(Image: A surfer at Sunset Beach, Hawaii – not quite making it over. The waves would break just as well, even if she wasn’t there. Life can be like this. Schools shouldn’t.)
Success can be determined in many ways, but for a school it needs to be by how valued a child feels, an individual’s sense of worth. An academic program needs to be designed to foster a learner’s voice in the process of learning, to not only be a valuable contributor to the process, but also to feel like a valuable contributor – to feel like the classroom would be a lesser place in your absence. This is what success should look like in a school.