Head of School Blog

Oct 14
2019

The good enough school and the good enough student

The ‘good enough’ school is a primary school and not a secondary school; while the good enough student is a secondary student and not a primary student. Embedded in this only apparently gnomic statement is a vital lesson in how to promote the conditions under which children can hope to enjoy a...

Oct 02
2019

Ability, capacity and capability

Ability, capacity and capability – the difference between them and why, in respect of all three, (most) schools ask and answer the wrong questions. Gathered in the school yard at the heart of the school campus are a class of students readying themselves to participate in a PE session. There...

Nov 01
2018

“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,...

Aug 28
2018

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...

Jun 15
2018

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

May 28
2018

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. Last week, I found myself...

Apr 19
2018

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. I remember when the passing of a year really meant something;

Oct 12
2017

The project of ICHK, in a nutshell.

Cambridge Strategies, a research body associated with Cambridge University, 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.