Prep School Magazine - Autumn 2020 Issue 99

Autumn 2020 â–² Issue 99

PREP SCHOOL Reflecting the best in the prep and junior school world

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AUTUMN 2020 | ISSUE 99

From the editor A letter from the president, Richard Tovey MBE Navigating new challenges, Dr Hazel Harrison School journal of a plague year, Dr Matt Jenkinson Our journey through Covid-19, Reverend Andrew Gough Navigating Covid-19, Alex Osiatynski The power of team games, Neil Rollings The virtual campus, Simon Noakes The mythology of lockdown learning, Tim Day Going part-time, Alec Synge Education for All – Morocco, Sonia Omar An environmentally-friendly future, Tim James Positive lessons learned, Rose Hardy A new day, a new beginning, Peter Kent Choices and consequences, Ian Morris Game on: the first football codes, Malcolm Tozer ISEB’s new project qualification: intellectual candy, Durrell Barnes Virtual art exhibition, Diana Evans Keeping mentally healthy, Natasha Devon MBE Book review, Sophia Ivanova Building a community is crucial, Susan Burton Talking to our children, Jonathan Perry The future of governance, Simon Davies Stay alert, Sadie Janes What I learned at prep school, Nicholas Scott-Burt How drama is boosting confidence in the young, Fiona Jenkins A remarkable friendship, Andrew Russell Doing the right thing, Fergal Roche Being anti-fragile in a time of crisis, Chris Parsons Leadership and staff wellbeing, Carrie Symes England to Argentina,Ian Tate Compassionate leadership, Mark Beach Education through societies, Dr Paul Murray SATIPS Competitions SATIPS Broadsheet SATIPS directory

Editor Paul Jackson Managing Editor Meena Ameen Designer Scott James Advertising Gerry Cookson, gcookson@johncatt.com Steering Committee Bill Ibbetson-Price; Ben Moir; Richard Tovey MBE

ISSN: 0963 8601 Printed by Micropress, Reydon,Suffolk IP18 6DH Publishers’ Notice Prep School is published three times a year, in January, May and September, by John Catt Educational Ltd. £25 for a two-year subscription, post paid; discounts for bulk orders are available.

Opinions expressed in Prep School are not necessarily endorsed by satips; likewise advertisements and advertising features are printed in good faith. Their inclusion does not imply endorsement by satips.

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From the editor It is an understatement to say that many things have changed since my last editorial was written in March of this year. As a result, there is an underlying theme of support and confidence boosting within many of this edition’s articles, quite rightly. I am grateful to Richard Tovey MBE, the SATIPS President, for emphasising both this and the need for humour to deal with whatever lies ahead in his letter to schools.

There is little doubt that the future predicted by Sir Anthony Seldon in his book, The Fourth Education Revolution, is coming to pass much earlier than possibly even he imagined. Who would have thought only a matter of months

ago that we would have been teaching lessons online! Indeed, Sir Anthony’s superbly researched and written new book-co-authored with David Walsh, formerly Deputy Head at Tonbridge, is also very poignant. Public Schools and the Second World War, their sequel to Public Schools and the Great War: The Generation Lost, explains how our schools and their communities responded to yet another crisis.

There is a plethora of evidence to show that our schools have responded magnificently to the current crisis.

Published by Pen and Sword Books, I highly recommend this new publication to you.

“In the Second World War it was the experience of life on the home front which drew social classes together.

Churchill contrasted the two wars thus: ‘The fronts are everywhere. The trenches are dug in the towns and streets... The front lines run through the factories.’ Only by responding positively to this shared sense of crisis and demand for national unity could public schools hope to justify their existence in 1940 and beyond.”

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A letter from the president Richard Tovey MBE, the SATIPS President, outlines his thoughts on the way ahead in these challenging times Many months ago, before Covid-19 reared its head, I was approached to consider becoming President of SATIPS. Having been a career-long supporter of this great organisation it took very little to persuade me to attempt to fill this honourable role.

Why? Because I have always believed that its great strength is that it is run by teachers for teachers which makes it a genuine grassroots facility and can and should make it totally relevant to all teachers and all pupils. So why a letter from me now? Well, with all the challenges ahead, the officers of SATIPS have asked me to write.

As the new academic year begins I just wanted to wish you well as you embark on the term ahead. You have all been preparing for weeks and I wanted you to know that the SATIPS family is behind you every step of the way. I venture to suggest that the young people in our care may find the whole operation a great deal easier than many of us teachers will but the new situation will, I am sure, be a revelation to us all as to how we might do ‘matters educational’ differently in the future – particularly with the recent experience of the online and virtual teaching experience of the summer term.

As teachers, your role is always critical. Your relationship with each child, with each family, with your fellow teachers and as part of the

As the new academic year begins I just wanted to wish you well as you embark on the term ahead.

school community team is always paramount. This time around you will be dealing with all these aspects (and many more) of an equation with the young and their families being under many different pressures – financial, social, health, and so on.

always do! As a long-serving head, a long-serving teacher, a former school inspector, a former chairman of IAPS and a governor of several schools over the years, that is why we love our vocation. The young always cut straight to the quick.

As your council members are all teachers they too are facing up to these immense challenges. This message, therefore, is to wish you a stimulating start to your new academic year. We all long to hear the patter of tiny feet around our school communities and buildings once again and if SATIPS can help in any way do contact us. SATIPS is here to help so please tell us what you want and need from us. It will help us plan ahead. I am absolutely certain that the one thing I can guarantee is that the young will rise to the challenge – they

Take care, stay safe and do try to keep your sense of humour. We will come out of this eventually. Finally, may I urge you once again to do one thing for me? Please do keep a log in your department and in your school of these ‘magic moments’ which we will try to put together either in Prep School magazine or in a Broadsheet, to show how resilient, determined, imaginative and creative the young and their teacher can be.

Good luck.

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Navigating new challenges During lockdown, clinical psychological Dr Hazel Harrison worked with the BBC to develop the wellbeing content for the Bitesize Daily Shows.

As we ease out of lockdown, there’s been a resounding consensus from mental health experts that we continue to make children’s wellbeing a priority.

Dr Harrison shares some ideas to guide schools in navigating the post pandemic challenges.

The pandemic’s effect on children’s mental health There’s a spectrum of how children and young people will have coped, thrived, muddled along or struggled during the last six months. Some will have loved the opportunity to be at home, to learn more autonomously, to discover new technology platforms and to have some control over the structure of their days. Others will have experienced intense family conflict (incidents of domestic abuse went up during lockdown), parents dealing with financial worries or struggling to divide time between supporting their children and managing their own work. The Anna Freud Centre – a mental health charity for children and families – recently highlighted seven ways the pandemic may have negatively impacted children’s mental health.

The seven negative impacts of COVID-19* 1. Loss of seeing friends and family; of routines; of goals/milestones, such as exams; of rituals such as end of year activities; of school life; of normal life and activities.

2. Friendships: lack of socialisation; loss of self-worth gained from peer groups; missing friends; difficulties maintaining friendships remotely; loss of social rewards and social identity.

3. Anxiety, fear and confusion over future uncertainty; fear of future school closures; confusion about new rules; anxiety about illness and hygiene.

4. Disrupted sleep patterns causing loss of concentration and affecting mood.

5. Family experiences: abuse; conflict; stress; financial issues; coping with mental health issues of adults; increased caring responsibilities.

6. School: worries about missing learning and falling behind; loss of routines; academic worries due to school closures or exam cancellations; lack of access to trusted adults.

7. Bereavement and illness: coping with the illness or death of family, friends and loved ones. * Anna Freud Centre (2020)

‘Coronavirus: Supporting Pupils’ Mental Health and Well-Being’, [Online] July: www.bit.ly/2Zg4kR5 If we want to minimise the potential negative impact on children’s mental health then we need to plot a route to improved wellbeing.

Creating a wellbeing map I work closely with many schools helping them to develop clear wellbeing strategies to embed into their school culture. Feedback I’m often given from schools is that it helps to have a psychological wellbeing model to guide their focus and enhance their wellbeing strategy.

This model needs to be adaptable and agile to respond to the unique culture of the school, as well as the challenges and opportunities the school encounters. I like to think of wellbeing models as maps showing all the key places relating to wellbeing. Once you have the map, the navigators can decide which places they need to visit and where they want to focus their attention and resources.

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Helping children to develop some control over what they pay attention to will enable them to take ownership over regulating their emotions and managing their wellbeing.

day-to-day so that the school can harness resilience and build wellbeing. One such theory is the SEARCH framework that covers six over-arching pathways to wellbeing: strengths; emotional management; attention and awareness; relationships; coping; and habits and goals.

Strengths Going through a challenging or stressful experience can sometimes mean the focus of a child’s attention shifts towards deficits. His or her natural ‘negativity bias’ means it’s easier to notice the things they haven’t done well, the mistakes they’ve made, and the days they didn’t manage.

While it’s important to acknowledge and validate these experiences, children may also benefit from having time to focus on what they have been able to achieve. During this difficult time, children may have discovered some new resources or skills that enabled them to cope. Becoming aware of these character strengths can be a healthy first step towards allowing children to celebrate the best parts of themselves.

Did the child’s strength of humour keep the family laughing and connected? Perhaps their strength

of determination enabled them to keep working, even on days when it was really tough. Maybe they used their strength of kindness to support others? Having strengthsbased conversations and spotting the strengths children displayed – and still display – may help to override their negativity bias and find equilibrium again.

Emotional management The pandemic may have presented many emotional challenges for children, so a focus on identifying and understanding these emotions can be helpful. Developing emotional intelligence, and using a language to accurately name emotional experiences, can support children in making sense of their experiences.

When children can accurately label their emotional experiences, they’re then capable of processing them, sharing them with others, and moving forward without constantly being reminded of them. ‘The Brain House’ animation (part of my recent BBC project ‘The Brain Lab’) could be useful for enabling discussions about what happens when we experience different emotions.

It’s confusing for children when feelings hijack their thinking, rational brain. However, these ‘fight or flight’

responses help us all to dedicate the necessary resources to focus on survival. Thinking is slow and may mean we lose precious moments to protect ourselves. So, during lockdown, it’s likely that children have noticed their brains being hijacked by emotions more frequently as their sense of threat increased. Understanding how their brains respond in stressful situations, and why their emotions hijack their thoughts means children can also start to learn what they can do to help get their thinking brain back ‘online’ again.

Attention and awareness Wherever we focus our attention will grow. So helping children to develop some control over what they pay attention to will enable them to take ownership over regulating their emotions and managing their wellbeing. For some, this may involve learning how to let go of troubling thoughts, how not to get caught up too much in the past, or overly concerned about the future. And to do so, they may need to learn ways to ground themselves in the present moment.

This isn’t an easy skill for anyone to master, and it can be a struggle if a child’s had a predominant focus on safety and danger over the past few months. Helping children to

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access mindfulness-based practices or finding aspects of ‘flow’ (activities where they lose themselves) could be a useful starting place. The YouTube animation, ‘Life in Lockdown – Flow’, might help to get children reflecting on their moments of flow.

Relationships Our relationships are one of the biggest predictors of our long-term happiness and wellbeing; we’re hardwired for connections with others. Conversely, loneliness and social isolation can trigger a negative physiological response in our bodies, signalling that we’re in danger. Being away from our ‘tribe’ isn’t good for us and can have a negative impact on our physical and mental health.

Many children will have experienced social losses during the pandemic.

Their relationships and the ways they interact may have changed, making the importance of prioritising relationships more crucial now than ever.

Building and rebuilding connections, and offering opportunities for a sense of connectedness, is essential. Losing the physical closeness of learning in a classroom, or the chance to hang out with friends elsewhere, may also mean that children have lost their sense of belonging. The feeling that they’re part of something bigger than themselves.

Although these opportunities may start to present themselves again now, they may be different (for example, students may need to be maintaining a physical distance from others). One way to bring this tribe mentality back is to facilitate activities that endorse the idea of belonging, that they matter to others and are valued.

Create opportunities to bring children together to feel part of a team again.

This could be through school teams, sports teams, hobbies or community projects.

Coping What’s helped children to cope during the pandemic? Some are likely to have developed coping strategies that proved to be very adaptive and

supportive of their wellbeing. These could have included finding ways to help others, reframing challenges, looking at situations from different perspectives, and learning new skills.

Others may have uncovered less functional approaches to coping (e.g. binge eating, staying up late, obsessive checking of the news).

When children return to school, they may well still be using the same strategies. And they’ll need to continue to adapt to new ways of working, fresh ways of interacting in the school environment and – possibility – at those times when learning is disrupted again.

So children must learn healthy coping habits to support themselves.

The Barnardo’s report highlighted what kept children well during the pandemic. Coping strategies included having a routine and structure to the day, connecting with friends, family (and pets), eating well and exercising, being creative, engaging in hobbies, playing games and getting outdoors.

When things are stressful, it can be hard to remember which coping mechanisms have been useful. So taking time to reflect on what pupils found helpful during lockdown might enable them to have a toolbox of coping strategies available when they’re needed in the future.

start or end of specific lessons or during form time.

Sharing with children their brain’s amazing ability to adapt to their environment won’t just facilitate healthy habits; it also enables them to keep working towards goals and shifting them towards a growth mindset. And in doing so, this enhances their sense of mastery and purpose. The BBC’s ‘Growth Mindset and Wellbeing Live Lesson’ (available on iPlayer) gives an introduction to this area.

The way to wellbeing My mission to improve mental health by sharing the latest research has led me to understand that wellbeing doesn’t just exist within an individual.

We can create systemic wellbeing too, enabling those who are thriving to support those who are struggling.

Building a thriving school community includes focusing on your own wellbeing so that there is enough in the tank to top up the children who need your support.

For additional wellbeing resources and to find out more about working with me, please get in touch. You can email me at hazel@thinkavellana. com or visit www.thinkavellana.com

Healthy habits and goals Our brains’ ability to wire and rewire in response to our experiences means we can develop healthy habits. These can become automatic processes that we eventually do without even consciously thinking about them.

Helping children to embed healthy habits into their daily lives will support them in developing a strong resilient mind. To get habits to stick, it can be helpful to twin them with behaviours that already exist. For example, there’s a lot of research to suggest expressing gratitude enhances wellbeing. So if you wanted to build a gratitude habit into the school day, you could invite each child to share something they’re grateful for at the

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School journal of a plague year Dr Matt Jenkinson, Headmaster of New College School, Oxford, reflects on a difficult school year I began my headship on the 1st of September 2019 and had been warned that everyone’s first term and first year as a new head are tough and, true enough, by Christmas I could look back on the busiest, most exhausting and most difficult term in my career. I had been presented, someone cheerily told me, with as many tricky issues to deal with as most heads get in their whole career. That didn’t make it seem much better, but I looked with some optimism to the second half of the year. You know, a quieter second half.

I’m not going to take responsibility for the onset of a global pandemic, but part of me thinks I was tempting fate in January when I thought: ‘surely it can’t get much more demanding than this?’. Surely. Anyway, like many others at the start of the calendar year, I read some alarming reports about a pneumonia-like killer the other side of the world, logged it at the back of my mind, and got on with the new term.

mostly in some form of isolation. All while trying to keep everyone happy (or at least not completely unhappy) and the pupils learning.

The first thing to note – which everyone responsible for making decisions noted – is that there was no real playbook for a global pandemic.

There are policies for a flu pandemic, and there are policies for remote learning where necessary, but there was no handy go-to guide for what to do when the government closes your school site to most pupils and leaves pupils at home with parents who are, rather often, trying to keep their own work going and their jobs and livelihoods intact. At least we had the final week before the Easter holiday to test out various methods of remote learning, then the Easter vacation to hone them. We were blessed with very patient and understanding parents on whom we tested out the various methods, quickly ditching the ones that proved most irksome.

going 100%-techy when children are meant to be learning to handwrite and a good number of the pupils are still taking their early pedagogical steps, let alone getting used to an online learning universe. That said, it did not take long for our Year 3s and up to get used to the VLE and for us as teachers to get used to grading online and offering feedback from the comfort of our computers or iPads. As easy as this feedback may have been in practical terms, the sheer quantity of it naturally placed a tiresome burden on teachers. Children write a lot when there are no other distractions, break times, fixtures, and the like. So one of the first challenges was to manage expectations all-round, i.e. that parents should not expect teachers to mark reams and reams and reams if that’s what had been done at home, while teachers should not be expected to set reams and reams and reams of work outside their usual timetabled hours.

And here we go. Or here we went.

The following is not a ‘how-to’ guide to navigating a school through a pandemic, nor a celebration of how my particular school did it, nor a claim that everything we did was perfect. It is more, I suggest, some musings on how on earth a school is expected to get through a pandemic with every single stakeholder – pupils, parents, teachers, leaders, governors – anxiously navigating the unknown,

It was at this stage that our VLE came into its own. It had been sitting there for five or six years – a useful place for online discussions, depositing online resources, making announcements, and the like. We had not yet graduated to using it pretty much wholesale for setting and marking work. There were good reasons for this – we didn’t need to while we were all on-site every day and, in the prep school environment, there is still a lot to be said for not

Then there was the issue of ‘live lessons’. At the beginning of the remote learning process, we watched a few schools try to go fully live using Zoom or Teams or whatnot. More often than not these didn’t go to plan.

I received stories from other schools of pupils ‘turning up’ to Zoom lessons from their beds; pupils feeling they’d been disenfranchised because their sibling or parent needed the only available computer during the lesson;

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PREP SCHOOL Reflecting the best in the prep & junior school world

the feeling (which we have all had) that staring at a screen all day undoes much of the learning that might be going on because our eyes are red and dry, or we are just bored senseless of staring down a camera.

We went down the blended route: Zoom lessons to keep the class ‘together’, but not in every lesson, with YouTube videos also created for catch-up when necessary. The parental response was predictably Goldilocks.

In the space of one morning I had one parent at the school gate thanking us for not going down the wall-to-wall Zoom format because they valued the flexibility of choosing when they did the work, fitting it into their own schedule; an email from another parent imploring us to do wall-to-wall Zoom because they couldn’t get their child engaged in learning otherwise, and another from yet another parent thanking us for getting it just right.

You can’t win sometimes, and I’m not pretending we did here. I just hope that we won enough of the time, by which I mean we did what was right for the children.

When I was told about the bed-laden pupil on Zoom above, I did enquire as to whether the school in question had safeguarding policies about remote learning, especially online learning. ‘Oh yes’, came the reply, ‘it’s just everyone is ignoring them.’

I think none of us has written and rewritten quite so many policies quite so quickly, and I am pleased to say that we had barely any contravention of them. The most difficult aspect was having to change those policies on the hoof or allowing a certain degree of flexibility, as new unforeseen situations came up. There was also something uniquely depressing about sending my SLT an updated bereavement policy, just in case I wasn’t around to implement it.

Then there was the issue of having some pupils on site. I won’t go over the details of hand sanitizer, 2m markings, trying to see if one-way systems would work, rewriting the timetable, staggering break and

lunchtimes, and all the other things that came from DfE often when you didn’t want them, and rarely when you did. The novelty soon wore off of finding out about educational policy alongside the rest of the population from the government’s evening briefings. Parents could not quite believe that heads found out about ‘next steps’ at the same time as everyone else, with the added frisson that we had to go back to work as soon as we did so. My patience ran out when, just a few weeks before the end of term, mixed messages came from the government about just who was going to be allowed back, how many, and when. They simply raised parental and pupil expectations, kicking the responsibility back to already-exhausted heads, while still insisting on parameters that made any wholesale return to school impossible. Nonetheless, we had no choice but to rethink, recalibrate, try to manage those expectations and hold our breaths for the next announcement. Luckily I was blessed with phenomenal colleagues who administered the seemingly endless changes while getting on with their normal workload while trying to prepare for the year ahead. I also won’t dwell on the misleading reports in the media about DfE regulations, which often led to erroneous expectations about what schools should be doing, when those reports were just irresponsible clickbait winding up an already nervy population.

All of this was while trying to keep a community together. This was one of the most difficult aspects, and I wonder whether it is entirely possible when we are not all physically together. We sent home assembly videos, storytimes, virtual newsletters, year group Zoom quizzes.

I sent every pupil a postcard to try to make them smile (and remind them who I was). We shared images of what people were doing at home.

We launched a whole-community VE Day commemoration video. We hosted Zoom social meetings for staff, sent them the positive feedback we

received, and used mentoring teams to keep groups in touch and able to voice their concerns and anxieties – as well as their successes. Increasing numbers of pupils and parents returned to the school gate (staggered, no loitering) so that helped, but it only really represented a fraction of the community at any one time. What we learnt – actually what we already knew – is that no amount of Zoom replaces a true school community.

I am writing this before the term has come to an end, and before we know what September will look like. Half of me wants to know now so we can get planning. The other half of me, like everyone else, desperately wants to rest and think about something else. For all of the frustrations, there have been some wonderful times too: parents emailing (sometimes at length) to express their thanks and admiration for the hard work and dedication of my colleagues; pupils beaming when they were able to come back to school. I am pleased to run a school where they are desperate to come back, not to stay away.

Colleagues expressing enthusiasm for new ways of teaching and learning and telling me all the things they will keep from this new system as and when things return to something resembling normal.

Crises bring out the essence of people.

This can go one of two ways, but when it goes well it is truly heartening and affirming. It is not particularly sophisticated to suggest that the only real way through a crisis like this is to take one day at a time and to try to look for the positives, no matter how difficult that may be. And it really is sometimes – especially when, for example, in the middle of it all you receive an email informing you that human remains have been found under your playground (but that’s another story for another time). If nothing else, as someone recently pointed out to me, if I ever find myself in a future job interview and the panel asks me to talk about a time I faced a difficult situation…

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Our journey through Covid-19 Reverend Andrew Gough, Chaplain of Bishops Wordsworth Grammar School, Salisbury, explores our new normal through retrospective There are story themes embedded within us at a genetic level. A very simple one: a journey into the unknown. More complex: a crisis, a period of fearful waiting, the journey out of the crisis begin… or facing chaos and working sacrificially to produce some habitable and useable order out of it. Classic storylines which can be understood as archetypes. They deeply reflect the way Homo sapiens have experienced life for the whole of the 250,000 years have been around, and probably also for the millions of years our Hominid ancestors experienced life before that. These stories are who we are as a species.

only a theoretical understanding of the first week because no one has ever done it like this before. There will be some frantic re-planning required in light of that first week. I am reflecting today on an email from my Head about the four Cathedral services for Michaelmas term. It can be summarised very simply: probably all online – check as we go week by week. At least it gives me an excuse if one of them is rather last minute. All the rapidly acquired and honed online skills from the summer term will be required for this. Thankfully the Cathedral is now very well practised at working online.

We are currently living all three of these – and others as well. Covid-19 hits, we are knocked back and hide in our homes, we wait in fear. The waiting comes to an end, we slowly begin moving out of hiding and back into… and here is the problem, we are entering unknown territory. We face chaos out of which we need to produce order; we are on a journey into the unknown.

