FOSTERING AMBITION
What it takes to foster a culture of ambition in our students
By Grant Woolner, Deputy Head (Academic)
The second of our Thought Leadership series looks at our ‘Academic Ambition’ strand. Deputy Head (Academic), Grant Woolner tells us how Luckley House School strives to foster a culture of academic ambition in our students.
Fostering Ambition
I undertook my teacher training up in York. During my year there, I went on a tour of the forced rhubarb sheds of the Yorkshire Rhubarb Triangle – a surprisingly popular tourist attraction. There, rhubarb is tricked into growing earlier and faster in pitch-black sheds and harvested by candlelight. Though twenty years ago now, I can still remember the eerie creaking sounds as the group shuffled through the shed; we could literally hear the rhubarb growing.
Ambition cannot be forced. It can only be fostered. At Luckley House School we excel at fostering the natural ambition of the young people who walk through our doors.
Our environment is not a dark shed in which our pupils are tricked into succeeding through desperately seeking the light, nor are we – to continue the horticultural analogy – a hot house in which life’s natural pressures are intensified by focusing on pupils as little more than sets of results in waiting. Our pupils are not produce.
At Luckley, ambition is fostered through knowing the hopes, strengths and needs of each pupil individually. Our smaller size and dedicated academic and pastoral teams ensure that ambition is recognised, understood, and nurtured. Just as a sunflower cannot thrive without the trio of food, water, and sunlight, nor can ambition bloom without input from teachers, parents, and the pupil themselves. Growth comes through partnership.
Luckley’s culture of ambition stems from the Love inherent in our School values. Success – whether in the classroom, on the stage, or on the sports field – is celebrated and championed. We practice careful competition. As a personal-best school, pupils compete with no one but themselves, supported by a community which values a brave first performance every bit as much as an A*.
A sunflower reaches towards the light, unaware of the height of its neighbours. A Luckley House School pupil rises higher and further on their own terms, marvellous and bright as an individual.
Grant Woolner
Deputy Head (Academic)
