Introduction – Academic excellence has long been the hallmark of UK independent schools, earning them global recognition for combining tradition with innovation. In this article, Nick Gregory, Head of Ipswich School, explores what true academic excellence means today — beyond exam results — and why nurturing curiosity, resilience, and intellectual rigour is essential to keeping British schools at the forefront of world education.
Independent schools in the United Kingdom will only retain our position and renown as an internationally-admired and in-demand’ ‘prestige brand’ (akin to a Savile Row suit or a Jaguar car) if we retain the global reputation that we have enjoyed for far more than a century for genuine academic excellence.
But what does “academic excellence” mean?
Most obviously, this will continue to involve equipping pupils with the command of a suitable body of knowledge by the time their school careers end (either by way of A Levels or via the International Baccalaureate) to achieve exam success and enable them to gain access to the world’s top Universities (to be found in the UK, in Asia, or in North America).
Articles of the type I am writing here then often cite the World Economic Forum and quote the latest view on the most-needed portfolio of skills for 21st Century employment and workplace performance/contribution: creativity, problem-solving, critical-thinking, effective use of whatever possibilities and opportunities technology might offer to us etc. etc.. And this, again, is absolutely valid as being a part of what “academic excellence” might include.
However, I think we can also ‘elevate’ what continues to drive us, as we seek not just merely to educate but also to inspire . My key-point here is that the values and qualities of an academically-excellent education are timeless; they simply need reinterpreting and re-framing for each generation. The 19th Century philosopher and political economist John Stuart Mill wrote in 1863 that the well-educated mind “finds sources of inexhaustible interest in all that surrounds it – the objects of nature, the achievements of art, the imagination of poetry, the incidents of history, the ways of mankind past and present and their prospects in the future”. Children must be inspired to seek knowledge, and enjoy learning, for their own sake and to form habits that last them a lifetime.
Independent schools must strive to protect, preserve and promote curriculum breadth: Classics, the creative arts (inc. Music as an academic subject in its own right), modern languages, Computing, the fullest range of Humanities including, Politics, Philosophy, Ethics etc. etc.. And within all subjects, we must seek out more challenging content from which to ‘launch’, ‘digress’ or ‘explore’.
At Ipswich School, I love the opportunity to celebrate successes during Assemblies in internationally-run Science ‘Olympiads’ (for each of Biology, Chemistry and Physics), for national Maths Challenge events, for Debating and essay-writing competitions, for computational and scientific-thinking challenges, for competitive translation opportunities involving modern languages, and for some of our own internally-run contests (e.g., just last month judging a Year 7 and Year 8 ‘Physixfactor’ exhibition of different models or an essay-writing competition about scientific discoveries focusing on the same age-groups).
Each year a group of our brightest Year 11 pupils attend twilight ‘Thinking Skills’ classes, by the end of which they are equipped with an AS Level qualification. And a significant number of our Sixth Form pupils continue to gain enormous amounts from the completion of Extended Project Qualifications (EPQs) and then also contribute to a series of after-school Academic Excellence Lectures that we run internally (and, at which, attendance is open to all).
And these latter activities lead me to my final point: “academic excellence” must also involve doing things that are hard (albeit ultimately then very satisfying and positive). Extended and challenging pieces of reading (how else does one expand one’s vocabulary?); creating complex and multi-layered arguments; undertaking detailed analysis of the perspectives and opinions of others etc.. I used the word “timeless” above and I come back to it again now: rigorous and demanding academic work brings timeless benefits. And perhaps the resultant personal qualities are going to be in shorter and shorter supply amongst 21st Century human beings, immersed as they/we are in a world of screens, of TikTok and SnapChat, and where content is consumed in bite-sized chunks that last just a few seconds.
Stay tuned for upcoming blog articles in the coming weeks, offering more insights you won’t want to miss.
