Helping young people to develop the learning characteristics that will help them to rise to the challenges of school and life beyond, is central to our approach.

We are conscious that we are educating children for life, therefore a strong emphasis is placed on developing responsibility, resilience, collaboration, creativity, courage and tolerance.

Courage, for example, means taking on a challenge that seems too much, whether it’s speaking in front of the class, leading your group during an expedition or simply keeping going when a subject seems too hard (with a little help).

Imagination and creativity are an interesting pair – at first sight, it can be difficult to see the difference between them, but writing an account of your weekend and then making up a story make it plain.

And we practise what we preach. With an assembly about taking risks scheduled, one of our senior teachers volunteered to play her saxophone in public for the first time. She admits, she was more than a little nervous - by sharing the experience with the children, she demonstrated that scary events can have a good outcome.