This, of course, is where the stories we tell, read, watch or hear differ from living through them. These stories are usually complete. When we start reading Lord of the Rings we know how it ends. Very importantly it does end – essentially it has a happy ending. In the Covid-19 world, we are making it up as we go along. We do not know what it will be like next week. We have absolutely no idea at all when ‘this’ will ‘end’ nor what the ‘end’ will look like.

During a conversation in May, I loved an answer from a currently serving head to a retired one when asked about plans for September: ‘I’m still trying to sort out next week.’ I am writing this article at a point where we are uncertain what the second week of term may look like. We have

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In the Bible we see numerous – crisis/waiting/journey out – stories.

Because they are real life they don’t quite match Lord of the Rings; they do however more closely reflect what we experience. My two standard

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journey stories to use with the boys are Abraham at the beginning of the school year, and the Magi as we return after Christmas. However, these do not capture the journey we face this year. A much better ‘journey story’ for us is the Exile. There was no deciding to set out on that journey: the Jews had it thrust upon them very much against their wishes. In 7th century BC the Babylonians conquered Jerusalem. They destroyed the temple and everything in which the Jews had their security, and hauled them all off to be slaves in Babylon. There, in that alien land, they had to make new lives, work out how to thrive and prepare themselves – actually their descendants – for a return to Jerusalem and the rebuilding of the temple. Their world was turned upside down, all they had trusted in was gone, they had to rethink everything from scratch and put a new life together. That captures far better the situation in which we find ourselves. But it was during the Exile that the Jews developed an understanding of themselves and God which forged them into the people who are still with us today. It is that understanding of God developed during the Exile that has been taken on into Christianity. The Exile forced the Jews to develop their thinking in ways that delivered truths that have lasted for millennia.

During a conversation in May, I loved an answer from a currently serving head to a retired one when asked about plans for September: ‘I’m still trying to sort out next week.’ I am writing this article at a point where we are uncertain what the second week of term may look like.

Journeys into the unknown, and producing order from chaos, are very rarely safe processes. We are confronted at present with demands for schools to be safe for pupils and staff. There is however no such thing as ‘safe’ and there never has been. Schools have never been safe in an absolute sense. At age ten my daughter managed to break her arm on the way to a flute lesson at her extremely well-run prep school. What do we do? Ban flute lessons? Ensure all children are wearing suitable protective equipment when they leave the classroom for a music lesson?

Or simply write it off to what school children tend to do.

We would all like to return to the level of ‘safe’ we had before Covid19. That may simply be impossible, instead we would do well to adjust our understanding of safe. Safety and comfort and satisfaction with life are all relative. I was always amazed at my grandfather’s apparent satisfaction with his lot. I considered his unmodernised two-bed terrace in

Manchester they had lived in since the 1930s to be a rather low standard of living. As I got older, I realised that a man who went to work in a mill aged about 13, was involved in the Battle of Passchendaele, brought up his two daughters during the depression, was an air raid warden during the Manchester Blitz would have a radically different understanding of safe, comfort and satisfaction with life than I had.

out of our comfort and stability into the Exile of Covid-19 land. There will inevitably be casualties of varying degrees of severity during the process. But let us be reassured by the knowledge that just as the Jews were able to find God in deep and meaningful ways in that alien land of Babylon, we can be sustained by God’s presence on the difficult journey ahead and the unsettling experience of running schools in a pandemic.

I am guessing during the autumn term we will be consolidating those skills developed during the summer term of putting plans together in 24 hours, implementing them, starting to tweak them to improve, and then scrapping them to put together a new set of plans in 24 hours, implement them, and repeat. This will be very difficult for the ‘this is the way we have always done it’ cohort. To generate good quality education for the pupils we will need considerable agility and willingness to take risks.

The next few years are going to be a difficult journey as we are hauled

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Navigating Covid-19 Alex Osiatynski, Headmaster of Bilton Grange, Rugby, shares his thoughts on leadership during a pandemic When asked to contribute an article to this esteemed publication on the theme of Bilton Grange’s response to the Covid-19 crisis, my first consideration was which area to concentrate on; a complete review of our provision would not only fill this magazine but would probably bore you to tears too. Let’s face it, none of us has had a monopoly on good ideas. Indeed, one of the many silver linings of this crisis has been the way sectors have shared ideas and best practice so that we can all stand on the shoulders of giants.

I decided to eschew a detailed review of our academic provision although, for a time, I was concerned that some schools were offering a longer day of directed learning than we were and a few parents wished their children to be more firmly tethered to direct learning.

Subsequent research has, however, indicated that ‘brain fade’ may have impacted substantially on the efficacy of such long days so I think our daily diet of directed, academic learning in the mornings and creative lessons and independent ‘challenges’ curated by our graduate assistants in the afternoons was probably the right balance. Our PE department generated a huge amount of content to keep our children fit and healthy and developing skills: ‘Teams Zumba’ was a firm favourite!

I will also steer clear of the thorny issue of digital learning platforms and their comparative benefits, which has become something of a Marmite issue among teachers and parents alike. However, I doubt anyone would demur from the conclusion that the pandemic has given us all the impetus to make paradigm shifts in our use of technology in a purposeful manner; we have made several years’ worth of progress in a

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matter of months out of necessity.

The area I decided to focus on is another aspect of technology, in which I offer my perspective on one aspect of ‘Covid19 leadership’ – the role of entertainerin-chief – which culminated in my donning a school dress on the last day of term as I super-soaked the leavers on the school lawns.

There, I thought that would get your attention if you had read this far!

Let’s start by rolling back to March and our attempts to maintain a sense of normality and the natural rhythm of school life, which we knew would be important to support the mental wellbeing of our pupils. Much to the surprise of friends outside the sector, I spent considerable amounts of time preparing video-recorded iterations of school assemblies, chapel services, and even hymn practice. This is something of a ‘modern tradition’ at Bilton Grange in that I personally lead a weekly school singing session and try to make it as much fun as possible, especially in the warm-ups.

The first hymn practice of lockdown presented me with a conundrum: congregational singing without a congregation. At this point I was getting to grips with the features of iMovie under the critical eye of my 14-year-old son, already light years ahead of me in skill and understanding. Under his tutelage, I made a slightly ham-fisted attempt at creating a chapel interior with eight versions of myself, some rather ghostly, singing alongside me playing the organ. The complexity was not in the technology but its preparation and application – in other words, me not knowing how best to use it – which led to several superfluous renditions

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of ‘lean forwards, lean backwards, to the left, to the right…’ and barely suppressed frustration on my part.

However, the final cut did the trick and caused great mirth for many children.

I even saw recordings of pupils, in their homes, gustily singing along with the warm-ups and hymns and I became aware that parents were joining in too!

I then spotted the massive flaw in my plan: I had set up an expectation of humour and innovation which I would struggle to maintain. I was not the only person wielding the tech, either.

Our lay chaplain, who has the unfair advantage of also being Head of ICT, had even presented a service which involved an interactive 360-degree camera which the children had to navigate around the chapel.

By this time, I had set up a ‘green screen’ at home which enabled me not only to use a variety of backgrounds and settings without leaving the house but also permitted – on the 4th of May – Darth Vader to interrupt my assembly and arrange for me to be squashed under a falling spaceship.

The technology was effective; my acting was dire.

Alongside the regular aspects of our weekly assemblies – the giving of certificates for good work, musical and dramatic interludes, and sharing individual and corporate successes – I added a pre-recorded ‘showreel’ of some of the work which had been undertaken over the previous week.

Many children volunteered their enjoyment of seeing the work, whether it was their own or that of their peers.

There was inevitably a creative angle to the work shown, whether it was geometric mathematics, art, design

technology, shape-based poetry or home cooking and baking, which reminded everyone that education is not just about the academic core.

Under my son’s guidance I had by now progressed to the wonders of Adobe Premiere Pro and was able to reproduce myself in the multiscreen ‘virtual choir’ effect which so many had already offered online; indeed, many of us have been inspired and amazed by the quality of what so many musicians, both individuals and groups, have achieved. I also decided, over half-term, to spend some time playing the piano and recording and sharing a short recital of one of the favourite works in my limited repertoire, Robert Schumann’s Kinderszenen, or Scenes of Childhood, whose evocative themes of childhood recollections felt very apt.

The growing issue was that I was spending so much time filming and editing, it was either cutting into the increasingly busy working day or into the time which should have been spent asleep. I was also starting to suffer, as I suspect many were, from the ill-effects of sitting in front of a screen with the heels of my hand resting on the warm surface of a laptop.

At this point we became aware of the functionality of one of our chosen platforms, Microsoft Teams, to deliver live events, and we were planning and delivering virtual ‘open events’ for prospective families which were a

combination of pre-recorded material and live Q&A. It was a natural progression to switch to live broadcasts of assemblies and chapel, which would not have the same level of innovation or finesse but would be far more practical and manageable whilst giving a sense of something new and different. I added to the fun by repeatedly forgetting to unmute myself as I started to speak at the end of the introductory video!

By the end of the school year I had rationalised and self-justified the time spent on being the ‘entertainer-in-chief’ as we sought to give all our pupils, especially our Year 8 leavers, a ‘good ending’, recognising the keenly felt sense of loss of all the rites of passage and celebrations which were inevitably cancelled. Our solution to the grey area of a potential phased return to school over the final fortnight was to give each year group a ‘formal morning’ and an ‘informal afternoon’ in school – two for the Year 8 children including the last afternoon – to spend time together and create some happy memories. It was with this in mind that, a week before the end of term, I rashly announced to colleagues that on the final afternoon of term there would be a memorable surprise with which to end the year, without having worked out what this would be.

Alas, an impending word limit prevents me from describing any further the very-final assembly which saw me

instantaneously switch between my suit and various iterations of the Bilton Grange uniform and, finally, running out on to the back lawn to instigate a water fight – yes, whilst wearing a blazer and a girl’s summer dress. It is saying something that the most repeated comment of surprise was that a dress of sufficient girth and length existed in the second-hand inventory!

I have repeatedly talked to my pupils about seeing the glass half-full and looking for the silver lining to every cloud. Who knows what the immediate future will bring but it is likely I will not have the time to continue my journey of learning and discovery in the world of video editing in the way that my son is doing, with his limitless reserves of energy (and fewer responsibilities): it may well end up opening a career pathway for him.

Indeed, his spectacular and superbly edited drone footage of Bilton Grange has already gone vaguely viral on several digital platforms. For me, I am content that I turned a few frowns upside down and provided a little bit of the glue which kept our school community together at a time of uncertainty. It was, however, no more than the glue of the amazing hard work of my school staff throughout the lockdown, as they looked after the children both academically and pastorally: they are the true heroes of this crisis and I will forever be in their debt.

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The power of team games Neil Rollings, from Independent Coach Education, discusses the importance of team games and its benefits on our daily lives The world of education is emerging this term from an unprecedented interruption. Not since elementary education became compulsory in England in 1870 have primary-aged children had a break of six months in their schooling. The impact is compounded by the fact that much of that period involved being confined at home during a lockdown never previously experienced. At first sight, the prospect of the Easter and summer holidays being fused into a single unit appeared – to pre-teens at least – as the ultimate stroke of good fortune. Lessons were at arm’s length, at best, and school demands largely unobtrusive. If it had been a children’s novel, it would have been beyond credible.

However, this apparent nirvana soon faded to expose the shortcomings of life without social interaction.

Although Zoom communication was freely and efficiently available 24 hours each day, it was soon exposed as a poor substitute for human contact. It turned out that physical proximity contributed more to conversation and communication than might have previously been realised. Although Joe Wicks was active every morning for functional body conditioning, such exercise – conducted in isolation – emerged as an inadequate consolation for the shared endeavours of school sport.

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The April days merged into each other, in the style of Groundhog Day. The government’s rules allowed for all essentials to continue: schooling, shopping, eating, exercising. It wasn’t enough. Every day was predictably similar to the one before, and the one after. There was, for the most part, little hardship, but there was correspondingly little excitement. It soon became clear that life without the highs (and lows) is immeasurably poorer, and when social interaction and shared endeavour are removed simultaneously, life becomes unremarkable.

The value of some things is unexpectedly highlighted by their absence. Lockdown has exposed some of the real values of team games in schools. Although there has long been a tacit assumption that traditional sports have a value for most children, evidence has been anecdotal, flimsy and emotional. The pandemic has revealed that many of the experiences which characterise games in schools are more important than may have been suspected.

No one who has ever taken part in team games has emerged without lasting memories. They may be positive or negative, and for many, they are a combination of both. These recollections are made sticky because they are attached to emotion – the highs and lows which are an essential

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characteristic of the ‘great game’.

For many, this provides lifelong memories of sporting occasions, which are utterly unrelated to the significance of the occasion. Making sporting memories is not abilitydependent, and nor is the age of the participants relevant. This accounts for the fact that many middle-aged people can clearly recall the specific details of goals and triumphs from cosmically inconsequential matches from decades previously. Even when they can’t remember the names of the people they met last week. The house matches, school fixtures, bus journeys and tiny triumphs are disproportionately prominent in the memory of many adults. Sadly, recollections of compulsory cross country runs in the mud, and the rain-swept playing fields are equally clearly recalled. It is doubtful whether internet fitness sessions will lodge so clearly in the memory, or draw together their participants in lifelong friendships forged by shared triumphs and tragedies.

Life under lockdown was very me-centric for children. The microclimate of the family home demanded little in the way of self-reliance or teamship. However, instead of being the ultimate indulgence, the thing that everyone soon craved was the company of others. This was despite the fact that it was inevitably accompanied by the need

for communication, compromise and empathy. The need to work together towards a common goal, to empathise with others and to meet commitments. It revealed that self-centredness is ultimately less satisfying than community, that the benefits of social interaction outweigh the accommodations necessary to achieve them. Inevitably, computer games filled many of the empty hours.

The solitary days of intense screen scrutiny and remote contests did not build the same capacity to strive alongside others, to share victories and overcome disasters. The addictive challenge which they undoubtedly present does not build the same social skills as improvising a playing area, agreeing and applying rules, keeping the ball away from the flower beds.

The pandemic has confirmed what many have always tacitly believed. Games, teams, friends and collaboration are an essential part of the fun of childhood – and beyond.

Self-discipline and commitment actually bring reward and satisfaction.

Self-esteem is built through persisting

through difficulty to triumph. Sport is not just a punishment dreamed up by schools to keep pupils away from mobile telephones.

Many aspects of society will be reset in the wake of lockdown. Traditional games in schools should be one of them.

It emerges that they provide everything that children craved. Teamship and social connection might have been undervalued. Physical activity in the company of others, shared endeavour, mutual exhaustion, memories of lastminute goals – for and against – etched forever on the memory by the scriber of emotion. The commitment of attending practice on cold, wet evenings and forgoing a party to avoid letting the team down. The disappointments and elations that make life vibrant, rewarding and memorable. Getting on the bus with everyone else: quiet and apprehensive on the way there, loud and buoyant on the way back. The opposite of getting up every morning and treading the same safe, predictable path of the day before.

They can be shared by all pupils. The challenge for schools is to ensure that the programme, of activities and competition, is inclusive and appropriate. The post-Covid-19 world must shake off the Victorian legacy of school teams being the preserve of the early maturing athletes, who dominate all opportunities. The sector has always provided well for these performers and will continue to do so.

The challenge is not to dilute this, but to add to it. To ensure that the rich benefits of shared sporting experience are available to all children. That the fun of getting on the bus with friends is not overshadowed by fear of dropping the ball at the key moment.

Team games have an important place in the ‘brave new world’.

The restrictions of lockdown have confirmed this beyond any reasonable doubt. The challenge is to do it better than ever before, and ensure that an appropriate, high-quality experience of team games for all pupils is a priority for all schools.

The reboot will reveal that these benefits are not ability-dependent.

The pandemic has confirmed what many have always tacitly believed.

Games, teams, friends and collaboration are an essential part of the fun of childhood – and beyond.

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The virtual campus Simon Noakes, Founder and CEO of Interactive Schools, says it’s now or never for prep schools The last six months are going to be forever etched in our memory. As lockdown was announced, cabinet ministers scrambled for their briefing notes and schools around the world sought to understand the intricacies of Microsoft Teams and Zoom at a rapid pace.

What followed not only highlighted the stark inequalities within British education but showcased the very best and very worst of our independent sector. The adaptability, resilience and pupil-centricity shown by prep schools were beyond inspirational.

However, the lack of preparedness for online learning and the digital transformation was worryingly primitive.

As a father of four children at four different schools I’ve witnessed the entire spectrum of digital capability first hand. My inspiration for Interactive Schools came whilst looking at schools for my eldest

daughter, but my passion for digital transformation within the education sector has been reignited during the last six months.

Rather than pining for a return to ‘normal’, leaders must actively welcome change. We always hear that 65% of today’s students will eventually work in jobs that don’t yet exist. Does this mean schools can’t prepare them? Not at all. It’s unlikely that we’re ever going to return to a world where lamplighters, human alarm clocks and switchboard operators are again seen as common professions, so schools must focus on developing ambitious, adaptable and inquisitive learners who embrace new things and have a high level of digital literacy.

This is easier said than done. We’re all a product of our surroundings and if pupils aren’t being educated by teachers who embrace change and champion digital transformation,

then what hope do they have? In many cases, it requires a complete change of mindset from the top down.

Ahead of the game At Interactive Schools, disruption, transformation and empowerment are entwined in our DNA. Many of the enquiries we’ve received in the last six months have been from schools seeking support with online open events, virtual admissions centres and parent communication.

Whilst this was uncharted territory for many schools, these are initiatives we’ve been championing for many years. We created our very first virtual reality prospectus in 2010, allowing a small number of schools to enhance their desirability when visiting conferences around the world.

Through augmented reality prospectuses we have been able to place prospective pupils and staff into classrooms from the other side of

Rather than pining for a return to ‘normal’, leaders must actively welcome change. We always hear that 65% of today’s students will eventually work in jobs that don’t yet exist. Does this mean schools can’t prepare them? Not at all.

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the world, allowing them to imagine themselves as part of the school community before they become part of it.

Now or never I believe that it’s now or never for schools to embrace digital transformation and do what they always talk about: bringing learning to life!

25 independent schools have already closed their doors for good as a direct impact of the pandemic and, while many are reporting admissions enquiries above and beyond the norm, there is undoubtedly uncertainty ahead. Whatever the future looks like, it certainly isn’t going to be the same as it was 12 months ago and nor should we want it to be.

As a marketer, my advice is simple.

Create bold, brazen and beautiful marketing campaigns that are driven by data and truly differentiate your school from the competition.

Don’t just focus on the tangible, but instil a sprinkling of fairy dust that effectively communicates your unique, indescribable qualities.

As a parent, I ask that you embrace the future with open arms. I know that I want my children exposed to innovation at every possible opportunity, allowing them to embrace the future now! It starts at the top and must infiltrate every crevice of what your school offers to ensure that your pupils are truly prepared for a life where new ideas and entrepreneurial spark will define success.

Your marketing checklist: • Stand out brand identity that differentiates you from the competition.

• Virtual admissions centre that allows prospects to engage and experience your school digitally.

• In-depth understanding of your audiences.

• Understanding of return on investment across all marketing channels.

• An agency that challenges conventional thinking and aspires for greatness.

We see things differently I’m incredibly proud to lead a company that collaborates with some of the best schools on the planet. In the last six months, we’ve looked hard at who we are, what we offer, and how we do it.

As a result, we’ve grown our team by 12 and significantly enhanced our capabilities in data analysis and insight, strategy and digital advertising. With Interactive Schools, you can be assured of a human-first marketing strategy that engages audiences and drives action.

Whatever your pain points, I’m incredibly confident that my team and I will find the solution that catapults your school into the

stratosphere of marketing success.

It’s time to look beyond what your competitors are offering and to stop copying their approach. Look ahead, set new benchmarks and drive true innovation. Your pupils will thank you for it in the future.

We’re up for the challenge, are you?

Simon Noakes is Founder and CEO of Interactive Schools, the world’s leading marketing and communications agency for independent and international schools. A pioneer of digital transformation, Simon is a global speaker on the #FutureSchool, social media and strategic marketing.

He is renowned for challenging traditional methods of communication and embracing new ways of thinking that align to changes in user behaviour and technological advances.

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The mythology of lockdown learning Tim Day, classics teacher and housemaster at Rugby, paints a memorable mythological tale

It is 9am on a Saturday morning. I have already opened the Microsoft Teams application on the desktop in my boarding house, a vessel without passengers, a ship without a crew. We are about to embark on an Odyssey upon the previously uncharted sea of lockdown learning.

There is a cup of tea on my desk, and also a pint of water. This morning, I have already completed a 5k ‘park run’ around the garden of the house, immaculate despite the workings of the God of Furlough – 36 laps around the seven hills of home.

I click on ‘Meet now’ and 24 miraculously happy Latinists pop up on my computer screen. ‘Hello, John’, I say. ‘Hello, Emma. Hello, Rishi. Hello, everybody.’ There is a resounding chorus of ‘Hello, sir’ and the odd red herring, as the quirkier members of the set seek to deflect me from my journey with the temptation of questions about that week’s prescribed reading, or about my latest lockdown haircut. ‘Sir, this might be a little off the point, but…’

O tempora, o mores ….. o Boris!

We are teaching (and learning) a full timetable online although, following pupil and parent feedback, some of it from me, the lessons have been slimmed down to a punchy 40

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minutes rather than a punch-drunk 50. The resulting lengthier break between periods can be likened to that moment on a flight, during the halcyon days pre-lockdown, when you take yourself to the lavatory for no good reason – you are fully dehydrated – than to persuade the blood cells in your buttocks to reacquaint themselves with your legs, and to avoid the horror of excessive screen time, escaping the dreaded in-flight movie, if only momentarily.

The lesson goes well, as it seemingly always does, in this brave, new world of remote classroom management. The gods can only reward the resilience and versatility of the pupils, who have thrown themselves heroically into the labours outlined in the accompanying PowerPoint presentation. The theme of the passages translated by the class this term has been hubris, and concomitant nemesis, and that has formed the basis of enjoyable background work between lessons, as we have covered material derived from Ovid’s Metamorphoses, perhaps translated by Ted Hughes or performed by Stephen Fry. During the course of the term, however, something strange has occurred.

Mythological events have mirrored the apparent hubris of the government’s management of the crisis.

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In a deliciously dark irony, the kind beloved of Ovid, Hancock the Health Secretary has been derailed by his own health.

Hughes writes in Ovidian verse of Actaeon, torn apart by his own hunting hounds, his arrogantly lustful, lingering glimpse of the bathing Diana punished brutally by the goddess Diana. Fry seeks routinely to connect mythology to the modern world, memorably comparing Pandora’s jar to the internet. When Cummings ventures to Barnard Castle, Pandora unleashes his hubristic lies to be torn apart by his own weapon of choice, social media, and by a retired Chemistry teacher, not to mention hoi polloi. Democracy can be dangerous.

