Reflecting on our values during Black History Month

Simone Biles, the highly acclaimed Olympic gymnast from the USA, once said:

“Surround yourself with the dreamers, the doers, the believers, and the thinkers; but most of all surround yourself with those who see greatness within you even when you don’t see it in yourself.”

Here at St Mary’s, we believe this quotation has a very important message to convey – not only because the woman who said it is a significant role model, but also because, sometimes, girls forget how much potential they have to be great and achieve great things in this world. During Black History Month, we are focusing on women who have delivered on their potential to achieve amazing things in diverse fields.

St Mary’s girls have always been instilled with the values that our founder, Mary Ward, would be proud to see in them. Emphasising how deeply these values run, we are running a campaign throughout October to honour inspirational black women, past and present. Many of the incredible women featured have also had these values instilled into them from the women before them. Just as they were taught, we teach your daughters to set their sights high and dream big and give back, remembering that perseverance is a part of the process.

With the help of our tutor team, we believe this campaign will help draw attention to how important it is to utilise these values in everyday life. With so many current injustices in our world, we need to discern how valuable a woman’s role in today’s world should be. When we work together and lift each other up through friendship and respect, we can accomplish most things we set our minds to!  Simone Biles enacted this wholeheartedly during her time at the Olympics: she always put her team first and stood by them through every hardship. They enabled each other to work hard and be excellent in everything they do, which is what we continuously encourage St Mary’s girls to do as well.

We believe that by looking back at women of the past as well as at the narratives of contemporary black women, we see the blueprint of how to raise strong women for the future. When we focus on the positive impact and legacy of the lives that these women led, we start a conversation that, in turn, will create the aspiration to add value positively for generations to come.

As we keep the dialogue going during Black History Month, we want to remember how important it is to promote Mary Ward’s values of truth, justice, and freedom. These values will pave the path for how we should press on in good heart to eliminate the continued injustices surrounding young girls and women today.

We sincerely hope that the discussion will be continued at home, so that our girls will see it reaching every part of their lives. When they understand matters integrally, they will want to continue the narrative for and by themselves as well - and that is how positive change begins.

Charlotte Avery

Headmistress

Mary Ward Values