I N S I G H TN o . 4

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We believe that education is a journey to be enjoyed and shared at every stage of life. Insight is testament to this ongoing commitment to learning: a termly publication of articles written by some of the extraordinary educationalists in our schools and organisations.

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Medicine entry exams: Guest authors, Simon Pedley and Ricardo Tavares from The Medic Portal explain the complex process for winning a place to study Medicine at university, and the tactics for effective preparation, p47

Ignite your future

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Editor’s letter 5Tim Fish, EditorA welcome to the fourth issue of Insight.

Ode to September 6Tom Arrand, Head of Cardiff Sixth Form CollegeA retrospective analysis of a term like no other.

Supporting well-being online 11Dr Louise Wheeler, Assistant Principal (International) of Rochester Independent CollegeReflections on tools, techniques, and teams to help support international students deal with full-time, online studying.

Read for pleasure, write to think 16Darryl Wideman, Head of Radnor House TwickenhamDarryl Wideman explores the age old maxim, ‘Think in ink’.

What is great leadership, and how do we bring 22it to life in the classroom?Richard Fletcher, Director of Performance at DukesA deep dive into how leadership can be fostered in education.

The benefits of the Montessori Method 31Aimee Kimbell, Principal of the Riverside Nursery SchoolsThe Montessori Method: more relevant now than ever?

Dear future doctors… 38Hassan Khan, sixth former at Rochester Independent College and successful medical applicant An open letter to the would-be doctors of tomorrow.

Medicine entry exams: a game of chess? 47Simon Pedley and Ricardo Tavares, The Medic PortalWhat can Medicine applicants learn from the grandmasters?

Public speaking and the educational power of speech 52 Sebastian Hepher, Principal of Eaton Square SchoolWhy the ancient classical art of rhetoric and oratory should be practised in every modern-day classroom.

A new, digital pedagogy 56Andy Brownlee, Director of Studies for summer schools provider, Summer Boarding Courses (SBC)Andy asks what we should carry over into a post-Covid world, exploring five powerful benefits of digital education.

The last word 60Wit and wisdom from some of the world’s great thinkers.

Contents

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Tim FishEditor’s letter

InsightNo.4

Welcome to Insight No. 4, Autumn/Winter 2020.

This is indeed a landmark edition as it is our first to be published both in hard copy and digital versions. For those of you reading the former, we hope that you will enjoy not only the articles but the tactile and visual experience that still makes browsing the Sunday newspapers such a treat. Thanks to Clare Playne

of Playne Design and Olivia Haywood, Dukes Director of Brand, for their much-valued work in bringing Insight to a coffee table near you…We offer a range of insights

from across the Dukes family of nurseries, schools, and colleges: reflective, informative, persuasive, and creative pieces that will not only add knowledge of the UK’s independent education landscape but also stimulate further discussion and investigation.It is no accident that we

have two contributions on studying Medicine in the UK. Never has there been so much

interest in and appreciation of medical and health sciences. The global effort to produce a Covid-19 vaccine — as well as the various antigen and antibody tests — has heightened the need and desire for better collaboration and investment in a sector which must continue to attract the brightest, best-motivated, and ambitious students from sixth forms far and wide. Gutenberg’s printing press (c. 1440) democratised literacy and signalled a cultural revolution which some would say launched the Renaissance. Biotech shows all the signs of bringing a revolution of similar impact on human health which will still be felt in 2550.Please do get in touch

if you would like to see an article in a future edition on a particular subject. Suggestions are always welcome! Many thanks for your

support.

Tim FishEditor

Bringing Insight to a coffee table near you…

Tim Fish, editor of Insight, is Managing Director for Dukes Education’s colleges, and founded Earlscliffe, a co-ed, international boarding school for students aged 15-19, in Folkestone, Kent.

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Ode to September This September has been more an emotion than a month in every

way. There are no words to describe the journey that schools have been on, since March. ‘Unprecedented’ is so over-used now that it has lost its meaning.I promise to refrain

from using it in this piece. Nevertheless, the shift to online learning and the creation of virtual pastoral and other vital systems designed to ensure continuity of care were significant challenges which schools responded to with great success. For school leaders, the forensic analysis of ever-changing guidance on re-opening, all amidst an exam results season which was confusing (to say the least) and which caused unhelpful stress and anxiety for young people and teachers, turned us all into frustrated lawyers as we sought to draw up plans that were water-tight, robust, and workable.We did it. I make that

statement not just on behalf of Cardiff Sixth Form College but on behalf of all Dukes schools and colleges. We worked together, collaborated, shared expertise, and offered critical friendship (with the emphasis on friendship). And so, as the September term draws to a close, with summer now a long-distant memory (‘What summer??’ I hear many a teacher ask) we reflect on our reopening strategies and something which is a fact not just of schools but of life: turning strategy into reality is never a smooth and

straightforward process. Or, as former World Heavyweight Boxing champion, Mike Tyson, summed up rather more pithily, ‘everyone has a strategy until they get punched in the face’.What have we learned

after a month of being back in school? As I write this, in a stolen hour in what has been the busiest month of my professional life, to date, I offer the following reflections on September 2020:

1. Prioritise the staff.I wish to clarify this statement. Everything we do in schools is about young people. Everything. We care for them, we protect them, and we seek to spark a sense of awe and wonder within them, making learning a joyous experience. In order to do that, we rely on the creativity, energy, intellectual ability, and enthusiasm of teachers. As the saying goes, always apply your own oxygen mask before helping others. And so it is in schools, in a crisis. Teachers must be protected, supported, and made to feel loved; appreciated, congratulated, and encouraged to take the down-time they need.Something that riles me,

however, is the constant reference to ‘teachers’ in the media, when people are actually referring to the human resources of schools/colleges. Teachers are pivotal, of course. But not everyone who makes education happen is a teacher.

Boarding staff, cleaners, caterers, maintenance workers, receptionists, administrators… the list of people whose contribution is not just significant but absolutely vital to making schools function, is long. And these are the people who are the difference between schools continuing to function and being forced into closure. They must be the priority of every school leader. If I am not doing enough for them, I want them to tell me.

2. Education, education, education.As far as mission statements are concerned, this one is rather loaded but it is also thoroughly appropriate. Everything we do, now, is about education. It is about bringing students up-to-date with their learning; re-integrating them into the classroom environment; re-firing the passion for learning, thinking, questioning, and reflecting. All of our energy must be focused on this in the safest environment possible. All other school activities that do not directly benefit the education of young people must wait. Teachers must be able to teach, to focus on their craft, to offer expert feedback, and to facilitate learning. That’s it.

3. Don’t just manage. Lead.Exploring the difference between leadership and management is a fun activity which can fill many essays

A lesser-known poet, David Whalen, in his poem ‘Ode to September’, describes September as:

‘More an emotion Than a month In many ways’

Tom Arrand, Head of Cardiff Sixth Form College, looks back at the start of a term like no other, and the key principles that helped keep a school resilient in, dare we say it, ‘unprecedented’ times…

and this is not the essay in which I intend to unpack the concepts. For the sake of this piece, management is what we are going to do whereas leadership is how we are going to do it. In my opening talk to all staff and students at the start of September, I reminded them that every member of the CSFC community leads, models, and manages themselves and those around them. Often it is unconscious. Others will imitate when we model the correct behaviours just as readily as they will repeat the wrong behaviours. All of the policies in the world will not prevent Covid from entering and passing through a school. Living those policies, adapting them through collective wisdom and information-sharing, being visible, and reaching out to others (from a safe social distance) matters more than ever and that is how we prevent the spread of the virus in schools. Mrs Clyde, Head of

Academic Studies at Cardiff Sixth Form College, remarked to me on her way out of college last night that her step count is ‘off the chart’. All hail, Mrs Clyde! Visible leadership, walking the corridors to support her staff and to cajole her students and all behind a floral face mask. That is what we need to see.

4.Thank everyone.When I am thanked, by parents, staff, students, governors, or even by complete strangers, I feel great. Sometimes, I feel

emotional as a result. I am only human. At a time when everyone is doing more than ever before to ensure that students get the education they deserve, everyone needs to be thanked. Endlessly, by everyone. We have to wrap our arms around each other and never stop telling each other that whilst we all make mistakes, feel exhausted, and occasionally fray around the emotional edges, we are doing our best and exceeding everyone’s expectations. Thank you, everyone.

5. Stand up for what matters.Everything I have said so far is about maintaining a positive, safe atmosphere in schools where everyone feels loved and supported. As school leaders, there is an additional dimension which, as schools look to deliver exceptional outcomes for deserving students under the most complicated of circumstances, we need to address head-on. It is not acceptable that

schools and teachers are blamed for a shambolic episode in August when exam results were published and then re-published. It is not acceptable that Heads and teaching unions were being blamed, last spring, for schools not reopening sooner. It is not acceptable for sections of the media to suggest that teachers had enjoyed long holidays whilst students had fallen behind in their education. None of this and other social media storms bear any resemblance to the reality of life at Cardiff

Sixth Form College, any other Dukes schools or colleges, or the overwhelming majority of UK schools. School leaders must robustly defend their schools, their staff, their students, their sector, and their profession. They must work with their professional organisations and other partners to be a strong voice for the profession and the sectors which they represent.

