Breadth of learning
In today’s exam-laden culture, it is more important than ever to extend the process of learning beyond the classroom walls and to find ways to inspire, excite and enthuse students.
Within the academic curriculum, this takes the form of extending the boundaries of all subjects to ensure they are interesting and relevant. Geographers, for instance, go on their first field trip within a month of arriving at the school at 11; by the time an A Level student leaves she will typically have been to rivers and farms, Normandy, Oxford and Reading, Arran, Snowdonia and the Alps. Politics students visit the Houses of Commons and Lords and take part in Model United Nations General Assemblies, while those studying Sixth Form English spend a “literature immersion” weekend on the Isle of Wight, doing nothing but reading and being read to amid the glorious scenery loved by poets and novelists from Tennyson to Plath.
Outside the curriculum, the opportunities are many, varied and often require considerable commitment and enterprise.