Meanwhile, Johnson himself has been struck down by the pestilential arrows of Apollo, and withdrawn fully from the battlefield. Thus it was in Homer’s Iliad that Achilles withdrew from the Trojan War, leaving his former comrades to suffer at the hands of an enemy, unseen.

As we now survey the wreckage of Williamson’s futile attempts to hold back the tide of misguided exam results, we can say with certainty that nobody will forget the academic year 2019-20. I pay testimony to the

resolve of pupils, to their enthusiasm, to the versatility of teachers, to their commitment, to those who adapted so readily to the demands of an extraordinary and unforeseen circumstance. The gods have only two powers, to do good to mortals and to do bad. Apollo has fired his arrows of plague into the camp, but perseverance and endeavour have seen pupils survive and thrive. Such is the nature of humanity. Odysseus, faced with the stormy seas off Calypso’s

isle faced but two choices, to die or to endure. He chose to endure.

Tim Day, educated at Rugby (Town House 1983-88), read classics and trained as a teacher of classics with mathematics. Tim taught classics at Norwich School for 13 years where he was housemaster of a day house, head of cricket and rugby football coach. He moved to Rugby in 2006 as a teacher of classics before taking up residence in Whitelaw House as

assistant housemaster in 2007. Tim focuses more on his refereeing these days, while his other major interests are record collecting, particularly 60s singles, and county cricket.

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Going part-time Alec Synge, former General Secretary of SATIPS, reflects on going part-time and taking on a new role When I decided to accept a part-time position at school a few years ago, I wondered what I might do with the extra time. Curiously, on the very day my part-time future was determined, I was called by a friend to ask if I knew anyone who could offer tutoring in GCSE Religious Studies, especially in the run-up to the next year’s exams. “Er – that’s me!” I declared. By September I had met and signed up three students seeking coaching, exam practice and revision work, one each in history, geography and religious studies. My career as a humanities hired hand had begun.

The local newspaper has many advertisements for maths and science tutors, as well as 11+ preparation, but never for any humanities. In any case, I have always thought that history teachers, especially, were two-a-penny and that the non-core curriculum was not a fertile field for the aspiring tutor.

I have been proved seriously wrong.

I have had to be careful to avoid being overloaded with clients who all require a good deal of attention and to avoid any impact on school work. Teaching a student only on a one-to-one basis is draining for teacher and taught! Equally, because it is immensely individualised, the depth of interaction with your student is much greater than with the individuals who comprise a class or set. This is extremely rewarding for it enables several desirable outcomes.

These include rapid student progress, easy repetition and reinforcement,

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a bespoke speed of working, individualised working methods, and a personal rapport different from, but at least as effective as, the highly social environment of a school.

While teaching methods are individualised for each student, some things should be the same for all, especially meticulous planning.

For all students I devise a scheme of work, give out, and jointly sign with the student, individual lesson plans for each session, keep records of tasks set and assessments made.

I also give termly reports although much informal dialogue also takes place. All this record-keeping would be invaluable should a home-schooled pupil’s education be inspected – and this does happen.

Because I teach in the students’ home, I also become involved in their home life. This has advantages, such as wonderful cups of tea with cake, enjoying non-school relationships with parents and knowing the foibles of family pets. The latter is important to students so it is as well to be au fait with cats, dogs and parrots. Amongst the latter, ‘Lucky’ is especially noisy but can be conned to quietude with a sheet placed over his cage.

Already surprised at how much demand there is for humanities teaching, I was further unprepared to discover how many students seek home-school tuition for GCSE and A Level. I have always thought Years 10 to 13 to be amongst life’s most sociable period. But some students do not like

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school and fail to thrive. There are many reasons for this. Garry, a bright and engaging young man, developed an obsessive compulsion for notetaking and doing extra work for school.

He became sleep-deprived and deeply depressed. His parents decided homeschooling was vital and I was one of three tutors who were engaged to teach him to GCSE in six subjects. He gained A or A* in all subjects. Subsequently, he joined his sibling’s school sixth form and gained three A grades in maths, physics and chemistry. His parents feel that nearly two years out of school turned everything around for him.

Other reasons why my students chose home-schooling have been based on various factors making school life difficult. For one student it was an inability to control the social downsides of his Asperger’s syndrome and autism, which led to chronic bullying. This boy adored and was hugely knowledgeable about the ‘outdoors’. He scored well in GCSE but his life transformed when he started a training apprenticeship to be a countryside ranger.

Similarly, another student had also been bullied in school but he was bright and able, claimed to be highly sociable and loves acting. He gained A* in all subjects and went on to a sixth form. He did well there and is now thriving on his theatre and performance course at a university in London.

Another student suffered very badly (and, for a boy, rarely) from anorexia nervosa, nearly succumbing to the

disease and refusing to speak for a year. Teaching him English to the lower tier of the IGCSE was an interesting challenge, for he refused to undertake any homework! To overcome this, I alternated our weekly meetings between teaching and supervising written homework.

This shows how the wide flexibility inherent in the home-schooled regime may be harnessed to extreme student requirements. By the time of the exam it was clear he could have entered the higher tier but his mother, very wisely in my view, opted to keep his stress as low as possible. He easily gained the C grade, he was restricted to. But now he is the leading student in his computer programming course.

All career decisions have an element of ‘horses for courses’ about them, but these students show how unorthodox the ‘courses’ might have to be. They also show how vital it is to consider the long view. Two years of homeschooling can provide the breathing space, the individual attention and bespoke course provision required to turn round a pupil’s mindset, which otherwise might lead to a lie of seriously debilitating underperformance or severe depression.

This year I have tutored two A Level geography candidates, Garry, a pupil at School A and Jack, a home-schooled A Level candidate, also studying history and business studies. I also tutored Mary, a pupil at School C, for history GCSE as an extra-mural subject because she could not fit the subject into her school’s option choices. I had taught her at her prep school and knew she was bright. Even so, when she told me: “There’s not much point in my taking this unless I get Level 9”, I had to conclude there must be no pressure!

The cancellation of all exams on 21st March made this year’s exam preparatory work extremely vexing.

At school level my tutees have all had different experiences. School A told Garry and his cohort to keep working at assessments, practice questions and teacher-set essays. Students were told

that this work might enhance their grades but would not diminish them.

Apparently the students did work hard at these tasks, but I wonder if the school used the new data in any way to devise their Centre Assessed Grades (CAGs), something they were clearly told not to! One of my relatives teaches at School B where much the same approach was adopted. School C did operate to Ofqual’s rules which was very annoying for Mary, whose mocks we had scheduled for midApril. Unorthodox? Perhaps, but this timing was ideal for the way Mary works, including her wish to tune up her art portfolio as late as possible.

She was very disappointed that she could not take her history mocks.

However, I was relieved that School C would, subject to their moderation of my dossier of Mary’s work, enter my estimated grade as their CAG for her.

Jack’s exam centre, School D is a crammer. Here things were completely different. In late March School D declared they could not enter a homeschooled student. However, we (all three of Jack’s tutors) could show the rigour of our teaching, on-going assessment and lesson planning. Two of us had been exam markers and moderators, which possibly helped. So, School D agreed they would enter Jack with estimated grades, provided they could invigilate (via Zoom) a series of papers during late April and early May. This occurred and we tutors marked Jack’s work and School D moderated the marks. I used a set of papers that Jack had not been shown by me, but he could have seen them online. This sums up the impossibility of using mocks as a standardising tool, for such exams are set, sat, marked and moderated in as many ways as there are teachers setting them. For his UCAS application, I had already predicted Jack would gain an A and persisted with this in my submission to School D’s CAG process.

I conclude that this strangest of years has confirmed three main points.

One, tutoring can add dimensions of reinforcement and confidence to students still attending school. Two, home-schooled students require as much support as possible. Three, keeping a meticulous record of lessons, homework assignments, practice questions and mock exams not only benefits the pupil but can transform a teacher assessment into a completely valid CAG. Let’s hope that none of us, especially students, ever have to rely on those again!

Alec Synge has been a head of department of religious studies in four prep schools, as well as a GCSE examiner and moderator of coursework. He was until last year General Secretary SATIPS and, in the increasingly distant past, he spent a total of 15 years as head of two different prep schools, Birchfield and Hazelwood.

All names have been changed to protect the privacy of the students.

On results day Jack was given C but was later upgraded to A. Garry was given A but then upgraded to A* and Mary gained her Level 9.

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Education For All – Morocco Sonia Omar, Education For All’s Fundraising Manager, shares her insight into a small charity with a long history and a big impact I have worked for EFA since 2013 and knew about its work through my friendship with British entrepreneur Mike McHugo who had spent many decades in Morocco and was passionate about giving back to the communities in the High Atlas Mountains. One of his projects was building the nowfamous Kasbah Du Toubkal, an ethical, award-winning mountain retreat which he and a local chief brought back to

life since it was abandoned by the local caid in the 1950s!

His next project was girls’ education.

After seeing that many girls were out of school in the mountain villages surrounding the Kasbah, he asked why this was and the response came back that the villages were too far away from the secondary schools with no public transport to take

them there. Illiteracy rates for women and girls in this area are as high as 70%, and with two daughters of his own, Mike realised a solution was needed. Together with some friends in Morocco, he raised funds to build the first girls’ boarding house in a town called Asni. And there began a vision which has grown into EFA’s flagship project in Morocco with a level of success nobody could have predicted.

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The beginning It wasn’t always easy, however. In the very beginning, EFA had to rely on local contacts to visit the remote villages over many days and speak to the families about the EFA boarding house. The families were cautious at first to send their daughters away, unsure if education was even necessary for them. Marrying young and having lots of children was a common destiny for women in this region. After many hours of discussion and countless cups of mint tea, ten girls eventually received the approval of their families and started with EFA in 2007.

By 2013 we had four houses and 150 girls! We had our first girls take their Baccalaureate (A Level equivalent) and six passed! Our Patron at the time, Clive Alderton, UK Ambassador to Morocco, marked this special day by inviting the girls and their families to his private residence in Rabat, with their families. It was a proud day and 6 girls went onto University- the first in their villages to do so!

‘Now, I have become more conscious that education plays a significant role in my future as a successful person in life, moulds me into a useful citizen in society, puts me on the path of self-discovery, leads me to self-belief, adds meaning to my life, and provides me with the means to achieve lasting success. All of that was thanks to EFA.’ - Zahra, a former student at a university in Marrakech Growing As news spread through the valleys about EFA, the selection day queues got longer and longer. EFA was oversubscribed. We raised money to build another house in Asni in 2016.

This house was big and could take 50 girls! We equipped it with bunk beds, desks, books and computers.

The exam rates got better each year. It became obvious that EFA wasn’t only giving these girls access to school, it was providing a unique learning environment where they could realise their potential and thrive! The dedicated house mothers assigned to each house were a vital ingredient for EFA’s success, and the first-ever house

mother at EFA continues to work for us as the head house mother for all the six houses. The house mothers provide 24/7 support and encourage the girls to study, to dream and to never give up.

‘I cannot forget her generosity and kindness, her endless guidance and support. She will always remain an unforgettable part of my life.’ - Aminah speaks about her house mother EFA was putting rural girls’ education under the spotlight in Morocco, and everyone from the local communities to the minister of education began taking an interest. We also had a French NGO which decided to build a girls’ boarding house nearby and seek our support. In just ten years, EFA had brought about a huge change in attitudes and access to education for girls in an otherwise forgotten corner of Morocco and the world.

A stellar year Every year we expanded and every year we were more and more proud of the EFA girls. Not just for their

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The mental health and wellbeing curriculum for schools Cut down on teacher workload whilst providing children with the tools to live life well The iSpace Wellbeing and #iWonder curriculums provide a ready to implement, whole school approach to mental health and wellbeing covering KS1, KS2 and KS3. We offer a proactive, progressive and preventative approach to mental health and wellbeing, ensuring schools, children and their families learn to live life well.

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brilliant academic record, but their spirit and courage. In 2018 we learned that the first EFA girl had been accepted to do her Master’s degree with another following the next year.

However, 2019 was an extra special year. We built a new, even bigger house in the far-away town of Talat N Yacoub, had a visit from HRH The Duke and Duchess of Sussex and had a 100% pass rate for the BAC, sending 22 girls to university, with three on full scholarships! We also had a beautiful short film made about us. To top it off, Mike McHugo was awarded an MBE for his work to advance girls education in Morocco, which he accepted on behalf of EFA from the Duke of Sussex on the rooftop of the first-ever EFA boarding house!

Reflecting on the last 13 years since EFA began, it is clear that what we offer is unique. The girls’ determination, when given the opportunity (and right) of a full education, enables them to thrive unimaginably, no matter how remote their village or poor their community is. They have a voice and can contribute to their communities and their country. An educated girl educates the next generation, and these girls are leading the way and role modelling this necessary change.

We are also grateful for the amazing team at EFA, of local staff, trustees who dedicate so much of their time to this project, and to our volunteers from abroad who come and share useful skills with us. EFA is also fortunate to have grown such an amazing foundation of support – often referenced by us as the ‘EFA family’ – from travel writers to NASA scientists, architects, hoteliers, volunteers, teachers and students. All have helped to raise awareness of the importance of EFA’s work, many with generous donations without which our work would not have been possible.

Impact of Covid-19 The year 2020 threw us a curveball.

Schools closed in mid-March and the EFA’s boarding houses closed too. The digital divide became obvious, as the

EFA girls returned to their villages with little or no internet connection to stay in touch with us or access the online lessons being offered during the lockdown. We responded with an emergency fundraising campaign to buy tablets and sim cards for the girls about to sit their final year exams. It was a mission to organise this all during the strict lockdown, but we managed, and the house mothers made the emotional journey deep into the villages to deliver the tablets and connect the girls just in time for exams. 18 girls passed their BAC and 7 did not. This is the lowest result EFA has seen in 10 years, but we are proud of the girls given the circumstances and have projects to expand our digital capabilities so the girls can continue learning in this new online educational landscape.

get to know these girls, the amazing house mothers and to see before my eyes the impact the project is having on them all and for the future generations. It only costs £800 to educate a girl for an entire year, giving her a cosy bed, hot showers, access to computers, books and endless support and encouragement to realise their dreams. Educating girls is the key to our collective future, as it ensures stronger economies, healthier families and more flourishing in society. It doesn’t take a lot to make a huge impact, just a vision, a solution and a few people who care enough to make that vision a reality.

To read more about EFA visit: https://efamorocco.org For all our key resources, visit: https://linktr.ee/efa_morocco

Needless to say, as EFA’s Fundraising Manager, I feel lucky every day to

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An environmentallyfriendly future Tim James, Co-Founder of Schoolblazer, discusses the green revolution in the clothing industry and what his company has been doing The news has been dominated by Covid-19 over the last six months, and rightly so, but in that time, we seem to have lost focus on another important issue: the environment. We have all seen the images of beaches and beauty spots covered in litter, where social distancing and a simple need to get outside seems to have pushed environmental concerns to one side. In addition, the increase of plastic bags to avoid contamination in home food deliveries is just one example of where we’ve needed to focus on different priorities to get through this difficult time safely.

It’s concerning that the focus on the environment seems to have become a bit lost.

But here there is some good news: School uniform suppliers and retailers are at the forefront of the green revolution in the clothing industry and are leading the fight to deliver more sustainable and ethical products.

Durability = sustainability Schoolwear is already amongst the most least environmentally damaging clothing sectors, simply by dint of the number of times the garments are worn. According to research by the Barnardos, the average garment in the UK is worn just seven times.

The average school uniform garment, in contrast, is worn over 300 times.

To produce a single cotton T-shirt or blouse uses 3000 litres of water and creates 11kg of CO2. The message is

clear – sustainability begins with a simple premise: Buy fewer garments and wear them out. By adopting a smart and consistent school uniform, and encouraging recirculation of barely worn garments school uniforms in the UK are estimated to save the global economy some 13 million tonnes of CO2 However, in recent years the leading schoolwear manufacturers and retailers have been at the forefront of developing programmes to reduce their environmental impact still further: Recycled polyester Many retailers are now using recycled polyester in sportswear and even blazers. Harvested from used plastic bottles the polyester is respun and either blended with new fibre or used as a pure yarn. Every kilogram of recycled polyester uses up to five recycled bottles, which would otherwise find their way into landfill, or even worse into the world’s oceans.

In addition, reusing polyester this way substantially reduces the carbon footprint of the finished garment, avoiding the need to create new polyester, which requires over 5kg of CO2 per tonne of yarn produced.

Sustainable cotton Cotton is a very thirsty crop, requiring immense amounts of water for irrigation. But it tends to be grown in arid areas where water is a precious resource. 50 years ago, the Aral Sea in the centre of the cotton-

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PREP SCHOOL Reflecting the best in the prep & junior school world

producing regions of Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan was the world’s fourth-largest inland sea. Since then its water level has dropped 16 metres and it has lost over 50% of its water as this has been diverted to produce cotton. Arguably, organic cotton is not the solution. This focuses on pesticide and fertiliser use, and whilst these are problems, the major issue is water loss. The Better Cotton Initiative educates farmers in water and land husbandry and drives best practice across the industry. Leading and forward-thinking schoolwear retailers such as Schoolblazer are now members of the Better Cotton Initiative and are actively working with suppliers across the schoolwear industry to ensure that the cotton sourced is sustainable.

Reducing packaging There is a significant push across the industry to reduce plastic packaging.

Whilst this is often vital to protect garments (and their embedded carbon content which would be lost if damage occurred) there is a renewed focus on ensuring any packaging used is minimised and recycled. Stevensons have now moved their carrier bags to a biodegradable plastic and Schoolblazer have removed over 50% of their outer packaging and moved to 100% recycled shipping bags for their online orders.

Ethical trading The final piece in the puzzle is the treatment of garment workers. Since the industrial revolution, textile and garment production have been at the forefront in the drive to lift people out of poverty. This is as true in today’s global economy as it was when the UK was moving from agricultural subsistence to a modern industrial economy in the 19th century. Global growth has provided jobs and prosperity to billions over the last three decades, allowing women, in particular, to escape the suffocating drudgery of life on a subsistence farm and earn an independent existence.

However, it is all too easy to exploit these vulnerable individuals and the

global textile industry has a poor reputation. The schoolwear industry in the UK is determined to be on the right side of this debate: Recognising that the UK is no longer a realistic option for clothing manufacture and that developing countries need this work, but ensuring that the factories used, the working conditions provided and the pay and conditions are fair and equitable. Three of our leading suppliers: Trutex, Rowlinson and Schoolblazer are now full members of the Ethical Trading Initiative (ETI).

The ETI seeks to promote human rights at work and works globally to set standards and audit compliance.

Entry is challenging with detailed reviews of working practices in all factories, but membership also drives a programme of continuous improvement. We expect more of

the leading schoolwear companies to join over the next few years and membership eventually to form part of the requirement to be an accredited schoolwear association supplier.

In conclusion, whilst a school uniform may not, at first glance, look like the greenest thing on the planet, there is clear evidence that the fight for sustainability and a reduced environmental impact is helped by strong and consistent policy.

Schools can help by encouraging the recycling of garments through second-hand schemes and by ensuring that their suppliers are at the forefront of initiatives to reduce the environmental impact even further.

Meanwhile, the schoolwear industry will continue to put the drive towards ethical and environmental awareness at the top of the agenda.

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Positive lessons learned Rose Hardy, Headmistress at Habs Girls School, looks forwards to the transition of schools opening again If lockdown has taught us nothing else, it is that everyone can be inspired to learn new things, even under the most unpredictable and difficult of circumstances. Over the last few months, young children have been exposed to a myriad of opportunities, some of which have even bought families closer together. Although remote learning pushed many younger children outside of their comfort zones, regardless of the impact to day to day schooling, their newfound personal skills and renewed resilience will stand them in good stead for the challenging months ahead.

As teachers, we have been tested in our agility and our ability to come up with new ways of thinking and likewise young children have also been pushed to their limits in accessing their inner-determination and ability to think on their feet. As the start of a new and very different school year lies ahead, it is likely that many children will have benefited from the quality time they have spent with their families since the pandemic took hold and will use their natural curiosity, creativity and community spirit to move forward with positivity.

they head back into their classroom bubbles, children will notice a few differences but they will also have developed a real sense of strength and adaptability to accept things that have changed and to support each other as best they can.

As families we have also learned to balance family time with work and school, possibly because we’ve been forced to do so. We’ve accepted that it is near impossible to home school, work full-time and run a home simultaneously. Something has to give and creating that sense of balance is something we should try to take with us as we head back into the new academic year.

Creating balance Lockdown has also helped many children to become more tolerant, more flexible and adaptable to the changing world around them. They have learned that life is not static or predicable and that supporting those around them is important. As

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PREP SCHOOL Reflecting the best in the prep & junior school world

The next few months are not simply about academic progression despite the length of time children have been away from school, they are also about reuniting with friends, rebuilding confidence in those friendships again and also appreciating what the virtual classroom taught us and how we can transfer some of those positive skills into our everyday life in school.

Routine and structure There are always more lessons to be learned, but it is likely that the prolonged period of home-schooling and increased time spent with family will have a profound impact on how our children learn and adjust to change in the future. It perhaps

also reinforces the great value of stronger, collaborative relationships between schools and parents in terms of working together to support and facilitate children’s learning.

Young children in particular need familiarity, structure and routine.

Returning to school will give some semblance of normality again. Clear instructions and information at the start of every school day will be important as well as an environment that encourages them to ask questions about boundaries in school and why they are different. Verbal discussion and feedback both in school and at home will help children to transition back into the classroom.

Something many young children do understand about the homeschooling period is that they have been responsible for accessing their learning at home and also for showing determination in their achievements.

As children start the next chapter of their school journey, much of the focus in prep schools will be around the principles of hope, kindness and community spirit. One key message that has resonated is the idea of everyone being in this together, it is that sense ‘togetherness’ that we must take forward to avoid feelings of isolation and loneliness that can also stem form prolonged periods of separation.

Reassurance and positivity The truth is, all children are different both in character and personality, therefore a number will be feeling socially isolated at the moment and will have worries and anxiety about going back to school. Schools are acutely aware of this fact and they will be giving the right encouragement to each child to ensure they are getting the most from their learning and that they have the opportunity to safely

socialise with their friends when they are back in the classroom.

It is also really important that parents reinforce ‘the permanent’ in their child’s life. The pandemic is temporary and not forever and young children in particular need that positivity and reassurance as they take the next step into a new school year.

For schools, supporting families is more important than anything else, because if children feel supported and well, that will be reflected in their ability and capacity to learn. The key is to keep talking, for schools to open up more channels of communication with parents and to be there to offer guidance as and when needed. The partnership between school and home has never been more vital and if either party has concerns, they should feel able to reach out for help or advice at any point in the future.

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A new day, a new beginning Peter Kent, Headteacher of Lawrence Sheriff School, shares his words from his school newsletter Welcome back! I hope that you were able to have an enjoyable summer and to find an opportunity to recharge your batteries. A very warm welcome also to all new members of the Lawrence Sheriff community. I do hope that your children have a happy and successful time with us.