‘September. More an emotion than a month.’ A fair summary. And an important reminder that education is an emotional activity, schools are emotional environments, and we are all emotional beings. The guidance is written; the schools are re-configured; the hand-sanitisers are filled, and the masks are safely secured over the nose and mouth. That was the easy bit. We are, as Winston Churchill remarked, ‘at the end of the beginning’ and we are learning so much as we go. But learning is why we are here. n

Tom Arrand is Head of Cardiff Sixth Form College, the world's leading A-level college with a highly international student body, based in Cardiff, the capital city of Wales, UK.

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Supporting well-being online

While many students are dealing with the challenges of returning to in-person learning and boarding life

after the disruption of the Covid pandemic, there are significant numbers of international students who have not been able to travel to the UK for study, this academic year. For very understandable reasons, including travel restrictions, health concerns, lack of flights, closure of visa centres, and government institutions worldwide, these students are currently following their courses through supported distance learning online. Obviously, distance learning can present

a range of well-recognised challenges in terms of academic teaching and learning. However, what is often overlooked is the way that online learning can impact on a distance student’s well-being and mental health. At Rochester Independent College, staff believe that a positive sense of well-being is essential to meaningful and successful learning and that this is as true for online learners, as it is for on-campus students. This belief is not only underpinned by years of experience at the college, in which personalised support for the learning journeys of individual students has been central to our ethos and at the heart of our pedagogy, but is also clearly supported by research which shows that cognitive engagement and academic achievement is undeniably dependant on the interplay between emotional engagement and school-related well-being (for example, Pietarinen 2014).The challenge for Rochester Independent

College this year, therefore, has been how to support the well-being of students who live thousands of miles away and often in a different time zone. Like many colleges in the UK, 2020 has taught us a lot about helping our students to thrive both academically and personally — pushing us to develop new tools and approaches that respond to the particular challenges of online learning in Covid-times. We have recently introduced the RIC Well-

being Wheel, as a visual tool to help students understand how different aspects of their life-style and mindset can impact their emotional and cognitive engagement. This includes physical aspects (such as sleep, nutrition,

While many students have returned to the classroom, Dr Louise Wheeler, Assistant Principal (International) at Rochester Independent College, reflects on the challenges many international students are facing as they continue to learn entirely online.

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enjoying her subjects (all new to her this year) and was also finding time outside her studies to develop her baking skills. Through regular contact with her personal tutor, she had demonstrated that she was aware of her own emotional health and had positive coping strategies for self-care, most specifically looking after and even confiding in her two dogs. In terms of future vision, she found motivation in the prospect of realising her dream of studying in the UK. With her tutor, she was able to identify the ‘community’ element of her well-being as one that she needed help to strengthen and her tutor was able to suggest ways she could start making connections with others, even though she was a little lacking in confidence. She has now been put in touch with some of the on-campus students through the student-led ‘Discord board’ platform and can start to connect with some of the college’s groups and clubs online. Creating social opportunities for this student, we hope to foster her self-esteem and communication skills — characteristics that should prove as advantageous in her academic journey as they will in life.When we reflect on positive online

experiences like that of Lucy, it becomes apparent that well-being and success in online learning involves building a trusting, open relationship, not only with the learner, but with what we refer to as the ‘Team Around the Student’. The ‘Team Around the Student’ includes

family, agents and sponsors, subject teachers, and peers, with the student’s ‘personal tutor’ as the hub to coordinate communication and support. At Rochester, all of our students have a personal tutor to advise, guide, and support them on their individual journeys.

Our distance students are no different and meet regularly for one-to-one Google Meets to discuss all aspects of their learning. Students are also encouraged to reflect and keep track of their well-being. However, important as the tutor-tutee relationship may be, there is a wide range of other relationships that can help to sustain a student’s well-being online: their parents at home, their favourite subject teacher, the EAL support teacher or the agent or sponsor who is familiar with the family, the home culture, and speaks their first language. These different members in a student’s ‘team’ can have different and invaluable perspectives on their well-being and personal circumstances. At Rochester, we have found that online

learning really works when there is good communication between the ‘Team Around the Student’, combined with time invested in building trusting, effective relationships based on working toward a common goal. Moreover, the student themselves should be aware of this cohesive team around them and needs to feel confident in knowing who they can turn to for well-being and academic support. An excellent example of an effective ‘Team

Around the Student’ approach has been our Thai Scholars Programme. Since 1991, Rochester Independent College has welcomed many outstanding young Thai academics, who have secured prestigious places on this government-funded programme in a national competition. The Thai government funds these exceptional students through their A-levels at the college and then through top UK universities. Thai scholars return home, often after completing doctoral study, and go on to work in senior positions for the Thai government.

Through guided discussions, personal tutors can support tutees to ‘map’ their own well-being and identify areas for potential positive change.

Our 2020 experience so far has reminded us of the central role well-being must play in successful teaching and learning

and exercise), learning (both within A-levels and extracurricular), emotions and mental health, spirit (awareness and connection with oneself), a sense of community and belonging (relationships with others), and vision for the future. Through guided discussions, personal tutors can support tutees to ‘map’ their own well-being and identify areas for potential positive change. We also hope that these kinds of guided reflections help foster a ‘growth mindset’ in our online learners, as well as resilience and the tools necessary for sustainable well-being, long term. Often, we take for granted that well-being

awareness is learned tacitly through informal, personal interactions with school staff and peers, through lived experiences in a boarding community and in the classroom, or through day-to-day exposure to a school’s culture or ethos (Graham et al, 2016). Distance students

do not have the same opportunities to absorb this broader learning on well-being in the same way and so it is essential that we make this an explicit focus in our online teaching and learning practices, so that students understand the value of well-being and make space for it in their lives. Take, for example, one of our Year 12

Chinese students — let’s call her Lucy. Lucy has been making excellent progress with her online learning, despite considerable hurdles, including being an EAL learner, wifi connectivity issues, and a significant time difference. Despite this, she has received consistently high praise from her teachers and always comes across with positivity and self-assurance in her meetings with her tutor. What was the secret of her success? Talking through her personal well-being

wheel, it emerged that this student was

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Learning

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Unfortunately, this year, due to travel restrictions imposed in response to the Covid-19 pandemic, our latest batch of Thai scholars has not been able to join us in person this academic year and instead, they are pursuing their A-level studies online. Despite the distance, the seven-hour time difference, and the fact they are studying a second language, these exceptional young people have managed to outperform many students studying in-person here in the UK. Although these scholars are undoubtedly

high academic achievers, they have also benefited from an excellent, cohesive, and dedicated ‘Team Around the Student’ to support not only their learning, but also guide them in looking after their own well-being. Not only do these students communicate regularly with their personal tutors at Rochester about their learning, their passions, and their ambitions for university and beyond, but both they and we are also in regular contact with their sponsors at the Thai embassy and their parents. These are students who reach out, proactively, to subject teachers to make us aware of potential issues and special interests. Their parents too are in regular contact with us to help give us the benefit of their lifetime of experience

nurturing their son or daughter. This cohesive ‘team spirit’ is quite beautifully reflected in the UCAS personal statements of these students (many of whom are applying to Oxbridge colleges) — where the advice and perspectives of these different members of the team are brought together by the student to present a picture of them at their best. It is fair to say that staff and students

alike cannot wait for the day when we can be reunited on campus and where face-to-face teaching is once again a reality for all. Nevertheless, our 2020 experience so far has reminded us of the central role well-being must play in successful teaching and learning. We are hopeful that new perspectives on well-being development and support, like our developing well-being toolkit and ‘Team Around the Student’ approach, will only enhance the educational experience for all students when we do return to a ‘new normal’ in the near future. n

Dr Louise Wheeler is Assistant Principal (International) at Rochester Independent College, a vibrant boarding and day college with a rigorous academic culture, for students aged 11 to 18, based in Kent.

‘Online learning really works when there is good communication

between the ‘Team Around the Student’, combined with time

invested in building trusting, effective relationships based on working

toward a common goal.’

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One-year GCSEA-levelsFoundation programmes

Small classesIntensive teachingWeekly testing

earlscliffe.co.uk

Earlscliffe 29 Shorncliffe Road, Folkestone CT20 2NB, United Kingdom

A personalised sixth form education

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Read for pleasure, write to think.In the year of digital teaching and learning, Darryl Wideman, Head of Radnor House Twickenham, reminds us of the power of good, old-fashioned pen and paper.

‘The faintest ink is more powerful than the strongest memory’ may or may not be a Chinese proverb — people online seem to have

remarkably powerful views about things that seem of limited importance to me — but it is a useful way to summarise one of my key approaches to educational leadership.

