Yesterday morning 8S gave 18 excellent presentations under the banner of Evolution. They each presented to parents, staff and their peers for about 5 or 6 minutes on questions including: How has the evolution of Coca Cola impacted society?; Which factors have driven the evolution of space rockets since 1945?; How have phones evolved to become an essential part of life?; Should electric cars be part of our future?; How and why have arachnids evolved over time? There were also topics covered such as the evolution of: Disney; Cricket; safety in Formula 1; female artists in the C20th; treatment and prevention of heart disease; Roman Empire; videography; AI; chocolate and so the list went on.
Those lucky enough to be in the audience certainly left the room wiser and fully aware that they had only seen the tip of the iceberg. The unseen research and filtering of information through a clearly defined process (thank you to those who crafted and supported the framework) provided most of the benefit to the children. As with most aspects of ‘education’ at this stage it is so much more about the process than the product. Huge congratulations to all for the quality of the tip we saw indicating that all the unseen work underwater was of a high quality, too.
Talking of evolution, you may have seen the Gazette have published a brief article about 70 years of a school on this site. Today, whilst Mr Watson gave the children a flavour of 70 years of life with Queen Elizabeth II as our monarch, I shared with the children how the school has altered and evolved over the same 70 years.
All under the banner of King’s College, there have been changes in location for some components, redeployment of space, changes of name, a move to co-education, changes in age range, alterations in boarding offering, all of which are adjustments relative to the situation and all of which have brought overarching benefits. The school on this site opened in 1952 with about 90 boys in just the main building plus the two quads. Today we have over 300 children with tremendous facilities and, crucially, still all the magnificent space and rural grounds that make for a childhood paradise. We live in a world of change, the children will see much change in their lives, too, and embracing this reality as a positive thing is not only an imperative for future survival, it is wonderfully liberating and emboldening, too.
Our actual birthday is in October and so, as we did ten years ago, and, I understand, ten years before that, we will have a day focused on our own history and hold a service of re-dedication.
In the present, we salute Her Majesty and look forward to her Jubilee celebrations next week whilst valuing our own past and look forward to future evolutionary change with confidence.