We understand the importance of a culture of safeguarding - a vital aspect of this is to encourage a sense of belonging within our community and this means nurturing and valuing our differences. When people feel they belong they are able to be themselves and therefore are empowered to seek help when they need it. This week, Mrs Fairweather spoke to the pupils in assembly about what we can all do as individuals to make a difference to combat prejudice and discrimination.

"It is lovely to be able to speak with you all, from the West doors all the way back into the Presbytery this morning. I wanted to have an opportunity to talk to you at the start of the new year and I have just managed to squeeze this in before we break for half term, not quite in January but still early on in the year of the rabbit.  

I hope you enjoyed our recent Chinese New Year assembly where we heard about the moon rabbit – this was a story I also heard as a teenager - since then I have always clearly noticed the dark markings of a rabbit on a bright full moon - you may have even noticed this yourself over the last couple of clear nights. 

Since hearing from our international pupils, and when considering this assembly, I thought I would investigate the roots of the moon rabbit a little more. The Moon rabbit or hare is a mythical figure in a diversity of cultures throughout Asia (in China, Japan, India, Korea, Sri Lanka, Cambodia, Thailand, Vietnam, and Myanmar), but also in indigenous North American cultures and in Aztec folklore further South. 

These pare-idolic interpretations are created when the human eye perceives something nebulous, as an image that as humans we are primed to recognise – this could be seeing the shape of a dragon in a cloud formation, or seeing a face in the way our bread has toasted when we make our breakfast. There is something magical and connecting in knowing that humans for thousands of years have identified the shadowy shapes we see on the near side of the Moon as a rabbit, or indeed the man in the moon. 

On the Friday before last, during assembly and tutorial, we asked you to reflect on the importance of remembering the horrors of the Holocaust – recalling such events challenges us all, and our natural response is to reassure ourselves that the same could never ever happen again. However, we must accept the tragic truth that genocides have taken place again, over and over in locations that seem very far away, in Cambodia, Rwanda, Bosnia, Ethiopia and the Sudan – humans, who are so alike that they may interpret the craters on the moon in the same way, have in different parts of the world contributed to different versions of the same tragedy. 

So, what can each of us really do, is there really a part we can play in preventing these terrible events? I believe there is, I believe that we all have an incredible power to make a difference in the lives of those we interact with daily. As individuals we can all take steps that contribute to collective and positive change, (1) we must challenge ourselves to acknowledge our own discomfort when we see difference in others, (2) we must be prepared to do something when others get things wrong, when we see or hear prejudice and (3) we must educate ourselves to know what is happening in the world. We only need to know the name Tyre(e) Nichols as a reminder that there is still so much work to be done by every one of us playing our part in challenging injustice.  

Last year pupils in the senior school took part in a Sense of Belonging Survey and a significant number of you at that time reported that you did not feel able to fully be yourself during your day at school. This is something we must all take responsibility for; we can consider what it is about our group behaviours that create the conditions where people feel the need to hide aspects of themselves. Whilst we are powerless to change global atrocities, we can at least play our part within our own sphere of influence here at Norwich School. Remember what the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust say about ordinary people. 

Last year most of you had the opportunity to contribute your thoughts about what you felt should be included in our Pupil Charter, a framework for our day-to-day interactions here – whilst I read this to you, please reflect on your own attitudes and behaviours and ask yourself if you uphold these standards daily – in doing so we protect and nurture all members of our community. 

At Norwich School we each strive to live by our core values of love, compassion, and inclusion.  

• We recognise, value, and celebrate our differences. 

• We are kind and fair to all. 

• We aim to be the friend we would want to have, especially when times are difficult. 

• We recognise that our actions have consequences, and we take responsibility for them. 

• We are not afraid to speak up or speak out, with respect for others. 

• We appreciate the importance of listening to others and of open dialogue. 

• We honour our academic and co-curricular commitments. 

• We welcome help, we embrace challenge, and we understand that we can learn when things do not go as planned. 

• We take pride in our school, and each play our part in its continuing growth and progress. 

• We look beyond our school to make a positive impact in the wider community. 

Thank you for listening this morning, as we sit here for a brief time at the start of our day please do take a moment to think of the people of Turkey and Syria impacted by the terrible earthquake earlier this week, of Nicola Bulley’s family who still do not have answers as to what happened to her, and to the Epsom school community who are reeling from the tragedy that has impacted them all in recent days. 

I thought I would finish by sharing with you some words from Neil Gaiman - many of you will have read his books and his graphic novels, or watched their tv adaptions on Netflix, this is what he wrote at the start of a new year: 

When my Cousin Helen and her two sisters reached a displaced persons camp at the end of WW2, having survived the Holocaust by luck and bravery, and the skin of their teeth, they had no documents, and the people who gave them their papers suggested to them that they put down their ages as five years younger than they were, because the Nazis had stolen five years from them, and this was their only chance to take it back. They didn't count the war years as part of their life.  

So we must all make each year of freedom count ...I hope you will have a wonderful year, that you'll dream dangerously and outrageously, that you'll make something that didn't exist before you made it, that you will be loved and that you will be liked, and that you will have people to love and to like in return. And, most importantly (because I think there should be more kindness and more wisdom in the world right now), that you will, when you need to be, be wise, and that you will always be kind."