The end of an era!

12th July 2024

Nearly there!

Before we start, I’m not going to jinx it – as Keir said yesterday.

I thought that I would just make reference today to the concept of ‘the end of an era’.

The staff and students at TRC have finished for the summer – remember that the staff return mid-August, when it’s GCSE exam results day. At the college we said goodbye to 5 members of staff this afternoon. In total those colleagues had given something like 150 years of service to Thomas Rotherham College, its students and our community. In each and every case it was the ‘end of an era’. About the same time as those colleagues were being thanked by the TRC team the legendary England fast bowler, Jimmy Anderson, was walking off the field at Lords for the very last time, having played something like 189 5-day test matches. He is the most successful fast bowler cricket has ever seen and at the age of 41 Jimmy Anderson has played his last game of cricket for England.

It comes to us all. Whatever we’re doing, in our personal or professional lives, at some point that will come to an end. That is the nature of things and there is an inevitability about that state of affairs. We move on, in whatever way we choose – hopefully.

When I listened to my colleagues today and having heard Jimmy Alison interviewed over the past few weeks, I’ve been struck by the phlegmatic, pragmatic and hopeful tone that they are all taking. The past, their histories, their successes and their occasional challenges have made them who they are right now and those events. circumstances and conditions have prepared them for the next stage of their lives. We might, as observers, have a degree of sadness at their moving on, but they all seem to imbue what is perfect about choosing your moment to leave classroom, kitchen, stage or pitch; they have retained their positivity, their good humour and the belief that there will be a great future ahead.

I hope as we rattle towards the end of the school year, we can all retain a degree of positivity about what next week might bring, what the next month might bring, what the summer might bring, what the future might bring. Someday, we will get to that point where the last day is truly our last day, and then we can be thanked for our service, we are confident in what the future might bring, we can hold our heads up high as we walk off the ‘field of play’ to a standing ovation.

Stay on it and at it for the next few days; let’s end the year on a real high.

‘Every new beginning comes from some other beginning’s end’. Seneca

 ‘Football is a simple game. Twenty-two men chase a ball for 90 minutes and at the end, the Germans always win’. Gary Lineker – not this time Gary!!