School Built on Ethos: Ideas, assemblies and hard-won wisdom

A case study of the power of ethos, how ideas can catch on and be developed in a school, and how this can drive pupils towards academic success.

Harris Westminster Sixth Form has had enormous success in providing an academic education for students of all socio-economic backgrounds. This success is grounded in the development of a scholarly ethos that guides students and staff into successful habits - and that has been driven and disseminated through the delivery of weekly, whole-school assemblies.

In A School Built on Ethos, founding principal James Handscombe takes readers through the school's development and illustrates its journey by sharing a selection of the assemblies that have underpinned and elucidated its ethos. In doing so he offers guidance on how a staple of school life - the assembly - can be used differently and powerfully to shape a community, and shares transferable lessons on how they can be planned and delivered effectively.

James also discusses the challenges the school faced during its creation and offers an improved understanding of how academic and scholarly learning can be delivered and developed in a school - whether it be newly formed or already established.