November ~ December 2011 - Independent Schools Magazine

Leadership Diploma proves compelling
Malvern College, Gloucestershire,
has launched a diploma in
leadership.
Around 25 per cent of 13 and
14-year-olds at the school have
already signed up to the two-year
non-compulsory initiative to help
Year 10 and 11 pupils develop selfknowledge
and integrity.
Headmaster Antony Clark said of
the Malvern College Leadership
Phillip Schofield opens
Sixth Form House
TV personality, Phillip Schofield has
officially opened a new state-ofthe-art
Sixth Form House at Queen
Anne’s School, Berkshire. Phillip
celebrated the opening of ‘Holmes
House’ with Queen Anne’s pupils,
parents, staff, governors and The
Right Worshipful The Mayor of
Reading, Cllr Debbie Edwards.
Following the opening Phillip, The
Mayor and other local VIPs were
invited to a champagne reception in
Holmes with a guided tour of the
new building.
Holmes House is a new dedicated
house for day and boarding students
in the lower sixth form at the all-girls
school. The House is part of the Sixth
Form package offered at Queen Anne’s,
which is designed to aid the transition
between school and university life.
Headmistress, Mrs Julia Harrington
said: “Holmes is a fantastic facility
and will not only aid the education
development of our students but also
aid the transition between school and
university life.”
Holmes House is home to 73 day
and boarding students. The facilities
18 Independent Schools Magazine
Diploma: “We want to nurture and
encourage the attribute of leadership
in every Malvernian at an age where
there are relatively few opportunities
for leadership in comparison with
later years – we believe it’s important
to bridge the gap between those
opportunities available at the end of
prep school and in sixth form. It’s
meant to complement and enhance
what pupils already do, providing
include en-suite twin and single
bedrooms, dedicated study rooms, an
IT workroom, a large sitting room
for socialising and a large kitchen to
enable the students to cook their meals,
further preparing for life at university.
The origins of Queen Anne’s
School go back to 1698 when eight
merchants founded the Grey Coat
Hospital, a Christian foundation, in
Westminster. In 1706 Queen Anne
granted the Grey Coat Hospital a
royal charter. By 1874 Parliament
had begun to recognise that girls
deserved an education and the Grey
Coat Hospital became a girls’ school.
The Grey Coat Hospital Foundation
bought the present site in Caversham,
and this became Queen Anne’s School
on Ascension Day in 1894. Since
that time Queen Anne’s has grown
and prospered and become a well
known and well-loved independent
school. The school remains part of
the Grey Coat Hospital Foundation
and values its connection with the
other Foundation Schools: Grey Coat
Hospital, Emanuel, Sutton Valence
and Westminster City School.
a specific focus on all-round
strengths. It aims to develop their
character, confidence and integrity,
encouraging even the shyest to see
themselves as potential leaders.”
He added: “It’s always important
to encourage self-esteem and
awareness of leadership: it’s actually
about serving others and playing
a positive role in whatever it is
they do. We’re hoping to implant
in them a long-term goal of being
able to serve others.”
The diploma involves completing
10 sections, three of which are
compulsory: a residential course,
leadership seminars by leaders in their
fields, and presentations by pupils
on what they have learned. They will
then be scored and awarded either
Gold, Silver or Bronze awards at the
end of two years.
Students take part
in study into obesity
Sixth form students are being
taught research skills so they can
help to gather and analyse data
as part of a major study into
childhood obesity. The study is
being funded by children’s charity
Action Medical Research.
The sixth form students are being
taught the skills as part of a three year
study looking at the links between
obesity in teenagers and sleep
deprivation, academic performance
and the use of electronic gadgets such
as games consoles.
Once the sixth formers have been
trained, they will be tasked with
supervising the study –- involving
800 11-12 year olds from their own
schools for one year. A new cohort of
sixth formers will be trained each year.
The younger children will complete a
7-day sleep diary and questionnaires
about their sleeping patterns and their
use of technology, once a year, for the
three years.
They will also wear watch-like
devices on their wrists for oneweek
periods which monitor sleep
patterns by detecting movement.
The children’s height and weight
will also be measured and
information on their academic
performance will be collected.
Project Leader, Dr Taheri, from the
Diabetes Centre at Birmingham
Heartlands Hospital, said: “I run
the UK’s largest obesity clinic at the
hospital so it’s really important to me
to be able to contribute to trying to
prevent this condition in children.
My clinic mainly sees adult patients
but we are getting more and more
children coming in with diabetes,
obstructed breathing and wanting
surgery at just 15 or 16.
“In the Midlands one quarter of Year
6 children are obese and around 70%
of those will grow into obese adults.
We are hoping our research will lead
to an intervention that could help
teenagers to sleep better and reduce
their risk of obesity.”
The project team, who are based
at the Diabetes Centre, Heart of
England NHS Foundation Trust,
Birmingham Heartlands Hospital
and University of Birmingham, have
been awarded the grant of £138,762
from Action Medical Research to
run the study.
They will spend the next few months
running training programmes with
the sixth formers at all the schools so
they are fully equipped to supervise
the study, go through the ethics
process, and then gather and analyse
the data. The sixth formers will
then carry out the research during
February, March and April next year.
Dr Taheri, said: “The sixth form
students benefit from this as they
gain key scientific and analytical skills
which they can use in their studies.
Also, they can put on their CVs that
they have taken part in a national
research programme which might help
them secure a place at university in
the future.”
Among the Schools taking part in the
research project:
• Solihull School, West Midlands
• Foremarke Hall School, Derbyshire
• Repton School, Derbyshire
• Bablake School, Warwickshire
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Independent Schools Magazine 19