A great discovery Director of Performance, Richard Fletcher

in ‘proper’ prep schools were encouraged to turn their hand to multiple, varied disciplines, games and arts, as well as indulge in academic learning beyond the core subjects. The benefits of this broad engagement often were reflected in later life, not least through a ‘have-a-go’ attitude, or in appreciating how their exposure to such eclectic disciplines at a young age benefited them in the diverse and multidisciplinary world they entered.

This all changed in the middle of the 20th century, however. The rapid emergence of families with extensive disposable income saw an explosion of interest in public schools and, consequently, prep schools. Parents saw not only the advantage of a broad education for their children but also recognised the benefits of networking — for their children and themselves — offered through membership of these elite, high-status schools. With demand exceeding supply, the senior schools resorted to competitive entry to choose pupils and, ultimately, a significant number of independent secondary schools became selective.

With the pressure on ever-younger children to prove their cognitive or academic ability for these senior school tests, prep schools had to change the emphasis in their curriculum. Many positioned themselves as being preeminently capable of preparing children to pass the senior school assessments. Gradually, the wide curriculum of games, liberal arts study and wider creative indulgence effectively was supplanted in favour of a prep school’s stated ability to prepare for tests and get the results. Sport, school plays and occasional talks on wide-ranging topics were still offered, but the emphasis shifted to a relatively narrow form of cognitive and academic preparation and an ongoing, often desperate need for parents to ensure that their child was one step ahead of other pupils.

Make no mistake, the consequences of this shift have been disastrous. Many of our prep schools now produce children who might score very highly and demonstrate great competence in problem solving and show an ability to memorise and employ high-level cognitive skills. But too many of their pupils do not have the desire to learn or to try different or difficult things because to do so could be associated not with the possibility of enjoyment and engagement, but with the possibility of failure.

Alarmingly, studies show that here in the UK we have some of the unhappiest children in the world. I believe that the state of mind of our children is directly connected to the educational culture we expect them to endure. Our model of success is focused primarily on narrow forms of attainment. But not everybody can achieve the highest scores and so too many young children will feel that they have failed at an age when they ought still to be exploring their as-yet undiscovered talents, interests and skills. It is no wonder that the wellbeing of so many children has been compromised when they believe that their worth is measured only by the scores they attain and the senior schools they get into.

I agree that education at prep school age must incorporate good preparation for the inevitable tests and assessments. But it must also be about enabling young people to recognise that not everybody is the same and that we develop our innumerable strengths and skills at different ages and in varying degrees of intensity. Whether children are four, eight, 11 or 13, prep schools ought to be obliged to provide them with a rounded set of experiences so that each child enjoys and endures both success and failure, knows the pleasure of discovering something new and recognises the value of resilience, teamwork and creativity of thought. In other words, the real value that should be offered at proper prep schools, is to inculcate children with the belief that there are multiple ways to succeed. A broad and rich multitude of experiences will ensure that we create a new legion of community-minded future citizens with knowledge that is able to develop into the wisdom that they need to succeed in the future.

The best prep schools are those which continue to have great confidence in the principles that the Clarendon Commission originally recognised as a truly excellent education. These schools provide wide and generous opportunities for their pupils to discover, to spark curiosity and an appreciation of creativity, and critically, give children the permission to be different rather than present an expectation to conform.

It is now more important than ever that we as educators articulate to parents and wouldbe-parents as to what the important things are in education. Children must be given the chance to discover and experience exposure to multiple different intelligences. Parents need to be able to see and then relate to examples of this progress and growth from those who have gone through this process. We need to create some form of connection to the parents’ own experiences, both in school as well as in their adult life, and use those recollections to explain to them why this is important for their children.

We should encourage parents to look beyond the list of schools a prep feeds, or the scores and awards that are achieved. These are commendable and not irrelevant. But it is more important now than ever that parents invest more attention and interest in appreciating the depth and substance of a full and varied curriculum, one that recognises and celebrates different intelligences, and ways and paces of learning.

Children get only one shot at childhood, let’s make certain that they can revel in the joys of discovery and learning, and not spend it worrying about getting to the next stage. n

The Dukes Conference in January 2023 marks the high point of the company’s nascent Learning and Development programme. It’s been quite a journey, says Director of Performance, Richard Fletcher

Early in the New Year of 2023, Dukes Education staff will gather for the Dukes Education Conference. A world-class conference, bringing together some of the finest thinkers, leaders and pedagogues in the UK, it will bring us all together to connect and discover new ideas. One of our founding values is ‘We love to learn’; the conference speakers are experts in the fields of Wellbeing, Teaching and Learning, and Sustainability — the three strands of the conference — and it will give us all ample opportunity to learn more about our professional and personal selves. It will also mark an important staging-post in my own journey of discovery in my role at Dukes.

When Aatif Hassan, Chairman and Founder of Dukes Education, approached me in 2019, asking me to put together a first-rate learning and development offering at Dukes, I have to admit I felt rather daunted. Having spent 20 years teaching maths to teenagers and trying to resolve arguments between pupils, parents, and teachers,

this was an entirely different challenge. Where once my role was in the classroom, supporting students with their learning and pastoral care, my new role as Director of Performance at Dukes was about informing and empowering adult staff in their own journeys of discovery.

