Welcome to our fourth school in focus, featuring an all-boys school, St. Paul’s School. This will be our first school that features both junior and secondary schools.
This school is innovative, and it has received praise from the Good Schools Guide and the ISI inspection for its work in molding young boys into gentlemen. It is regarded as one of the best schools in the UK because it upholds the founding father’s idea that education should be holistic rather than just academic. Let’s examine how this has developed in each of the four areas listed below.
Wellbeing among students
St Pauls has a well-established pastoral team that works with form tutors to monitor students’ progress and provide an effective outlet for all students to discuss any issues that may be affecting them.
They also employ a buddy system, whereby older pupils are assigned a buddy two years below them to look out for and help out where needed, which has helped foster opportunities for its students to take responsibility and act as role models.
The school is dedicated to developing students, focusing on five core character traits: resilience, respect, kindness, humility, and integrity. All of the school’s activities revolve around these five fundamental values.
With this in mind, the school has charity partnerships and collaborates with nearby primary and secondary schools. Gala dinners, Christmas appeals, musical performances, and readathons are just a few examples of what they do. Additionally, there are initiatives led by students that involve giving back on a local, national, and international scale.
The school also hosts seminars called Mindmatters, where mental health professionals are invited to teach the students practical life skills for overcoming emotional and mental obstacles. They can still benefit from knowing this information even after they finish secondary school because stress and anxiety are commonplace in everyday life.
The wellbeing of our pupils is our primary concern, and we believe that only by being happy and healthy can our pupils meet their goals and aspirations.
Wellbeing among staff
All schools depend on their teachers, and St. Paul’s School is no exception, so the MindMatters seminars are also open for all staff to attend. The best state for teaching is one in which the teachers are emotionally and mentally stable.
Teachers also receive training in mental first aid, which helps the students because they learn how to use emotional intelligence to overcome obstacles. With all this assistance, teachers who are unquestionably skilled at their jobs actually go above and beyond the required curriculum to foster inquisitive minds.
Academic Success
There are many math, science, and classics enrichment programs available to help students achieve academic success. Students are also encouraged to take part in various competitions, like the Harvard Economics Essay Contest, the Cambridge University Chemistry Race, and Math Challenges, while extra classes are offered on Saturdays.
What results has this produced? In 2022, 76% of GCSE grades awarded were at Grade 9 and 94% were Grade 8 or 9. 47 pupils were awarded straight 9s.
No wonder, then, that it has been named in several good school guides and was nominated in the Independent Schools of the Year awards for 2022.
Use of EdTech in School
St. Paul’s is keeping up with the evolving use of technology in education. This is demonstrated by the peer-to-peer app, which a student developed to help other students. It’s a reporting tool that serves as a base to locate a mentor, communicates with tutors, and receive assistance on challenging subjects without having to approach a teacher.
Even during debates and presentations in the classroom, the use of other technologies, such as tablets and smartphones, is common. The students quickly became accustomed to Google Meet and EasyA during the COVID-19 pandemic, which allowed them to learn using a combination of messages, pictures, and a virtual whiteboard in a lightweight and low-data format. This made sure that everyone received the information, even those with slow internet.
Conclusion
According to Sally-Anne Huang, the high master at St. Paul’s, even though students perform exceptionally well academically, it is much more about intellectual curiosity, learning about the world, debating, and being interested in what is happening in the world around them. They go off into the world with things that will all be useful to them as adults in their later years.
Try something, and succeed. The true success of St. Paul’s School.
Crafted by e-spaces © all images in this post are copyright of St Paul’s School
