​The innovative spark of a new international school

Martin George, Headmaster of Epsom College in Malaysia, explains his school’s pioneering spirit...

Epsom College in Malaysia is a new international school, located near Kuala Lumpur and bringing the very best of British boarding education to Malaysia. One of the many opportunities offered by the opening of a new school is the chance to take an innovative approach to education.

It is often the case that organisations can quickly become rather conservative in their approach and if innovation is not embedded in the culture of the school then one can rapidly fall into an educational rut, in which good things, even great things, can happen, but in which there is a rather staid and conventional approach. One might ask why this might be a problem and in many ways of course, it is not. But our children are naturally creative, naturally innovative, naturally lateral thinkers and we owe them an obligation to let these qualities develop. This is right and proper for them but, as importantly, good for humanity. The great developments in human progress were achieved by innovative thinkers and it is time for schools to embrace rather than hinder this. Albert Einstein, possibly one of the 20th Century’s most creative thinkers, said that “education is what is left when you have forgotten all that was learned in the classroom”. Perhaps not a statement to be taken too literally, but there is a clear message here – namely that we rarely remember or benefit from the mundane. So, innovative teaching, to promote innovative thinking. This is a concept designed to develop real thinking skills, not simply knowledge retention.

One concept that we are experimenting with at Epsom is the embedding of Philosophy for Children (P4C) into out curriculum. P4C is not revolutionary, indeed in many ways it is very simple. It takes topical issues and asks children to discuss these in a way that gets deep into human nature. Teachers do not lead, nor do they direct the discussion. Very quickly the pupils themselves start to lead the direction of the debate, but perhaps most interestingly one sees them develop empathy with each other and one can see how they start to listen with a far more open minded approach than perhaps they would otherwise.

As a College we are keen to promote independent learning. I suspect all good schools will have a similar aspiration. In our Sixth Form we are developing what we believe will be a rather unique model of tutorial style teaching. We are working to partner with the New College of the Humanities to introduce a university style approach to some subjects at A Level. Amongst the many elements of this are some very simple things, such as staff conducting tutorials in their offices rather than in classrooms. This may seem something of a gimmick, but already one can see that students respond to such a change in a most extraordinary way. It is as if they feel themselves as equals in a journey of intellectual exploration rather than in a hierarchical relationship with the teacher as the expert.

We believe at Epsom that teaching is a collaborative effort. For too long teachers have been ‘emperors’ in their classrooms, reluctant to share practice and resistant to outside influence. Of course this does not in itself indicate poor teaching. But how liberating and enriching it is to plan lessons together, to observe each other and to review lessons together. We have begun trialling a system of triangular collaboration, crucially across rather than within departments. There are logistical obstacles of course and it requires a major cultural shift at all levels, but the benefits are clear and substantial, not just for the teaching, but more importantly for the learning.

The above are just three examples of the way that at Epsom our students get a truly invigorating educational experience. We have many more ideas that we are developing. As a College we believe that innovation is key. We have appointed a member of staff as Director of Innovation whose job is to look at all we do and deconstruct it to the point where we can rebuild it in a different way. Nothing is off limits. If Google and Facebook can do it in their workplaces, then how much more suitable is a school, full to the brim with creative and innovative minds which we adults must never stifle simply because we are too unimaginative to recognise that there are other ways of doing things.

For more information about Epsom College in Malaysia, see page their profile on School Search.