It has been wonderful to see the whole school coming back together over the past week. I have just recorded my first main assembly on the theme of ‘reunions’ and have emphasised how positive it has been to have everyone in Lawrence Sheriff School reunited at the start of this term. Whilst not always the greatest fan of reunions (one of my personal mottos is ‘never go back’) I think that the LSS experience of coming back together has been tremendously positive.

Several things strike me about the benefits of resuming face to face education. One of them is how much pupils have enjoyed spending time in one another’s company.

Whilst the virtual world has many strengths it is still no substitute for day to day human contact. I think that this contact has not only social benefits, it also acts as an aid to learning. You may have heard of the ‘watercooler effect’, the way in which informal conversations between colleagues in a business or educational setting can serve as a stimulus to thought, learning and creativity. Learning is aided by

There is also no getting away from the fact that face to face contact with teachers does make a difference.

being part of a group and very often the input of one person sparks fresh ideas from another. There is also no getting away from the fact that face to face contact with teachers does make a difference. I wrote last term about the way in which so called online ‘live lessons’ are a false proxy for real classroom interactions.

One person speaking to 30 or so pupils over Zoom is often a passive imparting of knowledge, whereas the interactions in a classroom are a complex mixture of sharing knowledge, encouraging discussion, offering feedback, promoting research and encouraging creativity (for this reason our use of Google Classroom was much closer to the complex and varied dynamic that makes up an actual lesson).

have not returned in order to ‘catch up’. All our evidence is that the pupils who engaged with our online learning programme are on track with their learning and have no one that they need to catch up with.

Instead our students have returned to enjoy themselves. To enjoy spending time with one another, but also to enjoy learning together and the opportunity to learn from and with their teachers.

For all of these reasons we have been emphasising that students

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Choices and consequences Ian Morris, Chaplain at Bishop’s Stortford College, presents a lesson on choices and consequences In Genesis God makes humans in his own image. Yet having created them with free will it is necessary for Him to not let them just get on and live how they want but instead warns them about their conduct and the choices they make. Whilst pointing out all the trees from which they can eat fruit, he warns them not to eat from the Tree of Knowledge, for the consequences of doing so are lethal.

Every choice we make has a consequence. It’s an inescapable rule of life and yet we live in a way that seeks to negate its truth. Adverts persuade us to choose products because of the pleasure they offer but all of them fail to point out the consequences of our choice. The cheap bargain we bag is often at the expense of those forced to work on a non-living wage. Our choices fuel the unfair free market where those who grow and sow the cheap food we eat and cheap clothes we wear, are kept in impoverished conditions. The consequences of our choices affect us and others. The countries that have suffered the most environmental damage because of climate change are not the countries that have caused the greatest amount of pollution.

Justice is about fairness. Justice establishes that everyone is equal before the eyes of the law and more importantly, equal before the love of God. But the Covid-19 crisis has

shredded the facade of society and highlighted the enormous inequalities that exist beneath its surface. In the 18th annual Nelson Mandela Lecture, the UN Secretary General said: ‘Covid-19 has been likened to an x-ray, revealing fractures in the fragile skeleton of the societies we have built.

It is exposing fallacies and falsehoods everywhere: the lie that free markets can deliver healthcare for all; the fiction that unpaid care work is not work; the delusion that we live in a post-racist world; the myth that we are all in the same boat because while we are all floating on the same sea, it’s clear that some are in superyachts while others are clinging to drifting debris. Inequality defines our time.’

So as we return to some sort of new normality we have to ask ourselves what is it that we want to go back to? Do we want to return to the way things have always been because we are the ones who have profited most from this broken, imbalanced, unjust system? Or do we use this moment to reassess our choices, reassess our way of working and more importantly reassess our way of educating the next generation so that we can create a better world for everyone? A world where justice for all is not an aspiration for those of a different colour, or gender, or from a disadvantaged background, but is a fundamental right for all.

Will we dare to teach our children that success is not measured by the amount of money earned, or the social standing achieved but by the human flourishing realised?

Jesus made a point of standing by and standing up for those who were treated unjustly and suffered inequality. Like those who took part in last year’s environmental protests, the #metoo movement and the Black Lives Matter campaign, so Jesus was not averse to making a point through protest. Filled with indignation, Jesus turned over the tables in the temple because the religious authorities had abused their power by setting up their money-making market at the expense of weak and the voiceless. Doing nothing changes nothing. It is for each of us to act to rectify the system so all can enjoy justice. Are there any tables that need overturning in your school?

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Game on: the first football codes Malcolm Tozer, former Chair of The Curriculum Committee for Physical Education and Headmaster of Pitsford and Wellow You must have read Tom Brown’s School Days! This first realistic novel of life at school was written by Thomas Hughes in 1857 but it recalled the author’s time at Rugby some 20 years earlier. Tom’s first experience of a football match provides a memorable chapter. As the 5pm finishing time approaches, the mass of the school has driven the ball over the goal line of the schoolhouse few, they expect to win a try at the goal by touching the ball down. But …

There stands the schoolhouse praepostor, safest of goalkeepers and Tom Brown by his side, who has learned his trade by this time. Now is your time, Tom. The blood of all the Browns are up and the two rush in together and throw themselves on the ball, under the very feet of the advancing column; the praepostor on his hands and knees arching his back, and Tom all along on his face. Over them topple the leaders of the rush, shooting over the back of the praepostor, but falling flat on Tom, and knocking all the wind out of his small carcass. ‘Our ball’, says the praepostor, rising with his prize, ‘but get up there, there’s a little fellow under you’. They are hauled and rolled off him, and Tom is

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played the game had their own codes. The game had developed as headmasters restricted the boys’ leisure time activities to the school site to curb their freedom, to cut down on visits to taverns and dens of ill repute, and to put an end to poaching and all lawlessness.

Boys at each school developed their own brand of the game, one that best suited their playing area.

discovered a motionless body. Tom’s heroics save the day and a ‘no side’ is called.

Rugby was not the only school with its own early code of football. Until the formation of the Football Association in 1863 and the rival Rugby Football Union in 1871 – and in some cases after these dates – all schools that

PREP SCHOOL Reflecting the best in the prep & junior school world

Charterhouse played its early football in a section of a covered passage that was paved with smooth flagstones that stretched from the Gownboys dormitories to their dining hall; it was some 70 yards long, 9 feet wide and 12 feet high.

The Gownboys, the scholars of the foundation, played against the fee-paying boarders. The object of the game was to drive a round ball through the goal, doors at each end of the passage. Whenever the ball got in behind a buttress there would be up to 60 bodies trying to extricate it. A skilful player would try to manoeuvre it between his legs and bide his time, waiting for an opportunity to work the ball out of the melee and then run it down towards the opponents’ goal.

One youngster, just like Tom, would race from the defending door to slow

The scrum of the modern rugby game is but a pale imitation of the original and the defensive wall in soccer a flimsy substitute.

down the attacker dribbling towards him, generally to be sent spinning head over heels. If the ball was forced through the door, the sides changed ends and the game restarted.

Harrow played on turf growing on London clay, a material which in summer months was cracked by the heat but in the winter became a slippery marsh; 12 inches of mud were said to be commonplace. The number of players on each side varied considerably until 1858 when 11-a-side became the norm. As nailed or studded boots were expressly forbidden, one can imagine a largely static scene with players thrashing around in the mud, the large round ball buried in their midst. The purpose of the game was to kick the ball through the opponents’ base, a space between two vertical poles at each end of the ground but unlimited in height. It was essentially a dribbling game rather than a passing game, the ball being propelled through the mud by the centres, punctuated by occasional dashes up the drier fringes of the pitch by the wings. The offside rule required a player to be behind the ball to join in. If the ball was kicked into the air it could be caught by an on-side player from either side. After catching it and a shout of ‘Yards’, the catcher could carry the ball for three running paces and then have a freekick at the goal.

Christ’s Hospital, also in central London, played its football on an asphalt playground that was bounded on all sides by buildings or fences.

Its length was about 70 yards and its width between about 20 yards at the west end and about 40 yards at the east. Up to 16 games could take place simultaneously, all sharing the same space and goals, as other boys wandered across the playground. Each game was played by boys in the same boarding house or ward. The boys usually wore their everyday school uniform, including the long blue coats which were gathered behind them in a bundle and tucked into their girdles, but shod in plimsolls or rubber-soled shoes. The game was played with a round ball in the early years but oval later, and a goal was scored by kicking it through an archway at the east end or against the door to the gymnasium at the west end. A scoring kick could also be a punt from hands. Boys could dribble the ball, or carry and run with it: the latter required ‘collaring’ to stop them. The rule was ‘collaring high’ in view of the obvious danger of ‘collaring low’ on asphalt.

the terms used at Radley, Uppingham and Charterhouse respectively to describe that distinctive feature of every early public school football game – the melee. The massed boys of one team, perhaps half the school, pushed hard to drive the ball through their opponents’ goal while the defenders, the other half, did their utmost to thwart the offensive effort. The scrum of the modern rugby game is but a pale imitation of the original and the defensive wall in soccer a flimsy substitute. The book tells the story of these early football codes before the nationalisation of the game by the Football Association and the Rugby Football Union. Game on!

Malcolm’s recent book, “Edward Thring’s Theory, Practice and Legacy -Physical Education in Britain since 1800” has been shortlisted for the Lord Aberdare Literary Prize, 2020 by the British Society of Sports’ History (BSSH)

These five early football codes – and 15 more – are the subject of Puddings, Bullies and Squashes: Early Public School Football Codes that will be published in hardback and paperback editions in the autumn by Sunnyrest Books.

Puddings, bullies and squashes were

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ISEB’s new project qualification: intellectual candy?

Durell Barnes, ISEB Chair, reflects on a tumultuous year and the trialling of a new ISEB project qualification For teachers and pupils alike in our schools, this has been a year of missed rites of passage. Prom balls have been virtual if they have occurred at all, Speech Days have taken place

by Zoom, results days have been socially distanced. ISEB has sent out thousands of certificates for those who sat CE exams knowing that many will have been posted rather than presented in person by proud heads to pupils leaving prep schools and embarking on their new lives at senior school.

Kate Allen, Chief Executive of ISEB, and I had been looking forward to a new right of passage, a new tradition if you like, as we had anticipated attending the occasions when certificates were first awarded to

Define

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those pupils at pilot schools which had been trialling ISEB’s new project qualification (ISEB PQ). Designed to develop skills of research and reflection, this was an idea mooted after some consultation at the conference about Key Stage 3 at Highfield School last summer. It received a very positive response and thanks to the work of Dr John Taylor (Director of Teaching, Learning and Innovation at Cranleigh School), the ISEB team and some stalwart volunteers, draft documentation was created during the autumn term and pilot schools were signed up to test it out in the spring and summer.

out research (from written or visual sources, artefacts, the internet, collecting data, canvassing opinion), review the question, discuss and develop their answer and make a presentation in the form of performance, power point, an artefact or an essay. Finally, each pupil will reflect on the process and what she/ he has learned about the subject and about her/himself. Pupils are supervised by a teacher acting as a mentor and their output is moderated by a teacher trained by ISEB. The key aspect is that each stage of the ISEB PQ is important, and pupils are not simply marked on the final product.

The aim of the ISEB PQ is to allow pupils to choose their own area of interest, define a question, carry

We deliberately encouraged schools to determine how the ISEB PQ could be undertaken to meet their own needs.

Research & Review

Discuss & Develop

PREP SCHOOL Reflecting the best in the prep & junior school world

Present

Reflect

Feedback from teachers shows that, as we had intended, this project work promoted the highly valued skills of collaboration, curiosity, creativity and critical thinking.

Some were keen to use it to develop academic subjects, others favoured using it to give a different focus to study in art and design, music, drama or sport. Some planned to use it as an activity to be undertaken for all pupils after examinations in the second half of the summer term, or for some pupils as an enrichment activity through the year. Whatever the approach, teachers were provided with a full specification, checklists and marking criteria as well as guidance notes and training support.

Inevitably, Covid-19 had an impact on the pilots, as not all schools were able to complete their projects.

However, remote learning also gave a new insight into how the ISEB PQ could constructively feature in online education, encouraging independence in pupils and developing new ways of communication between teachers and pupils. Feedback from teachers shows that, as we had intended, this project work promoted the highly valued skills of collaboration, curiosity, creativity and critical thinking.

Although in future years we hope to see a wider range of presentation styles, it was a pleasure to share in

some of the presentations given, for example, by twelve assiduous pupils at South Lee School. These included three notable efforts which give some insight into how varied the pupils’ initial questions may be: ‘What makes the icelandic horse unique and why?’ (it has to do with their five gaits); ‘Is it right to test cosmetics on animals?’ (did you know arsenic is not harmful to sheep?); ‘If Malala Yousafzai had given up protesting after she was shot, what would have happened to girls’ education?’ (this incorporated a motion animation including 1175 individual shots).

It was very exciting to see what these pupils had gained from the experience. Clearly, they enjoyed their autonomy (‘I loved how much freedom we were given for this project.’) and the chance to be the ‘expert’ in their chosen fields. What also came across strongly was the encouragement given by the mentor/supervisors and how this empowered their pupils. It was exciting to hear that, as well as seeing pupils grow in confidence and independence, this way of working also encouraged a shift of attitudes in their schools. Loren Macallister,

Deputy Head of Shrewsbury House School, spoke of the excitement of the mentor role, the impact of choice giving pupils a sense of complete agency as well as guided discovery and quoted Proust: ‘the real voyage of discovery lies not in seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes.’

We hope that more schools will be inspired to look into how they might be able to use the ISEB PQ in their own curriculum as part of the foundation for lifelong learning and helping pupils to understand their own place in the world, two of the key aims for the reformed CE – and this will be of great interest to pupils and parents.

We are launching the ISEB PQ in September and will let prep schools know what is available and how we can assist them in introducing this innovation. One deputy head said, ‘ISEB PQ is intellectual candy. It is way too powerful not to do. Find a way.’ We hope that you will.

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STRENGTH

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EVALUATION

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Virtual art exhibition Diana Evans, Head of Art at Edge Grove Prep School, Hertfordshire, shares an exhibition showcasing creative talent at her school If the recent period of remote learning has taught us anything, it’s that there are a multitude of ways to inspire creativity and connect with parents and children regardless of location. Our art exhibition is a much-anticipated end of term annual event. Of course, this year, staging a physical event wasn’t feasible, but as the adage says, the show must indeed go on. Thanks to technology and determination from staff and pupils, this year’s virtual exhibition was enjoyed from the safety of people’s homes.

The objective of the exhibition is always centred on celebrating the children’s incredible achievements and artistic skill. The ‘Virtual Art Exhibition’ was a whole school event and displayed works of art from many talented pupils, across all year groups.

The exhibition featured works of art from Year 1, who studied London for their topic work and produced some mixed media pieces of Big Ben, while Year 2 created collages by layering paper and embellishing their skies in a variety of London themes. Year 1 also created artworks inspired by Bridget Beth Collins using natural materials, while Year 2 studied the art of Rangoli and developed artistic and mathematical skills focused around symmetry and repeated patterns as well as studying colour theory and producing artworks inspired by the artist Mondrian. There were some high-quality pieces this year and we are extremely proud of every pupil’s contribution.

Year 3 also collaged some cave paintings as part of their topic on the Stone Age and experimented with tone

and 3D techniques as well as making hand puppets in textiles. Year 4 created 3D hot air balloons as part of their studies from around the world as well as creating hand-stitched cushions, developing their applique skills.

The exhibition also featured some beautiful icy acrylic paintings of the arctic from Year 5 who also created some vibrant masks inspired by cultures from around the world before designing and creating silk fabric

using the textile technique of Batik.

Year 6 created artworks inspired by Georgia O’Keeffe in acrylic paint and also created their own slippers from Merino wool fleece. While Year 7 and 8 experimented with the art style of weaving and also looked at cultural art in Mexico by designing their own ‘Day of the Dead’ skulls. The school’s scholarship art children also developed their blending skills using soft chalks and paint.

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Keeping mentally healthy Writer, presenter and activist Natasha Devon MBE advises on checking in with your kids and their mental health During lockdown, I conducted digital mentoring sessions with teenagers worried about their mental health.

Their concerns generally fit into the following three categories: 1. Missing their friends This might not sound like a big deal, but during adolescence, the brain is programmed to place greater emphasis on peer relationships as we establish independence from our parents and get ready for adulthood.

Furthermore, according to therapist Noel McDermott, ‘resilience’ can be defined as ‘the number of meaningful connections with others we have in our lives’.

2. Increased anxiety Reasons for this included: exams being cancelled; worrying about not being able to catch up in time for their exams next year; concerns about an uncertain future, and worries about the health of their families.

3. Motivation In the words of one sixth former I spoke to ‘no one taught us how to learn on our own from our bedrooms’. Even adults are finding the art of working from home hard to master and whilst some schools have been great at delivering lessons remotely, the environment is not as conducive to learning as a classroom.

In April, my book Yes You Can – Ace Your Exams Without Losing Your Mind

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was published by Macmillan. When I wrote it in early 2019 I didn’t know Covid-19 was on the horizon, but in many ways it represented an ideal lockdown read because I wrote it with people on study leave in mind. There are tips for motivating yourself to study outside of school, getting along with your parents and siblings in an enclosed space and looking after your mental health at home.

For many young people who have never had direct experience of mental health issues, the pandemic is the first time they’ve ever given their psychological wellbeing any thought.

They would have been unlikely to register the extent to which extracurricular activities such as sports clubs, music and drama were keeping their wellbeing high until they were no longer able to access them.

Yet evidence shows endorphins, which are released during physical activity, relaxation, laughter or when we do something creative, counteract the effect of stress and anxiety by restoring our chemical balance.

It is essential young people try to incorporate these activities into their home routine. Ideally, they should aim for half an hour a day – This is a universally-important habit which supports mental fitness, much like brushing our teeth every day reduces the chance of developing gum disease.

However, the 30 minutes don’t need to be done all at once. It can be broken up into 10 or 20-minute

PREP SCHOOL Reflecting the best in the prep & junior school world

combinations and incorporated into study breaks (which are necessary to keep concentration and information retention high). I’ve made an extensive list of 10, 20 and 30-minute activities in my book, but here are some of my favourites.

Singing Singing lowers the levels of stress hormone cortisol in our system.

Furthermore, when we sing in groups, the right temporal lobe of our brain lights up, causing endorphin production. Time to dust off the karaoke machine.

Freewriting Pick a topic and write whatever comes to mind for ten minutes. It’s usually gibberish, but it’s fun and accesses the unconscious brain, where all the freaky stuff lives.

Maths When we think ‘creativity’ it’s the arts that spring to mind but solving a maths problem is a very creative endeavour, if that’s what floats your boat. The same goes for puzzles, crosswords and sudoku.

Dancing Creating a dance routine is a tweenage right of passage and, thanks to TikTok, we can now share the fruits of our labours.

In addition to ringfencing time for ‘stress bucket emptying’ activities like those mentioned above, now is the time to ensure young people know they can talk about how they’re

If you or the young people in your care are struggling, make sure you seek advice from a reputable source of support. Don’t Google it, whatever you do (there are three billion people on the internet and not all of them have your best interests at heart). If you go to www.natashadevon.com/ advice-support I have compiled a list of organisations who can help.

In particular, I’d recommend Young Minds (they have a parent helpline) and The Mix, who publish content for young people by young people in collaboration with experts.

feeling if they need to. It’s worth laying the groundwork for this before symptoms or issues arise. You can do this by getting into a daily ritual of getting them to rate their mood from 1-7 and asking questions such as ‘why is it higher/lower than yesterday?’ and ‘what would need to happen to make it higher tomorrow?’

If young people are reluctant to talk about how they feel, I find discussing in the third person using characters from books, Netflix series or films to be really effective. If you’re looking for some reading material inspiration, Sara Barnard, Juno Dawson and Holly Bourne all write excellent young adult novels themed around mental health.

Natasha tours schools and colleges throughout the UK and beyond, delivering talks as well as conducting research on mental health, body image, gender & equality. She is a trustee for the charity Student Minds, a patron for No Panic, which helps people experiencing anxiety, and a member of the Men & Boys Coalition, specifically advising on reducing male suicide rates, as well as a certified instructor for Mental Health First Aid England and eating disorder charity Beat. She is a fellow of University of Wales and advises them, as well as Coventry University, on campus wellbeing.

She has two books: A Beginner’s Guide to Being Mental: An A-Z and Yes You Can: Ace Your Exams Without Losing Your Mind. Her podcast ‘Staying Sane’ is available on Spotify, Acast and iTunes.

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Online Resources A webinar introducing you to many different sites which you can use to create resources for your Library or classroom.

For anyone in Prep Schools who is interested in digital media Academic Deputies, Directors of Studies, Teachers, and Librarians

THURS OCT 8TH • 2PM TO 4 PM MON OCT 12TH • 2PM TO 4 PM

Book review Sophia Ivanova has just finished her A Levels at Rugby School and having also experienced GCSEs as well as other internal and public examinations, she is well placed to review Natasha Devon’s new book. Thank you, Sophia. that many students struggle with. Traditionally confidence is seen as an innate quality some people possess, however, what Natasha explains is that it is something that comes with a lot of practice which feels both reassuring and inspiring. I also liked that towards the end she focused on what happens after exams and she shares advice on how to figure out what to do in the future. By having this section she keeps the student looking ahead instead of seeing the exams as an endpoint.

I thought that overall the book was very well done, the tone she established was very colloquial and non-patronising to an anxious teenager sitting their exams. The book is especially useful for students who need to improve their time management as she had helpful tips about working hard but not to an impossible extent. The quote that stuck with me was to plan your revision around your life instead of planning your life around revision because she highlights the importance of keeping mentally and physically healthy as well.

Another interesting part was when she wrote on procrastination as it’s really valuable to see the reasons why we do it as so many of us struggle with it. To see an explanation is helpful to understand and work towards stopping certain behaviours.

The term “mental fitness” was especially well phrased as it is practical for everyone rather than just the individuals who are suffering with more severe mental illnesses. I also think she gave good, practical ideas on how to keep the stress hormone down as one of the biggest problems amongst students is this ‘adrenalinefilled stress’ which she describes. The quizzes were a good way to see what

type of person you are. This feels like a good starting point and quite useful as a lot of students do not know how to maximise their working hours.

I liked her idea of creating problem sheets about things we can and can’t change. Personally, this was my favourite piece of advice from her as when worried about exams you tend to get loads of other extra worries that fill your mind, and so, this way of organising the things you are worried about provides a lot of clarity.

I do think that the revision plan could work for some people but everyone works differently so the advice regarding revising in one hour slots and half an hour breaks might not suit all students. Some readers may be initially put off by the cover of the book, the design of which rather belies a book that is rich in useful information.

Overall I think that the book is well written and I have personally taken a lot away from it as the information was condensed and extremely relevant to student life.

