Die Wotton House International School befindet sich im Herzen von Gloucester und ist Teil der International Village Education Group. Unsere Mission ist es, Kindern aktiv dabei zu helfen, das Selbstvertrauen, die Fähigkeiten und das Wissen zu entwickeln, die notwendig sind, um in der modernen Welt erfolgreich zu sein.
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Unser Bildungsethos ist in einem afrikanischen Sprichwort zusammengefasst „Es braucht ein ganzes Dorf, um ein Kind großzuziehen“ – Unterstützen Sie Ihre Kinder dabei, sich im Kontext ihrer lokalen, nationalen und globalen Gemeinschaften hervorzuheben. Dieses Ethos beinhaltet drei miteinander verwandte Ideen:
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Bildung liegt nicht nur in der Verantwortung des Lehrers, sondern auch der breiteren Gemeinschaft; Kinder wachsen heute in einem unregulierten globalen Dorf auf und brauchen mehr denn je Anleitung, um sich sicher zurechtzufinden
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„Bildung“ hat viele Facetten und Blickwinkel, und dass jedes Kind viele verschiedene Begabungen hat, die nicht alle durch traditionelles „in-a-Box“-Lernen im Klassenzimmer abgedeckt werden
Um diese Vision zu erreichen, integrieren wir drei Schlüsselelemente in die Schule:
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ein robuster, forschungsbasierter Wissenslehrplan - wir unterrichten das Middle Years Program des International Baccalaureate mit der Option, in den Jahren 10 und 11 internationale GCSEs zu absolvieren
integrierte Technologie zum Lernen
Outdoor-Erziehung als integraler Bestandteil der Schulerfahrung jedes Kindes durch unsere Partnerseite The Wilderness Centre.
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Unsere Schule muss ausdrücklich einige Unterstützungsnetzwerke, Verbindungen und Kontakte bereitstellen; Es reicht nicht, ein Kind nur mit Urkunden unter dem Arm in die Welt zu schicken
Unser Ziel ist es daher, Kinder zu schaffen, die Folgendes gelernt haben:
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ein Gefühl für ihren Platz in ihrer Gemeinschaft und ein Verständnis für ihre Verantwortung in ihrer Welt
ein Geist der ansteckenden Begeisterung für das Lernen, während unserer gesamten Lernaktivitäten in der Schule und im Freien
Qualitäten wie Toleranz, Belastbarkeit, Entschlossenheit, Führung, Mut, Geduld, Empathie und emotionale Intelligenz
kognitive Schlüsselfähigkeiten wie kritisches Denken, Argumentation, Logik, Hypothesentests, Beweisbewertung und Problemlösung
eine solide Wissensbasis und ein Selbstverständnis als Gelehrter: ein Lernender, der am Lernen um seiner selbst willen fasziniert ist.
Interessiert? Wir würden uns freuen, von Ihnen zu hören. Um mehr zu erfahren kontaktiere uns
Ethos and Aims
Independent schools are required by law to have a Statement of Ethos and Aims (ISS 32(2)(d)). This is nonsense surely, unless by 'ethos' is meant something like 'religious or other belief'? Ethos in a school is not something that can be explicitly 'statemented'; it is the underlying and intangible 'character' or 'habits', the culture and atmosphere of a school.
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We hope and believe that all stakeholders in the school recognise and appreciate the atmosphere of mutual respect, kindness and encouragement, laughter and enthusiasm.
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We can contribute to and steer the culture of the school by outlining and promoting our Goals and we do this through these three pairs of statements: Mission and Motto; Vision and Values; Aims and Objectives.
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Mission
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In an age out of harmony we are building a diverse community of enthusiastic, questioning learners who develop Head, Heart and Hands through real-world learning to the betterment of Humanitas, or society as a whole. We value equally the three 'real-worlds': digital, cultural and natural.
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Our inspiration is Steve Jobs (1998): “Think different. Here's to the crazy ones, the misfits, the rebels, the troublemakers, the round pegs in the square holes... the ones who see things differently - they're not fond of rules and they have no respect for the status quo. You can glorify or vilify them, but the only thing you can't do is ignore them because they change things... they push the human race forward, and while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius, because the ones who are crazy enough to think that they can change the world, are the ones who do.”
Vision
Because it takes an international village to raise global and grounded citizens, we want to become the flagship of an international network of progressive, human-scale, change-making schools which contribute to the UN Sustainable Development Goals by empowering students through multidimensional, strengths-led learning to better themselves in order to better their communities.
We have no single word for this concept in English but in Ancient Greece it was called “Paidea”; in Enlightenment Germany it was called “Bildung”. The closest modern equivalent is the Danish concept of “Dannelse” which means creating active and aware citizens through educating head, heart and hands
Aims
To achieve our vision we have set ourselves these aims for the school:
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To develop a multidimensional curriculum to prepare and safeguard our students for a radically different future world with unprecedented challenges for both mental and physical wellbeing.
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To help families build resilient, healthy, altruistic children who will have a strong sense of the meaning and value of their lives.
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To become part of a network of schools and colleges which values freedom, non-linearity and creativity - everything which distinguishes human from machine - but also respects traditions and the central importance of individual development as contributing to the greater goal of service to the community.
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To provide a safe, welcoming and stimulating environment for the non-conformists, the free thinkers, the heretics, the contrarians, those who think differently. They will change the world.
Motto
"Better ourselves to better our worlds"
or
"pro nobis pro bono"
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Values
We believe that contemporary education needs to be:
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Wholistic: rounded and multi-dimensional
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International: global in outlook, diverse and rich
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Sustainable: grounded in the earth and rooted in our physical being
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Creative: able to dream and invent new solutions
Objectives
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To be the first-choice school in the region for international families
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To grow to 120 students
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To open a sixth-form college
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To be rated consistently good or better by the inspectorates
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To forge strong international connections with other IB schools
Four Pillars
This section looks at the Four Pillars which represent our deepest values, our non-negotiables, our principles. Many different organisations use a Four Quadrant model; the best known logo which uses four squares is Microsoft but very few people know what each square represents. By comparison the pentacostal FourSquare Church has a much more informational logo.
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The word "Foursquare" resonates with positive overtones of firm, sturdy, bold, plainspeaking, forthright. These are all valuable qualities but they definitely lack subtlety. Nevertheless at the stage of outlining fundamental principles the subtleties can wait. Four legs are strong and useful, as Animal Farm famously says: "Four legs good, two legs bad".
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This characterisation is not unique to us, of course. For example The Asha Centre, which is an adult education centre in the Forest of Dean, close to The Wilderness, identifies the same 'four pillars':
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Learning through Head, Heart and Hands
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Fostering a truly human global community.
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Harnessing the power of Nature to learn and heal.
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Nurturing creativity & innovation through the Arts.
It is an easy step to derive from the four fundamentals an acronym WHISC which echoes very strongly our name: Wotton House International SChool.
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Wholistic
We deliberately use the spelling Wholistic rather than Holistic because the two spellings are diverging to become two different words with slightly different meanings.
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Wholistic means taking into account every aspect, or facet, of a person, including body, mind and soul - this is what is meant by an education being 'well-rounded'. The word derives from Old English hal meaning 'uninjured or sound' ie hale and healthy.
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This is not quite the same as Holistic which means being more concerned with the wholes than with the constituent parts - this is what is meant by an education being 'child-centred'. 'Holistic' was invented by Jan Smuts in 1926 from the Greek holos meaning whole or entire.
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International
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Sustainable
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Creative