Invicta Vlogs
Invicta’s Journey Through Time
I recently came across the Community Timeline section on the Invicta website and found myself immersed in the detailed history of our local community and school.
Reading about the school's founding in the early 1900s and scrolling through the progress made to transform Invicta into what it is today stirred feelings of pride and intrigue. As an avid netball player, I found it fascinating to read of the school's netball achievements in the 1960s; it was great to see that the team was as strong as it is today! It was also interesting to read about events I previously hadn't heard about, such as the evacuation of Albion Place due to a hurricane or the annual staff-written and performed pantomimes!
But I also began to think about the importance of keeping these stories alive. Invicta remains a dynamic community, and I propose that we can only truly recognise our progress if we look at how far we have come.
Our charitable endeavours are a perfect example of this. Seeing how our annual fundraising RAG week raised £500 in 1983 was particularly interesting to me. After a quick check on the Bank of England website, I found this equates to approximately £2000 today. The figure took me aback when I remembered RAG week in 2017 raised a fantastic £8000. Factors such as the increase in the school population will play a role in the difference, but so will our increasing amount of charity efforts, participation, and exciting new fundraising ideas. The annual shoebox appeal is another display of this continuing progression but a more short-term example. In 2019, students collated 340 boxes, whereas just three years earlier, the figure was 160. More than doubling the number of shoeboxes we managed to send in the space of three years is fantastic. When acknowledging our history, we can truly appreciate our current achievements.
Finding similarities between the present day and Invicta through time also amused me. I, myself, have always enjoyed the food available in the canteen, so reading an alumni letter detailing how the canteen "served the best warm bread rolls with butter" in the 1980s proved that an appreciation for great food transcends generational differences.
I then began to reflect on the importance of recording the present for the sake of the future, which is no more apparent than with our response to COVID. The unprecedented nature of the pandemic meant that we had little time to prepare for the fast pace of the changes endured. Our adaptations, demonstrated on the timeline, included 'Virtual Sports Day', making visors for the community, and online clubs and societies meetings. Our work as a community in the face of such uncertainty was significant and not just for the present. The Coronavirus pandemic altered the course of history and created a new sense of normality which people will be sure to study in the future. Maintaining such valuable records of what 'normal life' was like during the last 36 months is imperative to ensuring future generations can fully comprehend their history. I think the section on the timeline documenting education history in Kent exhibits this. Without records kept and displayed in such a way, I wouldn't have known that 65% of KEC (Kent Education Committee) staff 'joined up' for the First World War.
I sincerely hope that as COVID restrictions ease, we can welcome back Invicta alumni for our previously annual events and hear more of the history of our school in person. If anyone does have fond memories to share of their time at Invicta, please use the Alumni Guestbook section on the website to share - I'll be delighted to read them!
Olivia Moss
Head Prefect