I also really liked her section on confidence as this is again something

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Building a community is crucial Susan Burton, CEO and Founder of Classlist, discusses why it’s important to build a community within schools The coronavirus pandemic has turned our world upside down and the closure of schools has had a huge impact on communities across the UK. Children miss the daily social contact with their friends, and parents – juggling work and homeschooling – have lost the interaction and support found daily at the school gates. Feelings of isolation have soared as families have been stuck in their homes with little to look forward to as school and community events are cancelled. New joiners to the school can feel excluded from the existing school community, with reduced opportunities for playdates and welcoming coffee mornings.

Staff are also experiencing high levels of anxiety, with the evolving government advice often at odds with the view of some parents. The logistics of managing safe school re-opening is a huge burden on senior leadership, as is managing sources of information used by parents…

Social media has become increasingly difficult to manage. A well meaning post shared in a school WhatsApp group can lead to a flurry of enquiries at school from concerned parents seeking reassurance, increasing the

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stress and workload of the teaching team. Without any school input, news and rumours can easily spread and escalate. Social media platforms historically provided an outlet for a school to build its brand, however less than half of school marketing professionals believe social media provides any level of return on their investment, not helped by social media algorithms that favour paid sponsors.

Increasing brand awareness has never been more vital for our school communities. Marketing the school to new pupils by having existing parents advocate positively for the school is a key component of this brand building.

Schools can learn from how the world’s top companies harness their community to build their reputation, encouraging more parent referrals and retaining existing pupils. Leading schools are now investing time in offering their school community a secure online space that they both own and control. Community management is the single most costeffective marketing tool for schools; it helps to build the reputation of the school, encourage parent interaction and loyalty, pupil retention and

PREP SCHOOL Reflecting the best in the prep & junior school world

ensure that new parents find it easy to make connections and meet people.

Parents are juggling a huge amount of digital noise. The questions raised by your school on your community forums are an indication of how well the school is cutting through this noise and communicating key messages. Some schools are resistant to allowing community-wide conversations, out of fear it would give rise to negative comments. In our experience, this doesn’t happen.

Comments are constructive and gated within your school’s own space.

Parents answering each other’s questions (often out of hours and in a timely manner) builds a sense of belonging, but also saves considerable administration time for the staff.

Parents are also more likely to admit to their peers when they are struggling with homeschooling tasks, school commitments or that they have lost the uniform list, free from the perceived judgement of looking disorganised in front of the staff!

Word of mouth remains the most effective way to recruit new pupils.

Interestingly, parents are 84% more likely to trust a referral or recommendation if it comes from a

A well-meaning post shared in a school WhatsApp group can lead to a flurry of enquiries at school from concerned parents seeking reassurance, increasing the stress and workload of the teaching team.

friend and some headteachers tell us that 80% of their new pupils are referred by existing parents at the school. In the corporate world, companies raise awareness and build communities through their brand ambassadors, and schools already have a ready-made solution – their parent associations. These devoted parents give their time and energy to the school, raising funds, hosting social events and bringing the community together. During Covid-19 extra time has been taken up with homeschooling and work commitments, while family childcare reduced, some parent volunteers have been struggling to find the time to help support their school community during Covid-19.

Giving a PTA access to community management resources such as those offered by Classlist can be a huge incentive; it is much easier to garner help and support from other parents.

Global companies such as Nike and Fitbit are doing this themselves to recruit and retain more customers; an enthusiastic PTA and some inexpensive community management training could see similar benefits echoed in your school. By offering

parents a chance to be involved in community initiatives, families emotionally invest in the school and appreciate the community more.

Trusted parent moderators and the PTA can pass on themes emerging from parents to school whilst ensuring the community platform remains positive and welcoming.

The Commitment Curve Framework is a recognised community management tool, based on the idea that asking members – in our case, parents – to make incrementally harder ‘asks’, leading to incrementally more commitment. Any given “ask” on that commitment curve is only fractionally harder than the previous one, so it never seems like a huge jump or an arduous request. Using platform and community management resources from Classlist, school communities ramp large numbers of parents up the commitment curve, increasing pupil retention and parent satisfaction in the process.

lower than gaining first-time parents, and a welcoming community where families interact with each other builds loyalty and increases retention.

Many parents who meet at their children’s school become life-long friends, giving lasting positive memories of their children school years. A strong, loyal and thriving school community – now that truly is a good return on investment!

Keeping current parents happy is as vital as attracting new families, and parents continually evaluate if younger siblings will attend the same school. The acquisition cost of converting siblings is considerably

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Talking to our children Jonathan Perry, Headmaster at Lambrook School

We haven’t had a situation quite like it in living memory; the smallest of organisms having one of the largest impacts on so many areas of society, and indeed, the world. We are probably feeling anxious about the future ourselves and with so much uncertainty about what life will look like in a few days, a few weeks and even a few months, it is hard to know what to say to our children as we try to make sense of this pandemic for them. At Lambrook, we are keen to be working together as staff and parents, ensuring that the message that we give our children is clear and informative, without making them fearful.

As parents and teachers, we need to be speaking with our children about Covid-19, letting them lead the conversation, allowing them to ask lots of questions. This will help to work out what children know already and what gaps that may need filling or myths that need to be dispelled.

It is so important to be truthful and honest with our children; we do need to shield our children from some areas, but it is important they trust us and continue to want to talk to us about such issues. Our children are a part of living history and will reflect on this period for many years to come.

We should be leading by example – if we are telling our children and pupils that panic-buying is ineffective then

we shouldn’t be doing it ourselves.

Children watch our actions extremely closely and will certainly pick up on any anxiety that we may be showing.

Children love responsibility and we can empower them in their everyday lives as we encourage them to take on household chores, to work hard with their remote learning and, of course, to wash their hands properly and have good hygiene – good hand washing practice will hopefully last a lifetime and will keep our society much healthier and bug resistant in the future!

We currently have many people who are going above and beyond in our country and the current situation gives us many opportunities to highlight some of these heroes; our scientists working hard to find a cure, our NHS workers taking on additional shifts and caring for those who are ill, and those working in supermarkets making sure that there is enough food available for us each day. We can encourage our children to think of ways that we can be thankful to these workers but also to be mindful of those who will be most affected by the virus, such as the elderly and the vulnerable. Showing kindness to others by baking or drawing a picture for a neighbour or speaking to relatives via Whatsapp while they are in isolation, can make such a difference. We can also be grateful for

the technology that we have available to us, enabling us to be able to support one another more easily.

It is very easy for Covid-19 to be the main thing that we are speaking about in these times, which can sometimes cause worry in our children as they pick up on conversations both at home and through television and online means. It is vital that we talk to our children about current events, but we shouldn’t let them dominate and take over our children enjoying being children. In these uncertain times, it is good for our children to have routine and normality, to play outside and to laugh with family.

We can remind our children that this time will pass and although it is an extremely sad time for those we know that are affected by the virus, there will be an end to this period.

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The future of governance Simon Davies, previously Vice-Master at Bedford School and Head of Eastbourne College from 2005-2016, has a wealth of experience as a governor in both preps, senior schools and the maintained sector During the 2015/16 academic year, the transplanted kidney I had received from my mother in 1998 began to fail. It was clear that after 11 years as head, the moment had come for me to step down. I was rising 52, and we were halfway through a £33 million project to rebuild the heart of the school: replacing umpteen buildings with a single construction; a footprint of nearly an acre, extended over three and four storeys. The project was completed on budget and on schedule but after my time.

individuals and groups in educationrelated fields. I mentor four HMC senior school heads. I appraise heads and members of the SLT in senior and prep schools. Under the aegis of an educational charity, I mentor able young people from disadvantaged backgrounds through the UCAS process, and I work, independently, as a tutor teaching biology, preparing students for Oxbridge tests and interviews, and guiding those who aspire to read medicine, dentistry or veterinary studies.

In 1998, the year of my first transplant, I was in my fourth year of teaching and a head of department in an academic boys’ school. When the transplant operation took place in late February, my wife and I had two children under four, with a third due six weeks later. That September, we moved into a boarding house, where we spent four fulfilling years.

Between then and 2015, there had been other health challenges – this time there was not going to be a way back to full-time work. I was immensely lucky to receive a second transplanted kidney in 2017, this time from my wife. Words fail to do justice to my gratitude.

All these lines are enjoyable and stimulating. The one that provokes the most thought about the need for change is my work with senior leaders in senior and prep schools: mentoring, appraising and, increasingly, serving as a disinterested expert educationalist who can help defuse issues and resolve disputes; support and challenge heads, senior management and governors; and provide independence on panels set up to deal with recruitment, disciplinary issues and complaints.

Experience has shown me that the presence of a disinterested expert enables an atmosphere quite different from a hearing with governors alone. It is an atmosphere that can foster openness, a willingness from both sides to listen and learn and acknowledge others’ views, a wish to find a way forward.

It’s strange when plotted paths are swept away in a landslide. How will a reframed future look? My way forward, now I am retired through ill health, has been to find ways of working with

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PREP SCHOOL Reflecting the best in the prep & junior school world

When I was a boy at Radley, back in the late ‘70s and early ‘80s, there was the Warden’s (Headmaster’s) English Grammar Paper. Every term, in what would now be called Years 9 and 10, we were tested and expected to pass and we were repeatedly retested until we did. The test ingrained in us when to use ‘its’ and when ‘it’s’; the difference between ‘insidious’ and ‘invidious’; how to spell ‘desiccate’ and ‘necessary’; when we were ‘flaunting’ and when we were ‘flouting’. It made me a pedant whose hair stands on end when I hear ‘disinterested’ used by someone who means ‘uninterested’. But for all this last distinction lodged itself in my brain, I was supremely uninterested in the difference back then.

In my 11 years as the head of an independent, co-educational, boarding and day senior school and as a governor of other schools then and since, I learned the value of the disinterested educational expert – the person who possesses true objectivity. They are objective because they derive no benefit from (have no interest in) any of the outcomes.

They are valuable because they are concerned only with the best possible correct outcome. The ‘educational’ is important: those who are charged with supporting and challenging school leaders may be expert in all manner of fields, but only rarely are they experts in education and schools.

To be effective and credible they need to be both.

Those who lead independent schools are arguably better prepared to do so than their predecessors ever were.

They need to be. This is a world in which regulation and expectation have never been more demanding.

Current preparation for school leadership and headship includes training by professional bodies (e.g.

ISPA and HMC) and the government’s NPQH (National Professional Qualification for Headship). There is support through a robust mentoring system. Appraisal, too, is more professional than it ever was.

The demands on governors have also ramped up over the past twenty years, but the development of their expertise, and their understanding of their roles and responsibilities, has markedly lagged behind the progress made in the preparation of school leaders.

These days every governing body will have a skills matrix and a diversity matrix. And so it should. Yet the answers from every chair of governors to these four questions would, I am sure, reveal more about how much governance needs to change.

1. How many of your governors have received formal training in being a governor, can explain the role and its responsibilities clearly, and can articulate the school’s objects?

2. How many of your governors understand the school, public benefit, education and their role to a degree that allows them to apply their external training, expertise and experience for the benefit of the school?

3. How many of your governors show evidence of really engaging with management, governors’ papers, staff, students and parents – listening, reading, watching, trying to understand?

4. How many of your governors are guilty of shooting from the hip at meetings, operating to their

own agenda, acting on hearsay, extrapolating at length from their own business model on what the school should do, or sitting in meetings pretty much to keep a seat warm?

In my experience of the many governors I have encountered, there have been very few who have been willing and able to invest the time, effort and humility to listen and listen and listen; to probe and listen; to challenge and listen. Such governors make the very best chairs. I can think of three in particular.

There have been specialist superstars who have intimate knowledge of their own expertise and worked hard to develop the same in their area of the school’s operation. They have worked with school leaders and external professionals to make things happen.

I can think of superstar governors in finance, property and buildings, education, staff and personnel, marketing, and law. What marked them out was not their expertise, so much as their understanding of how to apply it for the benefit of the school and to coach the school’s leaders through the process.

greater emphasis be put on compulsory, validated training for governors; on testing governors’ competence and commitment; and on equipping governors with the skills they need if they are to deploy their existing expertise in a way that is useful to the board and the school.

I urge heads and governors alike to engage disinterested experts to work with leadership teams and governors to improve decision-making, to contribute to training, and to bring conspicuous objectivity to panels that are dealing with tricky issues, where disinterest and skill will increase confidence in the process – most especially in those who feel vulnerable, apprehensive and suspicious of the impartiality of that process.

I can also see terraces filled with those who, through a lack of understanding of their responsibilities and or an overinflated opinion of what they have to offer, have provided more drag than momentum. These governors may cite a lack of time because they have misunderstood their responsibilities or the importance of taking those responsibilities seriously.

Many are convinced that they have something meaningful to offer but would be appalled if a similar time waster joined their board.

To be a good governor takes time, openness and humility, and an ability to listen and willingness to learn. I urge those who are interested in the role to read ‘The essential trustee: what you need to know, what you need to do’ on the Charity Commission’s website. To heads and governing bodies I urge that a much

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Stay alert Sadie Janes, Director of the Development team in Savills Birmingham and the Strategic Lead for Savills Education, discusses shaping your estate for an agile future As education providers you shape the lives of your pupils, not simply focusing on academic success, but a well-rounded, life-learning experience. Achieving a well-rounded understanding of your estate, which provides a backdrop to your core business and a key part of your identity, is also crucial. Your estate should be used as a springboard; the more robust your understanding of it, the more pressure it can withstand and the greater the strides you can make in continuously evolving and enhancing your core function.

Repurposing has become the new buzzword across the property sector, similar to when sustainability hit our surveying vocabulary about 20 years ago. We have long heard that shopping centres and high streets need to find a new purpose given the competition from online retail. Corporate businesses are suddenly faced with how their offices can repurpose, adapt and evolve, to support new flexible working practices. None of these challenges are new to 2020, they may have been accelerated by the Covid-19 pandemic, but how to tackle them is now being considered differently. For the education sector, your purpose remains as valid as ever and, therefore, the emphasis on your assets is inherently different from other sectors. For your estate, we think it is less about repurposing, indeed maintaining its principal identity and purpose is vital. Now is an opportunity to take stock and re-shape your estate and your

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understanding of it. This will ensure it continues to be inspiring, it is resilient and then, more relevant than ever, you can be agile in how it can respond to both challenges and opportunities.

There have been many articles that have focused on good estate management principles and all those still apply. This includes digitising your property records and centralising all estate data. Being diligent in the protection of the legal integrity of all your assets, through formal and appropriate third party agreements and other protective measures is also good practice. The benefits of these approaches are the same for all landowners: to ensure you know exactly what your estate is and how it performs, so you can react promptly to the consideration of alternative asset utilisation, rationalisation or enhancement.

Aside from more fundamental decisions around consolidations or even mergers, many schools discuss regularly whether to use their estate to maintain tradition or drive innovation; trying to achieve the optimum balance between the two can often present challenges, particularly where heritage assets are at the core. However, ensuring your estate continues to be inspiring for its pupils should be at the heart of these decisions. How an estate strategy feeds into your ongoing strategic vision, creating an inspiring learning environment, should be a priority.

We are generally forewarned about emerging political or sectoral

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challenges. That said, the recent challenges relating to the pandemic have been unprecedented. Resilience in your estate is now a key priority, but one where you do not need to expend significant capital to achieve it. Each estate has its own unique strengths and weaknesses, and a resilience plan can be tailored to it. By way of example, enhancing efficiencies, such as energy strategies and more sustainable energy practices, is where partnering opportunities can be considered. Breaking down perceptual boundaries, by recognising the importance and scope of your role in the surrounding community, but taking a carefully considered and informed approach to how this is implemented, should be encouraged.

How to be learning ‘fit’ for the new academic year and beyond is likely to be your number one focus in the short term, but consider how that can evolve in developing more flexible and innovative learning tools and environments long term.

The town planning system, one you may feel irrelevant if you have no immediate need for a new building or an identified surplus asset for disposal, is constantly evolving and how your estate sits within it (regardless of scale and geographies) should be continuously monitored. You should participate in emerging Local Plan representations for example and, by enhancing community interaction, you are also more likely to be engaged and alert to any potential neighbourhood related

proposals. Participating means you can preserve or create opportunities, and enhance your estate resilience; not participating potentially compounds threats and limits flexibility in shaping your estate’s future.

The course the current government is taking concerning planning is one that is striving to make the system more responsive and simpler. We are starting to see changes being implemented at an accelerated pace.

This includes the recent amendments to the Use Classes Order, which will impose greater restrictions on some, and less so on others. The imminent changes to Permitted Development Rights, will start to pave the way for greater flexibility to secure more housing. What that means for education estates is currently unclear and the exclusion of heritage assets will have ongoing restrictions.

More fundamental, the new zoning proposals issued in the very recent

Government White Paper aim to strip back the Local Plan system to three key zones: growth, protection and renewal. This is only at the consultation stage at present, but if it comes into effect, it would pose an interesting direction of travel for school estates and one you need to be proactive in deciding which direction this should take. Preserving scope for alternative use or enhanced uses on your estate is therefore fundamental to its future resilience.

Generally improving efficiencies or enhancing community credentials should always be encouraged as day-to-day best practice. However, being proactive now in shaping the roles your estate can play does not necessitate immediate implementation in all areas. A resilience strategy means you are more alert to the art of the possible, you can be agile and responsive in decision-making when it is required; whether that is capital

release, revenue generation or capital outlay to enhance your offer. You can develop a plan of quick wins and how to secure longer-term opportunities, whilst ensuring the integrity of your core operational assets is maintained.

To know where you have surplus assets, or when is the right time to renew your energy contract, or acknowledging where certain buildings are not fit for purpose, requires you to work your estate harder and maximize its unique potential through informed strategic plans. Being alert to the wider influences of your estate and the roles it can play, will create opportunities to re-shape your estate when required to preserve an exciting sustainable future.

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What I learned at prep school Nicholas Scott-Burt, composer, conductor, pianist and organist, teacher and examiner, shares his insight into his time teaching at prep school I didn’t go to a prep school. It was an ordinary county primary, then secondary, moving to the grammar school for my A Levels. Three years at university led to a BA in music, a further three studying part-time for a Master’s in composition whilst scraping a living as a piano teacher and church organist. My first experience of prep school was only when I was offered a job to teach in one.

I had not planned to teach – it was the one thing I was never going to do! So many of my friends, for want of a clearer plan, went on to teacher training. But not me: no, I was going to be nothing less than the leading classical composer of my generation, maybe give the odd piano lesson here and there until the career took off.

But I certainly wasn’t going to drift into teaching like those friends of mine. What actually happened was that I drifted into teaching.

I accepted the first job I was offered, Master i/c Choir at Bilton Grange just outside Rugby. In those days in the late ‘80s, frighteningly nobody in the independent sector seemed too much concerned about teaching qualifications (I had none) as long as you had a bit about you and you looked like you could engage with the children positively. Ability to wield a cricket bat might also help. I couldn’t, but I got the job anyway. And thus

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began a career (I was bumped up to Director of Music four terms later) which I had applied for only as a stopgap, but which led to experiential riches I could not have imagined.

On arrival, the first tough lesson I learned was that kids are not impressed. Despite the Master’s degree and the ability (for example) to evaluate the constructional processes in Schoenberg by Schenkerian analysis the children needed some convincing. ‘Do you know about music, sir?’, ‘Sure do’, I swaggered.

‘What’s number one in the charts then?’, I’d no idea, but that was the first and last time in my school teaching career I didn’t know the answer to that question, even though I’m not sure I needed it again! The flip side though, was the children demonstrating over and over that there was nothing too esoteric or obscure to engage their interest, just so long as you could get their attention. Of course, I wouldn’t have inflicted Schenkerian analysis even on my worst enemies… But I did introduce the children to The Rite of Spring alongside The Nutcracker; they drew graphic representations of Penderecki’s first symphony alongside building Lego models of Pomp and Circumstance No 1. And one boy, now a professional musician himself, on visiting Uppingham for his music scholarship audition, and asked

PREP SCHOOL Reflecting the best in the prep & junior school world

‘What’s your favourite piece of music?’ rejoindered with Peter Maxwell Davies: Eight Songs for a Mad King. (‘Try again!’ said the Director of Music.)

I taught the more conventional stuff as well – pentatonic tunes on classroom percussion, Beethoven 6 and then compose your own storm music, how to play the blues on a keyboard. They taught me, in turn, never to hold back from sharing my personal intellectual enthusiasms just because the children were children. As long as it was justified by ‘where we’d got to’ they were totally up for it. We tended to arrive at the more unusual areas of study via a tangential flight of fancy on my part – ‘Hey, if you thought that was good, listen to this!’

That’s how you get from banging a tambourine to Beethoven to Stravinsky in two 35-minute lessons with a class of ten-year-olds. And they loved it!

My proudest moments were some of the performances, in concerts, in the chapel, in theatre. Just as in the classroom I held that nothing was beyond the children’s reach, so in performance I was adamant to do only ‘proper’ music, avoiding so much pretend music written ‘for kids’, thereby denying them the sophistication I knew they could aspire to given the chance. That’s not to say that there was no fun!

The choirs sang jazz arrangements,

On arrival, the first tough lesson I learned was that kids are not impressed.

It seems though that most of what the pupils remember is nothing to do with all that classroom planning, nor the rehearsals, nor even the concerts and stage performances.

sometimes with scat singing in two, three or four parts, as well as more traditional repertoire, and lots of music which I wrote for them. Some of this music was really hard! But the secret was never to tell them that – they would take whatever was presented at face value and just get on with it. The children, particularly the choral singers, learned some amazingly complex scores of my own devising, and on the back of those extremes were able to take just about anything else in their stride: Mozart’s Requiem, Handel’s Coronation Anthems, Lambert’s Rio Grande; and in the theatre a fullystaged performance of Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas. They also performed Oklahoma, Oliver, My Fair Lady and several G&S’s. To them, this was all one music and music which became for many an integral part (greater or lesser) of what they did and who they were.

Perhaps the best thing I learned from prep school goes back to my first term of teaching, the summer of ‘87. The last three weeks of term, Common Entrance done and dusted, and Simon, being neither in the school play nor a cricketer, nor particularly a musician,

nevertheless took up residence in the music school. ‘Can you teach me the Lloyds Bank music, sir?’ If you are old enough to remember, the Lloyds TV ad used a richly orchestrated version of Bach’s Sleepers, Wake chorale, so I knew immediately what he meant, scribbled it out for piano in an easy key on a scrap of manuscript paper, and sent him on his way. He practised it every day till he left the school three weeks later, and I then didn’t see him (or I confess, give him much thought) for five years. ‘Hello Simon’, I said at some school event in 1992 to which he had returned, ‘What are you up to these days?’ ‘I’ve just taken my A Levels’, he said, ‘and I’m off to Durham in September to study music’.

And it transpired that the Lloyds Bank music was what had started it all off for him. I could so easily have said ‘Sorry Simon, I’m a bit busy’, and not written out that scrap of manuscript, in which case the rest may never have been history!

