Brighton College has been named Most Forward Thinking School in Britain by the news magazine The Week in its bi-annual survey of the country’s top schools.
The magazine made reference to head Richard Cairns’ “visionary” approach to running the school and his decision to introduce compulsory Mandarin from the age of five. Since Mr Cairns has been Head of Brighton College, applications have trebled and numbers have grown by 54 per cent. At the same time, academic results have improved dramatically, with Brighton consistently placed among the top 25 schools in England.
The Week particularly mentions the school’s innovative Story of Our Land course, a combination of history, geography, philosophy and religion, that all pupils study to give them a proper chronological sense of the nation’s story.
Mr Cairns has since expanded this so that all sixth formers study Our Island Story alongside their A-level subjects. Elsewhere, pupils are formally taught presentation skills, being filmed and evaluated for their ability to speak in public and present convincingly to an audience.
Headmaster Richard Cairns said: “The curriculum we offer is constantly evolving. That makes for a wonderfully dynamic atmosphere in the college, with children being inspired every day to really love their learning. That is why it is such a happy, buzzy, school.”
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