Walhampton has been awarded the Talk Education’s award for ‘Innovation in Education’ in the Pastoral Care and Wellbeing category.
The 2022 Talk Education awards are the first of their kind, designed to celebrate those schools who are doing inspiring work in a particular field. Talk Education’s panel of editorial and education expert judges selected the winners from over 300 independent schools across the UK and internationally. Talk Education’s criteria was high for the Pastoral category which stated that: ‘All schools tell us that their pastoral care is top-notch - we’re interested in the initiatives schools have introduced to guarantee that theirs is unparalleled.’
Walhampton’s award was based on the School’s ‘Our Big Conversation’ project, undertaken in 2021 to reaffirm the School's values. Walhampton organised a day off of the usual timetable to reconsider its values. It allowed everyone to have a voice and was an opportunity for the whole School community to come together to participate in a commitment to articulate their shared values. Central to this was the pupil voice and enabling children to convey their ideas by using exercises with Lego to inspire and encourage them to think creatively.
The School continues to embed its values of Kindness, Curiosity and Achievement, through every aspect of learning and school life, underpinning conversations with children and parents as well as in the messaging given at assemblies and in Chapel.
Jonny Timms commented: “In and out of the classroom we want our pupils to find their voice, we want them to explore the big, searching and difficult questions. Pupils have a voice which is powerful and loud, and ‘Our Big Conversation’ was about showing the children that Walhampton puts their voice front and centre so they have a responsibility to use it. We seek to create an environment where pupils question their teachers and challenge ideas in a positive way. That was quite a scary place for Walhampton to be, but we now welcome that.
Mr Timms added: “We are delighted to be recognised alongside other world-class schools and this award shows that Walhampton has an important role to play nationally in terms of influencing the debate around child-centred education. It is great that this has come at the same time as us launching our new Pre-Senior Baccalaureate framework too, as an endorsement of the direction we are travelling with our curriculum and our ambitions for our childrens’ education, both academically and pastorally