The Moors and the Tors are Alive

One of the things that makes mine the best job in the world is being able to see our students performing to the very limits of their potential- out of their comfort zone and sometimes making me boggle-eyed with amazement.

I’ve interviewed many charming and totally dedicated Year 11 students recently and their self-confidence and commitment to achievement left me genuinely elated. So many are on track not just for the benchmark five A*-C high grades but for ten or more. When I go through their subjects with them and hear them speak with knowledge and authority about the wide range of options and the numerous tasks and projects they have to complete, I’m left thinking I should tell the world.

Malcolm Lee from the Sixth From did exactly this with great skill in two assemblies this week when he told the school about his project with Teignbridge Youth Council to change the perceptions of older people about the young. He used some interesting photographs and thought-provoking statements. Watch out for the campaign.

Many of the Year 11s are heavily engaged in sport and several are elite performers in their discipline, travelling to venues around the country and meeting young people from other schools. The commitment and talent are remarkable.

On Saturday we reached the climax of a dazzling seven show Sound of Music run. It was certainly the largest and probably the most impressive array of talent ever assembled on the South Dartmoor stage. Words from me can’t describe the quality of the achievement but the applause could and did.

One of the teachers in the audience earlier in the week told me that she had cried through the first night. ‘Why?’ I asked. ‘It’s not such a sad story- there is a happy ending.’ Still clutching a tissue, she replied, ‘Oh no. It’s not that. I wasn’t crying because of the story. I was crying because so many of these students are in my lessons and tutor group. They’ve been coming to my classes, doing their work and their homework- and yet they’ve also achieved all this!’ She was right, of course. We expect so much of them and they constantly surprise and amaze.

At a time when there are so many pressures on schools to achieve ever improved performance, it’s also wise to remember why so many staff are willing to give time to activities such as this. These commitment levels, this quality could never come from management targets or imposed Government requirements whatever the national initiative.

What we saw in The Sound of Music, and is in the matches played, the Dartmoor Club walks and the care staff show for the students is that old fashioned, unquantifiable thing called ‘a vocation’. This is why we have such dedication and service to young people from staff without counting the hours- though it must have been over eighty last week. (I was counting). It’s that spirit of giving the best of yourself in order to bring out the best in others.

This week South Dartmoor students set the hills alive with the sound of their music. And those melodies, those soaring notes also filled the moors and the Tors, the towns and the villages, the homes and the families. So… definitely the best job in the world.