Leading the assemblies with the children this term has been wonderful. Their insightful wisdom is already developing well. When I recently asked one of the Year 6 children, “What does it mean to be human?” She replied, “Humans have the ability to give sympathy to others and recognise that when someone makes a mistake, they are only trying to do their best.” An amazing statement for a ten-year-old.

Part of the joy of teaching is thinking of creative ways to present material that the children are already familiar with. This week we concluded our exploration of the Ficino School Values. The fifth value is practice what is good with resilience and courage. The children described resilience as the willingness to persevere: to get back up when you have been knocked down. I showed them a slow-motion video of Atlantic salmon, who make an incredible 2,000 km journey back to their stream of origin to breed. Going against the flow takes a lot of courage.

Irena Sendler is an amazing example of this. She was a Polish social worker who believed that all people were equally important. When Germany invaded Poland in 1939, Sendler began a secret mission to supply food, medicine and money to Jewish people in need. This was illegal under the Nazi regime, so she was risking her life.

As time went on, Sendler took further steps to swim against the tide of Nazism. Dressed as a nurse, she repeatedly visited the Warsaw Ghetto, where hundreds of Jewish people were dying, and helped children to escape. She is credited with personally saving the lives of 2,500 children, hiding some in wheelbarrows full of clothes or food.

However, in 1943, the Nazis worked out what Sendler was up to and arrested her. They tortured and interrogated her repeatedly, but she refused to divulge any names. Finally, they sentenced her to death, but her friends bribed the guards to let her go. Sendler spent the rest of the war in hiding; she died in 2008.

As our students grow into young men and women, we hope that they will have the courage to stand firm and remain true to their moral roots.