Good morning, everyone. I’m going to talk about virtues. But first let me say three words:
Valued. Challenged. Inspired.
We value every single human being, every single person, within school.
Because if you’re listening to this and you’re not a robot, you are a human being, not a human doing.
That means you’re valued and you have inherent value for who you are as a human being, rather than your performance, or what you do, or what you don’t do. So, we value every single young person in this school. We value each young person so much we want to challenge you and inspire you to a personal best.
We want to help everyone be the best they can be, to be their best selves, which means practicing virtues that underpin and support good character, which enables us each to achieve our personal best both at school, and in life.
And we get that through practice, it doesn’t just happen, we don’t come ready made as virtuous souls into the world, it’s something we have to learn. It’s why good schools are so important, it’s why good families are so important.
And that’s where virtues come in, because it’s as we build those into our lives as good habits, that we practice on a day in day out basis, it’s as we practice those virtues that we build the character that will underpin our success at school and in life.
And so we have to practice those core virtues day in day out until they become second nature and part of our identity, part of who we are. You get wiser by practicing being wise and making wise decisions and thinking about the consequences of actions.
You become a person characterised by love by selflessness not selfishness, by thinking about other people, by putting other people first, by thinking about others and sacrificing for them rather than just thinking about yourself. We all do that, we all tend to think about ourselves, so we need practice at putting others first.
Humility, we need to practice humility, where we’re teachable and we learn and we’re honest. And we need to have integrity, where we’re honest with ourselves and honest with other people.
And all of the virtues underpin the character that enables us to succeed.
Wisdom is growing in knowledge, through working hard in lessons.
Love is making sacrifices.
Fairness is playing by the rules.
Self-control is working towards a long-term goal.
Integrity is setting a good example for others to follow.
Courage is keeping going when things are hard.
Humility is trying to do our best for other people.
Wisdom isn’t wasting vast amounts of time on things that are bad for us.
Love isn’t getting cross with people who irritate us.
Fairness isn’t taking advantage of others.
Self-control isn’t becoming aggressive.
Integrity isn’t doing the wrong thing because it is easy or impresses others.
Courage isn’t giving up when we fail.
Humility isn’t complaining when things don’t go our way.
Virtues are something we all need to practice. Staff, students, parents, all of our community. There will be times when we do act virtuously, seeking to benefit others as well as ourselves. There will be other times when we don’t get that right, in fact we are rather foolish in the way in which we think, in the way in which we speak, and the way in which we act. Let us resolve to seek out virtues.
Everyone at this school is already a good and virtuous person, so I only wish to remind you of what you are already capable of.
Do you discuss the importance of character regularly as a household?
What virtues do you personally want to develop? How can you do this?
What choices do you make which encourage the growth of your own character?
What kind of character traits do you regularly show to others?
I’m proud of all of you for already having tolerance and respect for all. Let yourself and everyone around you improve as we continue to grow and move forward together. Thank you.
