"Welcome back to Cathedral Close and this wonderful building. It is good to have most of the community back together after the Christmas holiday. In their absence, good luck to the U5 and U6 as they start their mock exams this morning.

Today’s reading comes from a book of the Old Testament called Proverbs, traditionally attributed to King Solomon and aimed primarily at young people. In what we heard today, we are reminded of the importance of love and faithfulness. These are certainly important concepts and you will not be surprised to hear that I hope you view them in positive terms. However, it is the next part of the advice that I want to focus on this morning: we are invited to bind these concepts around our necks, to write them on the tablet of our heart.

I am not sure that Solomon is literally advocating signs around the neck but, even taking the words metaphorically, one might challenge them further: what is “a tablet of the heart” and how is one supposed to write anything on it? Would you want to write anything at your young age or would you rather wait and make some retrospective notes about what has proved to be important to you once you are older and have more experience of life? Even then, for a school that believes strongly in a lifelong love of learning, would you ever want people to stop writing on this tablet and do you have the ability to change things already written or only add to them?

One of the great treats of working in a school is that my colleagues and I get to work with you, an amazing group of young people at a formative time of your lives as you develop and try things, without knowing or even needing to know whether they will be useful later in your lives. I am sure there will be many a teacher who can relate their pleasure when an Old Norvicensian comes back and tells of an exciting ongoing interest or even career which started through experiences gained during their time here. Yet we also do hope to give you values that stay with you, to establish some things which might be written “on the tablet of your heart”, to use the phrase from Proverbs.

I closed 2023 by talking to you at the end of term about Taylor Swift on her announcement as Time Magazine’s person of the year. I start 2024 by talking about another leading female role model: Sarina Wiegman, whose autobiography I have enjoyed reading over the holiday. She is obviously a champion of women’s football: she played more than 100 times for the Leuwinnen, the name for the women’s Dutch team which coincidentally means Lionesses; as a coach, she has won the European Championships with both the Dutch and English national teams (2017 and 2022 respectively), as well as taking both teams to the final of the World Cup (2019 and 2023 respectively). Passages in the book by Sarina herself are supplemented by interviews between the co-writing journalist and key players and coaches in Wiegman’s career. Regardless of her particular sector of activity, a picture emerges of a simply outstanding person: determination, clarity of vision, directness of communication, all blended with genuine care for those in her teams and a conspicuous warmth of humanity. Wiegman would be an exemplary leader in any field of activity. To become such an impressive role model, what would Sarina Wiegman carry around her neck or have written on the tablet of her heart? And what would she have said at your age? She certainly had supportive parents and always loved football, yet part of her passion to grow the women’s game and create equal opportunities for boys and girls came because her own path into football started by cutting her hair short so that she could play in boys’ teams.

And where does all this leave you as you come back to a new term at the start of a new calendar year? Whether it is about classroom performance or an aspect of co-curriculum, the start of the year is always a good time for goal-setting. I would not want to get such goals out of perspective and am always nervous that a New Year’s Resolution might become not a sign around one’s neck but a millstone. However, it may be helpful to give thought to targets in different areas of your life: perhaps a subject in the curriculum which you are going to focus on, a co-curricular activity which you wish to start or to develop further, or something in your social life that you wish to address, such as setting sensible limits to the time you spend on your phone or gaming.



One area which you may not have been considering for a new year’s resolution is your everyday behaviour. However, that would be the area for focus in terms of the values that were given in today’s reading. There is an obvious and strong overlap between the values we heard earlier (love and faithfulness) with the school’s stated values of love, compassion and inclusion. And if one is going to write anything at any age “on the tablet of your heart”, one could certainly do worse than write these words. However, unless they are accompanied by actions that are lived out every day, that is all they would be; words. I close with the challenge that concepts such as the school’s values of love, compassion and inclusion can only be practically meaningful through repeated action; multiple acts of writing, if you like. We carry such values by practising them each and every day, both at school and at home. So, as you go about your business in 2024, think of ways in which you can show love, compassion and inclusion by what you do and how you act. There is no better time to resolve to practise what is written on the tablet of your heart than at the start of the New Year.

Good luck with this challenge; I hope that you have a productive and enjoyable term!"

Proverbs 3.1-6: Wisdom Bestows Well-Being

My son, do not forget my teaching,
    but keep my commands in your heart,
for they will prolong your life many years
    and bring you peace and prosperity.

Let love and faithfulness never leave you;
    bind them around your neck,
    write them on the tablet of your heart.
Then you will win favor and a good name
    in the sight of God and man.

Trust in the Lord with all your heart
    and lean not on your own understanding;
in all your ways submit to him,
    and he will make your paths straight