How Sedbergh prepares pupils for a changing world

The world pupils will enter after school is changing quickly. Academic knowledge remains important, but young people will also need curiosity, judgement, creativity, confidence and the ability to work well with others.

They will need to understand how to use artificial intelligence without allowing it to replace their own thinking. They will need the character to make responsible decisions and the adaptability to continue learning long after formal examinations are over.

Robin Pyper, Headmaster of Sedbergh School, explains why education must reach beyond the classroom—and how teaching, full boarding, sport, music, drama, leadership and everyday relationships all help to prepare pupils for the lives they will lead.

What does academic ambition look like for a pupil who may not arrive at Sedbergh as a top-grade student, but leaves with confidence, direction and strong results?

We have 530 pupils here at Sedbergh, and they are all individuals. They are all uniquely brilliant, and through their time with us—and after they leave—they will go on different journeys at different paces.

Of course, we want to help pupils achieve the best possible grades they can. But ultimately, what we are looking to do is nurture qualities and character traits that will stand them in good stead, no matter what situation they find themselves in. That might be in the world of work or academia, but it might also be in social situations.

The bedrock of that is our core values of humility, ambition, resilience and kindness. There are also other qualities that pupils develop through the experiences they have here, not just within the classroom.

I think we can sometimes talk about teaching and learning too narrowly, as though it only refers to what goes on in lessons.

Teaching and learning are far broader than that.

They happen in our boarding Houses, on the sports pitch, in the music recital hall, on the stage during a drama performance and through social interactions.

We have that bedrock of qualities that is really important to us, and then we look to develop skills that make pupils employable, so that they can provide value and add value to the world in which they live.

For us, it is not simply about the grades that come out on results day. A pupil achieving straight As is fantastic, and we will obviously celebrate that.

What really matters is what they can then go on to do with everything they have learned here.

How will Sedbergh teach pupils to use AI effectively and responsibly?

I think there are various approaches we can take, and the world of AI is developing very quickly.

We have a new digital strategy, which we have worked hard on, and our Senior Deputy Head Academic will lead its implementation and the wider digitalisation of learning across the classrooms.

AI literacy is a key part of that. We need to make sure that pupils are using AI responsibly, that they are learning from it and that they are not using it to shortcut or short-circuit the system.

The aim is for pupils to continue developing as individuals while also learning how to harness the power of AI.

There is no longer any point in imagining that young people will not use AI at school or in the workplace. We know that is not going to be the case.

People say that we are not going to lose our jobs to AI; we are going to lose our jobs to people who can use AI better.

The World Economic Forum also talks about creativity, collaboration and curiosity as three of the core qualities and skills people need to harness the power of AI.

We are uniquely set up to develop those qualities as a school because our pupils are here all the time and because we approach education in a very broad sense. We are looking to develop those qualities at every moment.

Universities often provide extensive guidance about how students must not use AI, but much less guidance about how they can use it. How should schools approach that balance?

We need to almost flip the conversation. We are going to teach pupils how to use AI responsibly.

People talk about AI detection being dead because the technology is becoming cleverer and cleverer. We may reach the point where it is no longer possible to detect reliably when AI has been used. Authentication therefore becomes a key part of the process.

Particularly with coursework, teachers need to be able to say that they are confident the work belongs to that pupil.

That will mean more frequent touchpoints throughout the process of producing a piece of coursework, so teachers can see how the drafts evolve.

Equally, there is a moral lesson to be taught, and I think that is perhaps the most powerful part of it.

If pupils submit a piece of work generated by AI, ultimately they are cheating themselves.

They are also cheating their friends. What happens when they enter the world of work and claim that they have learned how to do something, or present a brilliant piece of work, when in fact it is not their own?

How do you help pupils develop intellectual confidence and the ability to question, discuss and think critically?

The way our classrooms are set up reflects that. When you visit, you will notice that they are designed to be collaborative spaces.

Gone are the days when desks simply faced the front, with a teacher dictating notes or writing on the board while pupils copied them down. That does not help because, again, it is not true to life. It is not what pupils will need when they go out into the world of work.

Instead, learning is much more collaborative and discussion-based, and that naturally breeds curiosity.

We also teach study skills to encourage our young people to scrutinise information, think critically and evaluate situations.

