promise
the bryanston
our core values
ENTER
to our young minds
our
This is where you light your fire find your magic learn to love your mind
Discover what you are capable of and what you can bring to the world
Up on this hill you can see further than you think
Beyond the fields in all their green and glory beyond the blue horizon
out there in here in you
You will come out singing your own song hearing the songs of those around you joining them in harmony and you will know how to make the world listen
You can see your endless possibility
vision
To inspire stimulate and liberate our children’s vision
To
inspire
stimulate
and
liberate
children's
mission
To be the place
where children
learn to love
their minds
free
their spirits
and find
their mission
to parents
Your child is unique
THE EDUCATION YOU CHOOSE FOR THEM SHOULD BE TOO
Bryanston is renowned for its success in creative, unbounded thinking. Our culture is open-minded and inspiring. We help each child find and pursue their passions. Our emphasis is on how you learn, not just what you learn. It will help your child continue to be a creative thinker.
And so to be better prepared for everything that life will bring.
Many of the jobs our children will do when they grow up don’t even currently exist. Creative thinking will be more valuable to them than ever before. Einstein said, Imagination transforms the world, but conventional education suppresses it in favour of rote learning and exam league table rankings. Here, your child’s value will not be weighed in terms of his or her contribution to our exam success. Grades matter, and we make sure every child reaches their fullest academic potential - but not at the expense of everything else an education should give a child. We create the opportunity for every child to become the best person they can be, each in their own individual way. We believe this will serve them well through the whole of their lives. This is Each pupil is carefully matched to a tutor, who meets with them every week, one-to-one, to discuss their wellbeing, their interests and their academic progress.
‘Imagination is more important than knowledge’.
The Bryanston Method.
This lasts for the whole of your child’s time here
Every child will leave Bryanston free of what Blake called the that still shackle the greater portion of humanity. All will be capable of extending the great advantage they have been given to others less fortunate.
Tutors see their tutorial pupils grow and develop, and support and guide them through their education. They act as their champion and advocate.
This is what a school should be. Our children leave here not stamped and processed but confident, self-reliant, open-minded individuals, ready to take their place in the world, and more than that - to make their mark upon it.
‘mind-forged manacles’
Our children have gone on to use their imaginations to shape the world we live in, in ways great and small. Whatever path your child takes in life, the education you give them here at Bryanston will go with them, giving them confidence, strength, purpose and a mind ready for anything, however challenging,
all the days of their life.
to
all staff
Bryanston was founded by a visionary, and has been the home for many more -
both children who have grown up and gone on to shape our world, and adults who have taken the founder’s idea and made it even greater, more successful, and adaptable to change.
A school is not a building but a community. Everyone contributes.
Schools hold all our futures in their hands. Education is the cornerstone of civilisation, and has the power to transform individuals and societies. It ends poverty, improves health and fights tyranny in the poorest countries; in the richest, it stimulates innovation, raises our consciousness and guards us, we hope, against the return of oppression.
In this school we make enduring and deep connections with the children in our care. We find out who these children are, what they can do, what will make them happy, and what success means to them. We can nurture them through the whole of their time here, and form bonds that last beyond school and into adulthood. Nurturing and caring for the children go beyond lessons and tutoring. And children learn from every adult around them, and the environment that holds and sustains them. Our community is held together by dedicated professionals, who care for us, feed us, make the buildings and grounds beautiful, and organise everything so that the huge task of making this community function is almost invisible. But the effect of their work is not - it is always felt and makes everything possible. A vision is only a dream until practical steps are taken to make it come true. Our method of teaching, tutoring and caring for the physical needs of our children and our environment is what makes our vision reality. This is education at the highest level, and we are privileged to offer it. In a perfect world, all schools would be like this, and every teacher and all staff would have the time, space and opportunity to work with children as we do. That world has not yet been created, even with our best efforts - but we’re not giving up. Our promise to all our staff is to create an environment and culture that gives you the tools, the support and the confidence you need to fulfil our vision and mission. We know what a great school can achieve. We, all the staff at Bryanston, are constantly building one.
