FETTES MOVING FORWARD

A place to live. A place to learn. A place to grow.

This year saw the launch of the Head, Helen Harrison’s bold new vision for Fettes – Fettes Moving Forward: A place to live. A place to learn. A place to grow. The vision focuses on what we believe Fettesians should aspire to be, the skills they will need in life and the impact we want them to make in the world.

Our Vision

Fettes will be the school of choice for students, parents and staff.

Our students will leave the school knowing themselves, looking out for others, capable of thinking critically and ready to make a positive mark on their rapidly changing world.

Our students will be bold and visionary, yet compassionate; they will possess a global perspective and be ready to embrace the opportunities of the future.

The vision is informed by four key themes –Learning, Wellbeing, Our People and Our Community.

Learning

Among the academic objectives for our students are: Creating critical thinkers with informed opinions

Nurturing innovation and creativity

Encouraging diversity of thought, resilience and flexibility

Fostering agile young minds

To support our vision, we have established a number of new initiatives. These include:

Appointing a dedicated Head of Sixth Form to enhance sixth form experience for all students

Incorporating Engineering, Enterprise and Technology (EET) into the curriculum and the appointment of Michael Alton as founding Head of EET

Creating a new Middle School Diploma

Plans for the construction of new Science and Innovation buildings

Delivery of an even more diverse and inspirational co-curricular programme that provides challenge, fun and learning

Our People

Our people are at the core of everything we do, and the Fettes family is a family for life.

We want Fettes to be a school of choice for students, parents, and all of our staff. The school takes strength from its diversity and continues to work against any forms of discrimination to create an environment of kindness, compassion and diversity of thought.

Our targets include:

Development of social areas for inter-year group mixing

Nurturing the Fettes family and building on the Fettes Career Partnership by calling on the experience of so many Old Fettesians and parents

Ongoing consultation in self-evaluation, ensuring all stakeholders (including parents) are heard Equity, diversity, and inclusion at the core of any development

Creating opportunities for staff professional development

Wellbeing

In taking forward our wellbeing programme, our targets are:

Continuing to promote the full-boarding ethos

Investing in boarding facilities

Focusing on and supporting the key transition years – Third Form and Sixth Form

Promoting staff as well as student wellbeing

Constructing a new Wellbeing Centre which will improve our health and wellbeing facilities and provide a place for innovative and pro-active learning about life skills

We understand that happy children make the most effective learners and believe that every student should: Feel valued, nurtured and represented

Grow up in a caring and supportive environment

Be supported to develop a resilience they take with them into the world

Our Community

A drive to ensure that our school community is environmentally sustainable underpins this theme. Inclusivity is fundamental in all areas of school life. We will continue to prioritise fundraising for transformational bursaries to enable more boys and girls to benefit from a fully funded Fettes education. Our community is both local and global. While remaining proudly Scottish, we ensure that internationalism is part of the ethos of a Fettes education.

Our targets include:

Increasing local community involvement, including developing and opening up the campus for school and community use

Educating and celebrating diversity within the school Embedding sustainable development into all our places

Our five aims within five years:

Measure campus-wide energy consumption and set clear targets to reduce usage by 10 per cent

Reduce the use of single-use plastic by 25 per cent

Reduce food waste by 15 per cent

Invest solely in sustainable developments

Remove diesel from all school vehicles