Week 4 - Personal development, Yoga, Mindfulness and Adventure

This quote from the World Champion Adventure Racer Robyn Benincasa set the tone for my assembly this week.  I wanted to remind the children and staff of the first weeks back where we raised the flag for St. Peter’s and the new term.  Assemblies are so important for the school to come together regularly as a community, to celebrate success and to focus on our important values.  

As the Year 8s left for their trip to Cornwall I wanted them to think about teamwork and the strength that they can draw from each other as they head into their final year at St. Peter’s and make the most of the leadership opportunities provided by the ‘Spirit of Adventure’ and ‘Cross Keys programme’ which run through Year 7 & Year 8.  This, rather like a junior Duke of Edinburgh, trains and develops interpersonal and leadership techniques.  Children spend time learning First Aid, life-saving and volunteering.  I am constantly impressed by the year 8s who cheerfully help younger pupils and those overloaded with bags in the morning.  They wear their yellow jackets with pride (and I am told that some come in early deliberately to help more, but also to get the coveted yellow ‘bomber’ jacket).

The recent trip to Cornwall prepares the pupils for the major expedition in their final term using the wilderness and beauty of Dartmoor. By then the groups are largely self-reliant and are responsible for their own navigation, catering, shelter and group management, all with a staff backup team in the wings. My very great thanks go out to Mr Pritchard and Miss Lister for their own leadership of the recent trip - for more information please see the Senior Section of the newsletter.

St., Peter’s Prep is unique in providing such a well rounded programme in personal development and, alongside the Baccalaureate with its focus on St. Peter’s (personal) qualities and academic skills, the children have a clear structure for development in all areas.   

As well as the new weekly ‘Yoga for Staff’ sessions, ‘Yoga and Mindfulness for children’ is one of our regular weekly activities and, with a record 38 children arriving for the first session, we are delighted that the concepts of self- awareness, recognition of emotion and understanding of techniques to manage the stresses of life is a very positive initiative.  With coaching such as this, pupils will develop the ability to focus, be resilient and able to achieve great things as they move onto their senior schools and future careers.  

At the IAPS conference in London this week ‘Personal development’ was certainly a buzz word and I felt proud that at St. Peter’s we already have this firmly at the core of what we do in our development of the whole child.  

Much has been happening this week around ‘Lit Fest’ and I thank Miss Lister for her tremendous organisation and enthusiasm as well as Mme Evans for her work on the European Day of Languages.  This has certainly been another busy week!   

September sunshine and outdoor learning.

Everyone at school is settling well into the new term.  It has been wonderful to see the children enjoying the space and facilities as we bask in a warm and sunny September.  I think we have experienced only three days of rain since we have moved to Devon at the beginning of August and we are being lulled into a sense that the weather is always glorious here (although staff and children do tell me differently!)  

When I sit in my office (which is quite rare as most of the time I am out and about) I open the French windows and it is a joy when children drop in for a chat on their way to play at the adventure playground or on their way to games.  This week I tweeted some photos of my lunchtime walk as it summed up the essence of life here for the children at St. Peter’s.  (@lotjohn) Hard work in lessons, then space and freedom to be children.  Year 8 girls were careering around in tracksuit bottoms, ponytails swinging as they zoomed on the zipwire.  I love that a traditional prep school gives Year 7 and Year 8 another two years of childhood before the real teenage senior school years take over at 13.  I found  boys hanging upside down from monkey bars and there were laughing, smiling children all around me affirming that this school is a wonderful place to grow up.  This week a group of Year 5 children were invited for ‘Juice and Biscuits’ with the Head.  They told me all about their work and gave me a list of things that I should be concentrating on! .  One child even brought me a bunch of yellow roses.  What beautiful manners! Pupils here enjoy beach school and forest school and have extensive grounds to explore. Sailing and horseriding are on the Activity lists on Fridays as well as buddy reading for the older pupils with the younger ones.  

I will be attending the IAPS Head’s conference on Monday and Tuesday of next week in London and look forward to meeting and chatting with other prep school Heads then.

