From the PDHPE classroom to history, science and beyond, teachers at Queenwood School are working to raise the bar in discipline-specific writing skills – and an instructional framework is paving the way.
Wellbeing is at the forefront of our minds. Teachers across the School are planning group activities and working with the girls individually to help the whole community stay active, focused and positive.
Reflecting on our contemporary pandemic, Year 12 student Alexandra Harrop, investigated the cultural memory and legacy of the Spanish flu, which coincided with World War I. In her fascinating and thought-provoking essay, Alexandra asks important questions about how and why we remember and value some tragedies over others, and what this means for the cultural legacy of our own experiences during a pandemic.
When I arrived at Queenwood Junior School at the beginning of this term, I informed the girls in my first morning video announcement that one of the many things I was looking forward to at Queenwood was forming a clear understanding about what it really means to be a Queenwood girl.
Assessments and homework expectations are adjusted, Just Read is more important than ever and we are emphasising with the girls the things that underpin their own wellbeing: exercise, healthy sleep patterns, good food, well structured days and so on.
Broad and deep knowledge is the basis of critical thinking. Those who already know a lot about the subject have easier access to concepts or ways of thinking that might prove useful in solving the current problem. They can also direct all their thinking capacity (which experts call ‘working memory’) to more complex aspects of the problem because they’re not struggling to remember the basics.
Good mental health, Dr Damour argues, is ‘when you have the right feeling at the right time and you are able to manage it effectively’. As we all know, tension, stress, worry, sadness and anxiety can be the proper response to difficult circumstances, and adults often best help young people by helping them reframing these feelings as ‘the right feeling’ in response to that particular challenge – and therefore a sign of emotional maturity and mental strength.
It has been noted by researchers that the purpose of education is not to sort students – it is to grow students. Teachers are there to coach and mentor, but with ranks and grades only, teachers turn into judges. We can show the unique abilities of students in many ways, without just stratifying them.
One of the pillars of a Queenwood education is independence. We want to encourage our girls to be independent in mind and spirit, to develop into women prepared to chart their own course, seek truth and live courageously.
Empathy is what sets humans apart from other species and robots. It allows us to relate to other people and their experiences, helps us understand how others may be feeling and contributes to us being compassionate. The social psychologist Jonathan Haidt argues that empathy is an ‘antidote to righteousness’ and is key to addressing the polarisation that threatens to undermine democracies. In addition, so-called ‘soft skills’ are increasingly recognised as essential to both personal and professional success, with research emerging to suggest that empathy is essential to developing the capacity to cooperate and collaborate.
Back in February as the school year commenced, Ms Stone set the girls a challenge: to be a little bit more kind, every day. In order to encourage this theme of kindness, the Year 12s set up a Google form, where all girls from the Senior School could submit anonymous stories about acts of kindness that they had seen or experienced from their time at Queenwood, big or small.