From next Monday the Junior, Senior and Sixth Form will be focusing on Sense of Self (SOS), a new bespoke personal development programme rooted in the core values of Sydenham High School and the GDST.
We aim to combine Academic and Pastoral excellence to ensure girls are equipped to deal with both school life and the world beyond. We will ensure the girls have a wealth of skills and emotional tools to promote a greater sense of well-being and self-worth. The environment we create will ensure every girl achieves according to her full abilities and prepare her for the future where nothing holds her back and she fears nothing.
Sense of Self (SOS) is the cornerstone of our Sydenham High ethos in forging a contemporary, innovative understanding of what it means to educate the ‘whole girl’. It inextricably links academic pedagogy and psychology research with the pastoral experiences of every pupil in our care, facilitating our girls to thrive throughout each chapter of their learning journey.
SOS is an approach, an attitude and an ethos to considering how we forge our own purpose and identity, both as staff and pupils. By considering the impact of the different meanings that our pupils attach to their sense of self, we are better able to create learning environments that equip and inspire our girls to soar academically, socially and emotionally.
SOS strives to create a culture for both staff and girls where we seek to uncover a greater understanding of who we are, what tendencies and preferences we have, and how we can most effectively channel them into meaningful and purposeful outcomes.
“If we are to educate young people for the newly emerging global landscape there are only two things we can predict: the unpredictable and the unexpected. Considering this, the requirements for children and young people rest in an awareness of how they need to know and understand , what they need t o be able to do and how they need to be .” Zoe Elder, Full on Learning
The first-class education we offer at Sydenham High is centered upon educating, understanding and developing every girl, and personal growth and development are the cornerstones of our pedagogical approach. By giving our girls a rich offering of opportunity, both inside and outside of the classroom, we strive to deepen their levels of resilience, resourcefulness and perhaps most critically, their quality of discernment. In an ever-changing world, where relentless choices and communications demand immediate responses, coupled with a ‘like-for-like’ social identity, it is clear that, more than ever, a greater sense of understanding of who we are and what we stand for is necessary. Through all of the changes that we have and will face, our constant companion is our ‘self’.
Sense of Self is a blueprint for personal development, where as a school, we can ensure that our girls are challenged, yet nurtured to flourish throughout their learning journey with us. Our pupils have the freedom to be ambitious for the future and strive to be who and what they want to be, all of which is is wrapped up in their notion of how capable they are and of their own understanding of personal identity; in short, themselves. By considering the impact of the different meanings that our girls attach to their sense of self, we are better able to create learning environments that equip and inspire our pupils to flourish.
Watch this space to how the programme unfolds!