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Often, it is also a helpful phrase when I am trying to impart wisdom to a class of pupils. While most will usually have a pen or a laptop to hand — I am still naïve enough to think their writing and tapping may actually be related to what I am telling them — there are always one or two who just sit there. When I ask why they are not writing, they often claim that they can simply remember the important bits. Cue the Chinese proverb. Rather longer ago than I would care to

remember, I attended an induction course for new Head Teachers. I am sure I could write several articles reflecting on what I learned or failed to learn that weekend in preparation for Headship, which was anyway always a role that I viewed as being like driving a car: it was never going to matter how many case studies or ‘what if’ scenarios we looked at; the best way to learn how to lead a school was to do it. You can know the Highway Code inside out and backwards but it won’t help you to do a reverse hill start in the rain.At the time of the course, I was a Deputy

Head who had particular responsibility for the day-to-day organisation of the school, as well as the endless complexities and nuances of pastoral care, so the parts I struggled with most were the sessions about the development of a coherent vision. I was then, and I think I still am today, often more comfortable with operational systems than blue sky thinking; though, rather like management and leadership, in the end it is clear that both are fundamental in the creation of a really good school.The highlights were the pieces of advice

from practising Heads, above all Tony Little from Eton College. He was unpretentious and full of interesting ideas, for example the

recommendation only to put ten things on a ‘to do’ list, because if everything is a priority then nothing will be. My favourite was his four ways to deal with stress — gamble, lie, cheat, and steal. When we had recovered from the initial shock, he clarified that his recommendations were to gamble on yourself, lie in the shade, cheat the negative thinkers, and steal good ideas. The idea that I found most helpful was

the suggestion that it is important to write to clarify your thinking. Up to that point in my career, I had read lots of books and articles to develop my subject knowledge and improve my classroom teaching, with most of my writing coming in the form of notes for pupils, schemes of work, or grumpy missives to those above me in the hierarchy about why they should run the school in the way I was suggesting. When greater responsibility came with Deputy Headship, much time and effort was devoted to the creation of policies and procedures and with the day-to-day challenges of running the school, which left very little mental bandwidth for anything else. I did not, therefore, start compiling my scrapbooks of other people’s wisdom until I became a Head. I may have been a late starter but I have been reading, taking notes, and, above all, stealing good ideas ever since. And I would wholeheartedly recommend it.

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‘ The idea that I found most helpful was the suggestion that it is important to write to clarify your thinking.’

‘ There are no silver bullets in education, no simple ways to guarantee that children make better progress. However, time and again the message comes through that those who read for pleasure give themselves significant advantage.’

I was privileged to hear the television and radio producer, John Lloyd, the man behind QI, at a conference a couple of years ago. I have always found that a QI Book of Facts provides at least a year’s worth of assemblies if it is used properly. It was a genuinely fascinating hour as he ranged eclectically across a host of topics, from such gems as reminding people to ‘be there for [their] staff but otherwise just make sure they have enough to eat’, to the fact that sheep can apparently distinguish between Fiona Bruce and Emma Watson. However, the moment that stayed with me was when he echoed what I had taken years to work out, with the advice that you should read everything but only write down what you find interesting. I was asked recently for a list of my ‘top ten’

non-fiction books, which I initially thought might prove a daunting task to compile, but which actually turned out to be very straightforward because I just looked up at the bookshelf in my office and picked my favourites. There is not time here to explain the justification of each choice, but in case anyone is interested, you can see my list opposite. If you do not have a ‘top ten’ of your own, I strongly recommend compiling one.There are no silver bullets in education, no

simple ways to guarantee that children make better progress. However, time and again the message comes through that those who develop the ability to read for pleasure give themselves a significant advantage. I like to think I have become a much more effective leader by reading as widely and eclectically as I can, clarifying my thoughts and expressing them through writing. My idea of reading for pleasure is to sit in a deckchair in a shady spot with a good book and a pen to make notes of the best bits. This is one of the key ways in which I sustain myself through some of the many challenges of school leadership — of which there have been plenty in recent months, and there certainly look to be plenty more ahead! n

Darryl Wideman is Head of Radnor House Twickenham, an independent, selective, co-educational day school for children aged 9-18 in a stunning location on the banks of the Thames in Twickenham.

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My top ten non-fiction books

Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind

Yuval Noah Harari

1

Homo Deus: A Brief History of TomorrowYuval Noah Harari

Thinking, Fast and SlowDaniel Kahneman

You Are Not So Smart David McRaney 4Good to Great Jim Collins5

The 100-Year LifeLinda Gratton & Andrew Scott 6

Factfulness Hans Rosling

7 Why We Sleep Matthew Walker

A Short History of Nearly Everything

Bill Bryson

9Educating Ruby

Guy Claxton & Bill Lucas10

2

3

8

Self-awareness

Peo

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P rofessio n al skills & k n o wled ge

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Extraordinaryperformance

Fig. 1 The Dukes Leadership Framework

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What is great leadership, and how do we bring it to life in the classroom?

At Dukes, we have always believed that great leadership is not

dependent on status or position. The truly great leaders in this world are those who are aware enough to see the need in front of them and able enough to meet it, inspiring others and galvanising those around them in the process.This idea forms the

bedrock of all our leadership training at Dukes. Our flagship Dukes Leadership Programmes are underpinned by a leadership framework (Figure 1) and seek to cover the most important elements of leadership in the world of

education. The core principles of this framework are Self-Awareness, Purpose, People, and Professional Knowledge & Skills. When these principles are in place and are developed in individuals and within the organisation, then Extraordinary Performance naturally occurs.Performance can be

defined in many different ways. The definition that has rung true for me over the years is one that came from Timothy Gallwey’s, The Inner Game of Tennis. He proposes that performance (p) is equal to potential (P) minus interference (I), or p = P - I.

Richard Fletcher, Director of Performance at Dukes, explores the principles of great leadership, how these are defined within his organisation, and how we can foster these capabilities in staff.

“ The two most important days in your life are the day you are born and the day you find out why.”

Mark Twain

The Dukes Leadership Framework

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people skills and functional knowledge? The most inspirational

people I have ever met are also very clear on why they do what they do. They have a strong sense of purpose and that purpose is often, at its core, very simple. It is often a single sentence which guides their decisions and helps them to stay true to themselves.This is also true for the

greatest organisations: they have a clear sense of purpose which filters through every aspect of the organisation; its people and its processes. At its core, the purpose of the 2012 Olympics was to ‘Inspire a Generation’. This simple and short sentence dictated decision making from regeneration projects in East London to the decision that we would have teenage torch bearers instead of a famous celebrity to light the Olympic flame in the opening ceremony.Our purpose at Dukes is to

empower and inspire children to live an extraordinary life. This single sentence should guide our every decision.When our purpose is clear,

the outcome is both powerful and inspiring and this is why Purpose is one of the core principles of the Dukes Leadership Framework. Our programmes help people to get clearer on their purpose, allowing them to tune in to what really matters to them and ultimately lead a more meaningful life.Inevitably, there will

always be obstacles along the way. Many of these obstacles are reasonably easy to deal

In order to achieve outstanding performance, we must develop our potential and reduce interference. Interference relates to those things, or obstacles, which get in the way of us reaching our potential. The job of the leader is not just to seek to identify and then remove their own obstacles but also to help and support others to do the same. I refer to obstacles later in this article.The People element of the

framework refers to effective communication, the ability to collaborate, manage conflict, the ability to develop people, influence and inspire others, and take them on a journey. On our leadership training programmes, we spend time helping the participants hone their people skills with modules on coaching, managing conflict, inspirational communication, and managing performance.When we combine the

ability to inspire people with deep knowledge and skills related to our context (ie Professional Knowledge & Skills) the results can be extraordinary. On our courses, time is spent covering topics such as Strategic Planning, HR, Finance, and Marketing, how to drive culture and manage change. All these things are essential components of the toolkit for a leader in education. But what about the

two other aspects of the framework: ‘Purpose’ and ‘Self-Awareness’?Let’s take a step back and

ask ourselves what lies at the heart of great leadership? What must come before great

“�The�‘Taking�People�with�You’�module�really�brought�together�strands�of�self-knowledge�from�the�earlier�modules�and�allowed�me�to�notice�ingrained�responses�to�certain�types�of�interaction.�It�also�gave�me�tools�to�begin�to�do�things�differently.�I�acted�on�this�the�very�next�day�with�a�colleague�and�the�outcome�I�experienced�was�beyond�my�expectations.”

“�I�found�the�whole�course�to��be�exceptionally�well�planned�and�potentially�life-changing.�All�the�sessions�were�valuable�—�the�ones�that�made�me�question�my�assumptions�about�myself�were�the�most�profound.�I�can’t�emphasise�enough�how�much�I�enjoyed�it.�I�am�extremely�grateful�to�be�invested�in�in�this�way.”

Celebrated author, Matthew Syed, speaks on the subject of leadership and cerebral diversity at the Dukes Senior Leaders’ Conference, 2020.

Olympic relay champion Kriss Akabusi (MBE) explored the theme of leading within a team at the Dukes Senior Leaders’ Conference, 2020.

Dukes Senior Leadership Programme participants

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Step 1The things which come up the most are mainly the things you have to do: jobs that need to be completed; issues that need to be resolved. Place these in the ‘It’ category.

Step 2 Now look for the things about the people around you: people you need to meet; calls you must make; people you work with. Place these in the ‘Us’ category.

Step 3 Now look for the things about yourself. You might notice that you have not written anything down which fits into this category, such as: how you look after yourself; how you manage your own energy levels; how you maintain your motivation or interest; how you manage your emotions, particularly in the face of situations that may cause stress. Also, time spent considering questions such as ‘What are my strengths?’, ‘What do I value?’, ‘What is stopping me reaching my potential?’, and ‘What is my purpose? would be in the in this category. If you have any of these things written down, place these in the ‘Me’ category

Step 4Now look at the balance between each of the three categories Me, Us & It and ask, ‘Where is the focus of my attention?’

