Why Haileybury students learn far beyond the curriculum
At Haileybury we teach more than the educational curriculum. Learn how we teach soft skills like critical thinking and leadership, and why they are so important for students.
Students will spend up to 1,400 hours at school every year — that’s over 200 days! They need to learn more than the curriculum during this time, they must also learn how to navigate the world and thrive later in life.
That is why Haileybury focuses on much more than academic success. Our school environment and teaching model is designed to foster critical thinking, leadership, problem solving and the other soft skills that are vital to your child’s bright future.
The importance of soft skills in education
To be successful now and in the future, every student needs to know how to collaborate, communicate and solve problems. They must develop empathy, self-awareness and emotional intelligence. These are soft skills.
Soft skills are important for a student’s future personal relationships, hobbies and interests, but also for their career. In fact, 80% of employers surveyed by the Association for Talent Development reported that they are struggling to find employees with key soft skills like problem solving, critical thinking and leadership.
How the Haileybury community helps to develop soft skills
At their core, soft skills are about navigating the world and developing positive personal relationships. The best way to develop these skills at a young age is to be a part of a supportive community environment, where students can build confidence and connections.
That is exactly what we have built over the last 130+ years at Haileybury.
We have created a supportive environment at Haileybury by putting student wellbeing first, hiring the best teachers in Australia and ensuring there is always a wide range of co-curricular events and extracurricular activities for students to take part in. Our student’s families are also invited to take part in school life, including music, sport and social clubs.
This community gives students a chance to interact with teachers, parents and their peers in a variety of settings every day — whether that’s on the sports field, in the classroom or on the stage. They will solve problems together, think critically, relate to other students and enjoy the varied social contact needed to prepare them for the world.
Most importantly, they will also get the chance to try their hand at leadership — one of the most important soft skills any student can learn.
Providing the ideal conditions for young leaders to grow
To be a good leader you need to be emotionally intelligent, as well as able to solve problems and inspire others. But most importantly, you need to have the confidence to lead others.
Haileybury’s close knit, supportive community helps build each student’s confidence, then they encounter leadership opportunities every day. Some are small roles — taking an active role in a group project, or supporting another student’s learning. Others are larger roles, like inspiring other students as school captain, making positive change as social justice captain, or leading a sports team or stage production.
These opportunities and the Haileybury environment inspire students to lead, giving them a chance to practise all the other soft skills they learnt along the way, and preparing them for leadership in their careers, social and personal lives in the future.
