‘Academic results are important, but not the whole story’

WHEN Covid-19 closed our campus, we switched immediately to home learning and the children responded really well.

And although we followed the timetable, delivering live lessons throughout the day, we were also conscious that we had to do things a little differently on-line, so we had the occasional digital detoxes, dance competitions and yoga sessions to keep things fun.

During the whole of Lockdown, no one missed a day of learning except for the most legitimate of reasons such as for dental appointments or moving house, which was quite remarkable and a testament to both our teachers and the children.

Now that they are back in school our pupils are still making good use of the technology and can transition from on-line sessions with Google Classroom to live lessons quickly, but we are also encouraging them to get outdoors as much as possible for exercise and fresh air.

Wellbeing is an intrinsic part of what we do at Fairview and our six and half acres of campus gives pupils lots of opportunity to be amongst nature, doing PE, watching wildlife, using the fitness trails or taking part in outdoors learning across the whole of the syllabus.

Academic results are important, but they are not the whole story and we take an holistic approach to education, recognising individuals’ strengths and talents and supporting them to have confidence in their own abilities.

We encourage our pupils to believe in themselves while still respecting the views of others and Young people studying at Fairview are encouraged to develop their own personal hobbies and specialist interests

in our IB Primary programme in particular the children respond very positively to issues concerning wildlife.

They want to put the world right, to know, for example, why deforestation is still happening and what can be done to stop more animals from going extinct.

We encourage them to take action, to recognise what they can do to make a difference and this helps to make them responsible and caring individuals from a young age.