“Yes, but what are they learning?”
Occupy a ‘leadership’ position long enough, particularly when working within a relatively high-powered team, and you’ll be asked to undergo some sort of psychometric testing. These come in many guises, so you might find it’s DiSC, Belbin, Myers-Briggs, Strengthfinder or any one of a dozen others, but in some shape or form you will be quizzed and assessed on how your personality and preferences equip you as part of the collaborative process that, in pretty much every job of work, provides for success.… Read more
Tree Bathing: a human technology
One of the advantages of ICHK’s Human Technologies approach is that it finds a proper place in school for many activities that the mainstream curriculum neglects or ignores.
HT suggests that we can support our growth and sense of satisfaction in our lives by attending to the ways in which we deploy technologies in five different categories of being: somatic (our bodies), cognitive (our thinking), material (our use of physical tools), social (our relationships with others) and spiritual (our understanding of ourselves).… Read more
Third Annual Science Fair – Head of School’s Address
Those of you with long and faultless memories may recall that last year I used the occasion of the Science Fair to reflect on the nature of tradition and to confirm what a privilege it was to be playing a part, if only a presiding one, in the establishment of an ICHK tradition, which, now in this its third year, the Science Fair is well on the way to becoming.… Read more
Complexity for school, and life
When I came to compose this speech, I found myself drawn back to the entry that I had recently written for this year’s Yearbook.
I realise that, at the moment, my thinking is being dominated by the significance of complexity for school and, indeed, for life in general.… Read more
Student Agency and Self-Empowerment
I must have blinked. Surely it was only a moment ago that we were gathered here, to wish last year’s graduates the best of luck and bon voyage. They say it’s a function of getting older that time speeds up and years flash by.… Read more
The project of ICHK, in a nutshell.
Cambridge Strategies, a research body associated with Cambridge University, recently included us in their Innovation 800 project, which celebrates 800 years of academic excellence at Cambridge and which identifies global leaders in the field of educational change, in schools, universities and business.… Read more
Wisdom and Schooling
Where is the Life we have lost in living?
Where is the wisdom we have lost in knowledge?
Where is the knowledge we have lost in information?
From “The Rock” by TS Eliot
Reflect for a moment on this entry from Wikipedia: “Homo sapiens (Latin: “wise man”) is the binomial nomenclature (also known as the scientific name) for the only extant human species.… Read more
The Human Technologies Test
Those familiar with ICHK know that Human Technologies is a programme of study that we have developed over the past five years and which students from Year 7 to 10 follow each week.
The course teaches that what makes humans so effective and powerful a presence on the planet is not just our native intelligence, but also our ability to share in and benefit from the thinking of others.… Read more
Why and how we promote sport at ICHK
One of the advantages of being a small school is that all our students have a real opportunity to take part in the full range of sporting activities that a school has to offer. A good number of our students will have been on teams ranging from Football and Volleyball, from Touch to Bouldering. … Read more
Second Annual Science Fair – Head of School’s Address
Thank you parents, students and staff for attending our second annual Science Fair.
My intention over the next five minutes or so is to explain briefly why I believe that this evening’s event is such a significant one in our school’s calendar.… Read more