Our final term of the year continues to gather pace with students, teachers and parents being fully involved in many activities.

CLASSES FOR 2017

Last week we held orientation days for new students joining Wyvern in 2017. Many of the ‘new boys’ had the opportunity to spend some time with students from their equivalent Wyvern year group providing the chance for some early friendships to emerge. Currently we are in the final stages of formulating 2017 classes. This is a detailed and rigorous process.  I will write to parents in November to inform you of the 2017 teaching arrangements for your son. On Thursday 1 December we will be holding our ‘One Up’ morning where all of our students, plus the new student intake, will meet their class teacher and class mates for 2017. Please note that the deadline for parental input into the class allocation process has long passed (end of Term 3) and as such I have to inform you that further requests from parents at this late stage cannot be considered.

STUDENT LEADERS 2017

At this time of the term we also consider which of our current Year 5 students have the potential to undertake a number of specific student leadership positions next year. We believe that leadership is firmly based on good character, sound values, high virtues and service to others. I am delighted that many of our students display such qualities. We discourage and disapprove of any sense of entitlement or expectation that a certain boy should be selected as a School Leader; this mindset runs contrary to the qualities we wish to see in our School Leaders. As there is a selection process for a limited number of named leadership positions, I understand that some very good boys may miss out; but we run the process without fear or favour, inviting input from all staff members and the students in Years 3-6.  It is a very similar process to that used in the Senior School and I believe serves us well. We use the following criteria to help us to form our judgements.

1. Care for others
   How the student has demonstrated a service ethic and a capacity to think of others: e.g. selfless behaviour, assistance provided to others, capacity to work as part of a team; in other words evidence of ‘servant leadership’.
2. Capacity as a role model
   How the student conducts himself on a day to day basis in relation to our values, standards and behavioural expectations as well as a positive contribution to the co-curricular life of the school
3. Presentation skills 
   The ability of the student to speak confidently and persuasively to different audiences: e.g. large and small groups of peers and adults, in both formal and informal settings and within prepared and impromptu speaking situations.

Students also have an opportunity to nominate themselves for a leadership position. Students who do so will be required to give an impromptu speech to other students from their House on a topic provided by their teacher: Note, we intentionally do not disclose either the topic or the date of the speech.

It is important to stress that I do consider all Year 6 students to be our school leaders and role models for the rest of the school and as such I have extremely high expectations about their conduct and behaviour. A leadership training day for the whole Year 6 cohort is planned in early Term 1, 2017.

Ian Holden
Head of Wyvern House