I hope you had a lovely Easter holiday.

It is a time for celebrating new life, being joyful and hopeful for the future.

The Easter story provides us with a source of inspiration, strength and courage to live our best lives within the love of God.

This Easter time was even more special for me and my family this year as we welcomed into the world my first grandson, Arthur. If I do say so myself, he is gorgeous!

My daughter in law was pregnant during the season of Lent and I came to realise that the Lenten journey has quite a few parallels to the process of pregnancy and birth. In a straightforward sense, during the 40 days leading up to Easter, some people choose to give up a certain food or habits for the sake of their spiritual health. In pregnancy, my daughter in law refrained from certain foods and activities for 40 weeks for the sake of the well-being of her child.

During Lent and in pregnancy, there are feelings of discomfort, tiredness and emotions can run high. There may be slight trepidation but there is no reversing it. No turning back. The only way is forward. Like in the Easter story, there is pain to be endured for the sake of a new life. And best of all, there is incomparable joy that awaits on the other side.

¹⁸ I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us. (Romans 8:18)

I have been having lots of cuddles with Arthur over Easter. The hard work and pain endured by my daughter in law and the worry for us turned into great joy for all the family.

How may the story of Easter and the experience of bringing a new baby into the world relate to the work we do in church schools?

Well, I know that school leaders tread paths where there may be discomfort, worry and even pain along the way. For example, if you invest a new maths scheme, you make the painful decision to invest what funds you have, staff will go through a level of discomfort as they try to implement it effectively and then there is the worry about the impact it will have on pupil outcomes.

If the conditions for success has been carefully set, then you may feel much more hopeful that it will work. For example, if the research in the scheme has been thorough, the training has been high quality and the teachers adapt it to meet the needs of the pupils, then you may experience great joy when outcomes improve.

In schools we can be hopeful. We all recognise that joy and success does not always come easy. To best endure the bumpy road to success, we need a shared Christian vision, we need to maintain our high aspirations for all, we need to recognise the strength of the church school family and work together.

‘Ubuntu’ – ‘I am because we are’.

With the flowers blossoming, the daylight hours getting longer and summer approaching, we can take inspiration from God’s World that we can be hopeful that all adults and children in our schools will flourish.

I hope you have a happy and successful summer term.

Best wishes—

from Paul Thompson, Diocesan Director of Education