boys. Correctly, this has therefore become a major focus in recent government reforms.

So, it is essential that everyone in our school community, be it student or teacher, is able to build a network of relationships by modelling the habits of politeness, respect, kindness, inclusivity and empathy.  There is a natural divide between teacher and student, but it is important that we respect the humanity of all; teachers don’t power down like robots every evening and young people have their own dignity and very much want a life beyond school subjects. By building bridges we can all work better, collaboratively and successfully. And working at such an excellent school as Kent College, I know that it does not take an incident that should probably have been reported to the RSPCA to make this happen.