Head's Blog: Orford Ness and Environmental Optimism

One of my favourite records released this year is Ness by Hayden Thorpe. Musically it will appeal to anyone who likes Kate Bush’s more experimental moments but its lyrical concerns are more universal. It is a collaboration with Cambridge Academic Robert MacFarlane who is best known as a writer on landscape, nature, place and language. His ‘The Old Ways’ was a deserved best seller. Their collaboration is a song cycle about Orford Ness, Suffolk. 

Orford Ness is a spit of land with a long and mysterious history.  Drained in the Middle Ages, provided with a castle by Henry II and the scene of 17th century Anglo-Dutch naval battles it became notorious in the 20th century as a military test site.  Top secret experiments were conducted across both World Wars and into the nuclear age. Since 1993 Orford Ness has been cared for by the National Trust as a nature reserve to preserve its unique eco-systems. The song cycle tells the story of the landscape resulting in a celebration of the power of nature to overcome our more destructive impulses. It’s intriguing, thought-provoking and hopeful. 

In this final week of the stuttering Cop 29 the power of nature and the importance of co-operating to manage our effects on it is particularly prescient. As global leaders struggle to reach an agreement to make managing climate change affordable for developing countries a dose of environmental positivity is very necessary. 

On Monday our Eco-Society, ably led by Sustainability Prefects Eva and Izzy were able to provide us with a message of hope. They reminded us that small individual actions add together to become significant. They celebrated the changes we have already made and underlined how we can have fun taking further action – from reducing our food waste via house competitions to taking part in our Christmas jumper swap or joining friends at the Bug House Making Club. 

This positivity was amplified further on Wednesday when Mike Collins from the Charlcombe Community Nature Reserve came to challenge our Year 9’s in their Problem Based Learning lesson. The girls will work towards a CREST award by helping to develop the nature reserve through designing bridges, paths and places to rest so that more of the community can enjoy and support this new resource. We will keep you updated on how this develops.

Our assembly ended with the leadership team reading from activist Wayne Visser’s poem, ‘Be an Optimist’ 

Be an optimist

Not because the future is bright

But because bright people are working

To make the future better

I am sure our inspirational students are numbered amongst those bright people working to make the future better; both this dark November and long into the future.