Our collective future will increasingly be played out on a global stage. To be successful in this arena, organisations including schools must create around themselves a well-earned climate of trust and an expectation of innovation.
This is about reputation and that reputation lives or dies within the minds of its public, where it must communicate both a clear vision and a purposeful, beneficial ambition. So, for schools who are expanding nationally or internationally, much more is needed than simply putting the name on the door.
The key word here is “coherent” : the academic intent, the fostering of human values and skills, the quest for roundedness, the sort of staff required to deliver these outcomes and attitudes must all be coherent and emanate from what is expected thanks to the reputation of the school that precedes it.
The globalisation and democratisation of education is exciting and offers many opportunities to achieve the better, the fairer, the new…but there are rules- rules that must be observed if reputation is to be protected and enhanced.
I can best demonstrate this by using examples, and those that I know best naturally come from the school where I am head – Repton. First, I will give an example of the sort of innovation that has, in part, been prompted by our use of technology for teaching and learning in recent times.
“There are rules that must be observed if reputation is to be protected and enhanced.”
Repton has schools around the world in Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Cairo, Xiamen and Malaysia – our family is expanding all the time. In all these schools there are teachers of immense talent, teaching subjects of global importance. And so, we wondered, why don’t we see if we can focus that talent more widely, more globally?
At Repton UK we have some superb teachers of classics. Might other countries have an interest in learning Latin, taught by these teachers? Yes, they do. And “Repton Latin Online” was born. Led by our classics teachers, some of whom have been teaching Latin and Ancient Greek at Repton UK for over twenty years, the programme already has enthusiastic students in Dubai and Abu Dhabi who will be taking GCSE and then A-level exams.
“We are taking Latin teaching back to the cradle of civilisation.”
Latin was first taught in Repton’s Old Priory some 1000 years ago and now, aided by technology, we are taking it back to the cradle of civilisation. This is just the start. We imagine having Mandarin taught out of Xiamen to students in all our locations, or Arabic out of Dubai or perhaps the part of a geography course on deserts out of Abu Dhabi. Imagine the power of RE’s comparative religions course being taught by our staff who are based in the centres of different world faiths.
Secondly, within the UK, Repton has acquired another prep school, Vinehall. So far, so normal. But what is perhaps something new is that Vinehall is in East Sussex near Battle, some 200 miles away from Repton in Derbyshire near Burton. This is clearly not about capturing a steady stream of pupils to Repton School. The innovation is to move beyond a geographical footprint to an attitudinal “mindprint”.
“The innovation is to move beyond a geographical footprint to an attitudinal ‘mindprint’.”
We saw in Vinehall a prep school where there is coherence in academic intent, the development of values, skills and the overall growth of the child into, quite simply, a good person. With a basis of common goals between the schools, we know that we can develop and thrive thanks to a shared, firmly held vision for education. Although Vinehall is many miles away, it is still within the UK, but this principle holds, from Bogota to Budapest, from Montreal to Montevideo.
In summary, I hope these two examples give a glimpse of what new thinking in education can look like. For me, the most important thing is not to say that we are innovative, but to demonstrate innovation in action. Not to say that we are inspirational, but to show the inspired child. Going back to the beginning, that is what creating and then living up to a reputation is all about.
This article first appeared in A Culture of Innovation: British Schools Overseas, the latest report from executive search consultants Wild Search. It is edited by Wild Search’s head of education and former Wetherby senior school head, Seth Bolderow.