Lockdown lessons

How Gordon’s School staff and pupils responded when crisis hit

Medical and Keyworkers dubbed them ‘Easter visors’ as they donned the crucial PPE made by Gordon’s teaching and support staff.

Nearly 2,000 visors with the distinctive canary-yellow band were made by the PPE production line soon after the start of lockdown for local hospitals, vet practices, supermarkets and charities.

Meanwhile kitchen and food technology staff at the school in West End, Surrey Heath were taking food; protective gloves and food containers – as well as raiding tuck shops across the school – for donations to the community’s homeless.

Anxious to do their bit, Sixth Former Magnus Jackson produced ear savers from a 3-D printer at home, having watched tutorials on Instagram and YouTube. And fellow Sixth Former Toby Johnson joined frontline workers, collecting recently deceased from hospital morgues or their homes.

Boarder Elysee Spacie started baking each week for her local hospital, producing 30 cakes and biscuits for staff at St Peter’s and her brightly coloured drawings with motivational messages were soon cheering up patients travelling in London ambulances. Also included in her messages of goodwill was a letter to Her Majesty the Queen, which to Elysee’s delight, elicited a reply from the Queen’s Lady in Waiting.

Across the school, students and staff put their skills to good use in whatever way possible.

Edwin Sutton, the school’s Internal Fleet Manager, got back on his bike. The former traffic policeman delivered blood products and Covid-19 specimens across the country on his ‘blood bike’.

Two of the school’s Medical Centre nurses – Emma Light and Julie Unsworth volunteered for nursing duties at Frimley Park Hospital. And elderly Gordonians were touched to receive cheery calls from the Gordonian Officer Sue Parkin.

House Parent Ben Heathcote begun the first in a series of Lockdown Live music events at the school, which were heard in nearby West End and across the world via live-stream video. Adding their voices to the Gordon’s chorus of talented Heads of Houses were Gary Knight with his mixture of classics and swing and former Fiji Rugby Sevens Team analyst and skills coach Chris Davies and his blend of modern rock and old favourites.

Pipers from Gordon’s Pipes and Drums Band saluted the NHS every Thursday evening from their gardens, to the delight of neighbours. And the First XI Hockey Team set to work raising money for the NHS. Both their target of running 1,500 miles during the month of May and raising £500, were easily smashed and they nearly tripled their fundraising.

Robbed of their chance to take to the open water and compete, Boat Club students took to their ergos instead with borrowed equipment from school, carrying out a gruelling training regime and completing their Peak Week at home instead of their Easter camp.

Eleven of the group then took part in the British Rowing Virtual Championships, joining over a thousand entrants from 30 countries world-wide, competing in a real-time side-by-side race from the comfort of their own homes!

Head Teacher Andrew Moss described the academic year as “…more difficult than any of us has ever encountered”. Paying tribute to students, their parents and staff, he said: “Teenagers often receive poor press nationally for their lack of resolve and thoughtless actions; a bright spot in this difficult term has been how well Gordon’s students have risen to the challenge and many will have become better people as a result of this national crisis.”

This article first appeared in Which School? 2021, which is available now in print and online. You can read the full version here...