Care has many definitions: showing personal interest or care, paying attention to detail, looking after something, providing protection or regarding something highly.

To me, caring means opening your heart to something you feel strongly about and not hiding away from the range of feelings that come with that. And most importantly, care links to the people that you love and trust the most.

Perhaps when it’s broken down like that, the idea of care can seem daunting but in reality, it is woven intrinsically into the human experience and is what makes life so beautiful. In fact, having people who look out for you and looking out for others is one of the most important factors in life.

Luckily, there’s an exceptional amount of care shown within our school community on a daily basis; be that students offering each other help with academics whilst simultaneously looking out for their classmate’s wellbeing or teachers planning an activity in their lessons specifically because they know their class will love it. Care is all around us and I think it is one of the things that makes Didcot Girls’ School such a successful and thriving teaching and learning environment.

Recently I have been involved in the RET’s incredibly successful production of We Will Rock You. After (rather emotionally) reflecting on it over these last few days, it just might be the most prolific example of what it means to care deeply and how much you can achieve when you’re committed to something that I’ve seen throughout my time at DGS. It was a privilege to be part of.

Our fantastic cast spent almost 100 hours in rehearsals since late-September and the staff involved easily exceeded that amount of effort with all the tireless hard work they put in behind the scenes – we wouldn’t have had a show without them! The time and energy we put into the project was no mean feat and putting it simply, if we didn’t love it, we wouldn’t have done it.

Theatre is something I care profoundly about, and I truly have never cherished a group of people or experience more than this. It exemplified just how much can be achieved when people work together towards a goal, and we did it with a bang.

I tell you this to remind you that without caring about something there is little point in doing it. Without caring it is impossible to find the motivation to wind-up prosperous in the end. And with care comes the possibility of tremendous achievement.

Care is fundamental to leading a fulfilling life, because without care what is passion, commitment or joy?