Think about a typical day: How do you begin your day? What are the things which are on your mind and are the focus of your attention? If you operate off a ‘to do’ list, what does your list looks like?Now you are going to put these things into three categories, namely Me, Us & It.

Self-awareness & self-regulation Are you getting the balance right?

with. Much of the time these obstacles are to do with processes or the dynamics between people. However, the most challenging obstacles are often those which come from within: they take courage to face and overcome.Self-awareness is key

here and is the starting point because it shines a light on these internal obstacles. Whether it is fear, a reluctance to have difficult but honest conversations, a strong feeling of imposter syndrome, a belief that “I am not good enough,” or a host of others, these obstacles stop us from reaching our potential and fulfilling our purpose. Many of these obstacles are formed early in our lives: they need our awareness in order to bring them into the light and our courage to cast them off and ultimately move more freely. So great leadership

begins with self-awareness. This is an idea which has been developed by Daniel Goleman’s work on Emotional Intelligence over the last couple of decades and has become a central tenet to many leadership programmes around the world.Being at our best requires

balance and paying attention to the different aspects of our lives and our work in the right measure. We often forget about dedicating time to reflect on our purpose and how aligned we are to it at any moment, how we are looking after ourselves, our energy levels, how we are feeling, and those things which are causing us stress. How we are and how we show up is

crucial in how we form and maintain strong relationships with those with whom we work.A simple model used

by Dukes Education in the Leadership Programmes is the ‘Me, Us, It Model’ (Figure 2). This model helps us to develop self-awareness and see more clearly where our attention is being placed on a day-to-day basis. This activity shows us that

our awareness and attention can be placed on these three different areas and that we need to balance our attention across all three in order to be at our best. We do not need to spend equal lengths of time in all three categories but we do need to give quality attention to all three in order to achieve balance. Sometimes tasks (to be found in the ‘It’) require a lot of attention. This model is a reminder to balance the tasks with the other important areas which require your attention.Interestingly, mental health

professionals encourage us to ‘check in’ with ourselves on a regular basis so that we become more aware of our mental state and those things which are causing us stress. This kind of activity makes it more likely that we will be able to manage these stressors on a daily basis.The Dukes Leadership

Programmes commit time to helping the participants explore their own values and purpose. Preferences, behaviours, and relationship dynamics are explored using Mindtraps, Hogan Drivers, and personality profiling, to name a few methods.

Fig. 2 Me, Us, It.

“�I�thought�the�‘Business�of�Education’�module�was�excellent.�I�felt�it�really�moved�my�learning�on�in�a�practical�sense�to�improve�my�day-to-day�practice�as�a�leader.”

Dukes Senior Leadership Programme participant

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On the Senior Leadership Programme, participants are also given an executive coach to help them gain self-awareness, clarify goals, achieve their development objectives, unlock their potential, and act as a sounding board.The whole programme

seeks to be truly transformational, leading the participants to have a positive impact on the lives of those with whom they work and seek to inspire.Finding our purpose is not

easy but in order to be a truly effective leader we must try. We must clarify our purpose and then put it to work. n

Richard Fletcher is Director of Performance at Dukes Education, leading the development and training of staff throughout the family of nurseries, schools, summer schools, and university consultancies.

Dukes Senior Leadership Programme participants

“�MBTI�(personality�profiling)�made�me�view�others�more�openly�and�with�more�understanding”

“�Understanding�that�one�of�my�mindtraps�is�being�a�critic�and�not�being�frustrated�with�myself�for�being�critical�a�lot�of�the�time�but�also�seeing�the�positives�of�this�was�really�helpful.”

“�My�organisation�and�timekeeping�has�always�been�an�area�for�my�own�development�but�since�the�first�module,�I�have�been�looking�at�the�positives�of�being�a�‘perceiving’�leader�…�It�has�enabled�me�to�stop�focusing�on�the�negatives�and�to�embrace�the�positives!”

�“�It�is�brilliant�to�see�that�Dukes�is�really�championing�leadership�development�within�the�organisation.”

“�The�‘Inspirational�Communication’�module�had�immediate�practical�application.�It�helped�me�practise�real�communication�with�peers,�but�it�also�challenged�me�to�get�down�to�the,�“Why?”�—�to�question�my�assumptions�about�what�most�people�want�to�hear.”

“�I�have�simply�been�allowing�myself�five�minutes�at�the�beginning�of�each�day�to�clear�my�head�and�have�time�focusing�on�myself�in�a�calm�state�before�attacking�the�day.�It�really�helps!”

Our Senior Leaders Conference brought together leaders in different educational fields, sparking exciting ideas. Pictured here, Susan Bingham (Founder of Hopes and Dreams Montessori Nursery School) and Michael Hodge (Head of Prospect House School)

The Dukes Leadership & Management Skills Programme

The Dukes Senior Leadership Programme

The programme helps leaders develop confidence and skills in leadership and management. It helps individuals learn to manage their own self-development and teaches some of the fundamental tools and skills in managing key professional relationships.

Leaders have the opportunity to reflect on their own and their teams’ performance and are given tools to improve it. The programme is also an excellent opportunity to develop a network of peers for support.

The Senior Leadership Programme brings together a group of highly motivated individuals across Dukes, who have been recognised as having the potential to make a significant contribution to the future of their organisations.

The programme is an exceptional opportunity to develop the personal, interpersonal, and pragmatic tools required to accelerate one’s development as a leading figure within an organisation.

Six modules

over six months

1. Foundations of personal & people leadership.

2. Building trust, managing teams, the art of delegation.

3. Communicating with impact.

4. Managing own & others’ performance.

5. Managing conflict & difficult conversations.

6. Personal leadership revisited.

Ten modules

over ten months

1. Foundations of personal & people leadership.

2. Stress management & well-being.

3. Communicating with impact.

4. Taking people with you.

5. Business of education.

6. Coaching for performance.

7. Culture & change.8. Inspirational

communication.9. Strategic planning.10. Reviewing, planning,

and presenting.

Accredited by:

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Aimee Kimbell, Principal of the Riverside Nursery Schools, is one of the UK’s foremost experts in the Montessori Method. She explores the ways in which this theory of education, developed in the early 1900s, continues to deliver an outstanding start in life for our children, to this day.

Give me a child until he is seven and I will show you the man.’ This famous quote, attributed to Aristotle, demonstrates how important early

influences are on human development. The Montessori Method is based on a child-centred approach that encourages pupils to follow their own initiatives, leading to confident, positive learners at the beginning of their educational journey. Dr Maria Montessori believed early years pupils have ‘absorbent minds’ which have a sponge-like capacity to absorb from the environment that which is necessary to create an individual, before transitioning to a reasoning adult mind. For Montessori, the goal of education is to allow the child’s optimal intellectual, physical, emotional, and social development to unfold naturally.Self-motivation and independent learning

are intrinsic to the Montessori Method. From the earliest age, pupils are encouraged to find their own motivations for learning and growth through freedom in the ‘prepared environment’. The Montessori Method focuses on creating an enjoyable, ‘hands-

The Benefits of the Montessori Method

‘

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on’, collaborative learning experience where pupils progress at their own speed. It teaches them to start with their own ideas and build on them through problem solving and physical experimentation. Each child is valued as a unique individual. A pupil’s path through the early years is not driven by instructions and judgements, but a desire to let them learn in their own unique way. The ‘prepared environment’ of Montessori settings nurture order, concentration, and creativity. If a child wants to spend three hours building a Roman arch, figuring out a trinomial cube, or working out the geometry of a tower, that’s fine. Uninterrupted time spent problem-solving and self-teaching is vital to the method. Montessori described such times as ‘sensitive periods’. She identified eleven different sensitive

periods occurring from birth through to the age of six. During these times children have an inner compulsion to master an activity without assistance. The Montessori materials have inbuilt controls of error to enable self-correction, fostering independence and concentration.Positive social skills and emotional

intelligence are other proven benefits of the Montessori Method. Multi-age classrooms ensure pupils are part of a close, caring community with older pupils as role models for the younger ones, developing positive socio-emotional skills. This approach fosters a community-based social intelligence by focusing on self-awareness, enabling pupils to understand moods and emotions. We encourage pupils to consider the perspective of others, fostering empathy and building emotional skills. Montessori children have been found to interact in a positive way and show a greater sense of justice and fairness. At the heart of our ‘Grace and Courtesy’ curriculum is respect for self, others, and the environment. Peace education is a part of Montessori’s vision and focuses on inner peace and conflict resolution. Montessori said that a child is ‘a hope and a promise for mankind’. She defined peace as ‘a mindset of collaboration and respect for different cultures and religions coupled with a respect for the natural world.’ This aim has never been more important than it is now.

‘ A pupil’s path through the early years is not driven by instructions and judgements, but a desire to let them learn in their own unique way.’

‘In the USA, where Montessori education is popular, observers have

described the ‘Montessori Mafia’ dominating

Silicon Valley.’

