Measuring Success

Two years ago in College Life in an article called Measuring Success Head Master, Philip Skelker, set out the questions he felt needed to be answered to measure the success of the College. You can find the list of questions here:

ARTICLE FROM COLLEGE LIFE 2008

Measuring Success

I have sympathy for the announcement by the Head Master of Eton and the High Master of St. Paul’s that they will no longer supply the information required for their schools’ inclusion in the tables which present in the manner of a sporting league the examination results of the nation’s secondary schools. It is probably beyond the wit of man to devise a league table able to convey a school’s worth and the quality of education it offers in statistical form.

When I attempt to judge the health of Immanuel College, I look for evidence of our pupils’ personal growth. Are they more capable than they were of articulating a considered and informed opinion and of understanding the ideas of others? Do they contribute to the life of their school community and actively identify with causes whose progress will benefit others? Are they more discerning and retentive readers, listeners and viewers than they were hitherto? Do they write with more accuracy, coherence and imagination? Does their performance in the Arts and sport reflect progress attained by enthusiasm, reflection and practice? Do they approach their studies in a way which enables them to understand how the society in which they live has developed? Do they attach themselves to what they learn and grow as a consequence? Are they stimulated and moved by the great productions of the human spirit, to which the school aspires to introduce them?

The answers to these questions depend on the quality of the school’s educational provision: that is, on how well the curriculum is envisaged and taught and with what variety and supportiveness opportunities are created for pupils to learn. The answers are also a fair indication of pupils’ academic progress. The more our pupils grow personally the better their academic results are likely to be, which is why the proportion of Immanuel leavers entering the thirteen top research universities is so impressive, (in the top 3% of all the nation’s secondary schools).
 
Events which this year have nurtured and generated and perpetuated personal growth are legion. Some are new and others are part of the fabric of Immanuel life. They include: the opening of the Torah Mitzion Kollel, for the study of Jewish texts greatly stimulates intellectual and moral discernment, the Sixth Form History of Art trips to Rome and Paris, the Israel and Poland Trips which cause Year 9 and Lower Sixth pupils to engage with spiritual and existential issues, a production of An Inspector Calls that offered a new and radical insight into the identity of Priestley’s disconcerting Inspector, the Third College Music Festival, in which pupils’ understanding of performance was deepened by the insights and encouragement offered by a distinguished twentieth-century interpreter of Classical music, the use of the new Fitness Suite to promote an understanding of the theory underlying GCSE and A level PE, the Year 8 Independent Learning Project which required participants to find a creative way of expressing the outcome of their research and enquiry and the Year 7 History study, in which pupils charted the origins as well as the growth of the dangers England’s Jews faced in medieval times. The health of the College is as evident in the inclusion of two powerful addresses, one on the Labour movement and the other on present threats to civil liberties, in the otherwise delightfully frivolous Year 11 pre-GCSE presentation, as it is in the dedication of the stalwarts of Shevat Achim, the Pupils’ Charity Committee, which raised many thousands of pounds for charity this year in diverse enterprising ways.

In short, this edition of College Life is a much more reliable guide to Immanuel College’s achievement this academic year than the statistics we shall be sending to the press in August. I hope that reading it enables you to gain a sense of the fulfilment and excitement which comes from being part of the school community.