Six new posters which were launched earlier this month sum up the key qualities which the School aims to nurture in its Prep pupils. In the first of a series of new Prep Pastoral blogs Warren Rodricks explains how Harrodian is setting about building its pastoral ‘pillars’.
‘If the foundation is firm the building can withstand calamities.' B.K.S Iyengar
As a maths teacher, I often speak to colleagues and parents about how important building a solid foundation is to a child becoming an enthusiastic and able mathematician. But today, I am not writing about maths, but about a subject that’s even more important. Yes I know! What could be more important than mathematics? Well, we believe pupils’ pastoral development is so important it may even rank above maths. And as you would expect, the foundations we are building here are of paramount importance to the choices they will make in their lives.
We believe that there are six key qualities – we call them pillars – that we should build in our students as they grow from the littlest of 8s to the grandest of 12s.
Warren Rodricks
At Harrodian we work with amazing children. And we believe that these children have the potential to go on to become contributors to society around them – even to transform the world into the better place that they all deserve to live in. There is an academic aspect to this, of course, but the reality is that no matter where they go and what they end up doing, it is the ‘type’ of person they are that will have the greatest impact on those around them.
This crucial insight is the jumping off point for so much of our pastoral work in the Prep. We believe that if we help our students establish a solid moral foundation, they will grow into people with the strength to help their families, teams, businesses or countries support and celebrate all those who work and live within each of those communities as well as those who interact with them.
The key to a school’s success in achieving this is ensuring it sets out clear values for students to aspire to. For the Prep School, we believe that there are six key qualities – we call them pillars – that we want to build in our students as they grow from the littlest of 8s to the grandest of 12s. The pillars that underpin our pastoral foundations have been part of our assemblies for over a year now and recently they have found their way into our classrooms. Our aim is to encourage students to identify these qualities in their own actions and to understand that embracing the pillars brings benefits within every community they are part of.
We hope these Pillars will provide a suitably solid platform from which our pupils can survey the world, in all its beauty and its injustice. And that they will provide a firm foundation underpinning their decision-making, both today and in the future.
So what are our Pillars? I’m so glad you asked. They are:
- Compassion
- Resilience
- Independence
- Curiosity
- Kindness
- Inclusivity
Can you imagine a world in which everyone's actions were based squarely upon our pillars? We are daring to dream of such a place...
We hope these Pillars will provide a suitably solid platform from which our pupils can survey the world, in all its beauty and its injustice. And that they will provide a firm foundation underpinning their decision-making, both today and in the future. Can you imagine a world in which everyone's actions were based squarely upon our pillars? We are daring to dream of such a place and we cannot help but smile at the thought of our students taking their place in the vanguard on this march into this kinder, gentler, more supportive, world.
Over the course of this term, I will examine our Pillars in detail to reveal why we believe each is important and how we envisage that our programme will support our pupils and inform the decisions and choices they make during their time in the Prep and beyond. Please do feel free to let us know what you think!
Warren Rodricks, shown below, is Head of Lower Prep Mathematics. He welcomes feedback to this blog at website@harrodian.com
