Shirebrook students showing the way on tolerance and integration

Mr Humphreys found a mixture of opinions amidst general peace, while at school he met our then head boy, Jakub, who had come to the town without speaking a word of English but had settled in superbly.

Jakub is a shining example of our belief is that integration begins with children and I was reminded of this last month when a news crew from BBC East Midlands arrived to talk to our Polish students on Brexit day.

What they found impressed them, and me.

The students spoke confidently about the lives that they were building for themselves, but what struck me was how deeply they consider Shirebrook to be a part of their identity.

They don’t see themselves as being temporary or having stronger allegiances elsewhere – to them, Shirebrook is home, and this is where they are from.

It can’t be easy being a child of parents who’ve relocated to a country where you don’t speak the language, but I do know, from my years in teaching, how children adapt and get on with things very quickly.

Being a teenager is all changing things about yourself in order to fit in with a chosen peer group, and I suppose, in adjusting, this was what our Polish students were doing, albeit on an international level.

We have also done a lot of work with homegrown Shirebrook students, where we get them to imagine what it would be like to start a new life in an unfamiliar place, and while I’m not saying that the process has been plain-sailing, it was clear from the interviews what we have achieved.

It also reminded me, not for the first time, how grown-ups could learn from young people about tolerance and understanding.

As for the town, I am proud of what Shirebrook has achieved.

It has experienced unprecedented immigration yet, thanks to a lot of work by official and local organisations, the ongoing integration process is proving to be increasingly successful – thanks in part, I hope, to the work that has also taken place in school.