When you are young you think you have all the time in the world and sometimes don’t make the most of the time that you have; the older you get the more precious you realise time is! Head of Sixth Form Mr O’Kelly led the main school assemblies this week and encouraged all students to think about how precious time is and, if used properly, what can be achieved.

He played a very thought provoking video of someone pouring out a pile of jelly beans – each jelly bean representing a day of your life. The person speaking on the video separated out the number of jelly beans that represented everyone’s time sleeping (almost half the pile!), everyone’s time completing daily chores, helping in the community, spending time with loved ones and being at school and/or work. In the end there was a smaller pile left and the question was how well are you going to use that ‘free’ time?

Research states that if you use 10 000 hours to the optimum and combine it with a passion or talent for some particular area of learning, you can become an ‘expert’ in that field. Interestingly, the number of hours we spend in lessons throughout our school career equates to just over 10 000 hours – one reason why we see so many talented students at BMS go on to world-class universities and higher apprenticeships beyond our outstanding Sixth Form here at Bushey Meads.

As parents do encourage your children to make the most of their time – balancing time working, time completing exercise and time on devices or screens, as well as that all-important aspect of life – spending time with loved ones or contributing positively to the communities around us – having that Mind to be Kind that we talk so much of at Bushey Meads.

The assemblies made us all think and we hope that all of us continue to use every day wisely whatever our age!