Bethany School in Kent shares its Philosophy of Learning

I once heard it said that an optimist stays up until midnight to see the New Year in, while a pessimist stays up to make sure the Old Year leaves!

Sir Winston Churchill once stated, ‘A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty.’ What do you see?

I think we’d all agree that 2020 needs to be different to 2019 as there was far too much negativity last year both politically and economically. All this pessimism became tiring and loathsome. I am an optimist by nature and every new year should bring some optimism. We should all want to positively embrace the opportunities that come our way and to see the good in others.

I hope your enthusiasm for the New Year will be enhanced by looking at the world with fresh eyes and heightened expectations.

The Bethany School Philosophy of Learning has promoted the development of the Virtue of Learning. This has been in place for a few years now and has three different sets of learning habits, one for parents, one for teachers and one for pupils. The habits identified for parents are about being: realistic, supportive, aware, informed and involved. If parents can succeed in embracing these habits then they will be supporting their children’s education in the best way possible.

When you’re struggling to be positive, it’s often a good idea to look to children for encouragement because for some reason, teenage stereotypes aside, optimism is second nature to them.

At Bethany, you only have to look at some of the work the pupils do for various charitable causes to realise that they hold a great deal of hope for the world as they raise money for those less fortunate. They aren’t cynical about the potential of their efforts and the impact of their efforts for those people; this is the best kind of incentive there is.

This year, let us, as adults, join them in striving for a better world in addition to bettering ourselves. There are several ways optimism can be developed in all of us.

We need to have realistic goals and expectations. In addition, we need to remember we are all human and therefore have lots of imperfections. Past events should be acknowledged, and we need to try to manage the present with a view to creating a brighter future.

We need to be true to ourselves and spend more time with people who show optimism in their daily lives. All of us should believe in our dreams and hopefully, most of us will realise them.

The approach that Bethany has to education fosters this development of optimism which of course has lifelong benefits.

We would like to wish everyone the very best for 2020.

bethanyschool.org.uk