Tune in

27th June 2025

This time of year continues to be very hectic in our schools and in our college. There are so many additional events, extra-curricular activities, trips, rewards, sports events, parent’s meetings, induction activities… the list goes on.

We do have, to counterbalance the busy working day, the chance to participate, watch or become consumed by summer fun. We’ve got Wimbledon around the corner, the cricket was spectacularly good earlier this week, the Women’s Euros are on their way and … it’s the biennial Glasto this weekend.  There’ll be so much more going on in your communities and across the region and beyond.

Glastonbury is an interesting one. It’s not something that those who work in, or go to, school or college cannot access. The concept of the long weekend, when you want it, is an anathema to us. We’ll be looking at the absence data and looking at the inexplicable long weekends. The Year 11s and Year13s might be able to attend, transport and funds permitting, But for the rest of us it’s an armchair experience.

I did hear, just the other day, Glasto described as the most important cultural event of the year – that’s pushing it! It is though, without much doubt, one of the summer’s most important experiences. It is something that has become something of an occasion and the mass-media saturation of the past decade or so has added fuel to that.

Whatever the importance, or the cultural significance, of these mass-public events, driven by music or sport, there seems to be something quite basic, essential, human, about sharing something physical, emotional and even spiritual with others. Glasto brings people together. It makes people happy. At the heart of that is the shared experience. The music is the vehicle but the experience is the destination.

If you need proof, you could just look at the crime statistics; the lack of violence, the little harm that’s intentionally caused. There is so little disturbance. There’ll be a quarter of a million people in a few fields in Somerset. That’s equivalent to the population of our town: Rotherham. There’ll be far fewer police officers needed, far fewer doctors and nurses (although I understand that they have ‘field hospital’ on site), far fewer traffic enforcement teams etc., than will be needed this weekend in Rotherham. I know Rotherham town centre can be generally calm on a weekend evening but there’ll be less ‘excitement’ and disturbance at Glasto. It seems that we all need to feel part of something. We all need that feeling of belonging. It’s what it is to be human. And as a consequence, we just behave better.

And the wonderful; thing is that you don’t need to be sat in a muddy field, with wellies and bucket hat, to be/feel part of that elemental experience. Just switch on the TV or radio, turn on the BBQ and let it all wash over you. So, enjoy Rod, Alanis, Chic, whoever. Patchwork might even be good.

‘Without music, life would be a mistake.’ Friedrich Nietzsche
‘One good thing about music, when it hits you, you feel no pain.’ Bob Marley