I have had a thought-provoking week! I spent the first part of it in St. Andrews at the HMC conference. The assembled head teachers of the top 250 independent schools heard from a range of fascinating speakers, from Lord Winston to Professor A.C.Grayling as well as focusing on the direction for the independent sector, and HMC schools in particular. What was really heart-warming was to see the professional focus on the big question of what school is for. There is a strong feeling abroad that somehow our schools are bastions of wealth and privilege. This is simply not the case. We are not rich, on the whole; we offer wide access through bursaries, scholarship schemes, and partnerships with state schools; we have a huge and diverse range of nationalities and backgrounds among our pupil bodies. However, we are also centres of excellence in teaching and learning. We offer unrivalled opportunities for our students in order to prepare them for their lives beyond school. We do this job better, according to independently educated university students, than the universities do. This is something which university speakers such as Professor Grayling agreed with. Faced with a depressed graduate job market universities are beginning to accept the fact that narrowness of study for undergraduates and a lack of pastoral support are not preparing students for life beyond Academia. At Leighton Park we can shout loudly about our successes in these areas...and perhaps we have never done so loudly enough?
Our students are encouraged to develop throughout their time here as mature, rounded human beings with a concern for the world, surrounded by a loving community which encourages them to respect one another, and within an international context of a school with some thirty different nationalities. We have begun work on a truly groundbreaking new curriculum, which will go live in 2012. Based on the school's values; containing activities which encourage collaboration; the development of skills; pupil leadership of learning; rigorous, but not oppressive, assessment; and the highest of expectations, this curriculum will develop learners who are adventurous, and seek to understand in depth. Today I was in London for the Westminster Education Forum, which sought to set out the priorities and challenges facing education within the next twelve months. The speakers ranged from Head teachers, politicians,union officials and journalists. These were the movers and shakers within and around government who sit on select committees, lobby ministers, or speak out from the opposition benches. A consensus was clearly emerging: that education is changing to reflect the future which our children will face. It is important to tear up the rule book, reassess the ways in which we measure educational performance, and think again about the ways in which we assess children. We must return to our children and their teachers the sheer joy of a learning journey within the classroom. It was inspirational at times, and very reassuring that Leighton Park is already focusing on thrilling, not drilling, students. Education is our opportunity. School is the place in which a child can flourish. Schools should not merely be examination sausage machines, but places of wonder, excitement and adventure in which children can achieve their potential. The greatest of all the speakers at the HMC conference was, in my opinion, John Abbott, the author of an extraordinary book "Over-schooled but Under-educated". He challenged us by reminding us as head teachers of our responsibility to develop learners who were critical, ethical and sensitive. He expressed the huge importance in developing creativity, compassion and idealism. I am reassured, stepping back into school and attending the book launch of our latest anthology of Leighton Park creative writing, War, What is it Good For..? that our students are being educated in the right way, not only within a Quaker context, but in terms of their preparedness for the World. And while I am prepared to shout this as loudly as possible, we are neither smug, nor complacent. The values we place at the heart of all that we do as a school must be vigilantly upheld. At the forefront of educational thinking, we have a deep responsibility to our children, their parents, and the wider community. Leighton Park is at the crest of a wave in terms of the national education debate. we must ride it successfully, confidently and adventurously.