Good morning all, Today we celebrate One Norwich School Day.

Many of you may have been involved in events throughout the week, such as the inter-house Benchball tournament, the Film nights, giving generous donations to the amnesty collections or in the celebrations surrounding World mental health Day. And I hope many of you are looking forward to the One Norwich School Day Fair this Lunchtime in the Blake, with stalls, food and more!

But for this assembly I want to focus on the meaning and origin of One Norwich School Day.

We are now celebrating One Norwich School Day for the Fourth time and with each year the celebrations have grown, but the core reasons behind the day remain the same.

One Norwich School Day was established by Alice Lily-Nene, a Norwich School Pupil and former head of school who some of you may remember. She wanted to dedicate time to celebrating diversity at Norwich School, and to raise awareness of issues that affect people from marginalised communities. It was her determination and commitment to these issues that facilitated the creation of One Norwich School Day. Which only goes to show the real Impact you as pupils have on our school community. Think about the time you have left at this school, whether it is months or years, in that time you have the power to make a change within our school community. All of us here today have a voice, and it is important that we use it.

It is you, the pupils, who play a huge role in setting the culture of our school. You get to choose collectively what that culture is through your every day actions and I hope that the school’s values of love, compassion and inclusion sit at the heart of this. The School’s Pupil Charter is a great example of your pupil-voice. The first line of the charter, “we recognize, value and celebrate our differences”, epitomizes the message of One Norwich School Day.

Sometimes it can feel easier to ignore or suppress our differences, to give in to pressure to ‘fit in’, however there is so much more joy and power to be held when we can embrace our full selves. Brene Brown describes fitting in as the “biggest barrier to belonging”, she says that “Fitting in is about assessing a situation and becoming who you need to be to be accepted. Belonging, on the other hand, doesn’t require us to change who we are; it requires us to be who we are.”

One Norwich school Day hopes to encourage exactly that. We hope that the celebrations will help enable all pupils to gain a sense of belonging, to be able to bring their full selves to school, and to feel actively welcomed in doing so. We are all are united in our shared community of Norwich School, a community that looks to empower all of us to ‘be who we are’.

I would like to End this address with a poem by Maya Angelou that speaks to finding unity within our differences.

Human Family – Maya Angelou

I note the obvious differences
in the human family.
Some of us are serious,
some thrive on comedy.

Some declare their lives are lived
as true profundity,
and others claim they really live
the real reality.

The variety of our skin tones
can confuse, bemuse, delight,
brown and pink and beige and purple,
tan and blue and white.

I've sailed upon the seven seas
and stopped in every land,
I've seen the wonders of the world
not yet one common man.

I know ten thousand women
called Jane and Mary Jane,
but I've not seen any two
who really were the same.

Mirror twins are different
although their features jibe,
and lovers think quite different thoughts
while lying side by side.

We love and lose in China,
we weep on England's moors,
and laugh and moan in Guinea,
and thrive on Spanish shores.

We seek success in Finland,
are born and die in Maine.
In minor ways we differ,
in major we're the same.

I note the obvious differences
between each sort and type,
but we are more alike, my friends,
than we are unalike.

We are more alike, my friends,
than we are unalike.

We are more alike, my friends,
than we are unalike.