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life’. Research has shown that the Montessori Method produces more mature, creative, and socially adept children. Skills for the 21st century job market are usually summarised as: collaboration and teamwork, creativity and imagination, and critical thinking and problem solving, which all spring from the Montessori Method. In the 21st century, digital world, creativity and imagination are vital skills to help progress our culture and contribute to society. As Maria Montessori said, ‘Imagination does not become great until human beings, given the courage and the strength, use it to create’. The Montessori approach gives students

courage and strength to follow their imagination. In the most popular TED talk of all time, ‘Do Schools Kill Creativity?’, Sir Ken Robinson argues that creativity is as important as literacy. He explains that to thrive in the post-industrial, 21st century economy, the most valuable skills are creativity, self-motivation, and social intelligence. The Montessori Method aims to nurture these qualities by providing the environment and stimuli to allow independent creativity to flourish. In the age of artificial intelligence and robotics, it could be argued that creativity should be more highly valued as technology can out-perform people in retaining, processing, and repeating rule-based information prevalent in the industrial 20th century employment market.In the USA, where Montessori education

is popular, observers have described the ‘Montessori Mafia’ dominating Silicon Valley. Many of the key innovators in our digital technological age are former Montessori pupils and perhaps the Montessori child within each has helped to shape the world we know. Former Montessori student Bill Gates demonstrates typical Montessorian traits of independent creativity and has revolutionised the world popularising home computing. Former Montessorian Steve Jobs, founder of Apple, developed his drive and vison in the Montessori prepared environment. It is no coincidence that Mark Zuckerberg (Facebook), Jeff Bezos (Amazon), and Larry Page (Google) all attended Montessori schools. As Larry Page pointed out, the formative qualities of his Montessori

The Montessori Method stresses the importance of nature because of its effects on the growth of the whole child. According to the philosophy, nature enriches the life of each child by physical, social, emotional, and cognitive development. Nature helps to encourage curiosity and the desire for exploration within a child, whilst offering rich, sensorial experiences. Maria Montessori wrote in her book The Absorbent Mind, ‘Only through freedom and environmental experience is it practically possible for human development to occur.’ This seems to chime with contemporary Britain as many people have reconnected with nature during recent lockdowns. This also relates well to contemporary global concerns about environmentalism and climate change and the young generations following in Greta Thunberg’s crucial footsteps. The Montessori philosophy encourages

a positive attitude to learning, collaboration, and problem solving to prepare students for a successful and fulfilled life and can provide a set of skills that are most relevant in the 21st century job market. In Maria Montessori’s words ‘the education of a small child does not aim in preparing him for school, but for

‘ We have an opportunity to shape the next generation of leaders and innovators. Montessori students are able to think critically, work collaboratively, and act boldly — skill sets for the 21st century.’

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background were in ‘not following rules and orders, and being self-motivated, questioning what’s going on in the world, and doing things a little bit differently’. Although the Montessori Method is 150 years old, its ideas are proven to work and are more relevant today than ever. The Californian tech world recognises how the method benefits creativity and innovation so much that Elon Musk is building his own Montessori school, on site, to serve his Space X employees.At our Riverside Nursery Montessori

Schools, we welcome two year-olds on the next steps of their educational journeys as absorbent-minded toddlers thirsty to learn, through our carefully prepared environments, into a world of exploration and discovery. By nurturing their unique characters and allowing them to flourish, they become self-reliant, compassionate, knowledgeable, global citizens with a desire for life-long learning. We have an opportunity to shape the next generation of leaders and innovators. Our students are able to think critically, work collaboratively, and act boldly — skill sets for the 21st century. Is it possible that without the Montessori

Method our modern world could look very different, without the innovations of the tech giants that define our age? Maybe Aristotle could have seen a spark of creativity and innovation in the seven-year-old Montessorians Bill Gates and Steve Jobs. It is our privilege to educate and nurture the minds of the next generation of creative greats. n

Aimee Kimbell is Principal of Riverside Nursery Schools, a family of five nurseries in Twickenham, Richmond-Upon-Thames. Every child can learn to fly

Great minds think for themselves; nurturing individuality is at the heart of our teaching. We believe tailor-made teaching opens up young minds to endless possibilities, and that a growth mindset approach encourages children to think creatively and form their own ideas.

Our pupils mostly call it having fun. We call it being the best they can be.

Come and visit us in Notting Hill to find out more.

www.bassetths.org.uk

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Dear future doctors...

Hassan Khan, international student from Saudi Arabia at Rochester Independent College, has just won a coveted place at University College London (UCL)’s medical school. He writes an open letter to fellow students who are considering taking this hyper-competitive route.

Rochester Independent College students are celebrating a record year for medical school placement, with nine students winning places

at UK universities such as Southampton, Sheffield, and Exeter. Hassan Khan joined RIC in 2017 for a one-year GCSE course from an international school in Saudi Arabia. He completed his A-levels in the RIC sixth form and has a place at UCL’s medical school, currently ranked eighth in the world by the QS World University Rankings. In this letter to potential future doctors, he reflects candidly on his journey to medical school and the vicissitudes of the application process, offering useful advice to anyone considering following this path.

Dear future doctor,

Why Medicine? An infamous question laid down by tight-lipped, smiling interviewers on almost all nervous, sweating, stuttering, potential medics on interview day. But I ask you, as a student, and as someone who truly values your health… Seriously, why Medicine? Why are you doing this to yourself? There are 23,000 medical applicants (figures

from 2019 onwards) that apply each year, on

Being a nurse, a psychologist, or a doctor are all equally important pieces that make up our healthcare system and they all interact and share information together to deliver the most holistic approach.

‘ Find your “WHY”. That real, almost tangible feeling of purpose — where you just know you want to be a doctor.’

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average, while only 7,500 places are available at the 33 universities across the UK. This means if four of you are applying, only one of you is getting in. Yes, it’s fiercely competitive. If you are offered a place, you know you are willingly giving up a decade of your life to just learn, LEARN, to practise as a GP, with a possible six more years if you are looking at becoming a specialist consultant. That’s now almost your whole life until your thirties dedicated to learning. Your education begins with four to six years as a university student, which comes with various challenges. One obstacle that is, perhaps, less obvious, is that the course itself might not even suit you; 1.8% of medical applicants in the UK (according to figures provided in 2014) who pushed through the vigorous application process (more on this later) drop out in the first year, due to not enjoying the course or even just changing their minds on a degree in Medicine. If you do start med school, it means you will have to budget carefully, while balancing your blossoming social life (well, for me, my bed and about 17 Reese’s Cups is the perfect night out) and your time spent in academia, all while starting to learn to be independent financially, which is, overall, a huge shift in independence from one’s A-level years. After your time at university, the two Foundation Years will commence, with gruelling 48-hour shifts as a junior doctor for the next few years, for a yearly income that progresses from £23,000 to £28,000, which is barely enough to cover even a scrap of the mass of student loans you borrowed for your time at university. On average it takes 10 years to pay back your med school loans. On top of these initial financial difficulties,

as you progress with your junior doctor training, you will more often than not have to work unpaid overtime hours, which is largely due to the huge understaffing in our NHS. In fact, a survey carried out by UNISON showed that 70% of NHS members were not paid when working over their shift, and 77% said that they were not satisfied at all with their pay in general (take a moment to appreciate the bulletproof sheer will of our healthcare workers, who continue to provide such essential services). If you are promoted to working and running ward rounds, know that

pushing through days and achieving goals as a team has become increasingly difficult, as promises to mend our NHS through sufficient funding (which would have provided us with more beds, vital equipment, and nurses) are being broken or being inadequately fulfilled by our government, which makes it harder for us to meet the healthcare demands of an ageing and increasing population. Therefore, us potential and current NHS members will have to bear the brunt of cruel statistics; like only 81.4% of A&E patients are seen within the maximum four-hour waiting time in December 2019 (the worst month since the four-hour time-target was created in 2004) or that, due to our shortages of beds in A&E and shortage of healthcare workers, a four year-old Jack Williment last year had to sleep on the floor during a long, chaotic, EIGHT-hour wait period in order to be seen and diagnosed with Influenza A and tonsillitis. Imagine the anxiety etched into his mother’s face, not being able to do anything but wait those agonizingly long hours till her Jack could be seen. These are not the only stories healthcare workers will be burdened with — do not forget, as of the time of writing in 2020, we are going to be facing tougher and more demanding winters due to the pressure Covid-19 will force onto our NHS, and already with our lack of vital equipment and apparatus, there are going to be some scary and unforeseeable years to face, with potentially hundreds of more Jack Williments lying on cold floors waiting to be given beds that you and I simply can’t provide.What, you’re still here? Impressive. See,

these aren’t cold truths and hard realities we are used to hearing when listening to what it’s like to be a doctor. Instead, we are brainwashed with glamorous, rich, soap-opera doctor lives (I’m looking at you Debbie Allen). I do believe if you have started this sentence, having already acquainted yourself with the horrible statistics and possible tribulations becoming a doctor in the NHS may cause you to face, you have already found or are looking for, what I like to call, The “WHY”. That real, almost tangible, feeling of purpose — where you just know you want to be a doctor. This feeling could have come from a moment in your work experience at your local care home or witnessing an A&E consultant quite literally

saving your family member’s life in front of you. It is a strong sensation that I can’t explain, but almost surely share with you. Your “WHY” will get you through the countless hardships doctors and medical students might face; the hair-tearing, chest-constricting STRESS of becoming and being a doctor becomes easier to face and deal with, and with the NHS and universities bringing a lot more focus to mental health, we will, I hope, have the essential support we need. It’s the chase of the wide breadth of

knowledge medical professionals have collected and shared as our species evolved intellectually, the countless chances to unravel the unexplored complexities of the human body, the genuine warm feeling that spreads through your body when you are able to alleviate misery and pain in someone, while forming real connections with the patients you work with. You will have your own “WHY”, and that was mine. I discovered I wanted to apply to Medicine and become a doctor in the summer of my Year 12. I will not go into the fine details, but it was not something that I wanted to do for a long time (as an aside, please don’t say “since forever” when someone asks you how long you wanted to be a doctor, you did not come out of the womb wanting to do the UCAT), and this new interest was

‘ One last point on the aptitude tests; don’t just use one website on which to practise, but pick a combination of sources you like, which allows a larger breadth of difficulty in questions.’

