Peter: One of our goals here at School 21 is to create interesting people who have passions, who care about the world around them, who want to change things, who are curious. We need to make school once more a place of joy and wonder, where you’re being stretched and challenged and motivated every day.

Student: Who here have dreams and goals they want to achieve in their life?

Peter: So at School 21, everything’s a jigsaw. By seeing it in action, you see how the different strands feed off each other. Wellbeing is a way of wrestling with issues about themselves and about others that go quite deep.

Student: Boys can wear pink and boys can play with dollies. It’s their choice and–

Peter: And through drama techniques, through literature, through conversations with each other and with teachers, students are exploring in a really sophisticated way their emotions, their qualities, what’s getting in the way of their learning and getting on.

Anna: Does skin color tell you much about a person on the inside?

Students: No.

Peter: So what we’re developing, and why wellbeing links so well to oracy is that if you’re well inside yourself, if you’ve got confidence, then you will speak.

Student: Isn’t this country a democracy?

Peter: Oral communication is up there as one of the most important skills, and we wanted students to find their voice — metaphorically and literally.

Student: Everybody’s people.

Peter: Oracy and wellbeing link to project-based learning because if they’re producing work of a really high standard, that makes them feel better about themselves and really proud of what they’ve done. It’s a very clever way of combining knowledge, skills, and attributes. So you’re applying in depth knowledge to real situations, and I think it’s very stimulating for the students. We genuinely believe here in educating the whole child and developing them in all their characteristics so that they can make a difference to the world when they go out of school.

Schools That Work

School 21