REFLECTIONS ON THE YEAR

I read an article recently which really resonated with me and made me consider this recent period we have navigated through in school. It was written by Dr Pippa Grange, who, amongst other high-profile roles, was Head of People and Team Development at the Football Association, working closely with the England football team ahead of and during the World Cup in 2018. The article was called: Win Deep, Not Shallow, and is summarised below:

Winning shallow comes when we’re winning to avoid not being good enough. Winning to beat the other guy. Winning to be seen as good enough. It’s winning born of comparison and self-doubt—and it’s not tied to our worth.

Winning deep, on the other hand, is where you actually can feel the richness of your journey. You are attached to the joy and the struggle. You are attached to the mess, and it is generally done for reasons of genuine fulfilment. It is done more from somewhere deep within ourselves — it’s done because we can and because there’s a wild desire in it.

Dr Pippa Grange

It’s hard isn’t it, as ‘winning’ (whatever that means) is presented to us as the ‘alpha’ and ‘omega’ of life, from early childhood. I’m sure that for many of us, our experience of school as a child is based on marks and comparison. We are taught competition from when we are maybe six or seven years old. Shallow winning is, alas, the most advertised type of victory.

So, when I reflect on a school year and, as you will see for yourselves in the pages which follow, I like to think about the achievements and successes, not only the academic but, equally importantly, the social and emotional ones too. Here at Sherborne Qatar, we pride ourselves on our six Moral Values and six Learning Dispositions and how we aim for these to support the children in their learning – to ‘win deep’.

Through the introduction of The Sherborne WAY this year, we are trialling the formative assessment of these intangibles (through an e-portfolio of ‘evidence’) – our Learning Dispositions: Curiosity, Creativity, Communication, Risk-taking, Resilience and Independence; and our Moral Values: Honesty, Perseverance, Teamwork, Resilience, Respect & Kindness, because we believe so much in their importance. This will run throughout the children’s last 3 years of school (Years 4, 5 & 6), culminating in children being awarded certificates, in Year 6, at the end of the 3 years. Expectations will increase each year for the children, starting in Year 4: Laying the Foundations, through Year 5: Developing Awareness, and finishing in Year 6: Consolidating and Leading the WAY.

A study published in the American Journal of Public Health (2015), found that social and emotional skills are the biggest predictors of future success. We know that we live in a fast-changing world where ever increasing demands on time and energy have created an environment which can be overwhelming, as we find ourselves pulled in many different directions. These pressures will only increase for our children. With the power of the internet and social media, they are already exposed to and have to deal with far more social pressures than when we were at school and the fast pace of life, created by technology, will only further increase when they enter the workplace.

We also know that the road to success and happiness is paved with bumps along the way. It is the same for everyone but it is those who have the self-confidence, developed through these dispositions and values, who are able to reframe adversity into something positive, who are able to bounce back and move forward, leading to progress and mental calm who will be successful.

It is our job, as educators, to help the children develop these attributes in order to give them the best support for what lies ahead. The best way to do this is to expose them to as many different experiences as possible, both in and out of the classroom: experiences which will challenge them, experiences at which they may fail at first, but experiences through which we can support them to grow mentally. This is what has formed the foundations of our curriculum and it will continue to be developed.

Our year was disrupted again when we were thrown into Blended and Online Learning at various times. I would formally like to thank you, the parents, for the fantastic support you gave your children whilst juggling your own lives, our children for your hard work and endless enthusiasm and the staff who really went above and very much beyond, both with home learning and the many variations of what this looked like. Thank you all for making a tough time as productive as you did.

All this has been with the backdrop of ‘bubbles’ in school, which required both the children and staff to meet the adversity of a strange, segregated world. They did this admirably, developing their inner strength more and more each day.

As we reach the end of the academic year there are staff leaving who have helped to create these wonderful experiences for the children, who have helped us to navigate through these toughest of times and, as a school, come out the other side stronger, reinforced with two incredibly successful school inspections this year. I and Sherborne Qatar, will be forever grateful.

I am also grateful to: Louise, Chris, John, Andy, Colin and Antonia – who leave the Sherborne Qatar family for new adventures. Truly: Thank You. You have left your footprint in the fabric of our wonderful school.

Also, thank you to Mrs Sarah Bennett, who is transferring to Sherborne Qatar Junior School as Deputy Head. We look forward to creating more wonderful learning opportunities as our family grows.

So, please remember at Sherborne Qatar our aim is always to ‘win deep.’

Nick Fawcett Headmaster

THE SHERBORNE WAY

– Wholeness, Aspirational, You

With our children at the centre of our thoughts, as a school we have carefully considered what we do and why we do it. Taking the National Curriculum as our starting point we enhanced it, so that it blends the very best current practice from the UK with transferable skills in an international setting, right across our school day and including trips, fixtures, and residential visits. We call this The Sherborne WAY.

With a genuine desire to expose our children to a well-rounded education we have carefully crafted a model whereby, in conjunction with their teachers, pupils assess themselves against a curriculum woven around the thread of our moral Values: Respect, Responsibility, Teamwork, Honesty, Kindness and Perseverance, and our Learning Dispositions: Communication, Creativity, Curiosity, Independence, Resilience and Risk-taking. Pupils build an electronic portfolio of evidence over the last three years of their time in school, culminating in achieving The Sherborne WAY Diploma at the end of Year 6.

So, as well as achieving in the classroom across their academic studies, pupils also get the opportunity to develop their wider, more transferable skills, becoming children who are well-educated The Sherborne WAY.