Pete Holiday

Pulitzer prize winner Mark Van Doren, who was a Professor of English at Columbia University for many years, remarked that ‘The art of teaching is the art of assisting discovery.’  Without an opportunity to explore previously unknown fields, who amongst us would know they had a talent for speaking Russian, for playing the harp, for slalom canoeing, for designing bridges or any of the other fascinating careers or hobbies which have been discovered and pursued on the back of an introduction from someone sharing their passion?

Last Saturday we were delighted to welcome a stream of five to seven year old girls to the Junior School’s ‘Find Your Passion’ event.’ The first in a series of such mornings, it was designed to share with others in our community the sorts of experiences Abbey students regularly enjoy, both within the curriculum and as part of our enrichment opportunities.  Those who came along on Saturday relished the chance to participate in drumming, dance and drama workshops based on The Lion King.  Future ‘Find Your Passion’ events at the Junior School will offer insights into the specialist provision for robotics, coding and computing, science, modern foreign languages and sport here at The Abbey.

One of the keys to unlocking the full potential of our children lies in encouraging them to unearth and explore their passions at school and beyond.  It will come as no surprise to hear that I have been passionate about music since early childhood.  I was lucky enough to grow up in a house with lots of music and this sparked an interest for me.  Along with my piano lessons, it was at school that this passion really flourished, from early forays into recorder playing and school choirs, to concerts, ensembles and cathedral tours during school holidays.  Without the shared passion and generous encouragement of those who taught me along the way I wonder whether I would have gone on to find such pleasure in music, and the social connections arising from this?

Here in the Junior School our students are encouraged to discover their passions right from the outset of their educational journey.  Every member of the class participates in a form assembly each year from Nursery upwards and taking part in productions is an important part of school life, whether on stage or behind the scenes developing an interest in lighting, sound, creating backdrops or any of the myriad roles which contribute to successful performances right through the school.  Indeed, this early exploration has led to some of our students taking up the opportunity to act in professional theatre productions during their time at school and beyond.  Our specialist teaching teams have nurtured passions and we count, for example, experts in cyber security among those who have benefited from what The Abbey is able to offer and have gone on to forge successful careers in fields they might not otherwise have considered.

Passion-driven learning instils a lifelong thirst for knowledge and when students engage in activities they are passionate about, motivation comes naturally.  Intrinsic motivation is a powerful force that propels students to excel in their chosen pursuits, fuelling a desire to learn and grow.  This is reflected in the recent scholarship applications of a number of our Lower III students.  Their aspirations at scholarship level mirror their individual passions and reflect their desire to develop these further.

Pursuing a passion often involves overcoming challenges and solving problems.  By honing critical thinking skills and learning to approach obstacles with resilience and creativity, students foster a sense of ownership over their education and are eventually equipped to navigate real world challenges with courage.

Throughout the school every class, every day features the Abbey IP: the Ideas and Passion that make this the most exhilarating and joyous learning environment there is.  Providing opportunities for our students to discover, explore and become skilled operators in their individual areas enables them to step into the real world with confidence, purpose and joy.

As Einstein said, ‘I have no special talents. I am only passionately curious.’

Sacha Heard, Assistant Head/DSL, Abbey Junior School

It’s about half-an-hour before dawn on the last day of the holidays. Entrance exam day at The Abbey. Soon hordes of 10 and 11-year-olds will be here for a day of assessment, but arriving before them: student volunteers. Coming in to help out and make sure the candidates have the best possible time and feel looked after. Big smiles, shrugs of the shoulders when thanked. Don’t worry about it. Happy to help.

That moment last Friday, seeing the volunteers stream in as the first light came into the winter sky, encapsulated The Abbey for me. The whole day did. It wasn’t just the selflessness of the volunteers, the sheer fact of them being there in the school holidays. It was the way they went about the task. It was the good cheer, the readiness to smile and laugh, the camaraderie and bonhomie they showed each other, the kindness they showed the candidates.

The morning saw assessments, in English and Maths and reasoning, and for many the wonderful, strange, open-ended task that is the scholarship paper. Lunch, featuring an ice-cream bar. Interviews. Then a range of further scholarship assessments, in art and drama and music, with sport to follow.

And in amongst all these assessments, candidates spent time in the Sixth Form centre. There was a movie on the big screen, board games scattered around the room, staff on hand to challenge them to cards, and Abbey students, guiding them from one place to another, answering their questions, showing a confidence and warmth and assurance that was just a delight to witness.

A key focus this year is our aspiration as a school to ensure every student feels celebrated, known and appreciated for who they are. Developing and maintaining that culture takes time and effort every day. It has to be tangible: it has to drive everything we do. When we review the entrance assessments, we look at every piece of evidence for every candidate. There is never a line drawn across a page. Everyone’s efforts are considered.

