4 minute read
Making a difference
Haileybury’s Deputy Head (Academic), STEPHEN CAMPBELL, tells us about the school’s inspiring range of sixth form programmes
Haileybury’s motto ‘sursum corda’, meaning ‘li up your hearts’ is palpable in its mission to empower every pupil to leave school with the knowledge, skills and compassion to make a positive di erence to society.
Like most institutions, we believe knowledge is crucial for our pupils’ futures. At Haileybury, we inspire pupils to learn not only how to succeed in exams, but to have the fundamental life skills and knowledge to make the world a better place.
If the last few years have shown us anything, it’s the impact that driven, intelligent and caring individuals can make. Whether it’s those developing life-saving vaccines or delivering vital food packages to their community, service to others has been our guiding light. At Haileybury, we strive for our pupils to embody this ethos. rough our holistic sixth form education which balances academic achievement with the development of character, resilience and leadership, we promote a sense of social responsibility, team spirit and self-con dence. We strive to embed the core skills, knowledge, creativity and intellectual curiosity that will form the leaders and change-makers of tomorrow that value serving others above all.
Our sixth formers enjoy a choice of A-levels alongside the International Baccalaureate Diploma and through both these routes, they embark on a variety of extraordinary opportunities that stretch, challenge and inspire them. While we have an exceptional array of sports, music and arts groups that provide grounding in teamwork, leadership and communication, pupils engage further in a
Sixth formers here can choose between A-levels and International Baccaureate Diploma pathways
The school’s academic research reputation is set to be further enhanced by the new cutting-edge £20m science and technology buildings
Haileybury is the first European school to take part in the prestigious Stan-X study
remarkable range of unique groups stemming from our IB Diploma.
These groups include our academic, politics and economics societies, as well as Amnesty International and Pride Alliance, to name a few. These groups play an essential role in what makes a Haileyburian. They provide intellectual discourse and challenges that allow pupils to use the knowledge gained in the classroom to develop informed opinions, while engaging respectfully with opposing views.
Alongside this, pupil voice has been imperative to our mission to empower pupils to make a difference. We have multiple forums to discuss school-related and wider-world topics. We also have a Pupil Senate, which our sixth form students take extremely seriously. By participating in these groups, pupils develop essential oracy and language skills to express their thoughts clearly to facilitate discussion and compromise, which is key to making positive change.
However, nothing encapsulates our mission more than the prestigious Stan-X project. Led by Stanford University, in California, it’s a ground-breaking study of genetics using fruit flies that is contributing to the efforts to find a cure for pancreatic cancer. We’re the first school in Europe to participate and pupils are now working on university-standard research, alongside scientists at Stanford University and the University of Oxford. We currently have 22 pupils on the programme, selected via a rigorous interview process. Pupils are taught undergraduate-level biology and their research is informing real-life developments, and will be cited in an upcoming peer-reviewed journal next month.
The programme requires commitment, passion, resilience and ingenuity as each pupil designs their experiments. Pupils are completely dedicated to the cause and can often be found in the laboratories throughout the day. Stan-X has brought science to life and broadened pupils’ understanding of a career in the field. They have seen how working hard and using their intellectual curiosity can play a pivotal role in helping others. It has firmed up many of their aspirations to pursue careers in medicine and scientific discovery.
These opportunities will be enhanced by our new £20m state-of-the-art science and technology buildings which will house this work once built. The new facilities are allowing us to explore further opportunities with the likes of MIT in Massachusetts on a robotics programme, and with Nuvu on sustainable and wearable technology. We also ensure we provide enriching real-life research across a range of other academic subjects, including history and languages.
We believe in this ever-changing and increasingly complex world, it’s these important life experiences that will shape our Haileyburians to leave us knowledge-rich, wellequipped and passionate about lifting up their hearts to make the world a better place.
