‘Fake news’ is an ugly term which arrived a few years ago with Donald Trump. It is not just an ugly term. There are major problems when people are provided with information which is less than true; or even worse plain untrue. If we look to the recent past in British politics, we find another similar term: ‘spin’. This is the practice of saying things which are technically true; but in such a way as to give a picture of the world which is substantially less than true.

I am a big fan of truth. Truth with a capital T. Truth in all its brutal honesty. I have increasingly come to see that it is only when we face up to Truth that we can grow as individuals and as communities. It is only when we speak Truth, when we avoid saying that which we know to be untrue, that we will have any sense of personal integrity. I would suggest that facing up to, and living with, Truth is a major component of good mental health and general wellbeing.

One of my favourite writers on this is George Orwell in 1984. Winston is interrogated about his diary entry "Freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two make four". So often today we are unwilling to say that which we know is screamingly obviously true; and in some cases there is huge social pressure to refrain from stating obvious truths. A very powerful and insightful element of Orwell’s writing here is that his viciously cruel interrogators “were not ruffians in black uniforms but Party intellectuals, little rotund men with quick movements and flashing spectacles”. At times it takes real courage in modern education to speak the truth. There are things we simply cannot say today that only a few years ago would have been considered the totally obvious, backed up with the support of a huge weight of scientific evidence.

The failure to tell the truth is increasingly embedded in our culture such that our pupils – and probably some younger teachers – do not even notice it. Back in the last century football used to tell the truth. There was the 1st division. This contained the best teams in the country. Below that was the 2nd division. This was the second-best group of teams in the country. Below that was the 3rd Division. Who remembers those weird, truthful, days where we could say that 2+2=4 when describing the English football leagues?

Now we have The Premiership. This contains the premier teams in the country and is appropriately and truthfully named. Below this, for those teams who have been relegated, is … the Championship. This is clearly NOT a league of champions; many of them are there because they kept losing in the Premiership. Relegation from this league places a team in … League One. Obviously not a league of teams which are 1st of anything at all: this is the third best cohort in the country. But to say so is to proclaim that 2+2=4.

This failure to tell the truth is embedded within our exam grades. Again, a look back into the last century: the best grade was an A, second best grade a B, third best grade a C … not exactly difficult. In today’s exam-speak, to soften the blow, we now give an A grade to the second-best cohort. They are not ‘A students’ in any sense of the word that would have been understood in the past: they are in that language B students. I have often wondered why we do not give them all an A grade. We could then distinguish by the number of stars. A*****, A****, A***.

Playing this game of euphemisms with my boys, I tell them not to use ‘the L word’: they did not ‘lose’ a rugby match – they came second. It sounds so much better; so much more gentle. More gentle – yes: truthful – no: more helpful – I doubt it. Euphemisms to protect children from Truth do not give the same incentive to improve. I like nothing better than a lost match: it provides such a great platform for learning at the next trainings session.

The more we fail to say loud and clear that 2+2=4; that the team that came second in a rugby match ‘lost’; that an A Level A grade is the 2nd ranking – it’s a B: then the more we will be producing pupils unable to cope with reality. Failing to tell the truth about the world will come back and bite our pupils when they get out into the big bad world and have 2+2=4 reality thrust forcefully upon them. Reality insists on factual accuracy. Nature is and does what nature is and does. Nature has no interest in the clever semantics we use to describe it. We cannot change reality by our language.

Our schools should be places where Truth is proclaimed boldly and confidently. Places where the pupils are told that 2+2=4 regardless of what the ideologically possessed may be presenting at any particular time. Independent status opens opportunities for truth telling denied to many in the State Sector. Independent Schools should be institutions which can draw on their traditions to stand together against the pressures to deny the blindingly obvious.  It is our responsibility to use that position of freedom to produce schools which are supportive communities in which the truth can be told – however uncomfortable it may be. This truth must be spoken in love (chaplain’s required Biblical quote at this point: “Speaking the truth in love, we will grow to become in every respect the mature body of him who is the head, that is, Christ.” Ephesians 4.15) Alongside this must go a development of resilience in our pupils and staff to enable them not only to engage with the truth; but to thrive on a diet of Truth.

We will challenge Fake news, spin and ideological distortion only by courageously proclaiming that which is obviously true; and providing an environment where our pupils encounter and learn to live with truth; and so leave our schools equipped to take on the daunting responsibility of maturing into adults who can take their full place in the world.