Mrs Bradshaw’s Blog

“WOMEN WHO SEEK TO BE EQUAL WITH MEN LACK AMBITION.” – Marilyn Monroe

Possibly even more fascinating than the different layers of meaning in this quote, is the fact that Marilyn Monroe never actually said it! And it is not the only example of famous misquotes or even famous fabrications.

This week in our Senior Leadership meeting a Year 7 representative from Eco Council told us “there are Eco problems all over the world, we just want to be responsible for Croydon High’s”. It was so powerful that Mrs Cook wrote it down. That quote, that idea that we need not be overwhelmed by the enormity of any task but that we can all simply take responsibility for what we can change, reminded me of the famous “be the change you want to see in the world”. This is often attributed to Mahatma Gandhi but – you guessed it – he never said it.

But, no matter who said it, the idea seems to resonate with Croydon High girls. The Eco Council were visiting our meeting on Wednesday to update us on their work and petition for small changes around school. Their ideas included gathering vegetarian recipes for the caterers to boost the popularity of ‘Meat Free Mondays’ and tackling the issue of parents idling car engines when waiting to pick up. These ideas are perfect examples of everyone making small changes that can add up. Their final goal is that Croydon High is awarded an Eco Schools Award and becomes something of a leader on sustainability within the GDST. We do already generate electricity with solar panels on the roof.

In Junior School, the Plastic Free Team are a little further ahead on their journey. They have now completed four out of five of the objectives to become a Plastic Free School. They successfully petitioned for plastic containers to be removed from the canteen (staff taking food away to their desks now bring their own reusable containers). However, they did not limit themselves to challenging grown-ups who work at Croydon High! Following one of their regular ‘trash mobs’ they calculated which companies had produced the most plastic litter, dropped here at school, and wrote to them to ask them to make changes to their packaging.

I applaud the work both these groups are doing and their understanding that starting small and close to home is fantastic. Imagine the impact of every person reading this making just three small changes. Eco Council and Plastic Free team, these are the ones I pledge to you in Chez Bradshaw:

1) I have bought some of those stretchy lids and Clingfilm is now banned in our house

2) I will start getting milk and eggs delivered to the door (like my Granny used to!)

3) My new car stops the engine when I am stationary – so no idling outside school for me

Reader – what are your three?

Finally to ensure there is no misquoting here:

“There are Eco problems all over the world, we just want to be responsible for Croydon High’s” – Tania Zuberi (22.01.2020)

Mrs Sophie Bradshaw

Deputy Head (Sixth Form and Operations)