Pupils
The other half
Michael Windsor explains how Abingdon gives pupils a proper confidence What is character education? Recent Secretaries of State for Education have espoused its importance and Damian Hines recently unveiled a plan to establish ‘five foundations’ for building character across the state sector. We probably all have our own definitions of what character education might mean, and certainly independent schools have for a long time placed the development of character at the heart of their mission. Indeed, in 1862 the Head of Loretto listed his priorities in this order: ‘First – Character. Second – Physique. Third – Intelligence. Fourth – Manners. Fifth – Information.’ A quick trawl through school websites today confirms that personal development remains very important to our schools, with the enhancement of confidence often emphasised. It was certainly this aspect of character education that The Times picked up on in their report on Mr Hines’ recent announcement, their headline proclaiming: ‘All pupils will have the chance of gaining public school swagger’. I felt the choice of headline was both unfortunate and inaccurate. That phrase ‘public school swagger’ grates because it draws on outdated representations of our sector and does not reflect
what today’s independent schools are all about. I believe we would all agree that confidence has nothing to do with ‘swagger’ or arrogance but rather comes from allowing young people to be at ease with themselves and simply to be the person they want to be. In preparing pupils for the future, we need to help them grow the inner confidence that allows them to ride out tough times by fostering fundamental values such as integrity, humility and kindness, rather than nurturing an unwarranted and artificial sense of entitlement. How can we help our pupils develop this sense of inner confidence? Let’s start with life outside the classroom. Abingdon is renowned for the ‘Other Half’, a term that reflects our commitment to the importance of extra-curricular activities. The Other Half plays a key part in the personal development of our pupils as it allows them to challenge themselves in a huge range of activities. An advantage of the relatively large size of Abingdon is the sheer range of extra-curricular opportunities that we can make available – over 120 at the last count. This means that the Other Half can accommodate every possible
Summer 2019
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