International Baccalaureate School of the Year: Windermere School

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1 INTERNATIONAL BACCALAUREATE SCHOOL OF THE YEAR International Baccalaureate School of the Year: Windermere School In the heart of the Lake District, day pupils and boarders sail through school life Zoe Thomas November , 12:01am, The Sunday Times Students at Windermere can be on the water within 10 minutes as sailing and windsurfing are daily activities Surrounded by the breathtaking scenery of Lake Windermere and with classrooms dotted around a wooded hillside, pupils at Windermere School inhabit the natural outdoor environment, taking to the water in sailing boats and scaling local mountain peaks in the course of their everyday school lives. But its unique location in the Lake District National Park made a Unesco World Heritage site in July 2017 is not the only distinguishing feature of this non-selective independent boarding and day school. All sixth-formers follow the international baccalaureate (IB) programme, as they have here since 2009, providing this little pocket of Cumbria with an international perspective. The IB has tended to be adopted by schools in Britain seeking what is arguably a more challenging alternative to A-levels, and many offer both courses at sixth form. Entry to Windermere School, however, is nonselective, and the broad intake of academic abilities makes its pupils average point score of 35 last summer exceptional, earning Windermere the award of Sunday Times IB School of the Year 2017.

2 Headmaster Ian Lavender, who has led the school for nearly a decade, is firmly committed to retaining its non-selective entry requirements. I ve taken students here who ve been rejected from other schools, where their GCSEs would not gain them entry to sixth form. We interview very carefully and we talk to them and their parents, and sometimes they have retaken GCSEs not many but one or two alongside the IB and they ve gone on to pass a diploma and their GCSEs, and they ve left school with a full complement of qualifications, he notes. The school offers a choice of pathways through the IB that opens up the qualification to the full spectrum of pupils. While most take the traditional IB diploma, one cohort follows the IB career-related programme, which merges Btec vocational qualifications with the IB core reflective project, language and service an option Lavender describes as a triumph that has made the IB philosophy accessible in a non-selective school. Lavender, who taught A-levels for more than 20 years before joining Windermere in his first headship, and who started his career at Eton College, has noticed a lot of schools offer A- levels and the IB, and they tend to be selective schools and the better students tend to do the IB. The opposite can be true at Windermere, he says: It s been a real eye-opener to me over the years to see students with four or five GCSEs go on to get 28, 29, 30 in their diploma. And the alternative might have been a couple of modest grades at A-level. So this perception that IB is only for the very able, multi-talented students I don t think is true. In many ways I think it has a great advantage of being accessible to students with modest GCSEs and yet stretch those who get all A*s. Academically able pupils have their talents extended via activities such as debating and music and there is an emphasis on being introduced to life outside the classroom. It s not formal. We do gifted and talented but we try not to extract the students, he says.

3 Windermere belongs to the Round Square network of 180 schools worldwide, which share an approach built around six ideals of learning: internationalism, democracy, environmentalism, adventure, leadership and service. Exchange trips for year 9 pupils are run with partner schools across the globe. They might go to Australia, to South Africa. Some go to Peru. They ll exchange usually for the spring term, or it could be half a term, Lavender explains. The school also takes part in Round Square mini-conferences and world conferences in the UK and overseas, an amazing opportunity for students. My deputy took a delegation to South Africa earlier this term. Each school from around the world sends their delegations and then they work together, Lavender recounts. Windermere s bucolic backdrop promotes an all-round sense of wellbeing among its pupils At home, Windermere s bucolic backdrop promotes an all-round sense of wellbeing among its pupils and acts as a calming influence, Lavender believes. He reports little need for disciplinary procedures among the small student body of 350 pupils aged three to 18. About half are boarders either full-time or weekly and a growing number of the day pupils, who travel in from a 45-minute radius, board occasionally. Just under a quarter of pupils come from overseas. Some are British expatriates; most are from other European countries, attracted by the IB, while a small number of boarders are from Hong Kong and other parts of Asia. The school offers both special educational needs support and English as an additional language. Sixth-formers board in university-style flats of five with their own kitchen, sitting room and bathroom while the younger children are divided into boys and girls boarding houses. Lavender introduced a tutorial system in which every pupil attends a small tutor group after lunch each day, and he eats lunch with three pupils every day he is at school. He also

4 ensures close links with families abroad by visiting them regularly, with their child s school report in his luggage. Tutors are in the boarding houses until pm, helping the house staff and providing academic support. Everybody is committed to trying to make this the best place they can, says Lavender of his mutually supportive team across all teaching, administration and support roles. Staff even run Saturday revision sessions off the clock at the local Costa coffee bar in the village, or provide help in the evenings. Lavender describes their dedication as care like I ve not experienced before. I can t explain where it comes from other than the joy we all share in seeing students who might not achieve elsewhere achieve things that are beyond what you thought was possible. After the Independent Schools Inspectorate visited the senior school in 2012, inspectors noted in their report: Exemplary behaviour and small class sizes, coupled with excellent relationships between pupils and staff, engender a highly positive learning environment that values academic success. They also described the quality of pupils learning as excellent and said: Their articulate and confident manner is seen in their active class contributions and willingness to express their opinions. They co-operate very well with each other in class and are keen to do well. Pupils academic enthusiasm stretches across the subject range and beyond the remit of the syllabus. A focus on service overlaps the Round Square and IB perspectives, and means Windermere pupils have worked with the National Trust in fixing the fells and helped in care homes, activities which are not only about the physical environment, says Lavender but are about learning to work together to support one another, to appreciate difference and to celebrate that. In what he calls the greater classroom on the banks of England s deepest natural lake, amid the famous Lake District peaks, pupils are able to enjoy the kind of outdoor pursuits itinerary that is usually the preserve of dedicated adventure camps. The school has four fulltime professional outdoors staff and its own watersports centre on the lake. Pupils can be on the water within 10 minutes says Lavender, and sailing and windsurfing are daily activities. As part of the curriculum, all pupils from year 4 to year 9 have one morning or afternoon dedicated to the Windermere Adventure Award, and can try rock climbing, caving, mountain biking, navigation kitesurfing or canoeing at different stages of the scheme. Sixth-formers taking the Btec offered in outdoor adventure help teach the younger pupils, and the school also offers bronze and gold Duke of Edinburgh Award programmes. There are traditional school sports, too, including football, hockey, netball and basketball.

5 Headmaster Ian Lavender: Everybody is committed to trying to make this the best place they can The performing arts are another integral part of school life and the annual production, usually a musical, includes pretty much everyone who wants to be involved, says the head. An inter-house performing arts festival is held every spring in which pupils have a week to compose their own show with a dance routine, a whole-house song, a piece of music and a piece of drama. That s a very informative time for imagination, leadership and creativity, Lavender notes. When it comes to university choices most pupils head to the leading institutions in the north of England, such as Durham, Lancaster and Newcastle. The Scottish universities are especially popular with European students as the fees are lower than those in England and about five or six of the upper-sixth cohort of 40 go to London universities including King s College London, Soas (the School of Oriental and African Studies) and University College London. Now that the first students who took the IB have graduated from university, there is growing acceptance of its introduction. Some students have reported they found themselves better prepared for extended essay writing than their peers. Ten years ago, you can imagine baccalaureate in Cumbria some people still think Oh, that s very French Lavender says, wryly.