NEWS

APPOINTMENT OF FOUNDING HEAD OF SENIOR SCHOOL

In line with our commitment to open the Senior School division in 2020, the School Board began sourcing a Head of Senior School in 2018 with a view to securing an appointment in 2019, allowing the candidate to commence with Bromsgrove School Mission Hills well in advance of the Senior School opening.

The Board remains on track with this timeline and, as such, is delighted to announce that we have appointed Dr. Charles Wall (NPQH, PGCE, PhD, BSc) to join our growing school team as Founding Head of Senior School, Bromsgrove School Mission Hills. He will be on board from this August 2019 to work with Ms. Anna Packman (our Head of Pre-Prep and Prep School), our Partner School and ourselves in the comprehensive planning and development of our Senior School division.

Finding the right Head of Senior School was a long and carefully managed process. From a longlist of 50 possible candidates, to a shortlist of 10 candidates, it was the Board’s unanimous decision that Dr. Wall emerged as our top candidate. Not only does Dr. Wall have all the academic know how and leadership experiences to lead top performing senior schools, most importantly he has the heart and fire to embark on the challenge and opportunity of fulfilling a Founding Headship in order to uniquely shape, create value and cultivate an ever lasting legacy for our school and our students. Through his past accomplishments, he has demonstrated formidable and unrelenting focus holding, enabling and ensuring teaching staff and students (whether in UK, Singapore, Cairo, Bahrain or Pakistan) are accountable in attaining highest student outcomes, in academic achievement, in holistic development and in university placement. The Board is confident he is the right leader to realise our school’s vision and our children’s aspirations. His details and educational philosophy are below.

ABOUT DR. CHARLES WALL

Raised on a farm in the North West of England, Dr. Charles Wall enjoyed a holistic education and emerged from school with a love of all sport and the performing arts as well as excellent academic edge. With a First Class Honours Degree in Physics from Imperial College London, he progressed to Edinburgh University and attained a PhD in Theoretical Physics, during which time he wrestled with quantum electrodynamics and programmed supercomputers to simulate the physics of phase transitions.

After four years as a research scientist, Dr. Wall ventured to Zimbabwe where he worked for three years as a Voluntary Service Overseas teacher working with the local community to add laboratories to Zhombe High School and introduce A’ levels in Mathematics, Physics, Chemistry and Biology. Here he was smitten with the teaching bug and returned to Oxford University to obtain a Postgraduate Certificate in Education and has enjoyed looking for and developing the gold in students, teachers and parents ever since.

During a teaching career spanning 32 years to date, Dr. Wall has enjoyed adding value in all the schools he has taught whether they be inner city state schools such as Cheney School in Oxford, leafy comprehensive schools such as Queen Elizabeth School in Dorset or outstanding world class international schools such as Tanglin Trust School in Singapore.

With a National Professional Qualification for Headteachers (NPQH) and successful headship experience at The British International School Cairo, The British School of Bahrain and, most recently, Karachi Grammar School, Dr. Wall has extensive knowledge of the UK National Curriculum, (I)GCSEs, O levels, A levels, the International Baccalaureate, SAT, Oxbridge and Ivy League University preparation and of growing schools in terms of the quality of teaching and learning, curriculum, enrichment and outcomes for students.

Together with his wife, Carole, and youngest son, Benjamin, Dr. Wall is relishing the opportunity to work with Bromsgrove School Missions Hills and all stakeholders to found and grow a truly world class boarding and senior school provision at Bromsgrove School Mission Hills, building on the excellence established in the bilingual Pre-Prep and Prep Schools.

DR. WALL’S EDUCATIONAL PHILOSOPHY

I believe passionately in the power of education to transform and that we have a duty to nurture those we teach and lead so that they care about themselves, others and the environment and are able and committed to being forces for good throughout their lives and careers whether these be in China or overseas. I believe this philosophy applies to students, teachers and parents and that our school should be a place where constructive energy, personal growth, international mindedness and respect for Chinese and other cultures and taking care of the World are evidently nourished.

Furthermore, I believe every pupil has the capacity to be a High Performance Learner and achieve their highest aspirations provided we imbue our curriculum, schemes of work and teaching with the opportunities to develop powerful cognitive abilities and learner dispositions. Inquiry, experiential learning and mastery should feature strongly in our school so that awareness and curiosity are fostered leading to a lifelong love of learning and the enjoyment of being able to use and apply talents we have developed.

I also believe in educating the whole child, inculcating environmental awareness, responsibility and leadership and in enriching and extending both in the curriculum and in the extra-curriculum. Whilst the provision for Gifted and Talented, Oxbridge and Ivy League University preparation are particular passions of mine, I do love to grow all aspects of our calendar, curriculum and co-curricular programme to ensure we inspire and extend all students with leadership and service opportunities aplenty, whether it be in the performing arts, art and design, languages, literature, history, geography, science, computer science, technology, engineering, mathematics, sport, outward bound activity, Duke of Edinburgh Award Scheme, Model United Nations, parliamentary debating, community service, environmental work or entrepreneurship.

I believe learners should have a life plan and that teachers and parents working together as life coaches can help ensure all students develop very joyful and healthy work hard - play hard habits as the means of developing their grit, and other desirable learner traits and realizing their dreams through commitment to their life plan. The boarding provision and beautiful location of Bromsgrove School Mission Hills and our aim of weaving outdoor education, sports, performing arts and art into our bi-lingual and academically rigorous curriculum will afford real depth and breadth to the ways in which we can nurture great character and enable students to secure the best of educational outcomes, places at their universities of choice and the determination to pursue their chosen path with passion.