There comes a time, every now and then, when it dawns on me that we have amongst the students someone who really personifies the ethos of what we are trying to achieve at the College.

Amongst the schools in the Bellevue Education group, there are institutions amongst whom we share a great deal in common: Sherfield and Farlington schools have sixth form students like we do; Webber Independent has GCSE students, just like us; Wandsworth and Norfolk House are based in London, like we are.

On the face of things, Bruern Abbey School may not seem like one which has a close kinship to ours. Set within the sprawling countryside of rural Oxfordshire (we’re in urban west London) in a magnificent building (our 60s office block is a touch less aesthetically pleasing) with arguably the best school dinners available in the nation (our students tend to go out and enjoy the local eateries), you could say that we’re almost at polar opposites in terms of our attributes.

Bruern is a specialist school, which makes an impressive difference for boys with Dyslexia, Dyscalculia and Dyspraxia - so it’s single sex (we’re co-educational) and every single student who attends the school is one with SEND (though we have a great many students with SEND, we’re by no means a specialist school). According to the Independent Schools Guide with the magazine ‘The Week’, it is ‘the school with a distinctive USP’. 

Where Bruern and Ealing meet minds, and do so incredibly closely, is in our educational ethos. To provide an analogy to define where we sit within the educational spectrum, one should listen to John Floyd, the Headmaster at Bruern, who often explains to interested parents that his school, just like a car garage, ‘will take in their son, fix them, and get them good and ready for their next steps in education.’ To quote one of the parents who have been showcased on their website, the school ‘turned his life around, literally.’

This, in many ways, sums up exactly what we do for students who come to our College. 

The students who I interview come with interesting back stories, the majority of which are looking to move beyond the difficulties which they have gone through previously in their respective educational experiences - to fix what is, for whatever reason, broken

Recently, I’ve spoken with students who have felt like they didn’t fit for a plethora of reasons: they’ve been bullied; they’ve felt alone; they’ve felt anxious rather than comfortable; they’ve found it too difficult to focus; they haven’t felt valued.

There is absolutely no way that Ealing Independent College, as an institution, can be a fix-all for these issues, but we can and will always try. I guess, in many ways, this is a little like the car garage I spoke of earlier. Your car might have one of a range of performance issues, some of which a mechanic might be able to sort out, and some they might not have the capacity to remedy. We are similar in our mission - we’ll always try our very very best to remedy the issues, get everything running again, and have the student moving forward better, stronger, purring.

Rarely are these blogs written about particular students. 

I can only recall a handful about those who stand out in my mind. Usually, I’m impressed by consistent hard work, by commitment or dedication which goes above and beyond that which I expect or by a selfless approach to betterment, overcoming the odds through perseverance.

This academic year, I’ve had the pleasure of watching, with a certain sense of quiet astonishment, the complete transformation of one Year 12 student.

This time last year, he was close to being written off by many, including myself. 

After a brief few months of improvement, he reverted back to old ways before he joined the College. He had struggles to focus at the beginning, sought to joke around in lessons, ask irrelevant questions to the detriment of learning and found it difficult to accept responsibility for mistakes he made, often refusing to apologise where he disrespected staff, or cutting corners in his approach to work - which frequently resulted in disappointing results when receiving assessment results. 

I needed a crisis meeting in July last year with his father where a new plan was devised to retake the year, change a subject and try again - with the same high expectations and a final chance to make it all work. Importantly, his father understood his son - understood that he needed to mature - understood what could happen to him if he did not find the motivation required to move forward.

The year started with some promise, but the student had a great deal of convincing of staff to do. And so he worked harder, and focused more, and found a group of friends who were interested in obtaining good grades, and started to succeed, recording improvements in results which built his confidence. He won the award for improvement in Easter after he scored BCC in his mocks, and then said he wouldn’t be happy until he was scoring A grades. Now when he has a spare 30 minutes, he is asking for a past paper question, then judging it against a model answer. Now when he is set a revision task, he makes the most of it, seeking to identify blind spots in his learning and then remedy them through questioning. Now when we speak of his future, we speak of university.

The end of year exams are here, and he’s trying to do all he can to set himself up for good predicted grades for his UCAS application. He’s finally got the bit firmly between his teeth.

It is, without doubt, the biggest turnaround I’ve seen - and it has been life affirming - for me, for the staff who teach him, for his parents, for the student himself.

It all could have ended so differently, but where there remained a spark, we strived to ignite it. 

Somewhere, below the surface, the desire to make the best of himself, and make it all work, was present. He was able to locate it, and, for the moment, does not seem at all keen to lose it again.

While this is there, no matter how dim it may appear, we will never give up on someone.

Sometimes, transformation takes time. Time and ceaseless effort on behalf of those trying to evoke change. Strategies being exhausted, tried again and again until they finally create a breakthrough. All anyone can ask is that we, collectively as a staff at the College, employ that philosophy, not giving up until hope is completely diminished.

I’m glad to report that staff at the College are amongst the most resourceful, resilient, relentless and stubborn of technicians. 

Only when a student abandons themselves will we abandon them - and even then that doesn’t happen without a fight.