‘How do you teach resilience?”, is a question we often hear.

At ICHK, students are carefully prepared for challenges that will push them out of their comfort zones and test their resolve. These challenges may be in a sporting setting, on the school bouldering wall or in the last stretch of a 10km run. It is in these situations that they develop the ability to face down their fears, and dig deep into reserves of spirit and energy. This is a mindset they can then transfer to the rest of their lives, whether it is dealing with exams or any of the daily challenges that they will encounter in the world.

The abseiling rope is just one of the means by which we help students to develop grit and resilience. All Year 7 students learn climbing techniques and are able to put that learning into practice during a special canyoning experience in the spectacular surroundings of our school. This can be developed further during one of our unique Deep Learning units. As well as developing resilience, these experiences also give students the chance to put learning in a real world context. Being able to use trigonometry to measure one side of a triangle is useful to answer a maths problem. But out in a canyon when you need to know the height of a wall you will abseil down it is vital.

Solving problems, working as a team, spotting difference, making, reviewing and developing plans - all are more immediate and real when you are doing them in the real world.