It is a light that banishes darkness, and we are the bearers of the flame.
ET NOVA
et vetera
The school motto, chosen by our founder in 1928, means, ‘Both new and old’
The enormous changes in every area of life since then are obvious - the tide of that appears to have swept away the .
'nova'
'vetera'
But we are still human. We have not become a different species in this time - one long lifetime - despite appearances, and the over-excited voices of technologists. Education is a human endeavour. It is founded on a human relationship - between children and their teachers. The nature of that relationship has changed over time, and Bryanston has been a significant pioneer in that change. We removed the traditional barriers between teachers and taught. We replaced them with close attention to children’s needs, founded on communication unlike that found in most other schools. This was new to education when we opened our doors, and is still unusual. For us, it is now - we’re used to it. But we don’t stand still. New ideas constantly emerge within the school and outside - and though we are confident about our method, we’re also always looking for ways to improve it. We use the best of the new that humans have created and the best of the old, to give our children the benefit of both experience and modernity. Bryanston lives in the present, learns from its past, and looks to the future. That’s what means.
'Et nova et vetera'
Children, as soon as they can speak, ask questions. They have no prejudices, no preconceptions, and they want to learn
They’re creative thinkers. NASA devised a test to measure creative thinking. When they applied it to 3-5-year-olds, came out at genius level.
98%
But over time, this wanes. At ten years old, were genius level. At 15, . By age 31, .
30%
12%
2%
What happens to children as they grow up? School. Peer pressure. The world. Conventional thinking.
At Bryanston, we are determined to preserve and develop our children’s questioning, curious, creative minds. To encourage self-belief and the confidence to be yourself. Not the arrogance of privilege, but the sure and certain knowledge that if you set out to change the world, in ways great and small, you can do it. An Old Bryanstonian is not recognisable by their manner, their air of superiority, their connections or their old school tie. They do not impose their ideas on others, though they may inspire those around them. They are instead the embodiment of the spirit of enquiry, of the positive challenge to convention, and of creative thinking. If our children leave here having learnt to love their minds, free their spirits and find their mission – and inspired, stimulated and liberated to create and follow their own vision for themselves throughout their lives - .
then we have succeeded
this is
our voice
When we ran outside We quoted movie lines And when we sing We have the future in our eyes. It was an early spring When the sun came rolling in, And we knew that we were Nothing like the rest. Because the world is a game But we are ready to take the test. We are sparks of the flame, Moving mountains and nothing less. We may not always be What we thought we’d see When we look into The mirror of ourselves. Accepting who we are Even when it’s hard, It’s a journey of Who we’re meant to be. It’s chance to let go, Feel the rhythm and time to grow. It’s not only what you know It’s the music within your soul. We explore it all, Both old and new, We’re looking for Every point of view. We take our minds, We set them free, We’re taking every Opportunity.
(repeats)
This is my voice, This is my sound, These are my words, When I sing out loud.
We have our goals Big and small, Teach us how to rise when we fall. Be our guide through the thick of it all. Learn to love your mind, This is a chance to find All the reasons why We’re even here at all. We philosophise, Discover, theorise, Creating visions Of what we want to see. And it all comes down to The change we want to be. And it all comes down To the ways we are unique. We explore it all, Both old and new, We’re looking for Every point of view. We take our minds, We set them free, We’re taking every Opportunity.
We have our goals Big and small, Teach us how to rise when we fall. Be our guide through the thick of it all. When we ran outside We quoted movie lines. And when we sing...
...we have the future in our eyes.
Play music video
Music video
This was unplanned, but one of our recent leavers, Connor Williams, read The Promise in draft form, and immediately went to his piano and wrote this song in response. It’s a beautiful, creative reply to the truth of our promise, as Connor knows it.
You’ll see that the promise ends with a song.
It’s also about as Bryanston as it gets.
Bryanston
