My blog from Houston, Texas. Updated most weeks, usually on Sundays.
There are so many good things happening this week in the school that I don’t think I can wait until the weekend to share them all through this blog. I think this will be a multi-blog week.
This afternoon, we presented our first Civitas Awards. Many months ago I announced that we were going to introduce a new awards scheme to recognise students’ effort. Since that time, the teachers have spent many hours fine-tuning the system, working through the criteria, designing the certificates, modifying our report forms and reorienting their own thinking in awarding grades for effort and conduct. The fruits of these labors were seen at this afternoon’s presentation assembly.
As I announced at the start of the assembly, the concept behind the Civitas Awards is the understanding that while very few students can be top of their classes in academic achievement (by definition, because ‘top of the class’ is a ranking exercise), every student is capable to achieving top grades for effort, because effort is criterion referenced.
Therefore, regardless of the academic grades a student is receiving, every student should be capable of working their heart out and scoring a top grade for effort.
I was thrilled that in this first awards ceremony, 170 students in Grades 6 to 11 qualified to received Civitas Awards. Of this number, 28 were at the level of an Exemplary Award.
Because effort is such a basic prerequisite for achievement, I hope that the Civitas Awards will come to be seen as one of the most significant presentations made at Awty International School in the years to come. For that reason, and because role modelling and partnerships with parents are so important, we invited parents and families of award winners to our presentation ceremony, and to the afternoon tea I hosted following the ceremony. I was delighted by the wonderful support shown by our parents for the Civitas Awards; a huge number of parents attended, many of whom had taken time off work to attend.
As I explained to the students at the assembly, the Civitas Award certificates are not just pieces of paper; they are very important components of their resumés. When they come to prepare their college and university applications, or job applications for that matter, one of the things that will make the deepest impression will be evidence of solid effort, persistence and consistent application – and that is precisely what the Civitas Awards document.
For those students for whom the certificate itself is not sufficient motivation, I am hoping that over time the food available at the afternoon tea will become an incentive. All the students who earn Exemplary Civitas Awards are invited to attend the afternoon tea with the parents and families who are attending, and I can testify that the food is definitely good enough to justify making an extra effort in the classroom!
I am very grateful for the hard work that our teachers in the Middle and Upper Schools have put into making the Civitas Awards a living, breathing reality here at Awty. I am also grateful for the consistent support I have received for this initiative from the Head of the Middle School, Mr Tom Beuscher, and the Head of the Upper School, Mr Sam Waugh, ever since I first suggested it in late 2011. Both men have guided many discussions and planning sessions to establish the Civitas Awards, and I am delighted that their persistence has borne fruit.
I am also grateful to the many parents who supported the initiative with their presence this afternoon. Their enthusiastic and appreciative feedback over afternoon tea were very encouraging to all of us who had worked to get this initiative up and running.
Of course, the real beneficiaries will be Awty’s students in the years ahead. I believe we have launched something that will fundamentally enhance our school culture for many years to come.
Civitas
Wednesday, 22 May 2013