14 minute read
Education Corner Podcast Interview
EDUCATION CORNER PODCAST
EDUCATION CORNER PODCAST INTERVIEW WITH HEAD
FROM THE ORATORY PREP SCHOOL, OXFORDSHIRE
Mr. Andrew De Silva
Mr. Andrew De Silva speaks about the importance of child centred learning and his work as the Chair of the Independent Association of Preparatory Schools’ EDI group looking to ensure that independent schools are fully supported. He also discusses the admissions process, facilities and ethos at the school.
Please tell us a little about yourself and your career to date?
Thank you so much for having me on. I feel almost grown up now, so I feel validated in many ways, but let’s see how the rest of it goes! I’m the Head of The Oratory Prep School, and this is my fifth time working at headship level. I’ve worked at three schools in the state sector and this is my second in the independent sector. Regardless, I am still very much learning, and I think that’s very important.
Who am I? Firstly, I try to be as childlike as possible; there’s a wall of lego here in my office. I am a father to Florence and David, and a husband to Nicola. When I’m not doing those things, I’m also a headmaster, or, rather, a head learner at The Oratory Prep School. I have a huge love for music; I’m a singer, and I most recently sang in Winchester Cathedral. I love my singing and lego master building.
What do you feel that you have been able to contribute to The Oratory Prep in your role as head?
That’s a really good question. I suppose the thing that I’m trying to add to the school and to the families is a greater sense of listening to all people. The school has a fantastic reputation and had a fantastic head teacher before me, and I’ll do my best to try and continue from what they have done. But what I’m looking forward to bringing to the school is my slightly different faith perspective, because the school is a Catholic school and I am not a Catholic—although faith is very important to me as the son of a retired Anglican priest. I am trying to bring with me my experience in teaching, learning and assessment, and how to get the best we can, as much as possible, from the community we serve and from the children we love and hold so dear.
The school motto is ‘Cor Ad Cor Loquitur’ (Heart speaks to Heart) and was given to the school by its founder St. John Henry Newman. Can you explain what this means?
That is a really good question. We are hugely blessed to have St. John Henry Newman as our founder. He adds so much weight to us as a school family, not just for those of us who have a Catholic
or religious perspective, but also for those of us who have other religious perspectives or none at all. From any perspective, the motto is about empathising with others. ‘Heart speaks to Heart’ can be read in so many ways. There are religious connotations to it, but ultimately for me it is about knowing the person that we’re in front of, and making decisions based on where they are, rather than where we think they need to get to. So, it is very much a person-centric perspective, and one which we’ll live out every day in terms of what we do in our teaching, learning, and social and emotional wellbeing, because, ultimately, children are the future. We need them to empathise with us and we need to empathise with them and be as childlike as possible.
Can you tell us a little about the ethos and values at The Oratory Prep?
So, we are currently going through a bit of a “vision and values” time at the school, from the perspective that we are trying to showcase what we are, who we are, and where we want to go, so our vision is to find outstanding learning opportunities for the pupils in our care. When I say “opportunities”, I also mean “experiences”, because the school - as
The Oratory Prep School, Oxfordshire
an independent school, and a school of the heritage and tradition that we have - has lots of historical trips and experiences that we are looking forward to returning to after COVID-19, so that’s one part of it, in terms of what we believe in.
In terms of ethos, it’s very much child-centred and about the family. It’s about ensuring the children, regardless of whether they’re Catholic, part of another religion, or neither, the big part for us is that we want children to have faith in themselves. If they have faith in themselves, they have confidence in their own skin, which, when you play that out to the Year 7 and Year 8 parts of our curriculum, which are hugely important to children in terms of developmental progress, they leave us as stronger, more confident individuals with a thirst for knowledge, having grown with us and their families. So that’s an important part of our ethos.
Values, we are currently working on. As a Catholic school, we’ll be referring to them as “Virtues”, but they include things such as curiosity and courage. I won’t give too many spoilers since we’re currently waiting on feedback from staff, but we’ll announce new virtues this time next year. So, the vision is where we’re going, and the virtues are how we get there, and I want to ensure the way we get there has family input.
Oratory Prep is fundamentally a Catholic school. How do you address other religions and beliefs?
So, the school is a Catholic school, not just because of its founder but because of its links with the other Oratory Schools around the country, and its strong links with the diocese. One of the bits that’s incredibly important for us is that we’re unashamedly proud of being a Catholic school,
EDUCATION CORNER PODCAST
but you don’t need to be Catholic or belong to a faith to come here. As I said earlier, it’s about us empowering children to have faith in themselves, whether that’s faith in anyone else, or a higher being or high entity, that’s entirely what they choose to take from it. But in terms of religion, we absolutely do partake in, celebrate, and observe the cultural parts of all other faiths, whether that’s through RE lessons, assemblies, or other forms of collective worship. Even on our social media, we wish our Muslim members of our community happy Eid, and also on Diwali, whatever that meaning will be to our Hindu friends and family at our school. So, we’re here for all our pupils, irrespective of whether they have religion or not. We’re here for the families who have a Catholic faith, Christian faith, different faith, or none, because fundamentally, an important part of faith is that we’re here for others, even if they don’t share our beliefs. That’s an important part of what it means to be a decent human being, and we are just lucky that in our setting we can talk openly about love. Even if sometimes it’s tough love, ultimately it is love, and it really helps when you’re trying to help a child with
their choices and decisions if you’re able to phrase it in a way where, not only can we bring religion into it, but we can try to make sense of that religious context in our everyday school context.
Can you tell us a little about the points of entry and requirements for children and families considering applying to The Oratory Prep?
