“There is no education like adversity.” Benjamin Disraeli, 1804-81.
Our distinguished history dates back long before the great Victorian Prime Minister, to the mid-Sixteenth Century. This marks us out as one of the brightest and most enduring beacons on our country’s educational landscape. It follows that during those long centuries, alongside our many wonderful achievements, we have also experienced the full force of the great human catastrophes: conflicts including two World wars, innumerable economic shocks and, yes, health emergencies.
And now we do so again.
The coming months will certainly put us to the test.
Our students will need love and support to help them with the loss of their friendship groups and of their chance to shine in the examinations to which they and their families had committed themselves. Our staff will forego precious holiday time to make sure our young people are properly cared for, fed and watered. Innovative forms of distance and e-learning will be brought into operation more quickly than we might have imagined possible until recently. Our schools will put into practice our cherished principles of collaboration and King Edward’s family togetherness: our larger, better-resourced schools will help our smaller ones and the communities we are all here to serve. Our dedicated professionals will make their expertise and leadership available to those who need them most.
We pride ourselves on a charitable mission whose influence extends throughout our city and beyond. We have risen to daunting challenges so often before. It is one of the outstanding hallmarks of our great history that we now stand ready to do so again.
On behalf of my fellow Governors and Trustees I offer you our heartfelt good wishes.
Thank you.
Patrick Burns
Chairman,
King Edward’s Foundation Board