In the interviews, in small groups, candidates share their ideas with eagerness and excitement. In one discussion we talked about the theory that William Shakespeare wrote none of the plays published under his name (and why he never spelled his own name the same way twice in any of the signatures we have). In another, waggle dancing in bee hives. In all of them, candidates were questioning, curious-minded and above all being heard as themselves.

We will always look for ways that enable everyone in our community to feel that way, from the first day they are assessed for entry, to the last day when they graduate. Watching our student volunteers, heads bent to listen to yet another avid question, smiling as they answered, was a reminder of how much this matters: of the importance of those simple moments of personal connection. That generosity to others and that readiness to hear and learn from each other is something we will always foster and cherish.

Will le Fleming, Head

We have a simple mission at The Abbey: to change and develop our students’ lives for the better, and to change the world. Rather – to help them change it.

Part of that change is gender equity. We celebrate whole-heartedly the progress that has been made – but there is of course so much road remaining on this journey. A dispiriting example: if you take a random group of men and women, in that group, men tend to give more respect to other men; and women tend to give more respect – also to men.

Plenty of psychological studies continue to explore this phenomenon. In experiments where a mixed group is given new information, they are all – men and women – six times more likely to respond positively if the information comes from a man. Both male and female scientists rate the same CV more positively if it has a man’s name at the top. Parents estimate the IQ of their sons at 115 and their daughters at 107. Boys rate their own IQ at 110 and girls rate theirs at 105.

And this behaviour is so clearly learned, and learned in plain sight. Ask five-year-olds who they know that’s smart. They’ll give you a mixed answer. Ask six-year-olds, and both boys and girls will tell you it is the boys. Because they see and hear apparent evidence that this is the case.

What we do as a society over and over again, and more or less from birth, is to praise boys for their natural ability and exuberance and girls for their effort and amenability. This stuff lands. Boys tend to develop a confidence that all will work out ok; girls that they need to try hard to succeed. In another experiment, teenage boys and girls were given 16 maths concepts and asked to rate their confidence in using them. The trick was that three of the techniques were fictitious. In all countries girls are likely to be honest and self-critical and boys are likely to rate their confidence pretty high in the use of the techniques – whether or not they actually exist.

So part of our mission is to help girls avoid this incessant conditioning and live life on their own terms. Sometimes prospective parents ask if single-sex schools really prepare girls for the real world. The simplest answer is: and then some! They don’t just prepare girls for the real world: they turbo-charge them to thrive in it. The article in today’s edition of Gateway about Kiran’s Alumna Talk provides a very clear example.

But there is another side to this sense of mission. If you can support young people to see when things aren’t right, and have the confidence to lead change in one area, then they can do this in every area. There’s a famous Shaw quotation: “the reasonable man adapts himself to the world: the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man.”

The quotation comes from Shaw’s play Man and Superman. In both the quotation and the title of the play the word ‘man’ is fairly unmissable. As for women – well, the text suggests they did have a role to play in social change: but it was to marry and give birth to the right sort of man.

We have a different kind of social and personal change in view: one that depends, perhaps, on the unreasonable person and the change that together, such people, with an unreasonable hope and expectation for better, can bring about in the world. To help make it a world of increasing freedom to be and do whatever fulfils you; a world built on communal support and generosity that underpins fairness for all. That’s the world we work towards every day at The Abbey.

As the school term comes to a close, we see so many examples of what people can do when they come whole-heartedly together. We see students on stages and in orchestras, on catwalks and in classes, on pitches and in courts, being nothing more than themselves – and to inspirational effect. As the last notes of an exhilarating term settle, here is to that shared inspiration, and all it can bring in the New Year. And here is to rest, peace and joy wherever it may be found over the holidays. We’ll see you next year!

Will le Fleming, Head

One of the privileges of my role is that I often get the chance to observe lessons. I love having the opportunity to drop in on classes across the different year groups and the fantastic range of subjects available in the Senior School.

It so happens that I have observed nine lessons over the last two weeks. These have included classes in English, Maths, German, Physics, Chemistry, History, PE and Computer Science. Seeing lessons like this really gives a sense of what learning at The Abbey looks and feels like and it is invigorating to see so many excellent lessons going on.

Defining an ‘excellent lesson’ is notoriously difficult and the concept is endlessly debated by education professionals. Sometimes I think that teachers, and those who write about teaching, get caught up in the theory and the arguments around this crucial topic, seeking catch-all definitions that simply do not exist. Those who are involved in an excellent lesson – students, teachers or observers – recognise excellence when they see and feel it.

