Vicky Hayes

Tring School is within the diocese of St Albans and within Tring we are attached to the church of St Peter and St Paul. We also have close affiliations with the other churches in the town and work with their clergy but it is through St Peter and St Paul that our Chaplaincy is funded and provided for the students and staff at Tring School. Our work in secondary school is actually very simple. In seven years, we need to teach, to listen, to learn, and to care to make sure that those children who arrived at 11, full of energy, hopes and dreams, leave at 18 or 19 as adults ready to take their place in the world. They will need academic qualifications, ones that are suited to each individual child, that will equip them for the 21st century with its staggering pace of change, social, technological, economic and environmental. We want them to leave possessing a self-understanding and a deep-rooted confidence, creativity, resilience and entrepreneurial skills. We want them to know their gifts and talents and skills and how to use them for the good of those around them, and for themselves. Above all we want them to be well rounded human beings, rooted in care for others and their environment and these characteristics must be values-based. The passage in I Corinthians teaches us that there should be no division in the body and that we should all have concern for each other. “If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honoured, every part rejoices with it”. We all work together, secure in the knowledge of God’s love, to make sure we experience life in all its fullness.