Holly HY / 02 November 2024 / Categories: City, Services, Education, Schools

The American School In London

“Be More Concerned About your Character”

I am not a student, I am not a parent, I just happened to drive by this school.

What happened reminded me of the famous quote from legendary UCLA basketball coach John Wooden “be more concerned about your character than your reputation, your character is who you really are.”

1 Waverley Place, London, NW8 0NP.

Head teacher Mr. Mathew Horvat.

When I turned into Waverley Place a narrow back road in central london I had no idea I was going to be stuck there for almost 30 minutes in complete chaos.

Outside the school a convoy of mini vans was completely blocking the road with a bevy of teachers staff milling around in high vis vests.

We spoke to a couple of security people and a mini van driver who was very nice apologised and said he would be gone in 5 minutes. He was waiting for one person.

10 minutes later nothing had happened, we tried to reverse out of the street but cars had come behind by now and we were trapped.

I went to try and find someone who could help us figure out a solution. The teacher/staff member I spoke to was immediately defensive. Helga was her name, clearly stressed out by the disorganisation and chaos, me adding additional pressure by conveying to her the school

Didn’t have the right to close the whole road down.

Instead of agreeing with me which would have diffused the whole situation she projected on me I was being unreasonable. I asked for the name of the Head Teacher, she wouldn’t disclose information readily available on the internet. Maybe it made her feel powerful. Maybe she didn’t want to get into trouble. I don’t know but it left me with the impression money and privilege allows you to disregard the impact you are having on other people.

The ugly confrontation outside the school ended with me suggesting a call to the police and her saying that was completely unnecessary.

It took a further 10 minutes to find the one missing person, get the mini bus moved and clear the road for us and all the people waiting behind us.