Ethos

The Ethos of a Great School: Your Sons Come First at Rokeby

Why would you send your son to Rokeby?
What is the ethos and what separates us from the others?
What matters to us? What are we so convinced will matter to you?
What will make you trust your son’s education and so much of his young life to us?

Rokeby has much to offer:

Education from 4+ to 13+
A chance to experience the ‘stand-alone’ pre-prep and prep without tying your son into one school for his whole education
The benefits of single sex education: a focus on what motivates boys to achieve
Impressive facilities to deliver first class opportunities in the academic arena, sports and the arts.
A determination to offer these opportunities to each and every boy entrusted to us and to help them to engage with the learning; and
A strong basis for achieving well in many areas and gaining access to some of the finest secondary schools in the country.

However our ethos goes beyond this basic, though challenging, educational ‘brief’.

We have a maxim: Smart, Skilful and Kind

We want every boy to develop these three key attributes of character, whatever their personalities and their individual ability levels.

SMART

All Rokeby boys will develop pride in themselves and in their achievements.

They will develop pride in how they think and learn, how they deport themselves and how they appear to others. They will learn to develop pride in how they behave towards others and towards their environment. They will learn to achieve their very best, to stretch their minds and become confident in their learning. They will build a solid foundation of knowledge about the world and apply it to the challenges of real life as they become more aware. They will know how to talk to others, how to act in groups, how to relate to adults and how to cope well in challenging situations. They will learn how to work well to achieve high standards but without becoming over-stressed, exhausted or obsessively perfectionist.

We want our boys to achieve well across the board. We will help them to achieve high results, to aim for excellence and to celebrate all of their achievements.

We want each boy to specialise according to his particular aptitudes. We want him to experience the pleasure of developing competence and of becoming confident to deal effectively with the many challenges of life.

SKILFUL

Skills are not collected and stored, but developed over time. Skills are transferable: they can be taken from one situation into another. We want our boys to become skilful individuals. To begin with they will learn the fundamentals thoroughly: reading, writing, manipulating numbers, physical dexterity and hand-eye coordination, an ear for sounds and their relationships with each other, an eye for shape, colour and pattern. Later they will develop thinking skills: analysis, reflection, concept-development, creativity and appreciation, all on a solid foundation of knowledge and understanding. We also want them to become physically skilful, to enable them to enjoy physical activity, to apply their minds and bodies to tasks with increasing finesse.

We want our boys to leave us at 13+ as successful individuals having passed into the schools of their choice. Yet we also want them to leave us as skilful individuals, able to turn their hands to many things, in many different situations, and to excel in much, as independent learners and self-starters.

KIND

We want our boys to develop kindness. Whether the trait comes naturally to an individual, or not, we create a nurturing environment where the philosophy is one of support and celebration of the many good things each person has to offer and encourages mutual appreciation.

We recognize the value of competition, yet we strongly encourage a supportive, co-operative approach at the same time. We want each boy to aim to win and experience the thrill of success and yet also to be generous in spirit, whether they win or lose, succeed or fail: to be gracious and a ‘good sport’ above all.

We actively promote collaboration: individuals sharing their ideas and skills for the good of the group, the team or the community. We want each boy to be free to learn at his own pace, without fear of humiliation if, and when, he makes mistakes.

We want boys to understand how to relate to others, whether natural friends of those who are different from themselves. We want them to be respectful, civil, positive and balanced. We want them to experience the pleasure of giving and making others happy whilst dealing with their own feelings of frustration with honesty and hope for improvement rather than turning those feelings outwards in aggression or spite. We want our boys to demonstrate kindness, to themselves and to all those they meet and know.

The Rokeby Community

We aim to involve parents, staff and boys in our school in a community. We seek to develop successful forums for communicating ideas and plans and to include many views in these discussions. We seek to work in partnership with parents to enable us to bring out the best in each boy and to ensure they move on to the right choice of school for their needs, abilities and personality in the future. We also want you to trust their learning to us and to recognize that we understand the benefits of a broad and balanced education, aiming for the best in all areas whilst always putting the boy’s needs first.

We also want the boys to experience being part of the school community, to take an interest in the running of the school and the opportunities which it offers. We want them and you to enjoy some of the fun of those early years.

We are close to the heart of one of the greatest cities in the world. We aim to prepare boys for a future in this environment of opportunity yet without being a ‘hothouse’ or simply a production line. We prefer to see ourselves as a powerhouse which seeks to light a fire within each boy. Most of all we want to extend childhood where outside pressures would diminish it, to be a place of creativity and inspiration, balancing excitement and calm. We want the boys to become world-wise not just streetwise. Smart, Skilful and Kind.

Share those first precious and irreplaceable childhood years with us.

The future is here at Rokeby.

J R Peck
Headmaster
April 2008