“To enable all pupils to normalise academic struggle, so they see challenge as an enjoyable and valuable aspect of their learning.”
So runs the first of our three standing academic imperatives: the overarching themes that guide all the teaching we do. Another states that we will teach pupils “to be academically independent and take risks.”
These are admirable aims and have helped guide Highgate to a position of what the Inspectors recently described as “significant strength” in our teaching and learning. (“Significant strength” is inspector-speak for “unusually good at;” you can read what else they had to say here.)
We like our pupils to live on the edge of their academic capabilities. This is what makes education exciting: the sense that we are, together, pushing back the limits of what pupils think they can do or cope with. A white-knuckle intellectual ride rather than a gentle pootle through the cerebral countryside.
This is not without its dangers, however. Risk taking is, well, risky. Something might go wrong. You might be wrong. Risk taking is great when it comes off: you’ve achieved something people, possibly even you, weren’t sure you could. But when it doesn’t, there’s a crash.
This is where another vital part of education comes in. If we are to encourage our young people to be bold, we must also equip them to cope when bravery meets reality, and loses.
Some of this is straightforward. You got a question wrong in discussion? No problem: there’ll be an encouraging word from a teacher and you go again. Your essay failed because your argument didn’t hold water? Fine; there’ll be helpful feedback and you’ll be better next time. Easy fixes, sticking plasters on minor grazes.
But the fixes are only easy because of the precursor chemicals, the pre-emptive alchemy, which create the atmosphere in which it’s fine to try things out. This is where a whole-school approach to the whole school is so critical.
By this I mean that everyone has a role in making everyone else feel comfortable to have a go in all walks of school life. At a recent Year 9 football match I was struck not by the fact that the A team included a girl (she’s there on merit, has been for years), but at how her otherwise male teammates, perhaps subconsciously realising that she might feel slightly “othered”, were so free in their compliments and encouragement to her, and to each other.
Similarly, our clear lines on discrimination allow groups like Pride Society to thrive – though there is, doubtless, an element of chicken and egg here. Interested in finding out about LGBTQ+ perspectives? Go along. Take the plunge. No one will judge.
So, we can create the right atmosphere and apply sticking plasters where needed. But we also need to ready our young people for the fact that sometimes, elastoplast won’t be enough.
School life gets more academically competitive as time goes by. Year 6: Which school did you get into? Year 11: How many Grade 9s did you get? Year 13: Which universities are you applying to? Where have you got interviews? Are you still doing four A Levels? Get many A*s?
Add to that friendship issues, relationships, sports team selection: there are many, many opportunities to chance your arm and just as many opportunities to fail, often while swimming against an all-but-overwhelming tide of hormones.
Inevitably, therefore, there will be disappointments that a friendly word or an encouraging smile, the “have an aspirin and keep going” of the teacher first aid kit, can’t cure. Despite all the preparation and practice you might not pass your Grade Three flute or be offered a Cambridge interview or get a “yes” when you shyly ask out the object of your dreams. This can feel crushing.
Creating coping strategies for these eventualities is a must, and that’s where we come back to normalising struggle, wherever we encounter it. It’s just part of life. You can’t run inter-House competitions without someone coming last. You can’t have auditions for a lead role without most people failing to get it. You probably will be rejected by the dreamboat.
To offset that, our wellbeing programme includes age-appropriate mindfulness techniques, links to external advice, reassurance and other coping strategies. It covers a range of difficult issues and experiences and shows how they can be managed. Pupils are offered a range of people with whom to discuss their feelings, both in school and out. If it all goes wrong, there are things you can do about it, and it’s just sensible to understand what they are. Don’t wait until the house is on fire before locating the extinguisher; you’ll feel much safer, and therefore braver, knowing where it is.
It’s a terrible old cliche, but forewarned really is forearmed. We must be sure that our young people learn from an early age that having a crack at something is to be encouraged, and that failing isn’t frightening or embarrassing. They won’t realise it, but all those little moments of encouragement, the assemblies about resilience, the PSHE slots about growth mindset, the super-tough mock interviews, add up to an awesome arsenal, an emotional task force ready to be deployed at a moment’s notice against the fear and consequences of failure.
They are tough enemies that can never be fully defeated. But by helping our pupils feel able to take them on, we give them every chance to get the life they want, whatever it looks like.