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At the end of the Summer Term and at half-term this Advent Term, we marked two important points in the evolution of the Lancing Diploma. This summer, our leaving Upper Sixth Formers were awarded the first Lancing Sixth Form diploma awards. Furthermore, at half-term of this term, the second year of Junior Diplomas for Third Formers were awarded.
The Lancing Diploma is a way in which we try, quietly, to express the spirit of Lancing, the over-arching attributes that unite all of the many, many things that happen across the College. We are trying to create a shared language and framework by which the different and coherent pieces of Lancing’s famed holistic education fit together.
We use the groundbreaking work of Professor Guy Claxton to articulate the five attributes that unite the vast panoply of offerings that make up the Lancing educational experience, using five words beginning with an ‘R’ – the Five Rs. They have become well-known to our students during classes, activities, tutorial and self-assessments. Those values are:
- Resilience
- Reflection
- Resourcefulness
- Reciprocity
- Responsibility
Over many years, we’ve asked our expert staff to explore and refine their curriculums and co-curricular activities so that throughout the powerful and unique domains of knowledge and activities that they organise, these values become apparent. If the different subjects and activities are the building blocks of a Lancing education, the diploma values are the mortar that binds them.
These values emerge subtly across the curriculum, the co-curriculum and in House. You won’t find any lesson or activity specifically focused on them. What drives us always is the ‘magic’ of the particular activity. But the diploma language expresses the uniting themes that allow coherence between the different experiences any student here goes through.
The endpoint of the diploma is to score how well pupils have engaged with different aspects of school life across four major areas:
- scholarship;
- physical endeavour;
- community and leadership activity;
- and creative, cultural, and spiritual life.
Engagement for each of these different areas are marked on a three-point scale from a basic engagement for one point to an outstanding engagement for three points. The ‘Five Rs’ are present throughout all of these different realms of activity as they are throughout all of Lancing Life. Students are awarded diplomas on four major bands: one can pass the diploma or score Gold, Silver or Bronze diplomas depending on the level of commitment to life here.