Drawing out unique potential, Gareth Turnbull-Jones

Drawing out unique potential Gareth Turnbull-Jones describes the process of building a culture of student wellbeing through Cognitive Coaching and outdoor education

At the beginning of 2013, I heard about an opportunity to be part of a start-up school called Halcyon London International School. The school would be the only not for profit, co-educational and exclusively International Baccalaureate (IB) school in central London. The prospect was exciting and not the type of opportunity that often comes around. The key to my interest was in the mission of the school, which is ‘to provide an exceptional education that draws out the unique potential of each student’ (Halcyon, 2019a). In particular, the ‘unique potential’ aspect stood out to me. It left me with the question ‘how can a school ensure it provides the opportunity for its students to reach their unique potential?’

When Halcyon opened to students in September 2013, there were just 33 students ranging from year seven to ten. The small number of students was key to meeting our mission. We developed a number of structures to support their wellbeing, of which one was to provide a vertical form group structure that we called Advisories. This provided an opportunity for students from different grades to interact with each other, which was especially important with small class sizes. The structure enabled students to make more social connections and feel welcomed in the school.

Another element of the programme was to dedicate one hour a week to personal learning. During this time, students could work on any project they wished, thus providing an opportunity for individualised learning and the development of autonomous skills. Students utilised this time for a diverse range of activities, from working on mosaics to learning their mother tongue language, from developing apps to learning to juggle.

As Halcyon grew, it became clear that more formal and research informed structures needed to be applied to maintain the individuality of the student experience. After two years, the school created a Senior Leadership position in student wellbeing. When I began as Student Wellbeing Leader, I spent the first year exploring research, visiting and observing model practices and analysing ideas from within our community. A few key elements from this research informed the development of a wellbeing policy. These included Cognitive Coaching training, school visits, the work of Kurt Hahn and The Outward Bound Trust

Training as a cognitive coach and learning about the research associated with improving the efficacy of organisations (Costa and Garmston, 2015; Edwards, 2018) helped to provide the backbone to the policy. It was clear that in order to support a young person’s wellbeing, one must create an environment and culture that develops the skills to enable them to be selfdirected learners and critical thinkers. The practice of Cognitive Coaching can support this by developing active listening and meditative questioning skills. Through visiting other schools, it became evident that one-to-one relationships would allow Halcyon to have the framework to cognitively coach the students through their learning and social development and provide each student with their own personal staff advocate.

One of the final pieces of developing the wellbeing policy connected to the outdoors. Whilst studying for an MA in International Education, I became an advocate of the work of Kurt Hahn. To gain a full understanding of his work, you should read Schools across Frontiers (Peterson, 2003), but, briefly, Hahn believed that education should be holistic, that people should not stand by in the face of injustice, and that people should pursue their passion. Hahn was influential in driving these ideals in education. With others, he founded several organisations that promote these beliefs, two of which were already being used at Halcyon - the International Baccalaureate and The Outward Bound Trust. The next steps would be to create with the Trust a continuum of outdoor learning that would support the structures used within the school. The aim of this outdoor programme would be to develop key affective skills (emotional management, perseverance, resilience, mindfulness and motivation) that would be important for developing selfdirection and supporting the wellbeing of students.

After a year of exploration, a student wellbeing policy was put into place. The policy is wide-ranging (figure 1.) and by putting wellbeing at the heart of what we do it helps to frame conversations and decisions in all aspects of school life.

Figure 1. The multiple-facets covered within Halcyon’s Student Wellbeing Policy (Halcyon, 2019b)

There are three key areas that the policy supports: • Student Advocacy: Developing skills in participation, accountability, political literacy, open-mindedness and tolerance. • Cognitive Coaching & Mentoring: Finding time to give and receive attention, to develop listening skills, to reflect and consolidate experience and to build meaning and purpose from our experiences. • Student Leadership: Providing opportunities to develop decision-making, communication skills and the negotiation of ideas, offering a real autonomy and control in key areas of school life. (Halcyon, 2017) It is important to note that the Cognitive Coaching and Mentoring has been vital in supporting the mission and enabling students to reach their unique potential. All staff are cognitive coach trained, developing skills in active listening, paraphrasing, meditative questioning, goal setting, reflecting and problem resolving. Each student is given a staff mentor and spends four hours every two weeks with their mentor. During this time students receive a 15-minute one-to-one coaching conversation and spends the additional time either working on a passion of theirs or developing service learning projects. This programme has improved upon the initial programmes set up by the school and has supported student wellbeing through the connections made between mentors and students.

Within the Student Wellbeing Policy, outdoor education was given a specific role in student development. The aims of Halcyon’s outdoor residential programmes are to support the affective competencies of the individual and to develop collaboration and their role in the Halcyon community. With the support of Outward Bound, we developed a programme of outdoor education that becomes progressively more challenging as the students get older.

Our programme runs from year seven to twelve with the students returning yearly to The Trust. The programme culminates with a week trip at the start of year twelve, during which students work on their leadership skills to support them in becoming leaders in our community, and includes a two-day expedition led by the students. Our students have benefited significantly from their experiences on their residential trips. Outward Bound has supported us in creating a cohesive cohort of students, which is very important in student wellbeing when considering a culture of agency and leadership.

Halcyon is now six years old and has 180 students. Our work in student wellbeing has been paramount to the success of the school in striving towards its mission. Students are listened to and supported, enabling them to fearlessly seek their passions and achieve their unique potential. There have been a number of success stories, including students who have previously refused to attend other schools who are now flourishing in our environment and going on to study at university.

When I reflect on the outdoor residentials there are many key moments, including sitting on top of Cader Idris with the sensational backdrop of the Llyn Peninsula, listening to student reflections on their perseverance. It is always inspiring to see students support each other in stepping out of their comfort zone, whether it be canoeing on the Dyfi Estuary, completing a gorge walk or scaling a mountain. The skills and strategies they learn and develop on the outdoor residential trips support them when they return to school and enable them to cope and flourish, whatever challenges may come their way.

Gareth Turnbull-Jones is Student Wellbeing Support at

Halcyon London International School, London and future Headteacher at Landmark International School, Cambridge

References

Costa, Arthur L., and Robert J. Garmston. Cognitive Coaching: Developing SelfDirected Leaders and Learners. United States: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 31 July 2015. Edwards, Jenny. Cognitive Coaching: A Synthesis of the Research. United States: Thinking Collaborative, January 2018. Halcyon London International School. https://halcyonschool.com/about/ Accessed: 25 March 2019a. Halcyon London International School. https://halcyonschool.com/studentwellbeing/ Accessed: 25 March 2019b. Halcyon London International School. Student Wellbeing Policy. United Kingdom: Halcyon London International School, 2017. Peterson, Alexander D. C., and Prince of Wales Charles. Schools across Frontiers: The Story of the International Baccalaureate and the United World Colleges. United States: Open Court Publishing Co, U.S., 1 May 2003.