Not a race

As I said last week we want our pupils to approach learning with wonder, with an unquenchable thirst and with humility. Two of my School Captains helped out with an online open afternoon for prospective parents this afternoon. They mentioned (without prompting) that you could count on teachers/ staff at Minchinhampton to listen if you have a problem; to listen to you as a learner, making the thing feel less like it’s being done to you; to be interested in what you want to learn. This was good to hear– we have a healthy preoccupation with words like trust and autonomy and agency. Sometimes I feel too much of education, like too much of life in general, has been turned into a race toward bigger and better. These two children claimed they didn’t feel ‘ranked’ (their word- not mine)- they felt quite equal with others, more relaxed.