Round Square (now 50 years old) is an international group of about 170 schools from over 40 countries across the world that share a commitment to six principles or IDEALS that help to shape the education of their students. Latymer Upper School became a full Global Member of Round Square in August 2016.
Round Square is inspired by the ideas of the educationalist Kurt Hahn. His thinking also inspired the Duke of Edinburgh Awards scheme. The six IDEALS are: Internationalism, Democracy, Environment, Adventure, Leadership and Service.
Latymer aims to build links with fellow Round Square schools across the world and to provide our pupils with opportunities to attend international conferences, take part in international service opportunities and in exchanges. We have been collaborating with several other schools in Canada, Denmark, Australia, the US and Colombia on a host of projects, from joint drama and music shows,
to team-teaching an Elective course during which pupils share their findings on a digital platform and later meet in another country to study their findings in-situ.
Additionally, our Lower Sixth students have had the opportunity to attend a symposium at Harvard University, and in 2019, a handful of pupils will be involved in a six-way school collaboration, spanning across all five continents, in which they will be researching rites of passage. Student exchanges will soon be up and running.
The IDEALS, suitably Latymerised, permeate and inform much of what we do in the School. Latymer Ideals build on and reflect the Round Square IDEALS.
The Latymer Ideals
Internationalism and Global Education:We aim to help our pupils discover and embrace the similarities and differences between cultures, ethnicities and nationalities in ways that promote meaningful and lasting understanding, tolerance and respect
Democracy and Pupil Voice: We aim to help our pupils become responsible and active citizens, committed to democracy and with a developed sense of equality, fairness and justice and a desire to do what is right (for the greater good)
Environmentalism and Sustainability:We aim to help our pupils develop understanding of the forces that shape our surroundings and the impact we have on those surroundings. We aim to develop understanding of issues of sustainability and to reflect that concern in the way the School and pupils act
Adventure and Challenge:We aim to encourage our pupils to push themselves beyond their perceived limits, challenge themselves, take responsible risks and to discover they are capable of more than they thought, both inside and outside the classroom
Leadership and Responsibility:We aim to help pupils understand they are all leaders and influencers and that true leadership arises from a responsibility for and desire to serve others
Service:We aim to encourage in our pupils a sense of responsibility towards others and to encourage active engagement in helping and bringing benefit to others in school, locally and more widely