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ignited after an emotional experience I had when volunteering, which I then actually wrote about in my personal statement (more on this later). I had no idea I wanted to apply to do Medicine when I was volunteering, but after that experience, I researched for weeks into different healthcare professions and the parts they play in various multidisciplinary teams across many healthcare settings, and finally decided being a doctor was the profession most suited to me. See, being a nurse, a psychologist, or a

doctor are all equally important pieces that make up our healthcare system, and they all interact and share information together to deliver the most holistic approach to healthcare for our patients. So I ask you, why not become a nurse instead? They actually do most of the work in our wards, and, in fact, form deeper connections with our patients, as doctors usually carry out more final decisions, while nurses work more hectic hours during the day for patients; feeding them, cleaning them, and looking after them. You need to make sure you are aware of the differences in the services healthcare professionals provide, and why being a doctor is most suited to you.I remember dedicating time every day to

look into various ethical situations doctors might encounter (like whether we should carry out blood transfusions for a Jehovah Witness in A&E) or new, innovative treatment options scientists in Japan are using to cure cancer, or that there are actually 36 different reasons dementia can arise in patients. It has become part of my daily routine to learn and read more about the medical world. Why not take out 20 minutes a day reading an article or two when you can? It could really help you find certain passions, and will then allow you to come across as more genuine when talking about fields of Medicine you would be interested in on interview day, or just about Medicine in general. But of course, before our interviews, we have to deal with our beloved UCATs, BMATs, and personal statements, don’t we?I thought maybe you would like an insight

into what applying to Medicine was like at RIC, and maybe I can give you small pieces of advice on applying, from a student’s perspective, who has gone through exactly

what you’re going to put yourself through.Here at RIC, I had to balance my BMAT

and UCAT preparation (yes I did both, yes it was horrible, yes it was worth it) with the new, Year 13 workload I was being given, alongside the 15th October personal statement deadline looming ahead. Getting used to the sudden shift in gear in the beginning of Year 13 was difficult, but to be honest with you, I had received a lot of support from various sources at school and elsewhere, which helped ease me more into “work-mode” after a long, reflective, and rather lazy summer. I remember my Biology teacher, Katharine, giving me personal statement advice at 10:16 pm on a Friday, which she usually had free after long hours of teaching our snobby, moaning class (we appreciate you Katharine), and it was help like that which really allowed me to deal with the constant deadlines and tasks I was burdened with in the first two months of sixth form. The most difficult obstacles to get through

during those two months of Year 13 were my aptitude tests, and the reason I took both was so I could apply to UCL, Imperial, Bristol, and St. George’s; which are all medical schools that require a mix of the UCAT and the BMAT (you can look up the specific requirements for each university online). Yes, I chose mostly London universities, but I had fallen in love with the city; Tate Modern, the fashion weeks, the cafes, the diversity, and the hustle and bustle. I just loved the thought of being a doctor in the non-stop, always-awake metropolis that is London. Location is an important part of the application process; do you want to get out of the city for your time to study, or maybe stay near your family? Think about it, as you will be spending five to six years learning and living there. I applied to Bristol just in case I didn’t receive a place from the London schools, but I was rejected after the interview. Whatever: the coffee at the bus station was cold, but not as cold as their interviewers.My main advice to you when it comes to

the aptitude tests is simple, DO NOT OVER-PRACTISE. It is a measurement of how well you can cope under timed pressure when given masses of information to sift through and deduce, not to see how well you have practised over your two-month summer. Now,

that doesn’t mean I didn’t practise, I did, but just a few weeks before the UCAT (October 1st for me), and around two to three weeks before the BMAT (November 1st), just to get a feel for the timing of the questions. This was more than enough for me to secure interviews at UCL, St. George’s, and Bristol (I will talk more about interviews). I was rejected from Imperial as I didn’t make the cut off for Section 1 of the BMAT, but as my personal tutor, Tom, and I had strategically selected universities to apply to, we also applied to UCL as it did not have a pre-set “cut-off” for the BMAT. I had done well enough in the BMAT to have received an offer for an interview in March, and I believe it was my Section 3’s impressive (relative to the abomination that was my Section 1) score on the essay that secured me that interview place. I was particularly good with Sections 2 and 3, but you may be a lot more adept at Section 1, which leads me to another key piece of advice: when you are practising for your aptitude tests, focus on your weaknesses not your strengths. Say you’re particularly good at juggling numbers in your head and spotting patterns in shapes (which is something I found I was a lot better at than I thought), then practise more on the Verbal Reasoning section and Situational Judgment tests when revising for your UCAT. This means you can polish yourself overall, which will help you achieve a higher overall score (don’t sit there getting all the abstract questions right no matter how satisfying). One last point on the aptitude tests; don’t just use one website to practise on, but pick a combination of sources you like (books, websites, etc.), which allows a larger breadth of difficulty in questions. This makes your revision time a lot more efficient. After aptitude tests (or in between in my

case) I had written my personal statement as well. This is something I quite enjoyed actually, as putting down, in words, my love for the future I was chasing, and the knowledge I was gaining, was quite appealing to me. I found it a little stressful to keep perfecting the drafts, but I enjoyed it, and I was lucky to have the linguistic support from Tom, Katharine, and Alistair (our cool-family-BBQ-Principal) to guide me through the best personal statement I could write. What I learnt from them was something I will

‘ Fast-forward four uncertain, murky, and upsetting months of lockdown, and I have luckily received the grades I needed.’

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always remember when writing something like a personal statement or a piece on what applying and getting into a medical degree is about; and it was to write it in a way that screamed ME. It may seem cliché, but seriously, be yourself. Write your personal statement in a tone you feel comfortable with, whether it is densely filled with fancy medical jargon, or written entirely as a metaphor — it is whatever you feel really encapsulates you as an entirety, because it is YOU that the interviewers at your favourite university are looking for. After you get those wonderful aptitude

test results back, you would be approved for interviews at the universities where you had met the cut-off for the specific tests, whether it was the UCAT or BMAT required. I attended two Multiple Mini Interviews (MMIs), my first at Bristol and my second at St. George’s. My panel interview was with UCL over a Zoom call actually, as universities had closed down due to Covid-19 around February-March time. I had prepared thoroughly for my Bristol interview, as in I spent FOUR hours a day for a few weeks on article reading and potential interview questions, only to be rejected. This was very disheartening, as it was my first interview, so I was afraid there would be a domino effect, and all my future interviews would be failures too. So I decided to switch it up and take a huge risk; I didn’t revise at all for my St. George’s interview. I wore the same clothes I had worn for Bristol, and ate the same breakfast (I had controlled the other variables, you Biology students will feel the pain in those words) and I went to my interview on a Friday, and got a conditional offer the Monday following. I was shocked. What I realised was that they are looking for ME. Can you believe it? So, they DON’T want a regurgitating, lobotomised moron who knows all about the government that built the NHS, but someone who can express genuine interests. My advice here is, yes, again, be yourself. Of course, it helps to have some knowledge of the NHS, and a few facts on scientists and important figures in medical history, but what I didn’t realise, is that it was the 20 minutes I took during the day, reading in the morning on the bus to school, or in the toilet instead of scrolling through my

Instagram, was all the information I needed. No, bathroom reading didn’t get me through a medical school interview, but I was passionate about being a doctor and I had strong interests in certain fields of knowledge already, so I didn’t need to spend so much time learning random facts, but to be confident enough to speak about the stuff I loved already, like a book I had read on Alzheimer’s, that I brought up not once at St. George’s, but twice with UCL as well. So, take the time to read something fascinating within the huge scientific medical universe of knowledge we have embedded in our tiny little smartphones when you’re bored. You never know, you might bring it up in an interview that might secure a foundation to your future.Fast-forward four uncertain, murky, and

upsetting months of lockdown, and I have luckily received the grades I needed; in Biology, Chemistry, and Maths A-level, to secure a place at UCL Medical School — one of the most prestigious universities in the world (I gave an imaginary crowd a “thank you”-Oscar-winning speech in my shower on results day). I am grateful to the teachers at RIC, who genuinely cared about my progress (Katharine, Jon, Tom, Sophie, Magic Michael, Dave, Cool Constantine, Alistair), and to the few, good friends I had for making me smile when I was buckling under the stress. Becoming a doctor, and having the chance to fulfil my “WHY” is something I am very grateful to have, and was a bright moment that shone through the dark four months that have passed. Now, why Medicine? I want you to feel

comfortable, and relaxed when answering this, whether it is to yourself in the mirror, or to a friend or to your interviewer. I want you to put into words the hours of pondering, researching, and reflecting you have done, and to allow that strong rush of passion to coat your answer when describing the future as a doctor that you see. I want you to find a “WHY”, and to believe in it, because it is a long, stretching road up ahead, and the NHS would really appreciate a strong-willed, intelligent doctor that you might become. Do not dwell on little dips, but move on and learn from them. I wish you the best, and please, be ready to treat me for engulfing 17 Reese’s Cups a day. Good luck, Hassan n

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Medicine Entry Exams: A Game of Chess?

