With so much media focus on education across both the maintained and independent sectors, it seems barely a day goes by without another story from the chalkface where a carousel of experts espouse their views on what needs to happen in the country’s schools and classrooms.
With new educational initiatives coming and going with nearly the same regularity as Secretaries of State for Education (record holder: Michelle Donelan, holder of the post for 36 hours!), perhaps it may be a good time to take a breath, to move away from political infighting and the rigid ideological preconceptions about schools that seem to feature at national level and take a moment to explore local reality.
The reality at St Joseph’s School, set in Launceston on the Cornwall and Devon Border, is that we do not conform to any of the oft repeated stereotypes of independent education that provide ammunition for policies that currently feature in the national press. In contrast, we are a setting where we are truly independent, and thus able to provide an educational experience that is as unique as individual children are.
We are a place where children are provided with opportunities to excel, and where we are passionate about every aspect of their education. As should be the case in every school this is a place where children of all abilities have every opportunity to shine, where we celebrate differences, where we encourage all members of our community to live the values of care, compassion and community that are central to our every day, and not just to our ethos.
One advantage of real independence is that we need not impose any one-size-fits-all approach to the classroom lives of the children in our care.
This is important because it is not a one-size-fits-all world that we are preparing them to take their places in.
Our belief is in lessons that are engaging, that are varied and that make room for teaching styles that will change from lesson to lesson. No adult would expect undue regimentation and repetition every day of their working lives: children are no different. So much of a school is about children being children, and positive teachers guiding them to become adults who can positively contribute to their own future success, and who then support those around them.
With independence comes opportunity, and one such opportunity is to believe in the power of positive relationships to make a difference to the lives of children.
Let teachers teach, let children learn – in the widest sense of the word – and let education be the preserve of those who care most about children, and not those seeking political advancement through pronouncements and policies that are intended to create today’s headlines rather than tomorrow’s adults.
Oliver Scott