‘Education is not preparation for life; education is life itself.’ John Dewey
Our primary focus, here at Oxford High School, is definitely the pursuit of learning and I really enjoyed giving out the Head’s awards on Monday to a whole variety of candidates. Of course, there are the intellectual – Marianne whose Gold Crest award was sparked by a letter she wrote to a Professor regarding their research which led to her contributing to it; Amy who entered the Eureka’s Challenge competition organised by the Institute of Physics and whose work on the topic of ‘Physics save the world’ was highly commended to Maria’s translation of ‘The Star’ by Mihai Eminescu which won the Spotlight 18 and under category of the Stephen Spender Prize for Translation or Chloe who wrote a short piece that was chosen for publication as part of the Young Writer’s Annual Showcase – Beyond Ink. These are all worthy achievements and highlight the expectation at OHS that inspiration in school leads to joy and independence of spirit and intellect outside.
But a great education is not just about the development of the intellect. The further achievements highlighted by the Head’s Award encompass every aspect of our lives from sport where Lowenna was selected to compete at the Junior Grand Prix competition, or Emily who won the Wales Squash National Open or Sophie who was selected to play badminton for England or Iris who was selected for the ABA Ballet programme. All these were equally worthy of a Head’s award and demonstrate how the whole school celebrates the achievement of the individual – you would have loved the whoops of support from the rest of the year group.
And then there are the acts which give back to the community. Our Sixth Form Students have led on some extraordinary conferences this term where they have invited, organised and managed virtual conferences for as many as 3000 online students and over 135 schools at a time. Whether it is on the situation in Ukraine, current Economic Theory or on the Middle East and African Politics our students create a conference to extend their own learning and the opportunities of others – a central pillar of the ethos of our school. And, there are so many more, so many that unleash the voices of our students and demonstrate their independence of spirit and their agency.
You may have read here the Report which the Girls’ Day School Trust commissioned in order to explore the attitudes of the pupils in our schools versus girls educated in other environments, of which more later this year, but one of the central findings is that the conventional model of leadership is not what young women want. What they want is to do good things and they recognise that leadership is a part of that, but is not the sole goal. On the contrary, 83% want to do a job they enjoy and nearly two thirds want to make a difference to society through their careers. For them leadership is just one of the strategies that they will have to use in order to give back to society but it is not the goal. As we head into the half term break that desire to give back to the world around us is absolutely central to our school, the education we provide and the richness of the lives that our students lead.
With warmest wishes
Marina Gardiner Legge