Reflections after the first full week

This week marked the 100 year since the birth of Roald Dahl.  One of my favourite writers for children.  When taking an assembly during a visit to St Peter’s last year, I led by reading the introduction to Matilda - a book which has, I am sure you know, many wonderful lessons to learn for both teacher and parents.  As well as introducing some the formidable Headmistress, Miss Trunchbull, surely one of the most dastardly villains of all time who thinks nothing of hurling children (who she refers to as ‘maggots’ over vast distances and confining those who dared to oppose her into a medieval torture-device - ‘The Chokey’), we are introduced to Matilda’s parents, the Wormwoods who don’t understand her,  tell her not to read so much and beg her to watch more ‘Telly’.  And then of course, the wonderful ‘Matilda’. Bookworms have few role models in life and Matilda was the best: Independent, brave, resourceful, a girl who only got cooler under pressure, even when it was being applied by the ghastly ‘Trunchbull’.  All of these key attributes (independent, brave, resourceful, cool under pressure) are traits we want to encourage in our children at St. Peter’s and this is part of what the St. Peter’s Baccalaureate teaches.  Many thanks to Mrs Ball for a detailed and interesting presentation on the Baccalaureate to new parents this week.  It is a unique and special part of what we do here and I am very much enjoying seeing it in action as the children and teachers constantly refer to it throughout their teaching and learning.  

My first full week at St. Peter’s has been interesting, varied and exciting.  I have enjoyed early morning walks around the estate and, as planned, I have spent much time in classrooms sitting with the children and talking to them about their learning. I was made a cup of tea by a nursery child (pretend, obviously!) and entertained with much conversation about helicopters.  Reception went swimming on Wednesday and I spent time with Year 8 who were out with clipboards researching for History, learning about identity and empathy in their philosophy class.  Year 7 were exploring Newtons in a Physics Lesson in our state of the art Science Lab, Year 3 were exploring Numeracy using hands-on resources, Year 2 were exploring number bonds (including half numbers!) and Year 1 were getting ready to learn their first spellings.   Year 6 Maths spent the lesson outside collecting data to use during their lessons this week, Year 5 were having huge discussions about World War II and writing introductions to their own war stories. I have watched Rugby and Hockey practice, had lunch with the children every day and spent time with the staff and parents.  With small class sizes and a beautiful site, it has been wonderful to see such positive, energetic teaching from very committed teachers who clearly enjoy teaching the children in such a picturess environment.  Hopefully, the children won’t learn so much that, like Matilda, they learn to move newts into my water glass.  

   

We also held an eSafety workshop last week. eSafety is a very important issue for parents and children.  It is essential that parents are up to speed with the technology that the children are using, particularly social media.  As social media becomes more prevalent and the use of portable devices means that children are often on the iPad in their bedrooms rather than a computer in a public area of the house (the corner of the kitchen or the study),  parents and pupils need help with keeping their children safe.  The presentation addressed current apps and games that children will be aware of and helped parents navigate through the complexities of online use without frightening parents!  The internet is recognised as a hugely powerful tool for learning and the benefits of networking, collaboration and creativity cannot be underestimated.  

Moving ahead to next week, I look forward to seeing you at the Learn the Recorder Workshops (Year 2 and Year 3) on Tuesday, the Senior School Parents Study Skills Seminar on Thursday and at the big matches against Blundell’s, Queen’s Taunton and Stover.  

New Head at a Prep School

Week 1

Wednesday was a new start for many new pupils and I was delighted to welcome them in the first St. Peter’s Assembly of the year.

The theme of the first assembly was ‘The Flag’. We discussed the recent Olympics and the excitement and pride that the teams felt in the opening ceremony walking under their flag. We discussed whether Olympians had always been able to flip from the 10m diving board or whether they had always been able to lift such heavy weights. The answer is of course not. They had to practise, to fail, to get up and try again, to be determined and know that they could achieve it if they work hard. All lessons that I wanted the children to take on as they started their new term. I explained that a brain is a muscle which needs to be worked to get learning to happen, the ethos of Growth Mindset.

We then talked about flags and the shared identity they celebrate. The fact that they give people a shared spirit and values, something to help them celebrate success together and show the world we are proud to be in the team. The Head Boy and Girl then brought to assembly the St Peter’s School flag which we all then watched them raise at the flag pole in the centre of St. Peter’s. The school gave three cheers for the term and then all the pupils were off to focus on identifying their individual targets for the new year with the St Peter’s Baccalaureate.

Walking around the classes on my first day I was struck by the sophisticated language that the children were using when talking about their learning and their targets. They all understood what they needed to do to improve and were excited and motivated by the structure of the Baccalaureate.

I shared my targets for the term with the children, to know all of their names by Christmas, to spend lots of time in lessons, activities and games, to spend time with parents and to fly the flag and cheer for St. Peter’s at matches. A super first few days.