Faced with what was, at the time, a blank canvas, the first thing I needed to discover was, ‘What is the need?’. And how can we meet this need? For me, these questions have always spoken to the purpose and outcome of education; to connect intimately with the needs there are in the world and to meet them as fully as we can. The questions have formed something of a mantra for me over the course of my career and have helped me anchor my everyday actions to something purposeful. That mantra is ‘See the Need, Meet the Need’. These words were just as applicable to me as I put my mind to what might comprise this Learning and Development (L&D) offering.

So, when I first joined Dukes, I spent my first few months meeting staff across the community and I was able to ask them these questions: ‘What are the needs here?’ and ‘How can Dukes help to meet them?’. What I learned was that people at Dukes had a strong desire to connect, collaborate and discover.

Collaboration and the Dukes Hub One of the key themes raised was people’s desire to meet others from across the organisation to create a supportive community of educational professionals. So, that is where we began, with collaborative learning. This is founded on the belief that there is great knowledge held in the community itself. All that is needed for this to be released is a space to be created to share and someone to lead it.

This led to two initiatives: the Dukes Hub and the Champions initiative. The Dukes Hub — an online learning and development portal for staff — was created when the COVID pandemic hit. Its purpose was to be a place where the outcomes of connections, collaborations and conversations could be housed and stored so that future generations of educators could benefit from the accumulated knowledge and wisdom captured in its channels and folders. The Hub requires the community to build it — it is not something which can be placed into the hands of one or two people.

The Dukes Champions are leaders in their subject fields. Alongside collecting, creating and curating

content for the Dukes Hub, one of the roles of a Dukes Champion is to bring together the community to share best practice and consider ways in which their area of focus can be developed. In this way, we hope to bring more purposeful CPD to our community, as they are designed and organised by the people who really know the need on the ground.

Further conversations across the Dukes community, often on leadership programmes, have also revealed a core principle. It is not necessarily a lack of knowledge or skill which stops someone from bringing their A-game; it is often an issue to do with energy levels. What gets in the way of someone being at their best are more often internal factors than external ones. Because of this, it is important that we work at that level when we talk about learning and development. This is a journey of self-discovery, and it requires greater levels of connection, not just with the external world but our own internal world as well.

So, when seeking for an answer to the question ‘What is the need right now?’, I discovered that connection and the quality of that connection play a significant role. Our connections need to be fostered and developed, whether that be connection with the world and nature, connection with others, or connection with ourselves.

Learning and Development framework With this in mind and with the help of many people across the Dukes community, we have developed a framework which reflects this philosophy of discovery, connection and engagement and incorporates what we believe are the most important aspects of L&D. This framework informs our training offering at Dukes, an offering designed to help deepen skills, raise levels of confidence and support individuals to become more effective professionals.

Through the delivery of the L&D programme, we are not only seeking to offer an uplift in professional knowledge and understanding but also seeking to provide our people with an opportunity to learn something about themselves as well. It is this element of self-discovery which really speaks to the heart of what is meant by development at Dukes and is often a forgotten element of learning and development programmes and offerings. Development is multi-faceted and involves not only the acquisition of new and useful knowledge but also the letting go of what is unnecessary or unhelpful.

Our L&D offering We need professional knowledge and skill to function in our jobs effectively. The acquisition of professional knowledge and skill makes us better at what we do, it is enjoyable, it can bring a sense of achievement, it can lead to career progression, and it satisfies our inquisitive nature. Over the course of the last couple of years we have

built a programme that seeks to support the development of the individuals in this area.

Like our community, it is diverse and covers the broad range of needs across the community with a focus on six main areas namely, Leadership & Management, Teaching & Learning, Mental Health & Wellbeing, Pastoral & Safeguarding, and Operations.

As an educational organisation, we also need to focus time on how we relate to others; being able to inspire others, and lead in our relationships. This is a challenging and complex area. Leadership Programmes and stand-alone modules dedicated to coaching, social understanding, and effective communication all help but we must go deeper to address the core factor governing our ability to connect with others — self-leadership. Self-Leadership is comprised of self-awareness and selfregulation and addresses our inner world.

As we journey through life and our careers, it is necessary to address our inner world to release our energy and potential. After all, it is our inner world which governs how we show up, our energy levels, and how we relate to others. Our inner world has a greater impact on our professional lives than how much we know.

But how can we address this complex area of selfdevelopment? How do we help our staff discover more about themselves? Our leadership programmes seek to address this by committing time to self-reflection, and in doing so shine a light on personal values, passions and motivations. We explore why we behave or feel the way we do, developing an awareness of our patterns of thinking and behaviour. This not only gives an individual a sense of what aspects of themselves are helpful but also those aspects and patterns of behaviour which may be unhelpful. This raising of our levels of awareness helps us to increase our power of choice and agency and ultimately helps us to step free from those things which are getting in the way.

When we step free of the obstacles in our way, there is a huge release of energy, and we are able to be our best selves. This is incredibly important, especially in the education sector. The quality of any interaction is often governed by the nature of connection and our ability to connect is governed by energy. So, our offering should seek to present people with an opportunity to release their energy and potential. This requires us to create the space where people can slow down and reflect. That is when the magic happens. Our ‘Foundations of Leadership’ module is focused on this area and seeks to begin this journey.

We will bring all these elements together in January 2023 as we gather for our Dukes Education Conference in Wembley. It is a fantastic opportunity to connect with each other, to discover new ideas and leave inspired and energised. n