Headmaster’s Weekly Comment: 28/3/13

I usually use the space to talk about some aspect of the school’s underlying ethos and beliefs.  One of the aims of this is absolute transparency.  After all, if some of what we believe can be seen as a little out of the mainstream, then any cageyness would, quite rightly be viewed suspiciously.

But today I thought I d raise a theme which, to me is very obvious.  If you look behind the spiritual, ethical, and character building aspect of John Colet School  which we of course treat as of major importance what is left is a focused and effective institution of learning.

Our aim has always been that John Colet School be a centre of academic excellence, in which all children thrive and are challenged to go beyond their best.  Hence the emphasis on the core NSW curriculum, with the added dimension of Shakespeare, Classical and Modern Languages, Art, Science, History, Singing and so on. 

We believe that a demanding program taught by excellent teachers will bring out the best in the children and create an environment where study and learning are enjoyable, and mastery is highly valued.

This is an ongoing project and we continue to monitor our performance.  For example, our NAPLAN results were characteristically excellent, except, this year, for Writing.  So we arranged for an all-day in-service on Writing over the Summer. 

On another front, the staff late last year and over the Summer, began to study the new national English curriculum with a view to implementing it next year.  This new curriculum roll out requires an enormous amount of work, which is well underway.