Taken at its most basic education can be seen as an input-output model. Teachers input, students receive and output at examination time.

The success of this - measured by exam results - depends on how much of the input remains intact at the eventual output. Of course, with active teachers and passive children, a great deal is lost in this process.

And in this system, a students’ ability to memorize and regurgitate chunks of knowledge has always been an advantage - even if they do not understand what they have learnt.

But is that really what we mean by education? (Yes, this is a can of worms, but pass me my tin-opener, I’m going in…)

EQ drives IQ

My strong belief is that emotional intelligence (EQ) is the engine that drives academic attainment - it must be developed in balance with IQ. 

This means our educational approach must value character development in order that children can develop the maturity to understand how to maximise their own potential.

As a headmaster, I see day-in, day-out how character transformation actively promotes that growth in maturity through enhanced conceptual understandings. They understand the ‘what’ and the ‘why’. They start actively to contribute to their learning. 

This is why we emphasise the pivotal role played by maturity of attitude at our school. Our character development programme aims to produce this enhanced maturity, enabling us eventually to transfer much of the responsibility for effective learning from teacher to student.

We integrate character development opportunities into every single area of the curriculum through teamwork, leadership, independence, creativity, research skills, personal organisation, public speaking, confidence, communication and critical thinking.  

The end result is that they create learning rather than consuming it so they become active learners, invested in their own learning.  

How online learning boosts EQ

So how does this relate to online learning? We started our online programme like parents dealing with fireworks. Light the blue touch-paper, stick fingers in ears and stand well back…

And the result? Students have taken to the system like ducks to water.

Admittedly, during the previous seven months, we had been nurturing their maturity through weekly character development projects. 

But even so, the results after three weeks of online learning have been impressive and it would wager many other schools will have seen similar outcomes:

1. Teamwork: online learning requires students to accept that they need to work in a predefined network and that they might not be able to speak as freely as they like as a means of giving way to others. 

Rather than the constant stream of inconsequential chatter prevalent in the school classroom, when they are online, children are required to listen and contribute constructively in turn. 

2. Leadership skills and self-management: Crises such as the one created by COVID-19 demand a high degree of self-management and motivation. Online learning expects a much higher level of self-management than simply showing up to class. 

3. Confidence, and resilience: Intensive online learning, as a new educational experience, requires confidence to be able to master technology, to work with others online, not to give up when faced with a challenge and to consistently show up while in isolation.

Students learn to overcome moments of ‘I just can’t do this’. Becoming more self-reliant is a big step towards developing confidence. 

4. Independence and personal organisation:  the ability to work on your own, creating and innovating without simply relying on external direction. Working to deadlines. Internal rather than external quality control.    

5. Research skills: powered by innate curiosity and the freedom to explore, enhancing the ability to access appropriate information, refining it, organising it and integrating it into the bigger picture.  

Of course, there have been challenges and all students progressed at different speeds but within a short period of time, we have seen students rising to the challenge.

Student surveys show that they value the independence of working at their own speed. They also appreciate making their own decisions about how they organise and approach their learning.

They take responsibility for managing their own time, for conducting their own research, for producing their own outcomes to open-ended tasks, for delivering their work to teachers on time, and so on.

Above all, their feedback in the weekly surveys shows a confidence that says: “I am equal to any task you give me - whatever the task, I will deliver”.