Beyond the classroom, we have a whole range of academic societies and clubs. We have a debating club, which is great fun and also helps pupils develop socially. We have dinner debates, as well as other teaching and learning societies and clubs that help to broaden pupils’ minds.

All of that happens within School, but we also have a Pathways programme that prepares pupils for what comes next.

We do not wait until a pupil’s final year before asking them to think about life after School.

That process begins in Year 9, when pupils join us, and we encourage them to look upwards and outwards. Visits to universities and talks from visiting lecturers are a really good way of growing intellectual curiosity.

That, in turn, feeds into a culture of academic ambition and of pupils striving to be as good as they possibly can be.

How do subject passion and strong teaching sit alongside exam results in your view of academic success?

I think the teacher’s role—or perhaps, to use a slightly different term, the educator’s role—is to spark that passion.

We do not operate through didactic teaching. It is no longer a monologue from the teacher to the pupils. It is much more about trying to spark their interest and develop those really important qualities of curiosity, critical thinking and creativity.

To do that, our teachers and educators need to be well prepared to respond to the discussion and activity taking place in the classroom.

We talk about formal and informal learning. Formal learning is where we have set objectives that we are looking to achieve by the end of a lesson, and we are helping pupils to reach them.

Informal learning is harder, but in many ways more important, because it is about responding to the situation in front of you.

That does not have to happen in the classroom. It might take place while walking around School, during a one-to-one tutorial or in the boarding House. It means responding to how a pupil is feeling or behaving, and then drawing out what we want to help them learn.

That all begins with subject passion.

Our teachers are passionate about the subjects they teach, but they are also passionate about young people, and that is fundamental.

I have worked with colleagues before who were subject experts but did not really connect with the children or pupils. For me, that is a great shame, because the joy of working in a school is that we are working with the future.

Our pupils are the future, and we need to be mindful of that. When we are older, they will be looking after us and leading the way.

Sedbergh pupils often balance academic work with a very full boarding, sporting and creative life. How does that balance shape the kind of young people they become?

It is about nurturing character that counts—the character they are then going to apply to their lives.

If we tried to develop character only in the classroom, through classroom experiences, we would not be doing our job, because that is limited to a particular environment.

What we want is a broad spectrum of experiences for young people, so they can develop the qualities, skills and experience that will ultimately stand them in good stead across all walks of life.

In the boarding House, there are great opportunities for leadership development. Senior pupils take responsibility for younger pupils, making sure they feel welcome and are looked after. They might also show prospective families around, for example.

On the sports field, there are all the qualities developed through good team and individual sport: resilience, loyalty and communication. The same can be said of drama, music and the many other activities pupils take part in.

Because we are a full boarding school, there are also so many opportunities for social interaction, and that is a key part of it.

Character is developed through repeated experience, responsibility and relationships.

I am always blown away when I come across Sedbergh pupils outside a formal setting—not as they come out of assembly or when I see them outside my office, but simply around the town. They are so well-rounded and so polite.

Some of my proudest moments this term have come when members of the public have contacted me to say how impressed they have been by pupils acting unconditionally. There is nothing in it for them, but they are there to help and support other people.

We have quite a few tourists who come to Sedbergh, and sometimes they get lost. I have received several emails from people saying, “Your pupils were amazing. They took my bags, helped me find where I needed to go and really looked after me.”

I think that is such a special trait. It is not something we have to tell them to do, because it is already within the culture—and the culture breeds more of the same.

How important is it that a school’s values are not only stated, but lived?

I have a strong belief—and I think Sedbergh embodies it—that values must be lived, not laminated.

A school can speak about its values and display them prominently in public-facing spaces, but the important question is whether those values are genuinely reflected in everyday behaviour.

At Sedbergh, our values are embedded within the culture. Our pupils and staff live them and model them to one another every day, and that builds strength across the community.

It is then a joy for me, at various moments in assembly, to highlight examples of pupils doing exactly what we hope they will do: living those values.

Do you have a favourite value?

Of the four, I think it would be humility.

I think people often gravitate towards kindness because it is perhaps seen as the obvious choice. But the value I feel most strongly here is humility: the groundedness, the straightforwardness and the humble way in which our pupils conduct themselves.

What comes from that is an empathetic and kind approach to others. There are no airs and graces, and no pomposity in the way pupils behave. They are simply themselves.

As a result, they feel comfortable helping others.