Periodically I run into my erstwhile pupils, now grown up, sometimes in real life, more often these days on social media. We teachers set much store by our planning, from our schemes of work to our individual

lessons. We wing it a bit on occasions of course, but we all know we can’t get away with that for long. It seems though that most of what the pupils remember is nothing to do with all that classroom planning, nor the rehearsals, nor even the concerts and stage performances. It’s those little off the cuff remarks and happenings, the serendipitous formative moments which no-one foresaw, let alone prepared for. That I ‘drifted into teaching’ was also a happy accident – life, as prep school taught me, is what happens while you’re busy making other plans.

Dr Nicholas Scott-Burt taught at Bilton Grange, Dunchurch from 19872002. He is the author of Up the Gradus ad Parnassum (The Art of being a Piano Teacher despite Commendable Other Plans) which is available from his website www.nicholasscottburt. com. You can hear his music on his Soundcloud and YouTube channels.

He is always delighted to discuss composing commissions for school choirs and ensembles. You can find him tweeting at @nsbcomposer.

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How drama is boosting confidence in the young Fiona Jenkins, Head of Drama at Windlesham House School During the pandemic, the role of drama has been instrumental in keeping children connected to their teachers and to each other. In many cases it has also helped them not to lose heart and to focus on confidence when feeling isolated or ‘lost’. Using four cornerstones; connection, re-unification, independent-anddiverse creativity and appreciation, children are able to build confidence even during difficult times.

Regular face to face contact while children have attempted drama tasks remotely has been hugely comforting

for some children. Reunification of groups of children online as they discuss a script or a performance is also reassuring and encouraging.

Drama helps to foster independent creativity both in terms of ideas and styles of presentation. It also brings children together to enjoy footage of each other’s work as a shared experience regardless of location.

True confidence is about ‘selfattribution’; meaning whenever a child repeatedly observes themselves mastering their own environment, problem-solving, accomplishing

something new etc. neurological change occurs. Performance and ‘presenting’ to the camera has become part of a number of subjects today aside from drama, such as Maths science and Spanish as it is a great way for children to express their understanding. As such, drama and performance will continue to be important for children as they transition back into school life again.

Re-establishing control After so much uncertainty and huge uncontrollable shifts in everyday life, Drama will be play a central role when it comes to children re-establishing ‘control’ in small and healthy ways and also ‘opening back up’ to accommodate others. Sharing ownership of a piece and assessing outcomes as a team, is an important part of any drama lesson. Often the most confident children can find abdicating control during creative group work challenging, and it will be important for schools to help children find that equilibrium again.

For some this will mean listening to others and taking their ideas on board again, whilst for others, having the courage to assert their own suggestions will be paramount.

Human interaction, co-operation, experimentation and debate is fundamental to drama and is part of a collective creative process.

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PREP SCHOOL Reflecting the best in the prep & junior school world

It will be important for teachers to listen carefully to children at this time and to find their ‘baseline’ in terms of their unique experiences of lockdown culture and their understanding of this. In drama, we often discuss the impact of culture on experience and of experience on behaviour, for example when contextualising Shakespeare or the plays of Brecht. In the same way, we can hear pupils’ personal experiences in a way that only they truly understand and thus begin to see how this has impacted their thoughts and behaviours. As teachers, we can then help children to give these mostly internalised experiences a means of expression, a ‘voice’ and a platform through devising and even writing brand new theatre.

Creating a safe space for freedom We know children learn best when they are happy. Creating a safe and free space in drama will be all the more important to ensure a desirable ‘headspace’ is achieved. After all the worry surrounding the pandemic, many children will have morphed into a ‘survival brain’ mode with a number of anxieties and are less likely to take risks or speak out through fear of being wrong. Drama will help them transition back to their ‘learning brain’ again by positively encouraging risk taking, exploring and improvisation.

Improvisation as a form of ‘safe’ selfexpression in the drama environment can be so liberating and expressive due to its spontaneous approach.

Sometimes a child needs to feel heard by themselves before they can truly be heard by the adults in their lives. With personal insight, they may open up more readily, although we may feel we understand them immediately.

Often children find it hard to articulate a feeling, or struggle to know where to start. Given the right direction, drama and performance can give children and teachers the ‘jumping off’ point that is needed to reach them effectively. Sometimes just watching a child working as part of the creative group can give teachers lots of helpful insight very quickly.

Trust and empowerment Learning to express personal emotion and to evaluate the emotional performances of others often means we have to discuss our own experiences of that emotion. Being able to identify feelings that may postlockdown have been new to children, will be vital to their intrapersonal growth and stability. Although our ‘YouTube’ generation of children can be quite confident in front of a camera, but we must never mistake that for a child who may have a real fear of the ‘outside world’. Often they comfortably go hand in hand.

In performance, there is a great deal of trust between director, production team, cast and audience. Ultimately, drama works to encourage children to trust themselves. There are two principal ways this happens: a) portraying it as an everyday occurrence such as ‘performing is no big deal’ and b) making it matter to them – e.g. ‘you are part of a great legacy’. Performing in a production, just like being part of a sports team is deeply empowering and the positive impact lasts and lasts.

Resilience is part of the fabric of the production process and that increases self-belief and also trust in others. In class, trust and belief is built through group work, offering and receiving peer to peer evaluations and learning to adapt a piece for any reason.

Helping children to build a collective identity and working on interpersonal skills will be all the more important after long periods of separation.

Centre stage As children begin a very different school year, many will find that drama is taught and productions rehearsed within the year group bubbles with one-way systems and hand sanitising being part of everyone’s daily routine.

Physical contact will be possible in drama within the bubbles so that work such as physical theatre or contact improvisation will not be hampered.

Interestingly, many will find that drama becomes an integral part of school life post Covid-19 and might in many cases take centre stage as a core approach to rebuilding confidence in the young.

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A remarkable friendship Andrew Russell is a former pupil and master at Bishop’s, Cape Town, and as some of you may remember, he was instrumental in co-organising the IAPS PE Conference in that beautiful city in the late 1990s. He shares Christo Brand’s story, Nelson Mandela’s warder on Robben Island, who had a very special relationship with the great man.

I grew up as a white South African under the Apartheid regime, an enforced system which the National Party of the time had introduced to control and restrict the movement of black people. I was privileged to attend Bishops College and then the University of Cape Town (UCT) before doing my two years of compulsory National Service (all white males had to do these two years).

It was while I was at UCT in the 80s that we started becoming aware of the anti-apartheid movement, fuelled by student protests, Free Mandela concerts at Wembley Stadium in the late 80s and early 90s, and the continued enforcement of the international sporting ban against our national teams. Our media was censored so reporting on such events was limited. There was, of course, no internet – we were living in a kind of bubble; a sheltered, protected life – unaware of the evils of apartheid which were rife in our country.

Nelson Mandela and the other Rivonia accused had been sentenced to life imprisonment in 1964 and sent to Robben Island; then transferred to Pollsmoor Prison on the mainland from 1982 to 1988; then spent his last two years in captivity at Victor Verster Prison in the Winelands before being released in on the 11th of February 1990. How ironic that I was born

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in 1964 and completed my Bishops College education in 1982; the entire 18 years Mandela was a prisoner on Robben Island. This barren, distant island which we could see from the mainland on a Sunday afternoon when our family would go for a walk along the Sea Point promenade and enjoy an ice cream or a game of mini-golf. Yet nearly 14 km away from us, the ‘most dangerous criminals in the history of South Africa’ were imprisoned for a righteous cause they believed in, and we were blissfully unaware of their very existence in this infamous prison.

It was there on Robben Island in 1978 that 18-year-old prison warder, Christo Brand, had been sent to work having just completed his one year of training. That was when he first came across Prisoner number 466/64, Nelson Mandela, who was then 60 years old and serving a life sentence for sabotage against the state. This was where they started to develop a relationship which was to become so much more. A close, lasting friendship built on trust and mutual respect.

How was it possible for this young white prison warder and his prisoner who was serving a life sentence, not to become bitter enemies? Surely, they should have hated each other? What was about to unfold was a remarkable story about two South African men.

One black, one white. One Xhosa, one

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Afrikaans. One a warder, the other his prisoner.

Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela was born on the 18th of July 1918 in the small Eastern Cape village of Mvezo. At the age of seven, his family moved to the village of Qunu. As a young boy, he would look after flocks of sheep and at dusk go home to his family’s humble house to eat supper and listen to his mother’s stories around the fireside.

Christo Brand spent his early years with his parents on a small farm outside Stanford. The farm was called Goedvertrouw – a Dutch word meaning ‘Good trust’. Life was tough, the family had no luxuries and no electricity.

Evenings were spent listening to Christo’s dad playing the violin.

From the age of five went to a small school on a nearby farm. The nearest bus stop was five miles from his house.

One of the farmworkers, a black man called Chocolate, would walk with Christo to the bus stop every day. When he was 12 years old, his father became ill and the farmer threw the family off the farm. They moved to stay with family in Cape Town, where Christo completed his high school education and then decided to join the prison service.

One of his friends had been killed on the border while doing his National Service but Christo found out that if you joined the prison service, you would be exempt from National Service.

Fast forward to 2015 when I arranged a rugby tour to South Africa for Ashbury College from Ottawa. Unbeknownst to me, on their Robben Island trip, they had met this ex-warder working on the island and Ian Middleton, the master in charge, had bought a copy of his book called Doing Life with Mandela; My Prisoner, My Friend. His name was Christo Brand.

Ashbury College had such an amazing trip that they decided to return in 2017 but, this time, Ian asked me to track down Christo and invite him to come and talk to the tour group and parents at their hotel. I had heard about Christo but until then I had never met him. I could not attend the talk as it was the evening of my mother’s birthday but the group raved about it. My end of tour gift from them was a signed copy of Christo’s book. I then travelled to Canada in April 2017 to attend their high school’s rugby festival and on my return, I met up with Christo and his wife Estelle. We started exploring the opportunity of Christo, who had then been working back at Robben Island

for 20 years, resigning from the island and taking up his story-telling on a full-time basis.

Consequently, in July 2018, Christo resigned and with me as his business manager, we set out on an exciting adventure to introduce the world to him and share his story. It soon became obvious that tourists to South Africa were desperate to meet Christo and hear his story about his journey with Mandela whether privately over a meal, on a private tour around Robben Island, on a coach trip around the Peninsula or to the Winelands visiting Mandela sites, to a tour group at their hotel, on a helicopter ride around Robben Island.

Within the past two years I have accompanied Christo and Estelle to share his story in Brazil and the UK; the two of them have travelled to America, Belgium, Holland and Norway. He has also been invited as the keynote speaker at several international conferences and events here in South Africa. Each time Christo has addressed an audience, they have been struck by the humbleness and humility and just

how he and Mandela connected on such an intimate level and became such close friends through their shared experiences.

It was no surprise that Christo was invited by the Mandela family to attend the funeral service of Nelson Mandela in Qunu in the Eastern Cape on the 14th of December 2013, after he had sadly passed away on the 5th of December. At the funeral, Christo was able to reflect on the life of his friend, the man who had been his prisoner and in 1994 became his President, the first democratically elected President in the history of South Africa. Three months later Christo’s book was released in the UK. Mandela had personally chosen the title and front cover with Christo. His untimely passing meant that he could not attend the book launch but to Christo’s huge surprise, his daughter Zindzi was there. She told Christo that her last promise to her father was that if he could not be at the book launch, she would represent him.

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Doing the right thing Fergal Roche, Founder of Nobel Thinking Ltd, reflects on the carbon reduction movement Wouldn’t it be great if you didn’t need a lengthy job description for your role but could summarise it entirely in five words? In my role as chair of a MAT, I was recently working on the pages and pages that provide a job description and person specification for a new CEO, prior to the assessment day conducted entirely through Zoom.

Writing the job description was a pretty feeble attempt to make the world stand still for long enough to capture exactly what the leader of our organisation needs to do and be. Of course, the document ends up like an appeal for a superhero.

You cannot write a precise algorithm (sorry to bring up the ‘A’ word) for managing a complex organisation that is constantly adapting to the changing environment around it. But maybe you can say to someone keen enough and skilled enough to take on the role: just do the right thing.

Such a lot is assumed in that statement. It means that, in every circumstance, the leader has to make a judgement from the options open to them and choose the right one. Do I admit a child I recognise will soak up a lot of support in the early days, but probably thrive in the longer term?

Do I allow a timetable to go ahead where I know that Year 6 have maths lessons at unorthodox times of the week, because that is the only time that my part-time (but competent) maths teacher can teach them? Do

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I suspend a child for bullying, even though their parents are just about to make a sizeable donation to the new arts block, which will benefit all the other pupils? Do I insist that the head of football be more inclusive in his selection of team players, because that is more in keeping with the values of the school, even though he says that they’ll lose their place as league champions as a consequence? And the list can go on and on.

The world is changing rapidly, and the leader must be better and better informed across a wide range of subjects, particularly in times of crisis.

How do I ensure I treat contracted and non-contracted staff fairly without causing a cash crisis? How do I sort the honest, hardworking parents from those who have a history of claiming poverty despite driving swanky cars, when it comes to offering time-limited fee-furloughs? Get it wrong and you’ll soon enough notice the abuse on Twitter or Facebook. Get it right and, apologies, you’ll probably still be criticised. Leading a school or group of schools is all too often akin to walking a tightrope, trying to keep the needs and expectations of increasingly factionalised parties in balance.

Please let me depress you just a bit more before I bring any joy.

Once you can start thinking more expansively, rather than managing the mature phase of the current

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crisis, how can you do the right thing when it comes to creating a cleaner environment for the people impacted by your establishment? Consider the following: • The worst impacts of climate change will be irreversible by 2030.

• The 20 warmest years on record have been in the past 22 years.

• More than a million species are at risk of extinction from climate change.

• Insects could vanish within a century at their current rate of decline.

• Two-thirds of extreme weather events in the last 20 years were influenced by human activity.

Schools, organisations and the government should now be looking to prioritise actions which create a low carbon future. The Covid-19 crisis has given us a brief snapshot of what a future climate crisis could look like.

We need to act and this recovery can provide a starting point.

When I left my role as CEO of The Key, I had a very vague notion of what I wanted to do next. At 57, I felt too young to retire. I studied for a professional certificate in Coaching at Henley Business School, which took about nine months. I had many cups of coffee with various organisations that wanted to have a chat. I ended

The world is changing rapidly, and the leader must be better and better informed across a wide range of subjects, particularly in times of crisis.

up being persuaded to help two organisations that are both bang in the middle of the carbon reduction movement. It has made me realise how I used to think all this stuff was tree-huggery and rather fringe. Now, I see it as a fundamental aspect of what we are doing in schools.

If we are to do the right thing, then we should lead the sprint towards reducing carbon emissions.

I encourage you to consider the following: 1. Get your lighting audited to find out how you can improve its efficacy in every area of the school and find a means of paying a monthly service charge for newly-designed and installed lighting rather than having to fork out on a large capital outlay.

Estimate how much you are going to reduce carbon emissions and get your pupils involved in this. Compare this to something tangible like trees, so they can get a sense of the scale of what you are attempting. I know a primary school in Walton on Thames that has become completely carbon neutral. The organisation I have been working with in this regard is eLight.com. I like the fact that they are a listed company, design a bespoke solution for each school, and use the best lights on the market. They are not always the

cheapest, therefore, but their solution will last longer than those of competitors. I’m also delighted that I persuaded them to take into account the current financial pressures that many independent schools are under, and schedule payments in the most flexible way possible. I should point out that there are other companies out there that are also trying to lower carbon emissions in schools. Just choose wisely.

2. Educate parents to realise that driving a single child to school each day is hugely polluting.

Putting them on buses or coaches is far preferable, where one vehicle can take 40+ children.

For an organisation that manages route planning, coach choice and driver-checking, think about Transport2.com which uses a clever app to keep parents informed as to where the bus is at any time, and where their child is in relation to it. Better still, get children and staff to walk or cycle. Get nerdy about cycling: make it attractive and impressive, just as you have tried to do with reading.

3. Find a way of permanently raising the agenda of carbon reduction in the minds of your parents and staff, so that they are all looking out for how to push their own

houses towards carbon neutrality.

Just before the lockdown, we had solar panels installed on our roof at home and yesterday our Tesla battery app told us that we provided 100% of our electricity directly from the sun. It made me feel pretty good about what we were doing for the planet.

I am not a member of the Green Party.

I wear leather shoes. I fly when I go on holiday. So, I’m not your typical advocate of pushing a carbon-reducing agenda but I passionately believe that this is what schools should be leading.

When they do so, they are doing the right thing.

Fergal Roche was Head of English at Papplewick, Director of Studies and Headmaster at Northbourne Park, then Headmaster at St Andrew’s in Eastbourne. In 2007 he established The Key, a digital information business that is now used by 15,000 schools in England and Wales. He chaired the board of a secondary school in Brixton for six years and has chaired a multi-academy trust in Guildford for the past three years.

In 2018 he sold his stake in The Key and set up a consultancy, Nobel Thinking Ltd. He now coaches school and business leaders and is a nonexecutive director for two companies.

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Being anti-fragile in a time of crisis Chris Parsons, Deputy Head (Academic) at The Lower School, Norwich School, discusses growing stronger in the face of adversity Many prep schools will be nervously watching to see if they can withstand the Covid-19 crisis, but how many are seeking to come out of it stronger? It is still far too early to be able to predict the full impact on any of us of the ongoing pandemic, but it is not too much to try to consider what it might take to be antifragile as a prep school in such conditions. Most of us will be used to promoting the term ‘resilience’ however, ‘antifragility’ is a term coined by essayist Nassim Nicholas Taleb to describe growing stronger in the face of stressors, the way our muscles eventually do if we have an uncomfortable journey to the gym.

psychologically very important for all.

We also realised that this couldn’t just be about the core skills curriculum, it also had to reach the full range of subjects, the pastoral support from teachers, co-curricular passions, and the everyday socialisation needs of the children between each other.

Furthermore, we realised that it needed to provide as much ‘remote control’ as possible, that it couldn’t just say ‘Busy parents desperately trying to work from home! We’ll provide you with the resources, but you are responsible now for motivating your child to do it, and effectively homeschooling them!’

It occurred to me fairly early in the pandemic that at Norwich Lower School this was a quality which we were tacitly seeking in ourselves. We weren’t just looking to batten-down the hatches and survive, we were looking to lean into the situation and thrive.

Originally the aspiration was simply to start each lesson with live checkins and interaction. We were lucky enough to already be an Office 365 school, and staff and families had modest experience with Teams.

We decided that we would record the key live intro explanations and discussions and these would be available for any child who couldn’t make it for personal circumstances. In the end, we just kept the live sessions open throughout, with children free to come and go. Once the pupils were tasked, and with their cameras and microphones turned off, teachers working remotely could still work on other areas.

Apart from the first week of lockdown before Easter, we committed to delivering a full, flexible and forgiving timetable of live lessons.

We appreciated that whatever system we established, it needed to be a sufficiently capable ‘packhorse’ capable of carrying our whole school mission for an uncertain time. We even came up with the ‘3 Rs’ manifesto of routine, reach and remote control.

What we realised was that the routine structure of the school day is

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Due to the ‘walled garden’ structure of our Teams subscription, we established a new risk-assessment

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mentality with our use of online technology and ensured that, with appropriate rules and accountability routes laid-down, children and teachers could make use of voice, video and text chat facilities. It was also made abundantly clear to families that this structure was a resource available for them to aim to grab onto, that there would be no comeback if a child failed to complete individual tasks, and that by 6pm on each day we would expect any task submissions to be in and for the slate to be wiped clean for those that weren’t.

Our Teams set-up itself allowed for live delivery across a whole year group from a single teacher, or in channels from multiple teachers, and our timetable built-in an ‘Enrichment Time’ in the afternoon, where children could either do something imaginative with their eager parents; could catch-up with assignments leftover from earlier in the day, or access one-to-one live contact with teachers. There was a steep learning curve for everybody involved, but the inevitability of this fact was narrated to the staff and parents. Support was offered, with advice and devices, and through us encouraging everyone to suspend disbelief for long enough for things to bed-in.

Everybody did settle down. The routine, reach and remote control element kicked in and we had effectively opened a new school:

‘Norwich Lower School Remote’.

What’s more, whilst this schooling was inferior to what we could normally provide on-site, our parent body nevertheless realised that this time and place is about investing in what’s available, relative to the current alternatives, and many exhibited both great gratitude for and pride in what we were achieving.

After the summer half-term, we had the opportunity to bring back our Reception, Year 1 and Year 6 children, and again started with the mentality that if there was anything possible that we could do then we would attempt to do it. We are fortunate that we have good access to more spacious senior school facilities, and decided to use these for our Year 6s – as well as pooling our available IT resources to ensure that teachers could continue to deliver the remote timetable for those on-site, if required – so that children at home were not overly disadvantaged.

It became abundantly clear that, although almost every aspect of the on-site schooling we were now delivering was in some way alien to the children, they thrived emotionally from being back in contact with each other and having some tangible outof-house provision.

Consequently, as soon as the opportunity came to open things up to the whole of our primary years we knew that we had a moral obligation to take things as far as was permissible. We charged into the situation head-on, committing funds for portaloos, cleaning stations, and even some spacious marquees for the final three weeks of term. We juggled things around ‘bubbles’ and social distancing, but nobody was rotated over those days.

During the final two weeks, we made it abundantly clear that our focus would be primarily on the wellbeing and physical curriculum benefits that had been neglected during lockdown, rather than the core curriculum. Over 95% of children attended school, and indeed, there was only one child out of 120 Year 5 and Year 6 children who didn’t attend during the final week.

At the time of writing we are facing the start of a brand new school year with all sorts of restrictions already in place, and potentially many more which could befall us. The experience we have already had of ‘pushing the envelope’ has given us great confidence in where we might go next.

A key thing has been the philosophy of ‘catching the wave’. There is absolutely no doubt that our children,

teachers and parents have had a level of digital upskilling that would have been logistically and financially very expensive previously, and so there is no way in which we would want to now let that slip. Our experience using our combined half-sets of Samsung Galaxy Tabs (with swiftly added keyboards) during our partial re-opening was encouraging, and consequently, our bursary and governors committed to enabling us to go fully one-to-one with digital devices (a step we hadn’t previously taken), enabling us to dip in and out of our new technological norms, as well as having options available during further restrictions which might be enforced later.

Ultimately, it is the case that there is a lot of our normal school life which is going to be missing during this year, and which we would dearly like to get back. However, I do not doubt that the temporary cavities left by restrictions will be filled by us seeking creative alternatives, and a confidence that we can both rise to this situation and grow to something even better down the line. What’s more – for the school leaders out there – I genuinely believe that our parent-body is more loyal than ever, and certainly, our pupil numbers are up on what we would have predicted back in February.

