44 Scholarships: what ingredients bring about such success?

Our children have racked up a record-breaking total of 44 scholarships and awards this year.  Martin Barker, Headmaster, discusses the factors that have encouraged this success.

Seldom do I use this forum to ‘bang the drum’ about the school’s successes, but I think I may have to make an exception in this instance! The scholarship season is all but finished, and the children have racked up a record-breaking, astonishing, outstanding total of 44 scholarships and awards this year. Over 50% of our Year 8 leavers have received an award; 20 of these were for academic excellence, which, bearing in mind that we are an academically non-selective school, makes it all the more remarkable. 

What brings about such success? To my mind, three ingredients are crucial – outstanding teaching, hard work and a culture of aspiration. My baseline as Headmaster is to try to do everything as well as we possibly can: to recruit and motivate the best teachers, as well as give them the best possible environment to teach in. As far as the children are concerned, our primary focus is to encourage them to get involved, work hard and do the best that they possibly can. This obviously requires a great deal of ‘finessing’ around the edges, but many of the best things in education are based around simple principles.

The older children play a crucial role in creating an aspirational culture, with the younger children using them as role models all the more. When they see that it is possible to perform so well on stage, the sports field, in the classroom, debating room or wherever, it instils the belief that it might just be possible for them too!

Of particular note this year has been the anecdotal but equally important feedback from several schools about our children. Words such as friendly, relaxed, socially at ease, confident, healthy-looking, humble are all a pleasure to hear and speak volumes about our approach here at Westbourne House. While we expect the children to work hard, I don’t think many people would say that we are some kind of ‘hot house’, particularly when one considers the wide variety of opportunity that is on offer at the school. As I have written about previously, we value a strong holistic education, and character building is a very important element of that. Our tried and tested methods seem to be bringing about some tangible outcomes.

We have a group of dedicated and talented teachers here at Westbourne House, and there can be no greater testament to their abilities than such a fantastic collection of awards. The children have also had to work tremendously hard for their successes. I often repeat to the children in school assemblies that they are in huge competition with others from strong schools, and so we shouldn’t for a moment feel that these awards are easily won, which with so many, we might be easily be forgiven for thinking. 

Many congratulations to all.

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