Principal’s Welcome

Dear Westholme Family, 

Has social media made us anti-social? If so, and there is plenty of evidence to suggest that this is the case, how ironic that it has never been easier to connect with people yet we are failing to do so! 

In Seniors assembly this week, I told one of my favourite stories: the so-called Roseto effect.  

Roseto is a small town in Pennsylvania, USA.  It was founded by a small group of Italian immigrants in the 1890s.  For many years, it remained a tiny, self-sufficient town with Italian as its first language, until it became famous in the 1960s.  Doctors started to notice that they never got any patients from Roseto. Nobody was getting ill. 

In Roseto, unlike most of America, no-one under 55 showed any signs of heart disease.  For men over 65, the death rate from heart disease in Roseto was roughly half that of the US as a whole.  The death rate from all causes, in fact, was 35% lower than expected. 

There was also no suicide, no alcoholism, no drug addiction.  There was little crime and no-one on welfare.  No-one was lonely. The only real cause of death was old age. 

What was happening? 

Researchers looked at exercise trends, diets, genetics and the environment, but couldn’t find anything physical to make the town stand out. 

In fact, the phenomenon was attributed to their old-fashioned sense of community.  They had retained an Italian culture of all generations of a family living in the same house.  They respected their elders, they stopped to chat in the streets.  They invited each other over to eat.  Making a positive difference to their community helped them all to flourish.   

They were certainly not lonely.  They were certainly not anxious. 

I told the story to our students this week for two reasons. Firstly, bearing in mind how unlikely it is that our children will spend the rest of their lives in Lancashire and therefore crucial that they learn to adapt to new ways of life, from time to time I like to talk about other cultures. I had linked the Roseto story to the Kevin De Bruyne’s attachment to Manchester, the Maori tradition of the haka and the Filipino tradition of mano.  

Secondly, what tied the stories together really was their shared senses of belonging and attachment. Each community has maintained its traditions, and values the experience and achievements of those who have come before them.  

At Westholme, we are also proud of our heritage, but we are forward-thinking in our approach. I would like to thank you for contributing to the Parent Survey that will inform that future and remind you that the deadline for entries is 5 May 2025. 

Best wishes for the weekend. 

Paul Taylor