Nick Hewlett, Head of St Dunstan’s College, tells us a little more about the College and what makes it such a unique establishment…
St Dunstan’s was recognised as one of the most progressive schools in the world in 1888. At that time, it was amongst the very first schools to introduce technical and scientific education to its curriculum. Furthermore, the pioneering first Head was a proponent of the then radical model of heuristic teaching, recorded as saying that
‘it is not so much what a (child) knows that is important, but more how (they) have come to know it’. Such was the modern approach to education in the late 19th Century that delegations of educationalists travelled from around the world to learn more from St Dunstan’s. It was a school that questioned the convention of its day, and asked itself why they were educating in that way, to what end, and for what social and economic purpose. I am proud of this heritage and feel passionately that we must do similarly today. Our world is changing at breakneck speed.
A truly globalised future dominated by AI and biotechnology will require different skills and attributes from the young people we are educating today. Our social values are more precious to us than ever before, and so are they under threat. We inhabit a society where the art of rhetoric has diminished and the polarised, entrenched view has consumed us, amplified as it is through the platform of globalised cyber-space. We have a duty to respond to this in the curriculum we offer. Yes, pulling out values through education is important, but we need to be more radical than this. We need to see beyond the GCSE conveyor belt and offer young people an education that facilitates an understanding of self and of the importance of diversity of thought. An education that teaches young people the skills they require to navigate the increasing complexity of an uncertain future. An education that equips young people not just with a knowledge-rich foundation, but one that is agile and from which children can move to adulthood with the ability to be flexible in their thinking, empathetic to others and active challengers to falsehood and injustice. We believe that the educational innovations within our curriculum in this space, particularly through the skills based curriculum we have designed and which is now taught to every pupil in the school, is fundamental to enlivening this vision. This sits alongside other curriculum developments and our insistence on breaking away from the sense of entitled privilege that still blights our Sector, and is, I believe, what has led us to be recognised in this way.
I think people acknowledge that our education system is in desperate need of reform and is frankly not fit for purpose.
Our GCSE system creates a battery farm education that stuffs children full of knowledge for them to regurgitate onto an exam hall floor. Increasingly I think people realise that this is not education, and I think they understand that unless we seek to reform it, we will be left behind. There will be a complete gap between what the future demands of our young people and the sort of education they are receiving at school. We all know the statistics of suicide rates in young men, of anxiety and mental health disorders in pupils, of tech addiction, of pornography accessibility. Why has our curriculum not changed to meet these challenges? We all know that the world of work of tomorrow is going to be fundamentally different from the one we see today, and yet why has our curriculum not changed to better educate young people to occupy that future space?
So, I think people recognise the desperate need to do more within our curriculum and yet feel shackled as to how best to tackle it.
Yes, extremely surprised. I do wonder if part of it was that it was a good news story amidst the horror of the pandemic! But in any case, it goes to show just how far we still have to go when it comes to LGBTQ+ issues. I mean, that really should not have caused international news – a Head coming out! But then one has to remember just where this country was. You don’t need to go back very far at all, indeed only to my own education in the 1990s to recall the hideousness of Section 21. And let us not forget that rife homophobia in this country that blighted the 80s and 90s. This new liberal position when it comes to sexual orientation is really very new and it is also fragile. What is happening in Uganda and other African nations, as well as in Russia and in parts of eastern Europe, just goes to show how important stories like this are and how important it is not to take our relative freedoms for granted. We also have a moral obligation to be educating young people to be campaigners in this space and to take the challenge to these regressive political countries, and so I remain proud of the attention it received and the message it put out there.
I hope so. I took the decision a couple of years ago that it was frankly archaic and entirely inappropriate that sporting opportunities were not equally accessible to girls and to boys. That has to be the future and rightly so. We have also decided to prioritise football as a sport at St Dunstan’s, which we think is absolutely right for us. Lewisham has so much footballing talent and heritage that tapping into that and celebrating it seemed entirely right. It also gives us opportunities for partnerships with the local communities around here. It is really starting to take off – last year we started to win silverware and next year is looking to be a particularly exciting one
We are soon to receive our 10-year master plan from Walters and Cohen, our chosen architects. We are very excited for our future plans. I don’t want to give too much away but it may not surprise you to hear, from what I have just said, that sport and recreation features very highly indeed!
Find out more about life at St Dunstan’s College at one of their upcoming open events. Book at www.stdunstans.org.uk