A key tenet of Sidcot School’s ethos is that we teach our students to be curious and to have the confidence to enquire fearlessly – to live adventurously, as our Quaker philosophy puts it. It’s our belief that this leads children to be better motivated, to be kind and purposeful – education for a life of active, purposeful and responsible citizenship.

This has certainly been in evidence this week as two of our Old Scholars have been profiled in the media for the impact of the work that they do.

The first is our very own Alumni Relationships Officer, Wendy Haslam (S: 1962 - 66), who has been speaking to BBC Somerset’s Charlie Taylor about her role as an Anna Chaplain. Wendy was commissioned as an Anna Chaplain last year and describes their ministry as ‘an added dimension to our care for older people.” In her BBC interview, she emphasised how part of what Anna Chaplains are trained to do is work with people in the ‘fourth stage of life’ and accompany them on ‘that last spiritual journey’. She is leading training days as she builds her team and you can find out more on the Anna Chaplaincy website here. You can also listen to her on Charlie’s BBC show here (around 2 hours 49 mins in). He quite rightly describes her as a “lovely lady”! We think so too!   

Congratulations also to OS Marcus Annfield (S: 1989 - 94) who has been profiled in a BBC interview speaking about his work at the UCAS team, supporting students progressing to university. It was certainly a busy day for him on A Level results day last week! Marcus often comes back into School to talk to our students as part of our Careers programme – something that we are always tremendously grateful to our Sidcotians for giving up their time to do.