Mr Barber leads on the oversight of our bespoke leadership skills development programme, the aptly named L.I.O.N. Award (‘Leadership for Independence & Opportunities to Nurture’). Earlier this week, he shared with the boys in the Prep a reminder of the upcoming deadlines for the Award for this term. It was also wonderful to see how much they had already completed!
This half term, the Community Service section of the Award will require the boys to take part in a ‘Kindness Week’ from 13 – 17 May. We do enjoy a happy coincidence at Hampton Pre-Prep and Prep, and our assembly theme of ‘Daring to be Different’ combines rather serendipitously with this section of the L.I.O.N. Award. Although Mr Barber stepped the boys through how they might like to go about meeting this requirement of the Award, they have also been challenged to think divergently and to go above the minimum requirements if they feel inclined to do so. Let’s see where that challenge might lead some of them…??
Mr Barber also, mercifully, shared some examples with us all of the excellent work the boys completed for the Celebrating Differences and the Creativity Portfolio from last term. It was wonderful to see the time, effort and thought the boys had put into their assignments and – once again – this highlighted how different our boys dare to be, as far as working towards their L.I.O.N. Award is concerned. With Celebrating Differences, we saw an appreciation of culture, religion, heritage and neurodiversity to name but a few, and it was moving to hear how boys had also used the Creativity Portfolio to explore mindfulness and even cope with grief. The learning they gain from these tasks not only prepares them for their future schools but helps develop the skills they need to be the resilient, empathetic and kind boys we know they are growing into becoming.
