FOR the new head of Fairview International School, Victoria Gamble, building her students’ skills and confidence is key.

With a vast experience in education both internationally and within the UK, Mrs Gamble is keen to continue the success of the relatively new Stirlingshire school which is now approaching 100 pupils.

She takes over at an important time for Fairview which last year won full accreditation for the International Baccalaureate (IB) diploma meaning that this year’s senior pupils will be the first to graduate from the school ready for university.

The independent school is now the only one in Scotland to offer uninterrupted IB schooling for all its pupils, from primary level right up to the final years of school education.

Having spent recent years researching methods of assessment, Mrs Gamble has concluded that the IB is the best preparation for life and work in the 21st century.

She believes that fostering active engagement and critical thinking in students, moving beyond passive education traditions, allows them to be fully involved in the learning process.

Instead of making them memorise information in order to regurgitate it later for exams, the IB prioritises curiosity over compliance to encourage students to explore, question, and innovate rather than conform. The result is more confident students who can think through problems and use their initiative instead of waiting to be told what to do.

“You can have someone getting top grades but who doesn’t know how to problem solve as they have never had that autonomy,” says Mrs Gamble, who comes to Scotland from Wales where she was head teacher at Ruthin School, after a stint as deputy head at the Jumeirah English Speaking School in Dubai.

One of her chosen phrases is that “knowledge isn’t what it used to be”, meaning that it longer has to be searched for in a dusty tome on a library shelf but is at the tips of people’s fingertips in their smart phones.

“What we need to get better at doing is using the knowledge available to us and that is all about skills which is where the IB is really important,” she says.

“I have become passionate about 21st century skills - the skills employers are looking for. We need an education which is focused on giving students the skills and confidence to cope with any role rather than turning out robots who are able to regurgitate dates from history. It is about initiative, it is about problem solving, it is the ability to recognise there is more to what you have been asked than just answering the question literally.”

The role of a teacher is not simply to impart knowledge but also facilitate the development of every pupil, according to Mrs Gamble.

“One of the key things that drives me is being able to adapt what we are doing in the classroom for every student,” she says.  “That comes from setting up tasks and targets for every student to engage with, which isn’t just about completing a worksheet.”

Worksheets still have a role but it is important to help students apply knowledge to work out problems and in Mrs Gamble’s view it is helpful for them to do this in collaboration with others.

“It is about turning education from being a passive process where the student is a passenger on the train expected to soak up their learning, into an active process where the student participates in their own learning so that they are driving it and it maintains their interest,” she says.

In doing so, the students are more engaged and become more confident as they have the opportunity to develop and express their personality as well as their skills.

“They get to know who they are and what motivates them,” says Mrs Gamble. “We need to keep teaching these young people that they are their own person and they don’t need to fit into a box in society or in their family or friendship group.

“They need to find out who they are and they need to have the opportunity to explore what interests them and find out how they feel about themselves and their friends.”

Like many educationalists, Ms Gamble has noted a profound effect on students’ confidence as a result of the Covid lockdowns.

“You don’t need to look far to find a newspaper article that talks about the number of mental health issues in young people and a lot of it starts with anxiety about getting things wrong or not feeling like they are up to speed with their peers,” she points out.

To combat this, the students at Fairview are frequently given opportunities to express themselves, collaborate with others and understand that not mastering a skill or topic as quickly as their classmate does not mean they have failed. Little challenges are part of each student’s day at the school so that they grow confident in learning to cope with them, collaboration, co-operation and communications are very much a part of school life.

“Speaking up in front of the class is just like a small presentation but becomes less intimidating the more you do it,” Mrs Gamble points out. “We ask them to elaborate on their work and get them involved in a discussion with their peers where they might disagree but find it is okay to disagree. It all helps to build confidence.

“Education needs to be flexible to allow every student to show their strengths.”

www.fairviewinternational.uk