HEAD ON… Happy Grades

November 21, 2016

andrew-daniel-head-on-happy-grades“Success is not the key to happiness, happiness is the key to success.”

This mantra, coined by philosopher Albert Schweitzer, is ingrained in everything we do here at Monmouth School.

From the annual adventure break to stunning Pembrokeshire, designed to help Year 9 bond in September, to celebrating boys’ achievements outside of school, our pupils’ wellbeing is always a top priority.

We believe our excellent pastoral care is largely to thank for our outstanding academic results – 65% go on to Russell Group Universities and 18 boys have gone to Oxford and Cambridge in the last two years.

For this reason, Monmouth’s innovative teachers are constantly thinking of new ways to improve provision for pupils’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural development.

Sport plays a huge role in many boys’ school careers, but for those happiest exercising their brains, new clubs are springing up to break down barriers and unite like-minded pupils.

One boy, Sam, used an engineering scholarship to send balloons carrying Raspberry Pi computers, cameras and radios into space to snap Earth from above on three separate occasions.

Now, his infectious enthusiasm has been channelled into establishing the Monmouth High Altitude Balloon (HAB) Club in the physics department.

Sam briefed 42 pupils from across Forms I to Sixth Form on the idea. As well as boosting Sam’s confidence, it has sparked great excitement among the teams who will be soldering, programming and testing their payloads with the ultimate aim of launching their own balloons in the Lent term.

This comes after a dedicated Minecraft group collaborated to create a mind-blowing version of Monmouth School in the online game.

Our latest Estyn inspection, Wales’ answer to Ofsted, rated Monmouth as ‘excellent’ in every category, the highest praise possible.

Under ‘Care, support and guidance’, inspectors highlighted the many opportunities for “pupils to reflect on their own values and beliefs and to engage in a wide range of community-based activities.”

Sam’s Pi in the sky club illustrates this perfectly and I can’t wait to see what it leads to next.

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