There is no single hard and fast rule of what makes an excellent lesson and excellence depends on context and circumstances. In general, an outstanding lesson is generally better measured by its outcomes rather than its processes. That said, some common components of great lessons are a feeling of genuine mutual exploration and deep interest in the subject, warmth, care, personalisation and progress. Every student and every student’s learning matters. The very best lessons have a sense of magic in the air. Finally, there is lots of evidence that students take away more from lessons that are genuinely fun and engaging.

In the lessons I have seen over the past couple of weeks I have witnessed students designing their own Minecraft characters, playing battleships based upon the technicalities of German grammar, debating the different ghosts in ‘A Christmas Carol’ and enjoying challenging themselves by doing some extremely complicated mathematical Chemistry, amongst many other tasks.

More important than these activities themselves, over the past two weeks I have seen students not being worried about being ‘wrong’ but willingly getting involved in lessons, answering and asking questions and throwing themselves into tasks. I have seen them laughing and learning, being stretched and challenged and having fun in the classroom.

In a world in which it looks as if so many human functions could potentially be replaced by AI, the roles of teachers and learners are very specifically human. An excellent lesson is by definition very personal. It is only when students and teachers engage with one another as individuals that classroom magic can happen. I have repeatedly witnessed this over these weeks, and it has been a pleasure.

Throughout this period the wonderful sounds of orchestras, choirs and ensembles rehearsing Christmas carols and tunes for this week’s carol service at Reading Minster have infused the school, winding their way into lessons as students learn. The beauty and happiness of the festive period is undoubtedly in the air. Reflecting on this and on all of the classes I have been fortunate to observe, means that even before the carol service begins, I have already experienced the contagious joy of nine lessons and carols.

Sarah Tullis, Senior Deputy Head

As an English teacher, I am often brought into contact with perceptions channelled via traditionally-formulated binary oppositions. Is an answer right or wrong? A character good or evil? Should we laugh or cry? It can be tricky to unpick those ways of thinking which may categorise the world in arguably reductive ways, creating silos of separate and disconnected ideas which appear difficult to reconcile. To consider instead moments of connection and to explore the intertwined nature of experience is one of the joys of a growing understanding: to recognise the nuances which exist in the spaces between is, for any learner, to make a thought-provoking discovery.

Literature provides us with numerous examples of the interrelationship between qualities which might be assumed mutually exclusive. John Keats’ ‘Ode on Melancholy’, for instance, muses on the inextricable coexistence of delight and sadness; Chinua Achebe’s ‘Vultures’ considers the ‘tiny glow-worm tenderness’ within the ‘icy caverns of a cruel heart’; and Wilfred Owen’s magnificent ‘Apologia pro Poemate Meo’ brings us eyewitness from the trenches of soldiers simultaneously ‘Seraphic’ and ‘foul’. These foregrounded interconnections remind us that although we might (and absolutely should) strive to understand the separate elements which comprise a reaction or machine for example, it is the combinations and the togetherness that enable us to celebrate a more holistic understanding of the world and our places within it.

Of course, at The Abbey we aim to foster curiosity, independence and cross-curricular connection, building from the PYP-inspired curriculum at the Junior School, sustaining throughout Key Stage 3, and thus establishing the tone for Key Stage 4 and beyond. Inspired by our ongoing programmes of enrichment, elements of themed learning and this year’s inaugural and truly wonder-filled Key Stage 3 Learning Festival, interdisciplinary thinking, holistic understanding and super-curricular stretch and challenge infuse our students’ experiences both within and beyond the classroom.

This week at the Senior School we held a Taster Day for around 150 Year 6 students from the Junior School and a host of other feeder schools. It was cross-curricular. It was collaborative. It was joyful. Following Mr le Fleming’s welcome and assembly encouraging curiosity about the extra senses we have beyond the five most commonly cited (and yes, I looked them up, and can tell you they are known, collectively, as the interoceptive senses, as opposed to those exteroceptive five, seeing, hearing, touch, smell and taste which carry information about the external world), our visiting students set off in their House groups, already forming new friendships and connections. Teams of Abbey staff worked in partnership to lead mind-and-body-stretching activities which blended Maths and English; Latin and Modern Foreign Languages; Chemistry and Physics; Sport and Team-building; and Music, Dance and Drama. There was also a fantastic Memory workshop involving patterns, combinations and stories. With a lunchtime quiz, a range of after-school clubs and a final, celebratory pizza party, the day was a triumph of community and togetherness.

Those Year 6 students, each with their own ways of seeing the world, were intertwined in an experience which enabled them to exist in new spaces: physical, intellectual, perceptual. As I watched them heading off at the end of the day, smiling and brimming with tales to be told, the much-quoted epigraph of E. M. Forster’s Howards End sprang to mind, with its vision of true communication which exists beyond barriers and celebrates community and fellowship: ‘Only connect!’

Dawn Bellamy, Deputy Head