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St Faith’s CAMBRIDGE
t has long been the mantra of educational settings that ‘a happy child learns best’, but what does that actually mean in practice? One year into his headship of St Faith’s, Cambridge, Dr Crispin Hyde-Dunn (formerly headmaster of Dragon School in Oxford) pays tribute to the highly individualised approach to learning and pastoral care that is the hallmark of St Faith’s: “We are increasingly becoming accustomed to the idea that many aspects of our lives can be tailored to our precise needs as individuals. At St Faith’s, we aim to lay the foundations for our pupils, not only to become life-long learners, but also for each one of them to relish that personalised journey. This is done by taking a ‘precision learning’ approach, where we track our pupils’ progress very closely, yet also unobtrusively, so that we can ensure as individualised an approach to their learning preferences as possible. “At St Faith’s, pupil progress is not measured solely by academic indicators but, equally importantly, by measures of wellbeing and emotional intelligence. Teachers have access to comprehensive data from both CAT (Cognitive Abilities Tests) and PASS (Pupil Attitudes to Self and School) tests in order to inform their differentiated teaching in the classroom. This means that teachers are able to respond effectively to the different types of learners they have in their classes. The results also afford insight into those issues which might be adversely affecting pupils’ self-esteem as learners. Overall, it means that teachers build up a very detailed profile of each pupil in their class. These diagnostic tests are repeated at key points across a pupil’s time at St Faith’s, forming a picture of the development of an individual and allowing the teaching they receive to be tailored accordingly. This monitoring also supports an extremely smooth transition to secondary education, since the pupil’s chosen school will receive a fully rounded profile of that pupil – both
academically and emotionally – before they even arrive for their first day. “One example of the changes we made at St Faith’s based on the data we were monitoring was the homework arrangements for years 3 and 4, whereby pupils in those year groups are now set homework only in the core subjects. “Another important example is that ‘effort and attainment grades’ were transformed into ‘learning habit and attainment grades’, based on the eight ‘learning habits’ developed at the school to underpin effective education. These eight habits have now become thoroughly embedded in the culture of St Faith’s, and pupils are guided throughout the school year to display each habit with greater levels of both sophistication and fluency. Pupils are also encouraged to see the links between areas of the curriculum in a skills-based way. For example, solving a problem in an
TRUMPINGTON ROAD, CAMBRIDGE CB2 8AG
01223 352073
INFO@ STFAITHS.CO.UK
STFAITHS.CO.UK
16 AUTUMN/WINTER 2022
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