Headmistress of Rye St Antony, Alison Jones, looks ahead to the new school year.

The arrival of GCSE and A-Level results brings both an end and a beginning. As results close one phase, they open the next, A-Level results confirming university places, GCSE results confirming sixth form choices.

Individual A-Level and GCSE successes are also whole-school successes — successes for all members of the school community to celebrate, and successes to inspire the pupils who follow.

And so a new school year begins. The excitement of results gives way to the excitement of embarking on a new year, with new studies, new activities, new pupils, new teachers, new facilities and resources, new aspirations and the opportunities of a new start.

School is about discovering yourself. It is about finding out who you are and who you are to become. It is about discovering your interests and talents, your strengths and weaknesses, and your hopes and plans for the future.

The beginning of a new school year gives pupils, parents and teachers the chance to take a fresh look at things, so that expectations can be set and strategies put into place for realising those expectations.

September’s need for new school shoes is a useful reminder of the value of putting yourself into other people’s shoes. If pupils, parents and teachers appreciate one another’s hopes and concerns, then they will work well together.

As within school, so between home and school, mutual trust and good communications make for ease and confidence in learning and development.

With home and school working in close partnership, each is able to support the work of the other and provide a unified and coherent environment in which it is possible not merely to grow but to flourish.

The value of the community life of school is not to be underestimated. If education were only about learning to access and process information, it would probably be better done in isolation at home, away from the distractions and complications of other people.

But without personal and emotional stability, talent and achievement would be unrooted and fragile. Stability and balance come from self-knowledge and an understanding of yourself in relation to other people.

A strong and healthy school community promotes the strength and health of its individual members.

The options are many and the routes to success various, but the aim is one and the same: to help each pupil grow into someone who is happy, resilient, wise, keen to embark on the future and keen to make a contribution to the world.

In the words of a former pupil: “Do not be deterred by thinking that you will not be good enough or that the hill that you need to climb is too steep. Trust your faith, and have faith in yourself. Only you know what will make you happy, so work hard to reach your goal, whatever it may be. However long or difficult the route, if you set your mind to something, it will be possible to achieve it. Have the courage of your convictions.”