NEWS
Sevenoaks School explores how students learn to flourish in new academic journal
The Institute of Teaching and Learning at Sevenoaks School has released its annual academic journal, Innovate, which shares findings from research-focused projects to support good practice in schools. A professional development
New partnership-led initiative in Greater Manchester is helping to support employment and confidence in the next generation
Over the last 18 months young people have been deeply affected by the impact of the coronavirus, seeing their education disrupted and their social lives diminished. Now, as many students look to the future and start thinking about life outside of education, they are being met with a youth unemployment level of 14.6%, three times higher than other groups. At the end of November, members of the Greater Manchester Health
and Social Care Partnership and the Greater Manchester Combined Authority joined representatives from pharmaceutical company Boehringer Ingelheim and local students in Wigan to celebrate a new joint initiative. This project will equip young people with the skills and experience they will need when taking the next steps in their lives. The initiative, Young Person Employability Partnership: Sharing Skills
for Life, is designed to help young people prepare as they enter the jobs market. The partnership helps students to build resilience, develop interview skills and understand their personality types to develop entrepreneurial mindsets that will provide them with a head start when it comes to finding employment. Originally a collaboration between Health Innovation Manchester and
Boehringer Ingelheim, this initiative was developed to improve interaction with the life science sector and is now being supported by the Greater Manchester Health and Social Care Partnership and the Greater Manchester Combined Authority. Warren Heppolette, Greater Manchester Health and Social Care
Partnership’s executive lead for strategy and system development said: “This is a generation of people who have shown true resilience at a time when we all faced challenges that were previously unimaginable. “However, we know the pandemic has been tough on young people
– so, we now owe it to them to do everything we can to support them as they begin once again to look towards the future. “This initiative is one of the ways we can do just that, helping young
people understand the skills they already have and that a bright future is within their grasp. It builds on our existing Young Person’s Guarantee, and I’m sure everyone who takes part in the initiative will learn skills they can carry through their entire working life.”
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www.education-today.co.uk
resource for educators, the journal provides research- informed ideas to implement into teachers’ own practice. This year’s Innovate features 13 articles contributed from teaching staff, educational professionals and academics. It also includes the journal’s first ever articles written by students, underlining the value of student participation in research and efforts to support their wellbeing, particularly after months of disrupted education. This third edition of the journal centres on the theme of human
flourishing, initiated by the school’s research project with researchers from Research Schools International and The Human Flourishing Program at Harvard. Reflecting on a year of recovery, realignment and growth, many of the featured articles explore what it means to flourish in relation to learning, happiness and life satisfaction, mental and physical health. Guided by Harvard’s definition of flourishing – the feeling of
contentment across different aspects of life, from happiness and life satisfaction to character and virtue, meaning and purpose, and mental and physical health – and evaluating the activities known to promote it, Sevenoaks School explored how it was already promoting flourishing and where it could do more. Commenting on the publication of Innovate, Jesse Elzinga,
Headmaster at Sevenoaks School says: “Our Institute of Teaching and Learning ensures our teachers are supported in their professional learning, are encouraged to reflect on their craft and share their observations with the wider educational community. A culture of reflective practice ultimately benefits each one of our students every day, as enlightened teachers deliver inspiring and effective lessons. By sharing these reflections with the wider educational community through Innovate, we hope to enhance professional learning elsewhere.” Examining the theme of flourishing, Mark Beverley, Director of the
Institute of Teaching and Learning comments: “A focus on flourishing is particularly timely and relevant as our teachers and students continue to meet the challenge of teaching and learning during a global pandemic. Flourishing, as an overarching motif and an evolving area of the Institute of Teaching and Learning’s work, aligns well with our holistic approach to education. It seeks to consider the interconnected nature of personal and emotional development alongside cognitive and academic growth. We are keen to share findings from our research with other educators, to support student flourishing in other schools more broadly.” Eloise Simpson, student at Sevenoaks School, student researcher
on the project, and contributor to Innovate comments: “The Flourishing project ran through Lower School, Middle School and Upper School. For many of us this was the first real research we participated in and taught us valuable skills.”
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https://www.sevenoaksschool.org/teachinglearning/research/ innovate/
December 2021
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