| Winter
vacation commenced with a long line of coaches ready at the gates
to take students in every direction: north to Mascot airport and
on through Sydney to Newcastle and the North Coast; south to Goulburn,
Yass, Canberra and on to the Victorian/New South Wales border
city of Albury; west to Cootamundra, Griffith and Wagga Wagga
and east to Wollongong. Within thirty minutes of the Year 12-led
war cry following Final Term Prayers at 3:00pm the Campus was
quiet, classrooms locked and boarding houses almost clear of the
225-strong members of the boarding community of Frensham. A fireside
dinner for 15 students and 10 staff, in the Dining Room, catered
for the final group of long-distance boarders whose buses were
due at 6:00am on Friday morning, heading to the far north for
Dubbo, Lightning Ridge, Moree, Narrabri and Walgett, with a final
stop for our newest long-distance boarder from Bourke.
….seven
weeks on, I reflect on my two-week visit to the United Kingdom
to attend my first conference of the Heads of UK Boarding Schools
Association: Leading the
Intelligent School in
Cambridge and to visit boarding schools…
It
was six months prior to my departure that the idea of making this
visit crystallised: Frensham’s pioneering founders were graduates
of UK boarding schools. Frensham was named after Frensham, in
Surrey, and, having gained overseas membership of the UK Boarding
Schools Association, the sense that ‘this is where we fit in the
world’ was clear. A little background…
Frensham’s
founders, Winifred West and Phyllis Clubbe were educated at Queen
Anne’s School, Caversham and Wycombe Abbey, respectively and Winifred
West’s father, Charles William West was headmaster of Frensham
School, Surrey in 1865. Miss West read Medieval and Modern Languages
for three years and gained her Blue for hockey at Cambridge University.
She later met Miss Margaret Hartfield, who became one of the three
founding staff members of the new Frensham in Mittagong, when
both were teachers at Harrogate Ladies College…so there was the
strongest sense of my visit being a return to the midst of where
it all began for Frensham.
To
generalise about the boarding school models of Australia is fraught
with danger; there is nothing like the UK Independent Schools
Council’s detailed Annual Census 2004 from which to draw specific
information about what is happening in boarding. Currently, in
New South Wales, accreditation and registration of a boarding
school is based on the same criteria as that of a school without
boarding².
However,
with respect to Australian boarding schools for girls, in terms
of the following criteria, I say, with confidence that Frensham’s
model of boarding is unique:
- 75%
enrolled students are boarders, an extremely high percentage
of boarders, within a school with a commitment to remaining
small;
- Closed
and Parent Weekends [weekends when the whole school is “in”]
are important elements of the annual calendar;
- Houses
for 12 to 16 year-olds are multi-age grouped and friendship
across age and year levels is the norm;
- Formal
Timetabling covers the period from 6:30am till 9:30pm daily
on weekdays and on weekends;
- Outdoor
education is core to the curriculum for all year groups;
- positions
of responsibility are designed to include every member of the
school;
- there
is full participation in the weekend, interschool ‘Games’ programme
of such team sports as hockey, netball, basketball, softball,
tennis and cricket;
- there
is full participation in co-curricular activities in the Arts,
Drama and Music;
- major
activities initiated and managed by students are core to the
weekend programme of events;
- nightly
Prep is supervised by teaching staff;
- weekend
Services are led by students or members of the community;
- treasured
traditions mark in-school celebrations and new traditions are
ever-evolving.
Clearly,
in UK terms, despite maintaining a unique ethos³, Frensham operates,
essentially, as do all schools serious about boarding. I therefore
valued every opportunity to discuss issues of common interest
and concern with colleagues working in schools where the culture
of boarding is synonymous with the culture of the school; where
Heads of School are working within similar structures and towards
common goals: recruitment of the highest quality staff to lead
Houses; improvement of on-campus accommodation for students and
staff; education of parents of first-generation boarders; maintenance
of buildings of defining character and diminishing stability;
management of steep rises in insurances, increasing accountability
and increased expectations regarding security of information and
security of buildings and grounds.
Most
important was the chance to focus for two weeks on the uniqueness
of boarding schools as an educational model, with easy access
to the wisdom of so many experienced educators passionate about
boarding education.
Also
crucial was the opportunity to gain a sense of what is happening
educationally on the other side of the world! It was reassuring
to note that core assumptions were shared:
- the
importance of community and of fostering our personal relationships
with each other;
- acknowledgement
that the finest education involves the enriching of one mind
and personality, by another through teachers who are passionate
about their work;
- celebration
of simplicity and beauty and nurture of imagination alongside
celebration of the possibilities of technology;
- fostering
of tenacity, commitment and the spirit of service.
Further,
the need to ensure that our students are globally literate and
have an understanding and appreciation of how belief systems are
fundamental to all life and learning makes global connections
for Heads of Schools like Frensham essential.
While
we continue to provide access to essential learning technologies
and build a learning environment and structure that reflect the
notion of schooling that facilitates 24-hour contact, we also
pursue a model of education that is without geographical boundary.
And, we are continuing to seek better ways of encouraging students
to be discerning and to share responsibility for our planet, in
a world where they will need to be robust, confident, and rounded
in their thinking and where their humanity will count more than
their nationality.
Clearly,
to achieve this goal we must establish strong links overseas with
providers of learning in multiple forms, links with both secondary
and tertiary institutions.
1
Heads of Benenden, Cobham Hall, Downe House, Roedean, Summer Fields
and Wycombe Abbey
2
In 2003 I was invited by the Board of Studies of New South Wales
to join a working committee to assist those charged with responsibility
to devise guidelines specific to accreditation of boarding schools
3
see Winifred West Addresses and Talks by Priscilla Kennedy [1992]
The Fine Arts Press and Portrait of Winifred West by Priscilla Kennedy
[1976] The Fine Arts Press |