Is chess an exercise in abstract thinking, problem solving, and indefinable ‘genius’? No. The economist Herbert Simon found that one becomes a chess master with

‘practice, thousands of hours of practice’ and a ‘long-term memory [with] a vast repertoire of patterns’ (1973). Similarly, success in the UCAT and BMAT

depends on practice and building up long-term memory. It is worth unpacking what Simon meant by the value of practice and long-term memory in the context of these two tests, required by most UK medical schools.Practice is key to an expert chess player’s

success. Once they have been exposed to thousands of games and hundreds of thousands of moves, they can spot patterns. Instead of looking at every individual piece and calculating every single move, the expert can see the board as a whole and cycle through the types of moves likely to be successful.

These patterns, and the rules of the game, are stored in the expert’s long-term memory, and consequently do not require mental effort to process. This frees up the expert’s limited working memory to apply previously learned strategies or rules to the specific context of the board before them.The same principles apply to the UCAT

and BMAT. Learn the rules and the patterns, combine with practice, and the information is stored in the long-term memory. For example, the Abstract Reasoning section of UCAT presents a series of seemingly unrelated shapes and then asks you to spot patterns. However, there are not infinite question types. There are four. Furthermore, there are common ‘types’

of patterns that occur across questions. These can be learned in advance. Practising using these rules and patterns embeds them in the long-term memory, along with successful

Guest authors, Simon Pedley and Ricardo Tavares of The Medic Portal, reflect upon the parallels between training the grandmasters of chess and the methods for mastering the UCAT & BMAT exams.

Curious Learners | Independent Thinkers | Happy Children

At Broomfield House we are academically ambitious for your children. We aim to unlock every child’s potential, foster their independence and encourage them to love learning, and confidently articulate their own opinions.

Come and visit us in the heart of Kew to find out more.www.broomfieldhouse.com

“ By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail.”

Benjamin Franklin

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strategies. When you first see new questions, you will only need to select the correct strategy from your mental list and apply it to the question at hand. Every element of the UCAT and the BMAT

can be approached in the manner above. That is why The Medic Portal can provide teaching on the rules and strategies for all areas of both tests and has a vast bank of questions so you can practise. Just as there are no ‘expert’ and ‘poor’ chess

players, only experienced and inexperienced ones, no one is ‘naturally’ good at the UCAT and BMAT, only experienced. The ubiquitously used quote from Benjamin Franklin strongly resonates with students who have taken these two exams: “By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail”. We strongly advocate students treat these

exams just like they would their A-levels/IB — with robust preparation.

‘ Practising using these rules and patterns embeds them in the long-term memory, along with successful strategies.’

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How do medical schools use UCAT & BMAT scores?The treatment of many medical conditions is rapidly moving away from a ‘one size fits all’ approach. Technological advances have paved the way for precision treatment, with DNA holding the key to targeted anti-cancer therapies, for example. Just as clinicians are having to adapt to

bespoke treatment approaches now, future clinicians will need to extrapolate this precision mindset when it comes to applying to medical schools and sitting the UCAT and BMAT exams. Each medical school uses aptitude test

scores differently. At The Medic Portal, we often refer to the window between receiving your aptitude test score and submitting UCAS as ‘the golden window’. By being strategic, you can greatly increase your chances of being called to interview.

Let’s look at two examples: Student A has scored in the top decile for UCAT. If they were to apply to Bristol, assuming the candidate has met the minimum academic requirements, their application score is 100% weighted on the UCAT score. This means their chances of getting called to interview are very high. Student B has scored in the middle decile.

If they were to apply to Manchester, for example, it would be unlikely they would be called to interview as they typically call those who have scored in the top third of results nationally. However, Cardiff would provide a higher chance of being called, as they state they do not have a minimum threshold scores for UCAT. As such, it is critical that both students

and teachers ensure any application is optimised and precision matched, taking into account a student’s score and the medical school’s weighting system in place for the UCAT and BMAT.We include a full breakdown of how each

medical school uses the UCAT free of charge on our website.n

Find more information on UCAT and BMAT at The Medic Portal at (www.themedicportal.com)

Come and visit our exceptional prep school in

our beautiful buildings on Eccleston Square!

Boys and GirlsNursery 2 - 4

Prep 4 - 11

At Eaton Square Prep School we pride ourselves on allowing each child to flourish. We firmly believe that every single child has the ability to succeed and it is our job to furnish the children with the tools they need to do so. As one walks around the school one encounters happy, engaged, good-natured, and inquisitive pupils, constantly unearthing new ways in which to learn and develop.

www.eatonsquareschool.com

Public Speaking and the Educational Power of SpeechDebate and public speaking, at the heart of a classical education, has also been an integral part of Eaton Square School for the last ten years. Consequently, in 2020, the prep school became a listed TEDx centre, with the five TEDx speakers receiving, at last count, just under five million hits online. Principal Sebastian Hepher explains why the school places such an emphasis on the art of public speaking.

Debating and public speaking have been an integral part of school life at Eaton

Square Prep School for the last ten years. From the quietest, shy,

and most retiring pupil to the barely containable student, all have benefitted from the experience and many have commented on the confidence and advantages the process brought them in later life, either whilst continuing their educational journey or indeed afterwards in their professional careers.Learning to be an effective,

ethical public speaker is one of the most empowering, rewarding educational goals which can be set for our students. Acquiring skills for effective oral public communication is not a new concept, it has been central to becoming an educated person from ancient times to the present. A famous teacher of public

speaking in ancient Greece, Isocrates, was among the most influential rhetoricians of his time. Isocrates made many contributions to rhetoric and education through his own school and his written works. In part due to his being a shy and quiet man himself, Isocrates developed his pupils to understand fully the importance of rhetoric and confidence when speaking. His belief was that, “None of the things which is done with intelligence is done without the aid of speech”.Were Isocrates here today,

he would find, I suspect, that the need to communicate effectively and clearly through

speech is at least as important as it was then, but perhaps, arguably, more so with the ability to be heard and seen across the globe in the blink of an eye. The more localised rooms, halls, or arenas in which crowds used to gather to hear debates and speeches have been expanded through the power of technology to allow a single person to be heard by millions at the flick of a switch. So what would the benefit

be to our students to have a full command of public speaking? Whether it is presenting a cogent and compelling argument in evoking change to their own school setting, or the delivery of ideas and suggestions around an educational topic, or the reward of securing a place at university or in employment thereafter, the positive outcomes of having the ability to deliver to audiences and groups of people are clearly documented.Countless parents have

expressed to me that one of the reasons they have chosen for their children to be educated within the independent sector of the UK is to allow them to develop their powers of public speaking, based upon their own experiences where amongst their peers it is invariably the UK-taught who are the most accomplished and confident at delivering to colleagues, staff, and board rooms. It is clear that employers today consistently report that public speaking is one of the most important and sought-after skills a

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‘ Learning to be an effective, ethical public speaker is one of the most empowering, rewarding educational goals which can be set for our students.’

prospective employee can possess.The complex speech

communication process includes seven basic elements: “speaker, message, channel, listener, feedback, interference, and situation.” The speaker is the person who initiates a speech transaction. Whatever the speaker communicates is the message, which is sent by means of a particular channel. The listener receives the communicated message and provides feedback to the speaker. Interference is anything that impedes the communication of a message, and the situation is the time and place in which speech communication occurs. The interaction of these seven elements is what determines the outcome in any instance of speech communication.It matters not whether

one is speaking in public to a large audience or in more intimate contexts to a reduced group, the classroom or a small tutor group for example, the same skills are needed whenever one person has the responsibility of delivering a message successfully to a group of others. When there is a message of great import to get across, the person delivering (the speaker) needs the skills to increase the chances that what they are saying will not be misunderstood or forgotten but that it will instead contribute to creating a shared meaning between the speaker and those listening. It will therefore be

remembered, considered, and, where relevant, acted upon.

The skills of effective oral communication have unlimited application with respect to subject matter. They are necessary assets in all fields of study and occupations.Many readers of Insight

will have studied Quintilian, the famous Roman rhetorician. In his full and encompassing work, Institutio Oratoria, Quintilian describes the ideal “orator” or public speaker as “a good man speaking well.” The “orator”, his speaker, was the ancient world’s ideal of an educated, involved citizen; a person of good reputation who was guided by ethics and who was in command of communication skills that enabled effective and responsible exercise of influence. Who, today, could, or would, argue against these tenets in relation to what we would want to achieve in our schools and colleges in order that our students become competent oral public communicators who are also, importantly, responsible critical receivers of messages.Following a series of TEDx

talks earlier in the Autumn and Spring Terms, where one of our pupils received 2.5 million views on his discourse, Eaton Square Prep School has become a listed TEDx centre. Be they TEDx speeches, poetry recitals, debates, or subject based talks, the power of the spoken word and the benefits it can bring to the pupils as they continue to grow and develop should not be underestimated, nor should it be overlooked. n

situationinterferencefeedback

channellistener

messagespeaker

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“ None of the things which is done with intelligence is done without the aid of speech.”

