It was such a pleasure to attend the schools show this month, an incredible display of schools and their particular edges. I saw some with which I was already familiar-Marlborough College, Roedean, St Edward’s, The Dragon, Beneden-but what was much more exciting was to experience a new set of values or indeed schools that I hadn’t heard of before.
One was a school that was exclusively for children with Dyslexia, Frewen College. This was one of the first schools I spoke to and, I must say, from whom I received the most enthusiastic school-spiel. It was so refreshing to speak to people who talked about learning particularities as though they were an asset, a binding force between students, rather some kind of ailment. With dyslexic students, there are some learning features that need to be tended to, in the same way as someone in a wheelchair would not be expected to climb a set of stairs, but in other ways dyslexia was viewed as a source of imaginational and creative power.
Creativity was something of a buzz word at the event but most of the schools actually meant it! Maybe we are all feeling over-wrought by the rise of AI and realising that the wellbeing movement requires a different view on schooling. Thomas’s, for example, was started by an actress! The creative arts are strongly promoted across their schools and they just opened a new Sixth Form which I really can’t wait to visit. Knightsbridge also talked about the need of creative open-mindedness now more than ever.
Worth was another that I felt resonated as having its eyes and ears on something outside of academic rigour, which given that I went to Oxford High, was particularly attractive to hear. They are a Catholic school that accepts about 50% non-faith students. This in itself is interesting and speaks to the flexibility that all traditions can have in accommodating differences. But it was its values printed boldly on the back of the brochure that really spoke to me: Humility, Silence, Worship, Community, Service and Stewardship. In some ways these are not so dissimilar to the traditional sacraments of Catholicism but presented as the values that underpin the ethos of a school that accepts other faiths meant they took on new meaning. Apparently, the students carry these values with them throughout the school.
A charming event. I met some really wonderful people and I’m looking forward to meeting more this year.
