The words of Kurt Hahn handsomely reflect the rationale of our approach to all aspects of school life at BJAB – the British Junior Academy of Brussels. Many in education have become obsessed with either developing skills or knowledge, a false dichotomy which misses the point, I feel; clearly both are needed!
We aim to develop in our students a set of values and the kind of nimbleness and agency that will turn them into capable global citizens. Headteachers far too frequently fall into the trap of talking of ‘twenty-first century skills’, as if they were something we need to develop for some distant future, conveniently forgetting that we are almost a quarter of the way through this century already…
It is naturally a given that a school with high standards attaches great importance to its academic curriculum and of course we do – there is ‘no ceiling’ for children at BJAB. We benchmark ourselves using standardized testing at Primary and Cambridge Checkpoint Tests at age 13-14, alongside Cambridge IGCSE courses which began last September and the prospect of the International Baccalaureate Diploma (IBDP) programme in a year’s time.
On the pastoral side of school life our class teachers from Pre-K up to Year 6 do incredible work in supporting, nurturing and developing young minds all the way along this truly exciting journey. At lower secondary level this role is undertaken by our ‘vertical tutors’ – so-called as each tutor mentors mixed ages, meaning that the children get to collaborate with peers from other year groups too. From Year 10 our tutoring system becomes horizontal again, with a specialist taking responsibility for a year group, supporting them as they head towards important public examinations.
This excellence and determination to achieve the highest standards possible in both the academic and pastoral spheres is of course all well and good, but where I am especially excited at BJAB is in the development of our co-curriculum, spanning all levels from Pre-Kindergarten at age two and a half right up to our current eldest students in Year 10 and beyond.
We are proud to be candidate members of Round Square (RS), a superb organization going back more than 50 years and formed of over 260 schools from most corners of the world, from South America to Australia and from Africa to India, as well as a strong showing in Europe, though BJAB proudly remains the only Round Square school in any of the Benelux countries. We are strong advocates of ‘character education’ based on the RS IDEALS of Internationalism, Democracy, Environment, Adventure, Leadership and Service with our younger pupils really engaging with the ‘Heroes of Discovery’. Sustainability Suki, Teamwork Tino, Compassionate Carlos et al. have all brought the IDEALS home to our younger pupils in a succinct and effective way.
Our secondary students have made full use of a wide range of ‘Geo’, ‘History’ and ‘Language Labs’ - rather different to the tape-driven booths I remember from my own school, back in the day! They are able to exchange views regularly with their counterparts in very different contexts and countries all around the world – how fascinating for example for our Year 10 IGCSE historians to compare and contrast their view of the Second World War with students from Munich, Japan, the US and India? How much more refreshing than a textbook is it to research sustainable tourism by comparing the situation in Belgium with peers in India, The Bahamas and Columbia? The possibilities are truly endless…
The icing on the cake for our Year 11 students will be to spend ten days in September in Dubai with 1400 other young people, taking part in baraza discussions, meeting lots of people and dealing with a plethora of themes, inter alia sustainability and progress, biodiversity, urban farming, renewable energy and water conservation, as well as the obligatory visit to the Burj Kalifa and the inspiring ‘Museum of the Future’.
Our Year 9 students all follow the Bronze Duke of Edinburgh programme, not merely as an interesting and meaningful addition to their curriculum vitae, but as a means of finding more out about themselves, as they step out of their comfort zone. Our first cohort completing Bronze were delighted to be invited to the British Residence back in the Autumn, along with the 470 or so other participants across Belgium. To do so, they had planned and carried out practice and assessed expeditions, which took them on foot across the Ardennes, with a more demanding route awaiting in Luxembourg at Silver level and the dazzling prospect of the French Alps at Gold.
Whilst these two new departures are innovative and new, they very much follow what has always been the case traditionally at BJAB – a wide range of activities and after-school clubs, from Scottish dancing to embroidery, from coding and robotics to debating, drama and sports.
Trips too are essential – from that exciting first Kindergarten trip to the park looking at ‘The Signs of Autumn’ right up to our Year 9 and 10 trips this year to Madrid and Paris respectively, the sense of discovering the real world is a key one. Our plans for post-IGCSE and post-IBDP are for trips to far-flung destinations, with ideas mooted of NASA, Guadeloupe and Vietnam – the sky really is the limit.
As Goethe said:
'Zwei Dinge sollen Kinder von ihren Eltern bekommen: Wurzeln und Flügel'('Children need two things from their parents: Roots and Wings'.)
The skills that the students at BJAB develop are designed to help them throughout their future lives – we are providing them with strong roots and foundations, as well as wings, with which ultimately to fly away – though the same wings can bring them back to us later of course. My experience has shown that they invariably do!
Francis Retter, Head of BJAB
Do come and visit us on our Open Day on Wednesday, 12th March - register here.
