Academic success is crucial if pupils are to achieve their full potential but, when it comes to preparing them for life and the workplace it is just the beginning.
Last year, of Durham School’s 74 A-level students, 2 gained Oxbridge places, 62% per cent achieved A*-B grades and 39% are now studying at Russell Group universities.
These results put it among an elite band of academically high achieving North East schools, but Headmaster Kieran McLaughlin, himself a Cambridge graduate, believes the school’s strength lies in providing far more than just good grades.
“Academic prowess is undeniably important,” he said, “but no matter which career, field of study, industry or branch of academia our pupils enter, they will need far more than good grades.
“They will need self-belief, to ensure their voices are heard and their opinions listened to; they will need curiosity, to explore alternative methods and ideas and, above all, they will need to be confident and resilient.”
In the workplace, as in life, it is not necessarily how often you fall that defines you, but how often and with what determination, you get back up again.
Resilience is possibly the most important attribute any of us can possess particularly those with an entrepreneurial spirit and it is an attribute Durham School takes time to foster.
“There has been much talk in the education sector recently about the need to nurture resilience in pupils,” said Kieran, “with some schools considering introducing lessons geared to that end.
“However, at Durham School, we believe that resilience like so many of life’s lessons is best established through experience; by giving each pupil the chance to try.
“Sometimes they will succeed and, inevitably, sometimes they will fail but when that happens, we will pick them up, dust them off and encourage them to try again.
“And, whether they are taking up a sport, learning a musical instrument or simply climbing a tree, each time they try they will learn from what went wrong and, just as importantly, what went right.”
Because building strength of character takes time, Durham School’s ethos, of developing resilience, confidence, maturity, self-belief and the curiosity to embrace, rather than run from, opportunity, permeates each year group.
Among those opportunities offered to the co-educational school’s 415 day and boarding pupils, aged from 11 to 18, are the Combined Cadet Force, Duke of Edinburgh Award schemes.
And, for musicians, the chance to practise and perform on the finest pianos in the world at the only All-Steinway Accredited School in the North of England.
“We also have large number of societies,” said Kieran, “one of the oldest of which is the Heretics’ Society.
“Each member is invited to talk on a subject, or ideal, about which they are passionate and informed and then they must defend their stance under questioning from their peers.
“It’s a hugely popular society and, from it, they gain confidence almost by stealth. Barely realising it, they are learning how to compose a clearly defined point of view, present it to a room full of people and mount a robust and considered defence of it.
“These are skills they will be need in virtually every work environment and throughout the course of their lives.”
This year the school has also introduced a new initiative, called 98 in 9, aimed at encouraging the 14 and 15-year-olds in Year 9 to take up new hobbies, sports or challenges.
“They are tasked with doing 98 new things,” said Kieran, “one for each of the 98 steps which lead to our school chapel and were laid in memory of former pupils killed in action.
“They might take up a new sport or simply read a book by an unfamiliar author but, by pushing their personal boundaries they will become more self-assured, more open minded and more capable.
“While academic success will always be at the heart of Durham School, it is my ambition that our pupils leave with more than just good grades: they leave with confidence, for life.”
