Values key to life at Worth

Students were told how living out Worth’s values can make them even better people when they attended a welcome back assembly this morning.

Worth has six core values which shape the way we live our lives and we believe these values are fundamental to the formation of who we become.

At this morning’s whole-school assembly, Head Master Mr Stuart McPherson talked out those six values: community, humility, service, silence, stewardship and worship.

Talking about community, Mr McPherson said: “It is a choice we make to part of a community. Community is not a right; it is privilege and you have to work at it. It is one of the fundamental values of our school.

“When we speak about stewardship we use the phrase ‘leave it better than you found it’ and there are lots of ways for us to find that value in the way we go through our daily life in the School. Being virtuous is an expression of stewardship, like how we respect ourselves and each other, but also small, practical expressions of stewardship like not littering, picking up rubbish, pushing your chair in, respecting the physical space.

“Our values are rooted in practicality; how we live in community is built on these values.”

Speaking about humility, Mr McPherson said: “We use the phrase ‘Keep your feet on the ground’. One of the strongest and most evident values in the Worth community is that we don’t show off, even if we are brilliant, even if we win, we have a sense of being grounded and that is a value you can see very evidently, not just in you (students) and the staff, but in the people who have been through the School. Even many years later there is something identifiably Worth about people who have been through the School.

“I encourage you today and throughout your time at the School to look for these values in other people because if you have the eyes to see them, you will see them; they are there in all of us and perhaps more importantly look for them in yourself and you will see them too. That will give you ways of perhaps deciding how you might be an even better person.”

In our latest edition in the celebrated Tatler Schools Guide, an excellent review describes Worth as a school that “prides itself on providing an education that feeds both soul and mind”. We achieve this by challenging our students to strive to be the best they can academically while also living out our six values in their daily lives.

Students begin each school year Worth with ‘Worth Week’ which is a values-centred programme of activities, rather than lessons, hence students do not have to wear uniform for the first two days of term.

Abbot Mark, of Worth Abbey, also spoke at assembly.

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