In this ‘Bonus Extra’ blog, Andy Woodward confesses his love of 'holding forth' in assembly and shares the big question he asked Senior pupils to ask themselves in half-term assembly late last year
Hello. Every now and then (admittedly not very often!), I get asked by a parent what we actually talk about in school assemblies. They will hear me wax lyrical about the excitement of standing before several hundred young people, granted the momentary opportunity to convince and unify them around a common value or aspiration… to challenge them, make them think and even, on a good day, perhaps to inspire them. To be freed from the bounds of curriculum demands and exam specifications that dominate so much of the day to come, allowed to express what I really want to say.
And, by this point, the parent in question has generally regretted the question and walked backwards from the room.
Those who ask me about assemblies will see me go all misty-eyed as I begin holding forth about my deep love of the rare opportunities they offer.
But, just in case you are interested, and at the risk of undermining all I’ve suggested above by revealing the rather less epic reality, here is a recent assembly address, written entirely as spoken. It was delivered by me during the regular ‘Half Term Theme’ whole-school Senior Assembly that took place in late October. And I’ve chosen it partly because it didn’t rely on PowerPoint images, and partly because I really believe it! Yours as a ‘bonus extra’ blog…
Do you have Integrity?
It’s time to present the theme for the half term.
Last time around it was ‘Be your Best Self’ and many of you have worked hard to live up to that. We appreciate that. It’s been a great start… But I now want to build on that and ask you: ‘Do your Selves Match?’ Or, in other words, do you have INTEGRITY??
It starts with a question…
Who are you?
I mean who are you really? Because you have lots of versions of you.
There’s you in school… you at home… you with your friends at the weekend… you on social media as @BarnesNumber1Gangsta or something similarly realistic!
But do your selves match?
Not in terms of the way you speak… you probably swear more with your mates… you’re probably politer in class. That’s natural. That’s fine. That’s understanding social context. That’s a life skill!
It’s OK to have different language and a different manner around different groups. But some things SHOULDN’T change… Your character, your values, your basic decency.
This was the thing being examined in the high-quality (!) Channel 4 show: Sun, Sex and Suspicious Parents… I hadn’t heard of it before this week. I wanted to show a clip here but it wasn’t really suitable. Teenagers go off on their first unsupervised holiday abroad while their parents spy on them with hidden cameras… it’s excruciating – I can’t even tell you what they witness…
But what would your parents think if they had a hidden camera on you? Would they be shocked? If they had full access to your phone. Would they be upset? Not just by the language and the banter, but by the way you treat or speak about others? Would they ask you that question – Who are you?? I feel like I don’t know you!
Integrity is about the person you are when no one is watching. The person you are when you’re not just on your ‘best’ behaviour. Is there some consistency? I hope so…
Integrity is about the person you are when no one is watching. The person you are when you’re not just on your ‘best’ behaviour. Is there some consistency? I hope so…
This is why online bullying is particularly devastating when it’s uncovered – to the bully… I’ve been there before reading out someone’s words back to them when a parent brings it in. Imagine – genuinely imagine sitting there having the worst things you’ve written to someone on social media read back to you in my office. “No one even likes you – why don’t you take the hint. Why don’t you just kill yourself – no one would miss you”… I’ve read that back to someone. I read it out to their parents. Their words. And the pupil cries. Of course they do. Because they don’t want anyone to think that they’re like that. And again, I ask them… Who are you? Is that you?
What I’m NOT saying is that you should be perfect… Part of being young is misjudging things sometimes… but you do have to own the mistakes. As an adult… one thing that bugs me is when someone gets sent off in football, or gets heard saying something racist, or drink drives… and they say THAT’S NOT ME. I’m not like that…
That was you! You just were like that!
What I’m NOT saying is that you should be perfect… Part of being young is misjudging things sometimes… but you do have to own the mistakes.
You can’t just take credit for the good things. That time you helped someone and was kind to your elderly neighbor… you can’t claim “THAT was me” – THAT was the ‘real’ me. All the other times when you didn’t bother… none of them were the ‘real me’. No! You don’t just get to claim the highlights.
The fact is, we’re all a mix of motives, a mix of behaviours… but behind it should be some coherent and consistent set of beliefs and traits that make up our values, our character. Something that would be recognised by your parents, and your siblings, and your friends, and your school. That’s INTEGRITY.
And if you are so different from one context to another that nothing matches… well then you lack integrity – you lack a real self… certainly one to be proud of. Being honest, in that case, you probably feel a bit lost and insecure. You may be the one asking… Who am I?
Integrity is when your selves match. And it’s important. It links to other important things like reliability, trustworthiness, decency. That, in the end, is what people need and look for in their friends… in romantic relationships… in employees.
Integrity is when your selves match. And it's important. It links to other important things like reliability, trustworthiness, decency. That, in the end, is what people need and look for in their friends... in romantic relationships... in employees
It does matter. It matters in my job, that’s for sure. I run and write the PSHE you have in form times. If I give you a load of messages about drugs – the immorality of the drug trade and the damage drugs do… and then you bump into me one night in London, off my head, high as a kite… I’d have no integrity. You’d call me a hypocrite... and you’d be right. If I came out of the staff toilet followed by a cloud of steam and the smell of mango – how could I tell you not to vape? You have to live out what you say you are – you have to at least try…
To be clear, I am a hypocrite sometimes, all that stuff in PSHE about work life balance, exercise, sleep – all gone to pieces this half term and I’m feeling it. Again, no one’s perfect. But you have to try. And I do believe it. In our day to day, in our intentions, in the grind of life – we need to have INTEGRITY.
We can’t just claim to be a good person, or just be one when it suits us… we have to be consistent about it.
Or else, one day, we may just get found out…
Mr Woodward welcomes feedback to this blog to website@harrodian.com