The butterfly effect

18th July 2025

I think this might be the final weekly message of the year. It seems that I should take the time today to thank you all for your contributions, commitment and support for the children and young people we work with over the past eleven months. Please do not underestimate the attritional nature of working in schools; working with children and young people, day in and day out; supporting our community as it navigates the challenges of supporting children on their educational journey. All of this is against the backdrop of tightening budgets, fewer staff being available, greater pressures from within and beyond our communities, the impact of social media and the lasting impacts upon children, young people, our schools and college, our communities and on ourselves, of the pandemic.

With all of that at the forefront of my mind I say: Thank you!

We can now, just about, look towards our summer breaks. We’ll all get a break. Some will have a longer break than others. Whatever your summer plans are, you must take a break.

I listened to a lovely piece on the radio this morning about the national butterfly count, which takes place over the next few days. It feels like there are more butterflies and moths around this sunnier year. And the contributor did call them solar powered – they are more active when the sun is out and it’s warm. It’s been a particularly sunny and warm year – as those enduring a hosepipe ban will testify. Let’s hope the count registers a butterfly boom.

The bit that really got me was the request that those participating took 15 minutes to sit quietly and count. 15 minutes; that’s all. I wonder how hard that will be for many of us. 15 minutes without all that usually stimulates us. 15 minutes without looking at that list of jobs we need to do.

The national butterfly count encourages us all to put that list to one side for however long you need. When we were younger, maybe before the mobile phone age, we would face the long holidays without a plan or list. We run the risk of boredom and a lack of structure. I think we all need that. We need to face a period without jobs to do, people to see, places to visit. Maybe we need to run the risk of being bored. It’s in those moments when we are truly likely to achieve a sense of peace. Time for ourselves when we are just in the moment. When we achieve peace, we are much more likely to be able to reset, to recharge, to reconnect.

You’ll do what you do this summer. You’ll find the time for your thing. I hope that you can add to the list of jobs… just sitting, rarely relaxing, being bored.

‘The monotony and solitude of a quiet life stimulates the creative mind.’ Albert Einstein

‘A happy life must be to a great extent a quiet life, for it is only in an atmosphere of quiet that true joy dare live.’ Bertrand Russell

When the summer break comes for you – enjoy.