Posted on: February 1st 2018
Something we pride ourselves on at Norfolk House is our innovation in the education we provide, in order to ensure our pupils are not just prepared for the challenges that they will face beyond age 11, but that they also gain important skills and attributes to help them to be highly successful. We are very proud of the excellent academic results our children achieve and the schools they progress onto; but we are equally as proud of the people they become.
In his speech to delegates at the Education World Forum in London, Damian Hinds, the new Education Secretary highlighted the importance of 'soft' skills in the workplace. Communication, resilience and collaboration are among the list of attributes and skills identified as being crucial to success in the modern workplace.
The personal development of our children is a priority at Norfolk House. Through the promotion of a growth mindset and our core values, the opportunities provided by the curriculum and teaching approaches, our pupils develop excellent personal attributes and interpersonal skills. From regular class lessons and opportunities such as Forest School in the EYFS to Young Enterprise in Form 6, children embrace challenge, develop thinking skills and show resilience and an open mind in the face of failure. As Mr. Hinds explains, the importance “that you believe that you can achieve, that you can stick with the task at hand and that you understand the length there is between the effort you make now and the reward that may come in future and the resilience to bounce back from the knocks that inevitably life brings.”
Norfolk House is a learning community and our staff are always finding opportunities within school to collaborate with parents in order to support the development of these soft skills in our children. One recent success was our parent workshops, so please look out for information on the next sessions (date to be confirmed) where we will share how we are helping our pupils succeed beyond the academic and how parents can support this at home.
The last paragraph of our ISI inspection report summarises the personal development at Norfolk House: "As they leave the school, pupils are exceptionally well prepared for the next stage of their education. They are capable, confident, well-rounded young people who are ready to meet their next set of challenges." Our ambitious outlook means that rather than this being a goal we have achieved, it is a foundation to build future excellence.