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Leadership and staff wellbeing Carrie Symes, Assistant Head (Wellbeing) and DSL at Wetherby School, reflects on leadership approaches to ensuring good staff wellbeing and mental health There has rightly been much focus on pupil wellbeing and mental health in recent years, highlighted particularly during this pandemic, and we are all aware of the issues associated with remote learning and lockdown on children. Less documented is the impact on staff mental health and wellbeing. We have come a long way from the days when staff were at the bottom of the pile; the headmistress of the prep school I attended in the ‘70s had a well-known mantra, ‘Domestic and kitchen staff first, pupils second, parents third and staff last’, the first being the hardest in those days to recruit and retain!

Things have moved on since then, but there is still plenty of room for improvement, and the current crisis has no doubt exacerbated the need for vital mental health provision for staff.

There are several issues facing prep school leaders with regard to supporting staff, some subtly different to those of a secondary setting. Staff in pre-prep and prep schools tend to be younger and often female. They may have young families and been hard hit by working from home and supervising home-schooling and then returning to work with younger year groups whilst their own children remain at home. Partners’ jobs may be hit by the economic downturn and, while this may provide childcare respite, the financial implications on a young family are obvious. Young staff may

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be single and live alone a long way from home and experience acute feelings of loneliness and isolation away from their family and friends.

Unlike residential boarding settings, day school staff may also have to travel long distances to get to work, especially to Central London schools.

Many younger staff members don’t have cars and have to travel during rush hour on public transport with the associated health risks. Boarding staff may not have seen family members for months on end. Many staff worked through the Easter break planning and creating online lessons for the Summer term, leaving them exhausted. Fear and anxiety of contracting the virus plays its part here too, with widely varying attitudes to risk amongst staff.

Several prep heads have reported that managing and juggling staff due to shielding or living with shielding people, pregnancy and fear of catching the virus or infecting others was very challenging. Uncertainty makes us more anxious, stressed and fearful, and despite the latest research cited by the government that younger children appear less likely to transmit the virus, this autumn will bring a whole host of new challenges and our ability to deal with change and stress will be tested yet again.

B’ online learning programmes and keeping pupil numbers up?

So how can leaders support their staff’s wellbeing and mental health when they are trying to juggle re-opening schools, creating ‘Plan

There is a huge difference between paying lip service to staff wellbeing and embedding a grassroots culture of support, discussion and openness

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Cognisant schools will have already realized that a devolved leadership is crucial to navigating successfully through the pandemic, and will have put in place measures such as a Wellbeing Lead, Wellbeing Champions and training staff in MHFA (Mental Health First Aid). Liaison with Governors and HR departments is key here, with clear policies and procedures in place, updated for Covid-19. The Alpha Plus Group have a dedicated Wellbeing Governor, with Wellbeing Leads attending forums and sharing best practice. Clarity and openness are paramount, not only in talking about mental health and creating a culture where staff feel comfortable talking to their peers and senior management, but also in terms of managing staff absence and what staff can expect in terms of sudden lockdowns, furloughing and unpaid leave. Rules that apply one week may change to adapt to the unpredictable nature of the virus so the more open and transparent leaders are the more trust they will earn. ‘All employers have a duty of care to their employees, and this extends to their mental health.’ (DfE Guidance for full opening – Schools, updated August 7th 2020)

There is a huge difference between paying lip service to staff wellbeing and embedding a grassroots culture of support, discussion and openness about mental health issues.

Creating and devising a staff mental health and wellbeing policy is key. about mental health issues. Creating and devising a staff mental health and wellbeing policy is key. Some schools now provide and pay large sums of money for employee assistance providers for staff who have a 24-hour helpline and can provide free advice and therapy sessions for problems from financial worries to divorce, as well as liaising with HR providers about diagnosis and a phased return to work. These have their uses, but prevention is better than cure. By putting mental health on the agenda, literally, and encouraging early intervention and a proactively supporting working atmosphere, much can be done to avoid problems developing. Providing school staff with opportunities to feedback any thoughts or concerns about staff wellbeing with ideas on how to improve it will help develop a more inclusive culture. Leaders might consider using a staff survey such as the TES Staff Pulse to understand staff concerns and devise a policy.

All schools have different needs and it’s not a one size fits all. Ideas such as meeting-less Fridays, no emailing after 6pm or at weekends, a dedicated private space for staff other than the staff room, INSET training on mental health, weekly team lunches and SMT practising what they preach, have variously proven helpful. Feedback from resilience-based workshops, such as the course offered to governors and staff at Wetherby School in January,

was extremely positive and the timing couldn’t have been better! Giving staff a toolkit of ideas to help them be mentally and physically healthy, modelling these yourself and showing you care is far more impactful than weekly fresh fruit and cake arriving rather anonymously in the staff room.

Not that I don’t love cake.

Tailored staff professional development through a regular and impactful performance management process empowers staff to progress their career and raises self-esteem.

Thomas’ Schools have their own accredited MA in education, conceived and developed by a current head.

EduCare provide staff training in staff mental health. Other excellent examples include flexible working hours so that staff can manage family life and work after their young children are in bed. Travelling outside rush hour saves time and takes into account personal efficacy as well as giving teachers more autonomy. Considering how staff get to work, providing PPE, encouraging carpooling where possible and liaising with local authorities about keyworker parking spaces all help.

The presenteeist head, often several decades older than most of their staff, is missing a trick here. Aside from the apparent lack of trust felt by staff, and the pressure and stress this causes, younger staff are generally more technically savvy than older staff and can easily work from

home, requiring little or no support.

Hours of travel time and misery can be saved by missing the rush hour and productivity is far greater. Staff who have good mental wellbeing are more likely to have the necessary resources to be able to manage, plan and teach during or after stressful episodes whether with a pupil, a class, a colleague, an inspector or a parent.

They are also likely to pass on their mindset and skills to their pupils, a massive and hugely impactful result for schools. A huge shift in how we utilise staff time is needed here and there is no better time than now to trial its effectiveness. Of course schools need teachers to be present to teach and supervise children, but we should be using this opportunity to think about what skills children need to learn (another article!), use the best bits of online learning (let’s not let them go!) overhaul the traditional timetable, reap the benefits of flexible working and move proactively into a world forever changed.

Finally, and importantly, after working harder than ever before in extremely arduous circumstances, and presented with challenges no IAPS New Heads course could possibly have prepared them for, heads and other leaders need to prioritise their own wellbeing and mental health and seek support from their governing body or proprietor where needed. They also need to congratulate themselves on simply getting through.

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England to Argentina Ian Tate, Headmaster of St George’s College, Buenos Aires, shares a personal journey I first tried to come to Argentina when I was working in Peru in the 1980s.

There was a long summer holiday to look forward to and a trip from Brazil back to Peru via Uruguay, Argentina and Chile were planned with a few friends. To our disappointment we found out that Argentina was not possible, as tourist visas were not being issued to UK nationals, due to the recent South Atlantic conflict. We went to Rio de Janeiro instead.

The borders soon opened and in 1990 I came to work at St George’s College in Buenos Aires on a three-year contract.

I was sure I would return to start a family in the UK at the end of the

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contract, however 30 years later, I am now retiring and will continue living in Argentina as it is now our home.

The school is linked very strongly to the UK and, although the student body is 90% Argentine, the school still models itself on the British public school system. House competitions are fierce, the boarders are the soul of the campus and when you enter the 1914 Chapel you feel you are somewhere in rural England, rather than cosmopolitan Buenos Aires. The school was founded in 1898 exclusively for boy boarders, who were sons of UK ex-patriots, but is now very much co-educational and international.

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Ex-patriot and local teachers ensure a multicultural experience for the students and staffroom conversations vary from the state of the NHS, the benefits and challenges of inflation and why Messi has never won a World Cup, with every other possible conversation in between. Some in English, some in Spanish, but most in Spanglish.

The boarding section is now co-educational and housed in the former prep school. As the primary role increased, due to the admittance of day students, and the boarding numbers declined, due to improved transport infrastructure, the

buildings’ functions were reversed.

The boarders now enjoy a modern, homely environment housed in a historically listed building. There have always been boarders from neighbouring and far-flung countries and, in the past, many came from the South Atlantic islands, where the local school does not have a secondary section. One Old Georgian, who comes back to give emotive and inspirational talks to the students, was playing cricket with his classmates one year, was drafted the next year and found himself fighting against his father’s country the next.

I have never had a heated argument about the conflict, but I have had a few discussions over football. Ever since I saw my first England vs. Argentina game in 1966 there have been iconic moments during the game. Imagine the tension when these moments happen with all the students watching the game in the assembly hall, dressed in their sky blue and white colours.

After the game, they walk past the headmaster on their way back to class, euphoric if Argentina had won (Beckham/Simone, 1998) or devastated if England did (Beckham penalty, 2002). It is not an issue for me now, as I am used to my sons supporting Argentina first and England second, but putting on an impartial face, when I have the opposite sensations going on inside me from the students and staff is not easy.

Sport in Argentina and the school is very important and, amongst other games, rugby was introduced by the British here. The Pumas punch well above their weight on the international scene, especially as the local teams are still amateur.

St George’s College has produced its fair share of internationals, one even played for England and later for Argentina, and the Old Georgians rugby team have been the national champions in the past. There have also been girls going on to play for the national hockey team. The first sight you have when entering the school is the first XV rugby posts with

their mile-high posts and the cricket square in front of the pavilion. Being members of the HMC and BSA adds to the UK culture in the school. It is very challenging trying to portray to potential teachers what life would be like for them in Argentina when interviewing them in the East India Club in St James’ Park surrounded by memorabilia from the RFU. Living and working in Latin America has been a privilege and a challenge.

There is never a dull moment, as the political and financial stability on the continent is always a rollercoaster ride. However, the deep-rooted respect for traditional and family values have kept me in the country all these years. The students are the same, maybe the Latins hug, kiss and show their emotions more than the Anglo Saxons, but they have the same fears, dreams and potential to make a difference in the world.

I only realised this year that I am an immigrant. I go back to the UK every year to visit, I speak English at all times with the students and most staff, our sons went to university in the UK, I can watch my hometown teams Leicester, City and Tigers, on the television almost every week, so it was not hard to convince myself that I was still a visitor. It is not easy to shake off your roots, especially if you left your home when you were in your late 20s. Argentina has been

built by immigrants, mainly from Europe, so the prep school students are always involved in projects about immigration and investigating their own families’ history. When they invited me to talk about my immigration I suggested they ask someone else, as I am not an immigrant. They quizzically looked at me and I then realised that if I am going to retire here in Argentina then I must be an immigrant.

I have been very lucky in my career.

First, and foremost, because the British education system is still considered to be the best in the world and, consequently, there are many opportunities in bilingual and/or international schools all over the world. In my younger days, when I had a decision to make on which direction to choose, more often than not, ‘I took the one less travelled by, and that has made all the difference’ (Robert Frost, 1915). Fate has also played its part.

Forgive me for using the Prep School magazine as a personal reflection but I became very nostalgic after reconnecting with the editor, and others, over 40 years after we graduated from Loughborough College at a reunion. Thank you Paul for inviting me to write, and I hope there are many young British teachers who might consider considering continuing this noble profession in other parts of the world.

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Compassionate leadership Mark Beach, Headmaster of Sherborne House, Chandler’s Ford ‘When we are motivated by compassion and wisdom, the results of our actions benefit everyone, not just ourselves or some immediate convenience.’ - Dalai Lama Some excellent articles have been published recently on the topic of compassion and leadership. Perhaps it’s the current Covid-19 climate that is making us all the more aware that the attitudes of kindness, tolerance and compassion are needed more now than in the recent past. I am sure that we have all been affected by those little acts of kindness and compassion that we are perhaps noticing more now than we did precorona. However, I was struck by Jacinda Arden’s comment that she ‘refuses to believe that you cannot be both compassionate and strong’.

Compassionate leadership is more than just being a compassionate individual and caring for a colleague.

A compassionate leader and person encourages compassion and caring in the wider organisation. A compassionate leader encourages employees to talk about their problems and to provide support for one another. Compassionate leadership is about a) being a compassionate person and b) trying to create a compassionate culture.

The compassionate leader will know that they are surrounded by very capable and intelligent team members who will offer creative solutions to problems. The compassionate leader will be receptive to these ideas and by being receptive and open, they allow their team to grow and be empowered.

As General James Mattis wrote, ‘Believe so completely in subordinates; they have no choice but to believe in themselves; act from integrity and authenticity, let your very goodness put ambition out of context. Be brave, honest, humble – be a home-run of a human being.’ Compassionate leaders bring their team members together to work as a functional unit. They lay the groundwork for their team to have the best chance of success, and then take great joy in sitting back and watching team members shine individually and collectively. These leaders have no problem taking the lead when the team is in danger and no problem stepping to the side to allow their team to experience the successes they have accomplished on their own.

Evidence exists that employees like and trust leaders who show kindness rather than anger when resolving conflict, which in turn can boost performance, retention and levels of trust.

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Arguably, the driving forces of exceptional leadership are desire, self-awareness and, most importantly, compassion. To be effective, leaders must have the necessary empathy to inspire understanding and knowledge in team members. Empathy begins with taking an understanding of life from the experience and perception of another. Psychologist Sherrie Campbell states that when empathy is present, defensiveness decreases and something positive replaces it.

Empathy opens doors and removes confusion. It softens the minds and hearts of others. When people are open, this is exactly when a compassionate leader can be more creative in solving problems in ways that drive productivity and long-term success.

Leadership requires empathy – we are teaching our children to be leaders, thinkers, and to be socially responsible. To lead effectively, we must model empathy with the children in our schools. They, in turn, will practice empathy in their moments of leadership. Hopefully, they will adopt the trait for use in future relationships as well.

I believe that by developing empathy, a person’s real happiness can lead to success. Empathy can activate our hearts and make us better and more positive contributors to society.

However, to develop these empathetic skills within our pupils we have to develop them within ourselves so that we can be both role models for the younger generation and compassionate leaders. As leaders, we need to demonstrate compassion daily. Roffey Park’s Compassion Workplace Model states that there are five aspects of compassionate leadership: • Being aware of the needs of others.

• Being non-judgemental.

• Being resilient and tolerant of personal distress in others.

• Feeling and showing empathy at all levels.

• Being accountable and responsible for all the good and bad outcomes of your team.

I believe that in our schools we want to develop our pupils to be kind and tolerant. We want them to develop those empathetic skills that allow them to respond with appropriate emotion to someone else’s feelings.

In his excellent think piece, ‘The Compassionate School Leader’, David Woods asks the question, ‘By the time children finish school, what do we hope they will have become?’ He argues that most of us would hope that they would be fluent, decent, resilient, self-driven achievers who live up to altruistic ideals and values; that they would be compassionate individuals who care for each other and the planet. Compassionate leaders view the growth and development of the people they lead and the schools they serve as the great makers of their success.

A compassionate leader will take the time to listen to their team and come to understand them. They will ask their team questions, not just about their job, but about their lives and families. The compassionate leader is someone genuinely interested in people. It’s also important that we remind ourselves that the story we tell in our minds is different from the story playing in the minds of others. It’s only through listening intently to others that we can begin to understand these differences.

By demonstrating empathy and compassion you will be able to empower your team and allow them to grow. Compassionate leaders know that empowering others is the key to everyone’s success.

They take a step back when needed and always give credit where and when it’s due. If you’re working on compassionate leadership, delight in the accomplishments of the people that work in your team. If we take the time to understand the people around us then they will feel appreciated.

Compassion is a strength because it also allows us to understand others.

However, questions remain as to whether this enthusiasm can be translated effectively to the business world, where ‘some managers fear showing too much kindness could be perceived as weakness, others think pressure is the only way to keep employees productive’. Yet research shows that if leaders seek loyal employees, they should choose kindness and compassion over toughness. Compassion is not separate from being professional.

Compassion is seen as an important leadership trait. Evidence exists that employees like and trust leaders who show kindness rather than anger when resolving conflict, which in turn can boost performance, retention and levels of trust. Leaders should work to create a compassionate culture within their organisation. This would be a collegial approach characterised by openness, curiosity, kindness and appreciation.

‘Compassionate leadership in practice means leaders listening with fascination to those they lead, arriving at a shared (rather than imposed) understanding of the challenges they face, empathising with and caring for them, and then taking action to help or support them.’

– ‘Five Myths of Compassionate Leadership’, Michael West and Suzie Bailey ‘Great leaders need to have empathy and perspective. Rather than taking charge we need to place a greater emphasis on taking care of those in our charge.’ - Simon Sinek

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Education through societies Dr Paul Murray, Historian-in-Residence at Bishops Diocesan College (Cape Town), encourages schools to start up societies In his book The Courage to Teach, Parker J. Palmer explores the inner landscape of the life of a teacher.

One of the main themes of his book is how the author identifies the disconnection between the role of the teacher, the learner and content being taught. Palmer explains why educators can sometimes ‘lose heart because teaching is a daily exercise in vulnerability’. He proceeds to explain how and why this can happen but quickly offers a solution by the way one can teach to the ‘microcosm’ in which ‘students learn the essential concepts of their field and can use them as a foundation for further study’. Schools using technology particularly through laptop teaching probably benefit from this more than those who don’t.

Reading Palmer requires a thorough reading of his book, as each chapter builds upon the previous one and can afford the aspirant educator ‘holistic vision of teaching that reveals the deep connections that underlie our apparent differences in field, methodology and educational perspective.’

One practical solution for the teacher afraid of landing up in this daily exercise of vulnerability is to take a proactive approach of skilling up.

Not easy! After a long day in the classroom, coming off the sports field, with all the preparation and

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marking, administrative chores and attending to one’s family then still to ‘hit the books’, burning the midnight oil requires renewed energy. Sure, we need to do this to get ahead but there are also other interesting ways to be excited about teaching, as in upscaling one’s input through running a school society, whether in reality vis-a-vis, or streaming doing it virtually, whatever the requirement of the circumstances.

Since the start of my teaching career at St John’s College, Johannesburg in the early ‘80s, I have gained great pleasure from running societies for the benefit of the students.

How could I ever forget a presentation

by Douglas Jones and Stephan Pretorius who addressed the Decimus Society (Decimus) on the topic of the abyssopelagic zone of the ocean that ran as deep as 3000-6000 metres, remaining in perpetual darkness and making up 83% of the ocean and 60% of the Earth’s cover? The big question was raised: how do creatures survive at that depth? How will I ever forget a presentation by Andrew Michelmore during Michaelmas 1988 with his lecture on Zoosemeiotics, studying animal communications in this case ‘the intriguing dance language of bees’? In the same year Dr Eddie Price of the Department of Physics at Wits University, addressing the same society, spoke on the scientific studies that he had conducted for

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road systems, deducing that the best version was the hexagonal system similar to that used by bees in constructing their honeycombs.

Then there are the many cultural tours abroad, visiting Israel and the Dead Sea, Qumran where the scrolls were discovered, ascending Masada to witness the site of the tragedy of the Zealots’ stand against the Romans; Greece, Italy, Germany, France and Britain. Even the visit to Leicester Square for ice-cream at Häagen-Dazs might be considered a primary cultural activity on such a tour and a fair respite. School children will soon tire of doing the same thing over and over!

Not to mention their stomach-clocks, they need rewinding every two hours so be sure to know where the best sandwich bars are in between meals.

These experiences at St John’s over eight years were greatly enriching for the teacher, all extra-curricular activities, equally stimulating, enriching and uplifting for the students. Probably one of the highlights was the resurrection of the Creative Photography Society enabling the teacher to impart his great love for photographic composition. At the occasion of a 30-year school reunion in conversation with a former student the teacher was reminded: ‘you insisted on precise proportions, like one-third/two-thirds being the measure of the main subject in

the photograph’s composition.’ He continued: ‘When I started my own design business, I applied that rule.’

In response, I said, ‘what work do you do now?’ He replied: ‘I’m one of the directors of Uber!’ How can we forget entering the students into photographic competitions, at first winning nothing and walking away with heavy criticism from the judges, only to eventually return and be awarded gold medals at the Bensusan School of Photography in Parktown North, Johannesburg.

Arriving in Cape Town at Bishops Diocesan College in 1991, right up to the present, has brought no less pleasure and enjoyment conducting societies. The meetings always a pleasure some stand out more than others. One was when Professor Chris Barnard addressed Forum.

Professor Barnard was renowned for his groundbreaking work in heart research, the first person with his team successfully to perform a heart transplant in 1967. He told the members: ‘I was not nervous – I knew before the operation that it was going to be a success.’ Yet he also said that he was only a very small component merely representing the hard work and research which had preceded the operation for many years before.

Other than hearing directly from the

first person in medical science to have effectively accomplished until then the unachievable, Professor Barnard showed us his truly human side.

How can we forget the address by Russian violinist and renowned symphony orchestra conductor Mr Victor Yampolsky telling us how restricting it was growing up in Russia; or Mr ‘Mac’ Maharaj addressing us on the idea of South Africa’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission even before it was implemented! Or our acting president at the time, Mr Kgalema Motlanthe, addressing several local schools on the civil duties that students should be required to perform, to create a more inclusive society in a country with a terrible history of race absolutism.

Some of the societies are conducted exclusively by the students. One such society is the Historical Bench, in which students sit on a bench and decide on the topic. Tribute for this venture must be paid to a former teacher Mr Michael Fisher who had had such a society at his school in Ampleforth. Not forgetting the in your face, extremely relevant talks under the auspices of Lingua Franca.

Why is the incidence of breast cancer so great in women? Why testicular and prostate cancer in men? A

presentation by Dr Hackingm one of the leading scientists in the field from the University of Cape Town.

Examining the life of Sophie Wharton Myddleton (who became the wife of Robert Gray the first Bishop of Cape Town and Founder of Bishops in 1849, coming from Durham) was a topic in the Museum & Archives Club. Mrs Gray designed a great many churches in the mid-19th century at the Cape, whilst His Grace Robert of Cape Town was travelling far and wide from the region, propagating the gospel. Very recently, Professor Dheda addressed an audience of over one thousand through livestream on the coronavirus – this from a world leader in pulmonology who is the Professor of Respiratory Medicine and Director of the Lung Infection and Immunity Unit and Head of the Division of Pulmonology, Department of Medicine, at the University of Cape Town.

Over 500 society meetings later and still striving to bring speakers on important and relevant topics to students in societies at school, the rewards for it outweigh any chance of a ‘daily exercise in vulnerability’, if anything, it’s just the opposite, an exercise in fortification of the soul for the benefit of the students and humanity!

After a long day in the classroom, coming off the sports field, with all the preparation and marking, administrative chores and attending to one’s family then still to ‘hit the books’, burning the midnight oil requires renewed energy.

PREP SCHOOL Reflecting the best in the prep & junior school world

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SATIPS competitions Inevitably, the competitions run by SATIPS were limited for obvious reasons this year. However, two did go ahead. Harry Paget, who has taken on the role of Head of RE at The Dragon, Oxford, reports on the SATIPS Challenge and Amanda Mcleod writes her overview of the National Handwriting Competition.