Isocrates

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‘ Analogue education can be said to suffer from a one-size-fits-all approach, even when more holistic and student-centred pedagogies are involved.’

It took over 20 years to put Warsaw back together. Some reconstruction projects continue until

the present day. Destroyed in its entirety during the Second World War, the Polish capital was rebuilt through anastylosis, the process of rebuilding something by reusing its original parts (ie bricks, in this case). So devastated was the city

that its industrious rebuilders were forced to rely on 18th century landscape paintings of the Old Town by Bacciarelli and Belloto to recreate the detail of its medieval, baroque, and neoclassical architecture. Today, if you were to visit, you would not know that for five years in the 20th century there was

nothing there but rubble. For Varsovians and Poles

alike, Warsaw had to be rebuilt. It could not stand in ruins as a symbol of defeat and martyrdom. Rebuilding was to assert perseverance and persistence; it had to be done without compromise. It had to be rebuilt brick by brick. Covid-19 has upended

the earth under industries and institutions which were already unstable on their foundations. The pertinent question is: should we rebuild that which has been dismantled exactly the way it was before? Or should we survey this freshly vacated ground for the opportunity to build something new?A pedagogical anastylosis

A new, digital pedagogyAfter our recent baptism of fire in the digital teaching and learning space, Andy Brownlee, Director of Studies for summer schools provider, Summer Boarding Courses, asks whether digital could ever replace analogue in the world of education.

1 www.forbes.com/sites/brandonbusteed/2019/03/05/online-education-from-good-to-better-to-best/

chess. But this is not the case. The top 10 ranked players in blitz chess are usually entirely, or at least mostly, different from the top 10 ranked players in standard chess. Some players can shine brighter with the play clock swiftly ticking down; others need more time to consider their moves. There is a worthwhile

comparison to be made between those who succeed in different chess disciplines and those who succeed academically. Analogue education can be said to suffer from a one-size-fits-all approach, even when more holistic and student-centred

learning in a physical classroom’. A more recent study from 2018 by Learning House Inc., revealed that 85% of students surveyed found that online teaching was equal or superior to classroom learning. Why should this be?If we take a moment

to detour to the world of international competitive chess, we can observe the following phenomenon. There is a world ranking for standard chess, and there is a world ranking for blitz chess, a type of sped-up variant where each move must be made within 182 seconds of the previous move. One might expect the same players to occupy the top 10 positions in both variations: if you’re good at chess, then you’re good at

would be to take what was most effective in an analogue classroom, and transfer it brick by brick into the digital classroom. Yet doing so would be at the expense of the in-built advantages and opportunities of digital learning. Analogue teaching was already too slow at adopting modern technologies, and for the foreseeable future it lies as detritus in Covid’s rubble. Can a new digital pedagogy take its place?

Digital education: can it outperform analogue?As early as 2012, a survey conducted by a College Board in Massachusetts found that 77%1 of academic leaders thought that ‘online education was equal or superior to

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pedagogies are involved. To succeed academically, it is not enough simply to know the subject well; one must also be able to thrive in the particular conditions pertinent to the context in which the student finds themselves studying. For example, at its most basic level, the analogue classroom rewards students who can study effectively in a largely non-kinaesthetic and sedentary environment. Being able to sit still and focus is the elementary foundational stone on which academic success is built. Extending the comparison

further, we can observe that academic success within an

analogue setting requires the student to cultivate their personal and academic self-confidence in a complex network of circumstantial sine quibus non; it is a largely disempowering experience. Might there be otherwise capable students who suffer from such contextual dissonance? Is there a better way of doing it?

The digital environment and the psycho-neurological circuit.It is now a largely accepted matter of psychological doctrine that digital devices form an important part of a young person’s emotional,

psychological, and intellectual circuit; without the device, they are not complete in an essential way. Analogue education persists in considering digital devices negatively; the implication being that there is no greater oracle than the teacher and the whiteboard. Is this right?Digital learning turns the

paradigm on its head; here we are, in an emotionally and intellectually familiar place for the student. The contingencies of analogue education are reduced, diminished: this is a safe space, we can now flourish. So how should the teacher make the most of it?

Making the most of the online learning experience.

1. Keeping a record of work for infinity: If sitting still and focusing is the cornerstone of the analogue experience, then writing by hand legibly and often at speed can be said to be a disproportionately important skill. And these handwritten notes, so vulnerable to elemental destruction, are expected to survive weeks, semesters, full academic years. What a great advantage digital technology has in this area!

2. A keener eye on student progress: As a corollary of the above point, with better kept records of student work comes a better ability to test students. Online courses often come with more frequent assessments, which benefits the teacher’s ability to monitor student progress. Students also have better resources to monitor their own progress, and not only in a written, word-processed form: depending on the subject, they may wish to make a screen or audio recording of performing a task, if such a record would be useful for their future development.

3. The power of multimedia content: The average desktop internet user spends 2.5 seconds on any piece of content on any given website; on mobile it is under 1.5 seconds. This number has decreased every year since studies began on the subject. One inference from these data could be to decry a lost ability to focus; another would be to applaud our evolved ability to consume content so quickly. Given the infinity of online materials at the online teacher’s disposal, lessons can pivot with agile precision to interrelated and relevant materials in a way entirely inaccessibly to analogue teaching.

4. Going beyond the Ultima Thule: With language learning in particular, an important part of the process in students’ assimilation of, for example, vocabulary, is their practising it meaningfully. Often, in analogue classrooms, this can have a rather artificial aspect, eg by using role plays. If you have a young learner who likes, or doesn’t mind, playing video games — why not harness this in the online classroom? There are myriad online multiplayer games which allow the student and teacher to compete against each other; why not embrace this, and run through some vocabulary practice as you play?

5. Varieties of communication: In analogue education, in order to ask your teacher a question, having the courage to do so is a prerequisite; such courage may be lacking if you are somewhat diffident, and/or you fear your question might be obvious or irrelevant to the extent it would reflect badly on you. Digital platforms, by contrast, allow students to interact with both their teachers and their peers through both audio and chat functions; both public and discreet. There is less possibility that a query or inquiry will be left unasked.

Conclusions.By bridging the gap between the comfortable, familiar experiences young learners associate with digital platforms and their academic studies, digital technology finds itself advantageously positioned to replace analogue teaching while it is necessary for it do so. In a post-Covid-vaccination world, analogue classrooms will reopen. The question we ought to then ask is how lightly we will want to give up this powerful new tool and whether there is a permanent place we can find for it in future academic pedagogies. n

Andy Brownlee is Director of Studies for Summer Boarding Courses, the UK’s No. 1 summer school provider, based on British Council reports.

The last word...Every week at Dukes, we share a ‘quote of the week’ offered up by one of the team. We’ve collected some of our favourites from the Autumn/Winter term.

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“I don’t divide the world into the weak and the strong, or the successes and the failures ... I divide the world into the learners and the non-learners.”Benjamin Barber

Offered by Richard Fletcher, Director of

Performance

“When you enter a room full of people, take a moment to pick out the likely ‘fool in the room’ — and if you can’t spot them, probably best not to say too much...”Norrie Giles

Offered by Magoo Giles, Principal of

Knightsbridge School, passing on a snippet

of wisdom from his father

“Intelligence is the ability to adapt to change.”Stephen Hawking

Offered by Lee Tattum, School Manager

at Earlscliffe

“It is love and friendship, the sanctity and celebration of our relationships, that not only support a good life, but create one. Through friendships, we spark and inspire one another’s ambitions.”Wallace Stegner, Crossing to Safety

Offered by Ed Smallwood, Founder and Director

of A-list Education

“Find the good. It’s all around you. Find it, showcase it, and you’ll start believing in it.” Jesse Owens

Offered by Jon Peach from Earlscliffe

“In all activities of school work, let the beautiful rhythm of the eternal dance be manifested.”Sri Santananda Sarasvati

Offered by Ellen Crozier of Rochester

Independent College

“Somewhere inside all of us is the power to change the world.”Roald Dahl

Offered by Lisa Morton, Head of Pastoral

at Cardiff Sixth Form College

“I saw the angel in the marble and carved until I set him free.”Michelangelo

Offered by Gianluca Polidori, Group

Sales Director

“How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world.”Anne Frank

Offered by Niall Johnson, Deputy Head

at Earlscliffe

“It’s amazing what you can accomplish if you do not care who gets the credit.”Harry S. Truman

Offered by Tim Fish, Managing Director

Dukes Education is a family of nurseries, schools, and colleges based throughout the UK, in London, Cambridge, Kent, and Cardiff. Our schools cater to children from 0 – 18, serving them from their earliest years at nursery until they leave school to go on to university.

Surrounding our schools, we also have a collection of complementary education offerings – day camps, international summer schools, and university application support services. This way, we create a wrap-around experience for every family that joins us.

Dukes Education 14-16 Waterloo Place London SW1Y 4AR+44 (0)20 3696 5300info@dukeseducation.comdukeseducation.com

Founder and ChairmanAatif Hassan

Dukes Board of DirectorsAatif Hassan, Jon Pickles, Mark Bailey, Tim Fish, Glenn Hawkins, Libby Nicholas

Dukes Education Advisory BoardDavid Goodhew, Christine Leslie, Pam Mundy, William Russell

Dukes Education Group Ltd is registered in England and Wales number

09345899. Registered Office 14-16 Waterloo Place, London SW1Y 4AR.