Knowledge Day, 1 September 2021

A good first day of school to every pupil, and to the teachers waiting in the yard.

This year's second-year pupils are in an odd position. They started school in a strange autumn, spent much of their first year at a kitchen table, and are only now finding out what a normal school day looks like. Some of them barely know their classmates' faces without a screen around them.

So the ceremony matters more than usual today. The bell, the flowers, the smallest child carried around the yard, the standing in rows in the sun — all of it says the same thing, which is that this is a real place and you belong in it.

To the teachers, who have had two very hard years and are starting a third: thank you. And a good year to everyone in the yard.