WHY PANGBOURNE?
Pangbourne College is a fully co-educational, independent, day and boarding school for boys and girls aged 11 - 18 years, located in over 230 acres of Berkshire’s Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, with the best stretch of rowing river in the country. We benefit from an incredible site and inspirational staff, and we are all committed to the Pangbourne Toolkit.
These are the six tools we wish all Pangbournians to take with them as they journey through life; a metaphorical Swiss Army Knife to enable them to succeed in any environment. These tools connect with the 4 pillars of a Pangbourne education to ensure that every student succeeds.
Friendship and Collegiality
The more we feel we belong to a group, the more we invest in its goals and adopt its norms. However, belonging doesn't just drive behaviour and learning; it impacts health and happiness too. Being part of something bigger than ourselves unearths the essence of the human experience, and we know that the need for kinship is particularly important in times of personal change. It is little surprise that belonging can be a core concern for many students, and potentially all-consuming for adolescents.
At Pangbourne we focus on community and having fun; doing things that make us laugh and that enable us to interact with others. Pangbourne is as much about the opportunities to build memories that sustain us as it is about securing great exam results.
Knowledge and Words
We know that knowledge and words are empowering; they lift us above the everyday ways we make sense of the world and enable us to view the world with fresh eyes; to make links and see connections.
In a world of mobile phones and the internet, we need to have developed the schemata necessary to cope with the deluge of information we are now presented with. These schemata are mental structures of ideas and words that influence the attention we can give to new information and free up working memory to embrace new content and think about what we are being presented with. This enables us to differentiate fact from opinion, and not be dragged down by dogma and misinformation.
So we read, and read widely. Pangbournians enjoy immersing themselves in a good book and the benefits this provides. Reading makes us human; teaches us how to empathise with those different from ourselves and access the wisdom of our collective past.
Courage of Thought
Courage of thought is the most important of all the types of courage. Now more than ever we need young people who will stand up for what is right, even when it is uncomfortable or unpopular. Those who will insist on truth and virtue, even when their actions may have consequences, or when their friends disagree.
So we ensure that a Pangbourne education means you can go out into the world with one ideal; of your duty as well-educated young people to stand up to injustice and fight on behalf of the underdog. This is how we show the world what it means to be well educated and the true value of a private education.
Ability to work in a multitude of teams and networks
Now more than ever, to be successful we need to be able to work in teams and networks of people who may be different from ourselves; with different values, perspectives and ways of doing things. We need to be able to show not just the ability to do this, but to have an interest in it.
We need to know when to talk and when to listen; when to press ahead with an idea and when to stop and go back to the drawing board. Being a good team player means more than simply waiting quietly for your turn to talk. It means being willing to not get your own way for the sake of achieving the wider goal or mission.
Pangbournians can get on with anyone and see the common ground. They know when to negotiate, when to concede and when to push ahead. Rather than vying for attention and recognition, they focus on what will best serve the team; they share credit, emphasise team over individual and define success collectively rather than individually.
Adventure and embracing challenge
When a person is hungry to learn and be successful it is obvious. What is also obvious is that they are willing to take risks and equally willing to fail. Adventure at Pangbourne doesn’t just mean going out into the wilderness; it means approaching life with a set of values:
- Freedom,
- Self-reliance,
- Responsibility.
Having an adventurous mindset then means having a view of yourself that places the deeds you carry out as determined by the thoughts you have. The most successful people take ownership of their lives and their decisions. They take risks but they accept the outcome and the responsibility when it goes wrong. They learn that ownership of decisions is liberating.
Failure as a learning experience
There is only one 21st Century skill, and that is the ability to act intelligently when faced with a situation for which you have not been specially prepared, otherwise how do you know what to do in such circumstances?
Pangbournians are never afraid to fail, never worry about what other people might think if they can’t do something, they have a go and adopt a ‘can-do’ mindset. If it was impossible, no-one would be able to do it.
