Wind socks
No, that was not a typo. Rather today's focus is on windsocks. As we learn and study from home today, it is perhaps another reminder of the changing climate we live in, where 'freak' weather events become the norm rather than the generational exception. But I wanted to reflect on windsocks.
Rather than seeing the day merely as a distraction, an advisory task was shared by the pastoral team with a design challenge to create wind turbines or windsocks. The windsock in my view is massively underrated. When I first saw them as a child, I assumed they had a single meaning: it's windy. And perhaps a second one: it's kinda blowing in that direction. It was a moment of epiphany when I first realised the stripes were not a tribute to 'Where's Wally', but actually a fairly accurate measurement of wind speed as well as direction. Here is how to 'read' a windsock.
The point is that humans are remarkably good at inventing very simple, very powerful ways of harnessing nature's power. I could have written about windmills in the middle ages and wind turbines - but the wind sock is hard to beat for its incredible simplicity and effectiveness.
Many of our school's parents work both in the carbon based energy industry and in the increasingly vast renewable sector. Often those roles are blurred as we transition. I am incredibly proud to be at the heart of the energy transition in Aberdeen, with members of our community leading some of the most important work humans are doing right now. The windsock is not only a reminder of the power of nature, but also a reminder of just how incredibly inventive and imaginative humans have been both through the first waves of industrialisation and now as we move towards regenerative practices and through the energy transition. I look forward to seeing what the students have created!
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