Head, Hands and Heart

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In 1902, two of John McGlashan's daughters bequeathed their home for the purpose of establishing a boys’ school that would honour their father and his belief in a “sound and liberal education.” Today we continue to hold to this broad ideal.

We define a sound and liberal education as being a system or course of education suitable for the cultivation of a free human being. It is a philosophy of education that empowers individuals with broad knowledge and transferable skills, and a strong sense of values, ethics, and civic engagement characterised by challenging encounters with important issues. 

There are always changes in education.  Changes that enable us to take stock of where we are, where we have come from, and where we need to be to educate today's youth.

"One of those changes is the question of the knowledge, the skills, the values, the attitudes, the competencies needed for the world of tomorrow…" Olli-Pekka Heinonen   

It is something we will be considering throughout the year.  We have an opportunity to move beyond traditional cognitive teaching & learning - to the development of deeper understanding which we term as "the head" - to include more around both the practical - "the hand" - and the profound - "the heart".

What is also important is what we can do with our hands, not only how we connect the cognitive side and the skills side, but how we use our hands to contribute to the local and global community.

The heart refers to ensuring that the human element of learning and the modern world are embedded in how we teach the next generation.  That means we have to include our heart in our decision making and creating the path that each one of us wants to create to the future.

Our akoranga (learning), tikanga (values) and hapori (community) goals speak to each of the 'head', 'heart' and 'hands'.  We will intend to find that good balance of the head, hand and heart for now and into the future.