For our latest View from the Top, Luke Walters, head of Leighton Park School, gets on his soapbox to discuss the importance of preparing pupils for a rapidly changing world. Read on for his take on how schools can put future readiness at the forefront, equipping leavers with the soft skills needed to tackle real-world challenges head-on.
For all of us, the world is changing before our very eyes in a way that humanity has not seen previously: AI, the climate emergency, rapidly shifting geopolitical tectonic plates, whole industries disappearing while new opportunities emerge. It is Moore’s Law applied and writ exponentially large. For all of us, any firm foundations are shifting as we move towards a new and frankly dizzying reality.
When considered like this, it only serves to ask us how we can ensure that schools are preparing our young people to embrace the challenges that are emerging? The rate of change is only going to increase for our young people, and technology that is cutting-edge now will become obsolete at an accelerating pace. How, amidst all this, can our students gain a secure sense of identify and purpose before stepping forward to tackle the challenges of the future?
This year Leighton Park won the ISA Award for Future Readiness, so these questions – and more – are something about which we have been thinking on deeply. This is an approach that runs through everything we do at the school.
Too often, the idea of a young person’s future is governed by examination results, rather than the genuine skills required to excel. It is the soft skills (really the hard ones, if we are being honest) in which the real base is made for future readiness. These lie in human interaction, creativity, decision-making, critical thinking, adaptability and genuine compassion. The ability to see the world through someone else’s eyes is going to be vital for a world in which technology automates routine tasks. Essential human skills will increase in value.
So what does this look like in practice? From the earliest years, learning is structured to help students understand how they learn, work collaboratively and apply knowledge in meaningful contexts. Alongside academic study, students develop metacognition, digital and AI awareness, communication skills and the confidence to question and reflect. As they progress, interdisciplinary and project-based learning encourages them to tackle real-world challenges, combining creative, analytical and design thinking (‘Only connect’ as E. M. Forster would say). Personal development and service remain central throughout, helping students build a strong sense of self, an ethical awareness and responsibility to others. In this way, every student leaves Leighton Park not only inspired and equipped but prepared to shape a better world.
As a values-led Quaker school, our heritage inspires us. Quakers have always been ahead of their time and more than future ready. They founded companies like Cadbury and Rowntree, championing social justice through Amnesty International and Oxfam, and even winning the Nobel Peace Prize in 1947. That forward-thinking spirit and commitment to a better world drives our vision today: to empower students with self-awareness, community engagement and the skills to make a meaningful and socially conscious difference.
And so, to return to the dizzying realities that will greet our students when they leave the school: are they prepared for the world as it might be? We believe that they depart with a greater array of skills, both personal and professional and a flexibility of thought that will empower them to become the confident and socially conscious changemakers of the future.
The ground may shift beneath them, but they will be balanced, thoughtful and adaptable – and equipped for the challenges that await them.