James McIntosh, Director of Marrapatta Outdoor Education Centre, and Carol McIntosh, Outdoor Education Teacher, consider the process of adults evolving into redundancy by developing adolescents’ independence.
Mr Brendon Thomas, Director of Technologies, looks at the importance of the study of design and digital technologies in schools to develop and nurture the next generation of entrepreneurs.
‘The most important thing in life is not winning but taking part; the essential thing in life is not conquering but fighting well.’ – Pierre Baron de Coubertin. Sport teaches us so many valuable life lessons, which can be transferred into everyday life and for the greater good.
‘Do you have a lower attention span than a goldfish?’ The Dean of Studies and Planning, Ms Natalie Smith, looks at recent research into the effects of media multitasking on student learning and the correlation with a reduction in attention spans.
Students completing Year 12 have the option of taking a ‘gap year’ to travel and experience the world. For those student who undertake a gap year, the benefits far outweigh the costs. A range of academic, social and cultural benefits results from gap year experiences, including linguistic and cultural immersion, and working and living abroad.
Year 7 and 8 students are all participating the School’s unique and tailor-made Philosophy of Learning course. Students explore issues such as: organisation, mindset, failure, resilience, brain science, metacognition and thinking skills. Our approach emphasizes the learning journey and that success is not necessarily always linear. In fact students are encouraged to view disappointment as a wonderful opportunity for growth. Year 7 students were asked to write a poem encapsulating as much as they could about their Philosophy of Learning journey during their first term at the School. Jessica’s poem was a wonderful expression of how she had internalised the term’s curriculum. We are who we are and that is good enough. It is all about our achievement and while beating someone else is a bonus it should never consume us. When we fail, learn to fail well and try be better next time. Resilience is no more than experience lived well. To be inquisitive and…
The teenage brain is a wondrous organ, capable of immense stimulation and stunning feats of learning. Mrs Anne Ingram, Dean of Students, examines current research into the development of the teenage brain and explains how it is fit for purpose.
Ms Alysia Stark, Head of England House, investigates how adolescent mental health is impacted by food and nutrition intake.
Dr Kay Kimber, Director of the Centre for Professional Practice, considers the integral role of trust in personal and professional relationships.
‘… the historian’s picture of the past is … in every detail an imaginary picture …’ As a teacher of history, I sometimes wonder about the mysterious space that exists between my understanding and that of my students’. It is not just a matter of my knowing more than they do but rather, how the image that I try to create might be received by them; whether I can make them see what I see. Of course the process of learning is far more complex than the transferral of knowledge directly from teacher to student (it’s not, after all, about reading the teacher’s mind). Nevertheless the question of how we ‘see’ history is an interesting one.