In terms of entry points, we start at two years old, so we have our nursery and kindergarten. We have a number of pupils joining us in the Reception class, and we have children joining us in other year groups. Essentially, we have a few gaps in certain year groups, but we encourage people who want to receive our education to join. So, there’s no formal way of putting down when to start, it’s got to be right for the child, but I would argue that the best thing to do is to get in early.
What do you consider to be the benefits of attending a school like The Oratory Prep and the location in Reading?
Well, one of the highlights would be the lego behind me; that’s genuinely a highlight. From the perspective that it proves what we are: we are a child-centred school. The school is located relatively close to Reading and a number of pupils do come from Reading, but similarly, we’ve got other big areas nearby, for example, a number of our pupils come from Henley-on-Thames. In terms of the site itself, I mentioned our 65 acres, and we are blessed with our facilities: a theatre, tennis courts, huge astro turf, rugby pitches everywhere, football pitches, all sorts. So, we have a huge amount of provision from that perspective. We also have an indoor swimming pool, and I would love to tell you that it’s Olympic, but it would only be so if the Olympic pool was half the size. It’s a 25m pool with a toddler pool as well. So, from that perspective, there are many reasons to come to the school. However, as I say to the parents I see on my velvet sofas, from my perspective, what I tell them is: “Don’t come to the school for our facilities, come to the school because of the relationships that the teachers have with the children, and the tools that help those teachers impart knowledge, understanding, wisdom and skills. Yes, that’s helped by the facilities, but the real reason to come is that we can ensure your child makes social, emotional and academic progress, which is all we want from our children.” So, that’s why children should come. »
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Prep School Perspective
You asked what the entry process looks like. Hannah is our registrar and the first port of call is to speak to her; she’s far more sensible than I am, in many ways. She will arrange a time for parents to come and see me and have a tour of the school. That may well be with their child, too, and if there is a child here, we have toys galore in my office! I’m painting a bad picture, I’m saying my office is full of toys, but there’s academic gowns and hoods on the other side. So, there’s a serious side based on pedagogy, understanding and child-centred knowledge, in terms of philosophy, education and so on from a technical perspective. Once they’ve had a meeting with myself, the child will come and have a taster day as well as an interview with me. That interview is very different as you progress through the school. For nursery and kindergarteners, there’s no interview as such, it’s just a chance for me to see them playing in their setting. There are some assessment tests, but our main thing is to look at the learning behaviours of children in the context of them as people, looking at the choices they make, and that’s more important to us in many ways.
How do you feel, in light of the many events over the past couple of years, that as a school you are embracing equality, diversity and inclusion?
That’s a really important question, especially because of where we are in the world right now. As an Asian headteacher born in Sri Lanka - I can’t show you the Sri Lankan flag I have in my lego pencil pot - I’m proud of my own heritage in this. I’m also the Chair of the Independent Association of Preparatory Schools’ EDI group,
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Chloe Abbott
Educational Consultant
• Introductory meeting to get to know your family and your child/children • Assessment when required to establish your child’s levels • School advice for both primary and secondary in the London area and beyond • Support and advice on suitable school choices
• Booster sessions in key exam skills
Diversity in headship
so, with the support of all the heads and certainly the teaching from the other heads, we are creating our joint IAPS vision on what that looks like and how we can support schools. That’s an important part of what I feel I can offer, because there’s lots of parts we need to look at in terms of EDI - “equality, diversity and inclusion”, or “equity, diversity and inclusion” - not just for our pupils, but also for the staff who work in the schools as well, to get better representation of all our country in leadership levels.
There aren’t many Asian headteachers in the country, whilst there are significant pockets in certain big cities, and there certainly aren’t many Asian headteachers or headmasters in the independent sector at preparatory levels. There are some fantastic things going on with that, but the way I look at this, when Rishi Sunak was named as Prime Minister, children found themselves now able to relate to the Prime Minister because of the colour of his skin, and it has now become more attainable for many people. Now, in reality, that’s a difficult thing to understand if you haven’t come from that background, so EDI is an important part of what we need to do.
If we look at that from a school context, firstly, we’re a Catholic school, so love comes first, and one could say, “How does that work in the Catholic setting?” Well, for us, the Pope is incredibly clear about how everyone should, “Love your neighbour as yourself”, and make sure that we support everyone in our communities. So that’s absolutely what we do, irrespective of the faith perspective, but as decent human beings and citizens of the world. But what does it mean to children? Well, it comes down to role modelling the best, and part of that is what our curriculum looks like. I talked earlier about the schools that we send our pupils to, and that might be through a process of common entrance exams or whatever it may be, so, from that perspective, one could say our curriculum may be prescriptive. We are trying to decolonise aspects of our curriculum over time, and we will do that, but of course what we don’t want to do is rush it without thinking about what we’re doing. We need to be the best role models for our children, and sometimes that means giving things a bit more thought before we make decisions.
Finally, what is your vision for the future of The Oratory Prep going forwards?
Well, other than one of my members of SLT saying: “How cool would it be if we had a lego version of our school to use as a map at the reception?”, which I genuinely think would be a pretty good thing to do! My vision is to provide outstanding learning opportunities for all. To give them not just wonderful teaching, but to ensure that, socially and emotionally, our children are prepared for the next stage of learning, so that when they leave us, they leave confident in their skin and able to thrive in any educational establishment that they go on to next. So that, when they’re successful and thriving, they look back on their time with us and we would have been a small part of that journey. That’s really important to us, because education is the key to the future, and for us that’s through our children.
We would like to thank the Head of The Oratory Prep School, Mr. Andrew De Silva, for giving up his time to speak to us. CLICK HERE TO LISTEN TO THE PODCAST
www.oratoryprep.co.uk
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