The SATIPS Challenge The Challenge is a written paper taken in schools under exam conditions but marked externally.

In 2020, 31 schools entered in the senior challenge and 49 schools in the junior; over 2300 pupils took part.

The top 50 in each section received Amazon vouchers as prizes. Many congratulations to all those who took part, especially to the senior winner, Harry Calcraft (Westminster Under School) and to, the junior winner, Sam Salwan (St. George’s Weybridge).

The scores on the leaderboard this year were most remarkable and shows that our schools are producing some highly impressive, well-rounded individuals. With its wide variety of topics, there is something for everyone in it, and some schools use it to conduct internal general knowledge competitions.

Junior questions had sections on geography, books and film, sport and leisure, religion and mythology, history and politics, music and art, science, as well as questions outside of those areas. Senior questions were on a variety of topic areas, including answers requiring knowledge of Little Women, Kanye West, the rules of netball, volcanic eruptions, TikTok, Michaelangelo and Oliver Cromwell.

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National Handwriting Competition The demands from business for paperless work makes the ability to use a keyboard an essential component of our times. Using a laptop is often proposed as the cureall for issues surrounding appearance and speed of production of school work. It must also be recognised, though, that the amount of research comparing the two modes of handwriting and keyboarding with its effect on learning by children is trifling.

The teaching of good handwriting suffered during the lockdown and this was acknowledged at the National Handwriting Association’s annual general meeting (NHA AGM) in July.

The forced home-education that we experienced caused two significant problems. The first being that, with the necessity of remote learning, children were expected to use keyboards to record their thoughts.

Some studies involving adults taking notes have shown that there is an impact on learning, dependent on whether handwriting or keyboarding is used as the mode of recording.

Research involving a small group of children found that factual recall was not affected but the conceptual understanding was found to be weaker when using keyboards.

The second problem involved primary school teachers who had to grapple with teaching handwriting to primary-aged children through remote learning, as well as closing the gap from missed learning. Parents were also suddenly expected to be handwriting teachers in their homes

PREP SCHOOL Reflecting the best in the prep & junior school world

and without having any knowledge, experience or resources. Successful handwriting development needs academic knowledge and experience.

Good handwriting is promoted by exposing children to the language of handwriting, teaching them to listen to instructions and translate those instructions into physical movements.

Knowledge includes familiarity with Vygotsky’s theories on the role of language upon learning. If a task is too difficult and a goal seems too remote, then children will show no interest, shying away from failure.

Thus, asking a child to write an ‘a’ or a whole word for the first time without breaking the task up into manageable chunks, could result in a child avoiding handwriting in the future. Providing ‘scaffolding’ for handwriting enables pupils to create internal links, which they will be able to retain and transfer elsewhere in their learning.

At the NHA AGM, Dr Angela Webb reported on sensory-motor programmes, such as ‘Pegs to Paper’, produced by Nexus, which was enhanced during the lockdown with equipment and explicit instructions to support parents to promote the underlying competencies of handwriting development. Using resources such as these enables a teacher to foster handwriting and support a parent. The programme, being structured by controlled, small steps, brings the parameters for success closer to the child, ensuring they achieve. For example, children are taught how to make the straight lines needed for l, t, i, u, y and j before being faced with writing those letters

on paper. The strategies used enable kinaesthetic, aural and visual learning to be combined and produce the components of successful handwriting.

This embodied cognition, progressing from peg and thread patterns to replicating them on whiteboards and paper, ensures that the consequent building into letterforms, and then numerals, is an easy task.

Thank you for sending in so many excellent pieces of work and thank you to the team of initial judges who have such an enormous task. This year, there were well over a thousand entries, which I found incredible given that you were facilitating this in the run-up to lockdown. As ever, I use letter formation and other handwriting rules (shape, size, slant, sitting on the line, spacing and joining) as my criteria for success. The NHA styles these rules as ‘S factors for success’: shape, space, size and sitting are elements that are required for ‘good’ handwriting at any age. Stringing is required by the National Curriculum to be achieved by the end of Year 2 and slant, speed and style are specific to the latter years in Key Stage 2.

I recommended that this year, teachers additionally focused on pressure. I look at the backs of each entry to judge what pressure has been exerted on the page. I had also asked entries to be in pencil to enable me to judge this further. Even though a piece of writing may appear pleasing to the eye, with all letters correctly and ‘S’ factors correct, a pupil who presses too heavily, may not achieve the automaticity that they need for speed writing under examination conditions. Pressing heavily may cause a writer to feel pain or fatigue and have to take extra breaks during the process.

Next year, I would pay particular attention to: • Class A, 4 years – entry strokes.

These must be taught correctly to avoid later legibility issues. Entry strokes do not start in the air. They are purely a stroke from the line up to the start of the letter itself.

• Class A, 5 and 6 years – Entry strokes (as above) and ensure trunk letter size is consistent.

• Class B, 7 and 8 years – Entry strokes (as above) and correct formation of f (f should be curled at the top and bottom but straight in between, plus rise to the ascender height and descend to the descender depth).

• Class C, 9 and 10 years – Entry strokes (as above), the formation of f (as above) and exits of z and r.

• Class D, 11, 12 and 13 years – high joins must stay high and not loop; italics must not be too spikey.

• Class E, staff – must be complete!

As with each year, it was a pleasure to be given this task of choosing the final winners and I look forward to 2021.

Very many congratulations to all the schools and pupils who took part this year.

The winning school is The Gleddings Preparatory School, Halifax. They will receive the SATIPS Nexus Shield.

St Cedd’s, Chelmsford and Beechwood Park, Hertfordshire are joint runnersup.

PREP SCHOOL Reflecting the best in the prep & junior school world

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THIS YEAR’S PRIZE WINNERS ARE: AGE 4 1st

Lucy D

Grantham Preparatory International School

2nd

Ella D

Grantham Preparatory International School

3rd

Christopher V-O

Grantham Preparatory International School

1st

Emma F

St Cedd’s, Chelmsford

2nd

Roisin A

Fair Oak Infant School, Hampshire

3rd

Taya De S

St Cedd’s, Chelmsford

1st

Charlotte D

Beechwood Park, Herts

2nd

Shaan B

High March, Beaconsfield

3rd

Nathaniel McC

St Cedd’s, Chelmsford

1st

Isobel W

St Cedd’s, Chelmsford

2nd

Aisha Azam

The Gleddings, Halifax

3rd

Ava Melnyk

The Gleddings, Halifax

1st

Sahas Talluri

St Bernard’s Prep School, Slough

2nd

Shreya Bhan-Mistry

The Gleddings, Halifax

3rd

Livi D

Beechwood Park, Herts

1st

Evie Marsden

The Gleddings, Halifax

2nd

Sophie C

Talbot Heath, Bournemouth

3rd

Maryam B

Talbot Heath, Bournemouth

1st

Fatimah Waseem

St Bernard’s Prep School, Slough

2nd

Ishani Baria

High March, Beaconsfield

3rd

Carter Melnyk

The Gleddings, Halifax

1st

Brooke Cornell

The Gleddings, Halifax

2nd

Is-haaq Azeb

The Gleddings, Halifax

3rd

Jonah M

St Andrew’s, Woking

1st

Cecily M

Beechwood Park, Herts

2nd

Hope H

St Faith’s, Cambridge

3rd

Tanisha B

St Faith’s, Cambridge

1st

Zac R

St Faith’s, Cambridge

2nd

Thomas Malliff

St Michael’s, Burghclere

3rd

Akshan R

Beechwood Park, Herts

Sophie M

Eaton House, The Manor Girls’ School, London

AGE 5

AGE 6

AGE 7

AGE 8

AGE 9

AGE 10

Age 11

AGE 12

AGE 13

STAFF 1st

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PREP SCHOOL Reflecting the best in the prep & junior school world

Mark Philpott, Head of Computing at The Elms, Trent College and the SATIPS Broadsheet editor for classroom management

Teacher-student relationships and the Law of Reciprocity To be an effective teacher, you must be able to build positive relationships with your pupils—because it causes them to want to listen to you, behave for you, and please you.

It gives you the leverage you need to influence their behaviour and work habits. It helps make your classroom management plan matter to them.

Simply by being pleasant is the easiest, most predictable way to build those relationships. It works no matter your age or personality, what level you teach, or whether your favourite colour is blue or burgundy.

It even works while distance learning.

What makes consistent pleasantness easy is that you don’t have to go to your pupils. You don’t have to try and make small talk, look for commonalities, or build rapport one at a time.

When you’re pleasant, and nothing more, they’ll come to you. They’ll find you likable and interesting and will want to get to know you better. Oddly, even pupils with shy personalities, who tend to keep their distance from teachers, will like and feel

comfortable around you. How can this be? How can the easiest way to build relationships with pupils also be the most effective?

Because of the Law of Reciprocity.

The Law of Reciprocity states that when someone is nice to you, you’ll naturally want to be nice to them right back. It’s a deep-seated psychological urge that is embedded into our DNA. It’s the reason we exchange birthday and holiday cards with certain friends and not others and why the friendliest restaurant servers make the most tips. We like to feel even-Steven. We like to repay kindness with kindness.

There is a danger lurking, however.

And this is the big caveat: The inverse is also true. When someone is mean to us or treats us with callousness it takes willpower not to want to get even. It also immediately weakens their influence in our life. It can even make us want to avoid ever being around them.

Pupils are no different, which underscores the importance of consistent pleasantness. If ever you glare, lecture, or use sarcasm, it can be hard to work your way back into their good graces. Privately, they’ll knock

you down a few pegs in their trust book.

Taking advantage of the Law of Reciprocity is more important than ever before. You see, pupils today are more appreciative of simple kindness and pleasantness than in generations past. Maybe it’s the sheer coldness of social media or ubiquity of crass entertainment. But in the midst of a society that no longer views politeness as a virtue, your refusal to hold grudges, get revenge, or be anything other than kind to your pupils is a superpower. It’s a countercultural force that provides powerful, behaviour-changing influence. It makes being that one teacher pupils most admire and respect easier than it’s ever been. Again, you don’t have to go to them, which in many cases makes pupils more uncomfortable.

Your calm, smiling face is a hug from afar, a balm to strained minds and emotions, a warm cabin in a frozen wasteland.

It’s funny, though, and ironic. If you think of The Law of Reciprocity as a strategy to employ, it’s not as effective. Children have a finely tuned BS meter. They can tell if you’re being inauthentic or manipulative.

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The giving of your kindness must come from the joy it brings to you. It must be a free gift without strings.

For when you give without expecting anything in return, which feels awesome, your pupils will bend over backwards to pay you back.

How to thrive during the upcoming Covid-19 school year Ready or not, it looks like most of us will be teaching back at school this term.

What that will look like is still up in the air. There are many more questions to be answered and policies to be ironed out—and probably will be up until the first day of school.

But despite the unknowns, and the stress that comes with them, a few things hold true. A few things and their importance to happy and effective teaching never change.

And it is these things—three of which you’ll find below—you can count on to guide you through the coming storm.

They’ll even, if you stay beneath their wide umbrella, enable you to thrive.

1. Boundaries We talk about it again and again as it is that important. Sharply defined boundaries in the form of a proven classroom management plan protect learning, ensure fairness, and make managing behaviour so much easier.

Especially in the midst of upheaval like a pandemic.

The many new protocols we’ll soon be following will make communication with pupils more difficult, heightening the need to manage your classroom with as few words as possible.

With a plan that every student understands inside and out, the teacher will have to do far less talking. In fact, enforcement can even be done silently.

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If you’ve been using a hodgepodge of classroom management methods in the past, or have only kinda-sorta followed a classroom management plan, this is the year to commit.

Otherwise, it may be the most difficult teaching experience you’ll ever have.

2. Organisation Covid-19 policies and procedures are only going to increase distractions for pupils, further threatening to undermine one of the biggest keys to effective teaching.

these things will give you the physical strength and mental heartiness to handle the inevitable frustrations and surprises to come.

Breathing, private quietude, and visualisation, especially before your pupils arrive each day, are going to be big factors in staying calm, healthy, and energetic for your pupils.

You must get to a place above the fray and craziness, so you can be the rock your pupils are going to need.

Determination

The happiest, most successful teachers are obsessed with organisation and maintaining a pin-neat classroom.

The reason, backed by science, is because fewer distractions equal better focus, listening, and behaviour.

When I was a new teacher thrown unprepared and unsupported into a difficult teaching situation, I was determined to love my job anyway.

In fact, I didn’t allow myself another choice.

It’s a direct relationship few teachers take advantage of.

I wasn’t going to give it time and see how things went. I wasn’t going to just try and hope for the best. I wasn’t going to give in or accept defeat. I was going to make it happen.

A clutter-free environment also sends the message that excellence is expected. It helps develop a culture of precision and careful work habits that envelops the classroom and transfers to everything you do.

Teachers who don’t have solid organisational habits and a strong sense of orderliness are going to struggle mightily this coming school year.

3. Preparation The school year is going to test us all.

And one critical way to fight back is with preparation. I don’t mean just lesson preparation, which is important and likely to require several key adjustments.

But also, and more urgently, your personal preparation.

Being at your best and most rested will be more important than ever before. Sleep, moderate exercise, leaving school at a decent hour …

PREP SCHOOL Reflecting the best in the prep & junior school world

I was going to rack my brain and make a thousand adjustments if I had to to bring peace and joy to my classroom. I was going to create an experience my pupils and I both loved, and that’s all there was to it.

I’ve since learned that this same attitude has helped scores of other teachers overcome their own challenging situations. It’s an attitude we’re all going to need to carry with us this autumn.

Given all the new policies, whatever they maybe, I know it will be a challenge.

But I have the same fight and determination as I had my first year of teaching.

I hope you’ll join me throughout this journey.

How to ease the strain on your pupils’ mental health Since the beginning of the lockdown, our pupils have seen their lives constricted down to a pinhole. Even though many restrictions have been lifted, they’re still unable to hang out with their friends the way they once did.

They are only just starting to play on sports teams, go to after-school clubs, and even build upon the close relationships that factor so prominently in their development.

Their entire social fabric has been ripped away.

They also have far less control than they once did. There are fewer decisions for them to make. Fewer adventures to experience. Fewer moments of excitement, adrenaline, and aliveness.

The enthusiasm that marks the many transitions to maturity and adulthood, and the blossoming freedoms that go with it, has been stunted.

Now, one day looks like the next, with nothing much to look forward to.

I apologise for harping on about the negative impact the changes are having on pupils, but it’s important as teachers for us to empathise as best we can with the isolation and discouragement they’re going through.

Only then can we begin to combat it.

Only by seeing the world through their eyes can we help them through it.

Teaching and reaching pupils until we’re back to “normal,” whenever that may be, is going to take creativity and openness to new ideas—or recommitment to old ones.

It’s going to take understanding and a shrewd, sceptical view of the recent past. We can’t simply take the same

curriculum and methods we were using in school and apply them online, or even in socially distanced classrooms.

It’s narrow and inflexible and, I fear, the approach many schools will push for in the autumn.

It’s up to us as teachers on the front line to both deliver good, doable lessons and maintain high expectations while keeping in mind the mental health challenges pupils are facing.

In that spirit, I want to share with you one very simple way to help ease feeling as if their whole world is spinning away.

It’s something that hopefully you’ve already been cognizant about using in your classroom, something that research shows may not affect learning, but will provide pupils more personal autonomy and control.

So what is it? It’s choice.

You see, when children have limited choices in their life, as they do now, they begin to lack a sense of their own value and worth—two areas that are being pummelled by social distancing mandates. Offering more choice can improve initiative, confidence, and problem solving skills. It can provide a sense of freedom that they all crave, now more than ever. It can give them back a bit of what it means to be human. That is, that they have a say in the direction of their life.

Choices, of course, must be given within the boundaries of your classroom management plan. You also have to be careful about giving too many, as this can cause them to freeze up and become indecisive. But offering a choice between a small few options, depending on which key stage, can only be a positive. It’s also easy for you and appreciated by

pupils. All it takes is a bit of thought and willingness not to be in control of everything. Some possibilities include giving choices of: •

Writing prompts.

•

Types of projects.

•

Read-alouds.

•

Ways to solve problems.

•

Ways to show their work.

•

Which questions to answer.

•

What experiments to do.

•

When to turn in work.

•

How to turn in work.

•

Mediums to work with.

•

Times to meet with you.

It’s seems like such a small thing, giving choices, and it was a few months ago. After all, it’s parenting and teaching 101. However, it now takes on a whole new level of significance. With more people showing signs of clinical anxiety and depression, many previously and barely noticeable areas of our lives have now grown into critical importance. Something taken for granted can explode into a necessity or in its absence become a strain on our mental health. Consistently giving choices can be just the balm our pupils need to get through the day.

At the very least, it can relieve some of the pressure. It can restore some of their self-worth.

It can give pupils some personal power and control at a time when they have very little of either.

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“PrepManagement, School” Magazine Full details of all these events are at www.satips.org/competitions “Prep School” is published times a year. It offers in Prep Schools Broadsheet articles are usually usuallythree written by practising practising Prep readers School teachers teachers with a Broadsheet articles are written by Prep School with broad range of authoritative articles educational emphasis occasional contributions from leaders inon their field. This Thismatters ensureswith that,an whatever occasional contributions from leaders in their field. ensures that, whatever Prep School Magazine on issues that concern all Prep Schools. the article article is is about, about, the the reader reader can can be certain certain that he he or she she will will not not only share share the ‘Prep School’ is published three be times a year.that It offersorreaders in preponly schools a subject and and age-group age-group relevance relevance but but also also cultural cultural assumptions: assumptions: eg eg parental subject broad range of authoritative on educational issues. parental What next?

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Writing for the Broadsheets encourages expectations or what “works”.

Writing articles for the Broadsheets encourages We are proud of what SATIPS offers.

With all Council members and Officers staff to to reflect reflect on on their their classroom classroom practice practice and and curriculum curriculum development. development. staff still working in Prep Schools we believe we understand demands on staff What next?

Joining SATIPS or seeking furtherthe information? working in schools and are here to support them.

We areare proud of what SATIPS offers.

With allwho, Council members and Officers Broadsheets edited

by Prep Prep School teachers with proven track records Broadsheets are edited by School teachers who, with proven track records stillinworking in prep schools weon believe we understand the demands on staff their field, have taken the role of subject ambassador. in their field,do have takenuson the role of subject ambassador.

Please contact ifand you more information and, for working in school arewould here go tolike support them.

For further information about the Broadsheets, to http://satips.org/ For further information about the Broadsheets, go to http://satips.org/ and, for or if we can be of any assistance. sight of of recent recent editions, editions, follow follow the the links links to to “Specimen “Specimen Broadsheets”.

Broadsheets”. sight Chair Chairman Moir CoursesBen and INSET Courses and INSET Lisa Newbould chair@satips.org SATIPS offers offers aa wide wide range range of training training courses, courses, Conferences Conferences SATIPS of chair@satips.org and other In-Service opportunities. and other In-Service opportunities.

Director of Education Courses can be accessed on the web-site web-site at http://satips.org/courses/ http://satips.org/courses/ Courses can be accessed on the at Director of Education Paul Jackson Paul Jackson Courses are are designed designed to to cover cover aaeducation@satips.org wide range of interests. interests. Attention Attention is is given given to to Courses wide range of education@satips.org course feed-back which helps to shape our programme.

School requests for course feed-back which helps to shape our programme. School requests for training is is particularly particularly encouraged.

General Secretary training encouraged.

Director of Training Bill Ibbetson-Price Sarah Kirby-Smith Course presenters are very carefully vetted.

Our aim aim is is always always to to make make use use of of gensec@satips.org Course presenters are very carefully vetted.

Our training@satips.org known experts in their field who are also first-class presenters. known experts in their field who are also first-class presenters.

Members schools receive receive aa substantial substantial discount discount on on course course fees. fees.

Members schools General Secretary

s and INSET Courses of training courses, Conferences SATIPS offers a wide range o ervice opportunities. and other In-Ser web-site at http://satips.org/courses/ Courses can be accessed on the w

de range of interests.

Attention is given to Courses are designed to cover a wide ape our programme.

School requests course feed-back whichfor helps to sha icularly encouraged. training is partic

vetted. Our aim is always to make ofcarefully v Course presenters areuse very who are also first-class presenters. known experts in their field w ubstantial discount on course fees.

Members schools receive a sub

Alec Synge GenSec@satips.org

SATIPS directory Officers President

Richard Tovey MBE

Chairman Ben Moir chair@satips.org Vice Presidents

Trevor Mulryne & David Kendall

General Secretary Bill Ibbetson-Price gensec@satips.org

Finance Director Stephen Coverdale finance@satips.org Director of Paul Jackson Education education@satips.org Communications Ellen Manning Administrator ellen@ellenmanning.co.uk

Members of Council Emma Goodbourn (nedgoodbourn@yahoo.co.uk)

Paul Baker (pb3448@gmail.com)

Brenda Marshall (brendamarshall@supanet.com)

Paul Mason (paulmason@crossfields.com)

Mark Middleton (markmiddleton@orwellpark.org)

Alayne Parsley (a.parsley@cheltenhamcollege.org)

SATIPS Broadsheet editors Art

Jan Miller, Moreton Hall (millerj@moretonhall.com)

Classics

Emiliana Damiani, Pinewood School (emilianadamiani@pinewoodschool.co.uk)

Nicholas Richards, Christ Church College (richards.n@cccs.org.uk)

Design Technology

Jan Miller, Moreton Hall (millerj@moretonhall.com)

Drama

Stacie Bates, Walhampton School (s.bates@walhampton.com)

English

Charlotte Weatherley, Knighton House (charlotte.e.weatherley@gmail.com)

Geography

Ben Mono, Eagle House (ben.mono@eaglehouseschool.com)

History

Matthew Howorth, Twickenham Prep (mhoworth@twickenhamprep.co.uk)

ICT Mathematics

Mark Templeman, Brockhurst and Marlston House Schools (m.templeman@brockmarl.org) Matthew Reames (mreames@gmail.com)

Modern Foreign Languages

Richard Smith (tricks6543@gmail.com)

Music

Claire Tomsett, Wetherby Prep (claire.tomsett-rowe@wetherbyprep.co.uk)

Mark Penrose, Bilton Grange (msp@biltongrange.co.uk)

Pastoral Development & PSHCE

Jenny Burrett, Wishford Schools (jenburrett@gmail.com)

Physical Education & Games

Liz Durden-Myers (liz.myers@scholary.com)

Pre-prep

Sam Weeks, Stamford Junior School (slweeks@ses.lincs.sch.uk)

RE education@satips.org Science Luke Busfield, Ludgrove (emmaandluke154@btinternet.com) Senior management

Christopher Parsons, Norwich Lower School (cparsons@norwich-school.org.uk)

Special Needs/Learning Development Claire Thurlby, St Faith’s, Cambridge (cthurlby@stfaith’s.co.uk) Classroom Management

86

Mark Philpott, The Elms, Trent College (markypotts1@yahoo.co.uk)

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