Board of Boarding Board of Life

Headmasters and Headmistresses all over the Country are jumping onto The Pupil Voice Drive. The idea of pupil voice is core to the My School and my Boarding House as it allows pupils to take an active part in the decision making of the school. However, is this a good idea? Is it working? Does it help Pupils' education? and is it not actually just a way to make pupils argumentative and rebel against a system rather than help them to assist in the growth of a school. Thankfully, I have just gone through a week where pupil voice has worked brilliantly and where I can say that without a doubt, pupil voice (when done well) is a huge asset to any pupil and any school. On Monday, we hosted Wine Society in House. When two of the 6th form first approached me about this idea, I said that we could look at it but that they would need to get permission from the Head and would need to organise it themselves. On Monday, I saw the result of their efforts and I am proud to say that th...

A common issue in boys' boarding houses are boys that don't actually understand what it means to push themselves. They are so unfamiliar with pushing their academic boundaries that when the time comes to revise, a small amount extra seems like they are doing 'enough'. This goes alongside another issue, which is a pupil that is so worried about doing well they feel apprehensive to stop and worry about tasks like eating, sleeping and sport because it is 'wasting' revision time. For this particular blog, I am going to focus on the boys that are unfamiliar with doing enough work and need a real 'push' for them to understand. This issue is one reason why schools are increasingly putting mocks earlier as a kind of electric shock to the system. However, an early mock is also accompanied by a poor result soon being followed by a comment of 'well, I wasn't going to do well because they are so early and I haven't started working properly yet'. ...