Benjamin Evans, Deputy Head (Academic) of Wellington College on its inspiring Fragments course that gives students the freedom to explore the really big ideas

‘If you had a month with a bright group of pupils, and could teach them anything, what would you choose?’ When interviewing teachers, this question tells me more than any other about a candidate’s suitability for the job. Their response demonstrates their genuine interest in the subject, and also their willingness to embrace creative possibilities within the discipline. Some teachers’ eyes light up when considering the question and others look panicked. Some teachers make me want to have been taught by them, and I’m pleased for the pupils that will have that chance in the near future.

My question always refers to the individual’s subject; but what if you could teach literally anything? What are the things you believe pupils should be exposed to, but are unlikely in the general course of things to come across? What books, authors, works of art, ideas, concepts, figures of history, music, culture, and ways of living would you wish to choose when presented with a blank canvas?

That is the challenge presented to around ten Wellington teachers each year, who design a bespoke Fragments course for a seminar-sized group of interested pupils. Taking inspiration from a single line in T. S. Eliot’s The Waste LandThese fragments I have shored against my ruins‘ –the teachers design a 30-week course around a single loose theme. The learning experience is woven with this theme at its centre and the teacher needs to allow the course to be tight in some places and to bulge out in others. It is not so much about delivery of content as exploration of ideas. We also seek to maintain the assertion that not all learning must be assessed, and the freedom associated with a non-examined course should be celebrated.

“Not all learning must be assessed, and the freedom associated with a non-examined course should be celebrated”

There is power in knowing that each class studies a unique course – no one else in the school or outside will study this material in this manner. It is a clear rejection of the assumption that curriculum is laid down by examination boards or the DfE, and that teachers have little choice in what is taught. In this space, teachers have all the choice.

Themes for this academic year include Images, Colour, Edges, Rebellion, Connections, Letters, Lives, Roots, and Counting to 10. My course is Nine Songs, with music ranging from Dimitri Shostakovich to MF Doom. The songs act as gateways into topics, and we have turned Edward Hopper’s paintings into cinema stills and built storyboards around them. We have learnt to dissect classical music and understand how music can rouse a nation, created updated versions of Irish band A House’s “Endless Art”, and explored the concept of heroism through the exploits of Ross Smith. We are about to embrace ideas of modern identity and alter ego, before heading back to the 18th century to explore political satire in painting.

Some expected ‘winner’ topics will fall flat and other more risky choices will be embraced, but we understand that seeds are being sown for the future. We also know that some of these seeds will not germinate until conditions are right – perhaps a few years hence. But if the experience of school is supposed to be inspirational, I can think of few more obvious ways to demonstrate a commitment to that aim.

Wellington College wellingtoncollege.org.uk

Further reading: Dulwich College on the value of leading with languages