Head Girls, Imani and Flora, delivered a great speech to the whole School (including the Junior School) which we just had to share with you - let's embrace change and be 10% braver shall we?

Imani: Flora and I are both big fans of familiarity.  We’ve both lived in Highgate since we were tiny, hardly ever leaving a ten mile radius of Channing, and we love the same old comforting films and TV shows. 

 

Flora: Our dislike of change can get a bit more extreme. I,  for one, kicked up a fuss when my parents finally decided to renovate our mouldy bathroom. I think I take the cake for being the angriest recipient of new paint swatches. 

 

Imani: As for me, my big family used to get together every summer in the same run-down resort in Scotland where  it always rained and the activities were all geared towards little kids. For my family, getting sick of finding cockroaches in their bedrooms and bored of the annual Harry Potter Quiz, change became inevitable. But the idea of switching our holiday destination literally made me feel like the world was ending. 

 

Flora: For people like us, who love stability, starting a new school year always felt like a huge shake-up. Some of you sitting here might be thrilled about having a fresh start. Many of you, though, might be feeling a little bit anxious about what's to come. Perhaps you’ve just started a new section of your school career –  you’ve gone up a  key stage, or crossed over from Fairseat, started Sixth Form, or perhaps this is only your second day at Channing. 

 

Imani: When Flora and I met up before the start of term, we talked about being nervous about beginning Year 13, in many ways a daunting year. We also touched on the big transition ahead of us – finishing school. None of this is as scary for us as it used to be a few years ago. You can’t fight the natural changes that come with growing up, any more than you can fight Summer turning to Autumn. Some people naturally embrace and thrive on the unexpected and unfamiliar, but for those of us to whom this doesn’t come so easily, it might help to think of change as a skill. Like badminton, baking, any other skill, it takes practice. Starting a new year at school, no matter how anxious it might make you, is great practice at the art of change. 

 

Flora: Though the two of us love our familiar things, we also see how  time and time again natural changes bring about huge positive growth. And that’s something to celebrate. This sense of beginning and difference in September is a feeling I am sure every person in this room is familiar with - its nerve wracking and its exciting - as we take on new subjects, new friendships, new students or clubs or sports. There is this whole stretch of Familiar Unknown ahead of us, and we don’t quite know where it's heading but perhaps we know where we want it to go. We want it to be a successful year, a happy year, one that treats us and our loved ones well. Some of this is in our control - some of this is not. But here in this hall we have so much opportunity within arms reach - we just need to have the guts to take it.

 

Imani: Someone who perfectly encapsulates the idea of embracing change, whom Flora and I both admire very much, is the singer David Bowie. For us, whenever the old anxiety about change comes creeping back, we like to listen to the his song Changes. It’s impossible to listen to without getting you at least a bit excited for those twists, turns and opportunities life’s about to throw at you.

 

Flora: Bowie reminds us to “Turn and face the strange”, and what better attitude is there to the chaotic, possibly stressful and alien changes that life throws at us? Sometimes, the Strange and New really is better than pure consistency.  For example, my new bathroom is much nicer. 

 

Imani: And my family gets together once a year in a place without cockroaches. 

 

Flora: More importantly, we have gotten through each school year up until now, and each time Summer rolls around we feel proud and happy about everything we’ve accomplished and experienced since September. 

 

Imani: Fear of change is natural for us as human beings, but so is adaptation. You can’t expect yourself to be completely relaxed and unbothered by the start of a new school year. But we hope you can mix in a little bit of excitement too.