December 3rd 2023
Our School values guide how we live our Moulsford lives on a daily basis. If we get this right, we give Moulsford children the tools with which they can draw upon to guide them through life’s long journey. Keeping Moulsford’s values fresh, relevant and inclusive for all members of our community is so important and so every few years we have a root and branch review of the values that define our wonderful School.
This has been an ongoing process this term, and I am so grateful to all members of our immediate community who have been involved in the review. We started by having a focus group of fourteen children and staff, who had two meetings to discuss the values which they felt were intrinsic to the Moulsford experience. Fuelled by sandwiches, crisps and chocolate, this group settled on the following longlist:
- Authenticity
- Integrity
- Kindness
- Understanding
- Respect
- Communication
- Curiosity
- Enthusiasm
- Courage
- Determination
On Wednesday of this week, we gathered together in the Sports Hall for a Values assembly. It was a delight to welcome the Pre-Prep children, and all the Moulsford staff from every department in the School, and in total roughly 450 of us were present under one roof. At this assembly, we discussed the importance of values, and why different organisations adopt them, using the examples of the John Lewis Partnership, the NHS, England Rugby and another prep school. We also talked about how we have a number of different values systems in the School (e.g. Pre-Prep values, Sports values and our previous whole School values) and that we are aiming to review and simplify this to create one set of Moulsford values. The children, including the Pre-Prep, performed some short role plays to illustrate some of the values on our longlist.
After assembly, the whole school went ‘off timetable’ for ninety minutes to explore the ten words in more detail in smaller groups through discussion, drama, art and literature. I was fortunate enough to be able to visit virtually every group and witness the energy, interest and sense of purpose present throughout the School during this very special time. Following this there was a real buzz in the staffroom, as experiences from the morning’s discussions were shared.
At the end of these discussions, each year group, the Pre-Prep and a staff group, then decided on their five preferred words to express Moulsford’s values, and these were fed back centrally. So, in total, eight lots of five words were received. Next Tuesday, we will reveal to the whole School the three words that our community has collectively decided will be Moulsford’s three values, and there is much anticipation of the ‘result’.
This announcement will of course just be the next step of this really important process, and the measure of its success will be embedding these values in to every aspect of the Moulsford experience. As a community, we will use our values to ensure that all children take care of one another, make the most of the wonderful opportunities at Moulsford, and are aspirational in their outlook. All will be revealed next week, and we will then focus in more detail on each of Moulsford’s values.
