News
In recent weeks we have witnessed many seemingly ‘impossible’ things become ‘possible’, both on a national and a personal level; from creating new NHS Nightingale Hospital facilities around the country to the centenarian Captain Tom Moore raising £27 million for the NHS by walking 100 laps round his garden with his zimmer frame!
So many Millhillians of the past, both pupils and teachers have also done the seemingly impossible; from Sir Francis Crick in pioneering the discovery of DNA to Sir James Murray in compiling the first Oxford English Dictionary.
And in our own day, as pupils and teachers, we are about to make the seemingly impossible become possible as innovative teaching takes place online! Who would have thought at the start of 2020, that we would need such precise 20/20 clarity of vision to create our ‘online Mill Hill School community’ with the continued joy of education at its beating heart? As teachers, we have worked hard to adapt our resources and to learn the new technological tricks to enable Millhillians to thrive, even in enforced exile.
One Chapel window, high above the golden apse, beautifully expresses the essential educational dynamic that transcends time and circumstances. In the centre is the 12 year-old child Jesus, surrounded by his loving parents Mary and Joseph, seven caring teachers from the Temple, and four Torah scrolls for his education. Our ‘scrolls’ today are the online textbooks and resources at our disposal, and pupils can be secure in the knowledge of the ongoing care of their teachers, in partnership with supportive parents.
Many Muslims in our community will be experiencing a different kind of Ramadan this year that starts as we embark on the new term, and our best wishes are with them. Whether we come from a faith perspective or not, these beautiful words from of one of Muhammad’s most famous prayers expresses aspirations for greater self-knowledge and academic learning as we start the new term – and seek to make the impossible possible!
“O Allah, place light in my heart, light in my sight, light in my hearing, light on my right hand and on my left, light above me, light below me, light behind me and light before me. Lead me out of darkness into the Light.”
