Notes from Nick: our Principal shares his experience

As you’ll know if you’ve read this article, I’ve had a long career in education. 35 years, in fact! What you may not know is that I’m also a father of seven grown up children. All that parenting has taught me a lot about the things you might be wondering as you choose a school for your family.

In the beginning

My eldest, Mary-Anne, started school in 1996. Until that point, Rebecca and I were Mary-Anne’s main influences. And when it came to their growth and development, the buck stopped with us.

As you’ll know, parenting gets more complicated at school age. That’s because you have to put your trust into other adults — and those adults can have huge influence over your child’s formative years. There are other common worries:

  • Will my child feel safe and happy?

  • Will the school adults recognise what’s special about my child?

  • Will they be supportive of my child’s needs?

Too much, too soon?

As teachers, we worried about what was happening in education. And we had some broad concerns about the school system — about issues that still exist today:

Over-testing

With so much emphasis on testing, we worried about the stress that was being placed on children’s shoulders from a young age. Not only that, testing encourages a correct/incorrect binary (as opposed to analytical and critical thinking). This was a problem for us because we wanted our kids’ knowledge to be versatile.

Policy pressure

Thanks to government policies, Drama, Visual, and Creative Arts were being cut in favour of more literary and numeracy. This narrowing of the curriculum places higher value on the students who do well in certain subjects than others, which we weren’t keen on.

Individuality

Rebecca and I wanted to send our kids to a school that would value their strengths — even if they weren’t in line with the government priorities of the day. That’s because we wanted them to develop confidence and a strong sense of self. 


To us, that sense of self was more important than grades. Supporting them to work with their strengths, to develop a love of learning, and to foster creativity were top of mind as we chose a school for Mary-Anne. And when our youngest, Annabelle, started school in 2006, Rebecca and I were confident that the problems we’d noticed had gotten worse, not better.

The Woodbury Boston way

In the last 35 years, I’ve worked in all sorts of schools. That means I truly understand how special Woodbury Boston is. That’s because our ethos and teaching style aligns with the latest educational research. 


So much of your child’s personality and interests are developed in childhood. The broad educational style at Woodbury Boston empowers your child to love learning, and the kind, engaging adults confidence, critical thinking, and a strong sense of self.


If you’d like to see what this looks like in action, why not book a tour? We’re always happy to share our school with visitors of all ages!

 

Recommended Reading

Woodbury Boston Primary School is a progressive independent school nestled in the bush between Denmark and Albany WA. We know that children learn best when they’re happy and having fun. With a strong focus on community, respect, independence and nature-based teaching, our students learn the Western Australian Curriculum and so much more. For more information or to book a personal tour, please ring 9845 1185.

Philosophy & Practice, Children, CommunityMartha Barnard-Rae