Boarding School: Life Lessons - Preparing for the Modern World

“In 1976 my boarding house had no central heating. There was a coal fire in every room; boys were given enough coal to burn for an hour each evening.  In the morning the room was icy, so we would burn a newspaper to create enough heat for a few delicious seconds to get changed. Rooms often caught fire.”

I am sure that your view of modern boarding school is somewhat different from the recollections of journalist Jonathan Noakes.  Alongside an increasing need to engage with a rapidly changing and ever more global society, such schools have been required to move with the times.  They have responded to educational reforms, to tighter inspectorates, and also to the expectations of modern parents and their children.  There is much less certainty about pupil futures too.  Choosing a boarding school environment offers a child the opportunity to develop the crucial skills of resilience, tolerance and ambition to face the many challenges along the way with both confidence and a sense of purpose.

We need to equip pupils with the life skills to face up to failure, to engage in honest reflection about those experiences and to have the self-assurance to bounce back. A boarding school environment, where you are working and living together with your peers, sharing both the highs and lows of daily life, produces an empathy towards different characters and personalities, tolerance and a sense of mutual support.  In this type of school setting, strong pastoral care is crucial, a point well recognised by the Boarding Schools’ Association which now runs more than 50 courses on boarding each year.  As Victoria Goldman and Catherine Hausman wrote in the New York Times, “Mr. Chips has undergone a millennial thaw.”

Life for young people growing up in the 21^st century is challenging, and boarding schools have adapted radically to meet the ever changing pressures and embrace new opportunities.  Increased social anxieties as a result of the rise of screen based lifestyles through social media has added yet another layer of emotional demands on our teenagers.  A boarding school education offers pupils a sense of place and a sense of perspective.  It gives them the time and space to grow, allows the development of social skills in a nurturing environment, and fosters a sense of purpose in all that they do combined with the ability to adapt positively to change.  Such characteristics are crucial if our pupils are going to make the most of their own futures, and to contribute all they can to the world in which they live. 

Extracted from an article in the latest edition of Absolutely Education - Autumn/Winter 2017

Developing Leadership

Leadership at Canford is not all about “commanding” but much more about “influencing”. Different types of leaders use different styles and indeed people respond differently themselves. Part of the skill of leadership is recognising how to approach individuals and teams alike in order to optimise the efficiency and energy and there is no richer environment than an active school such as Canford with its wide spectrum of activities from which these lessons can be drawn.

We aim to imbue our pupils with a sensitivity, a confidence, an ability to communicate and a perception that enables them to make a difference and pull together disparate elements into one cohesive team so the result is greater than the individual sum of the parts. Every pupil is encouraged
to take on a significant role as a leader at some point, normally in the Sixth Form, but any forum; house plays, the CCF, in the classroom, running a club, fundraising activities will all leave those involved with a heightened sense of what it takes and add to their skillsets as they embark upon their exciting lives.

Among the ways in which we foster these skills:

• Development of leadership qualities ranks highly within the Canford assessment criteria. In the grade descriptors for the three weekly assessments which pupils receive, the top grade is awarded to those who achieve not only above target academic progress and excellent effort, but who also show leadership within the classroom. 
• Important leadership qualities are actively encourage within all houses. Pastorally, Sixth Formers act as House prefects and are responsible for running various different areas of House life whether on the social side or taking a role in pastoral issues and for helping to settle the juniors each evening. 
• The CCF offers a rich environment for the pupils to cut their teeth as leaders, starting right at the beginning where the activities all encourage confidence and adventure. Certainly the Norway Cross-country skiing expedition pushes the cadets to their limits but in doing so multiple lessons are draw from the experience where we see pupils supporting and encouraging each other in adversity. Ten Tors training and competitions adds further to this.
• Through Sport, pupils are given opportunities to lead their peers and develop teams to their full
  potential alongside coaches. The leaders of sports teams should display confidence and strength of character to address their teammates when some may prove disruptive and unfocused during training sessions. A real leader will have the courage to challenge a friend’s behaviour, however difficult this may be.

“Leaders don’t create followers, Leaders create more Leaders”