Educational Philosophy

Introduction

IKOTA EDUCATIONAL FOUNDATION is a not-for-profit educational trust registered in Nigeria. The Foundation is promoted by a group of parents and educationists who wish to contribute to satisfying a real educational need in the country by providing parents with an avenue for exercising their right to freely choose the kind of education they wish for their children.

WHITESANDS SCHOOL is the first project of the Ikota Educational Foundation. The School seeks to provide quality education that is integral, personalised, and with the close collaboration of the family.

Whitesands School is and will remain a single-sex secondary school. We believe that is the better way of achieving correct academic, physical, and psychological development in secondary school students, that is, acknowledging the differences that exist between men and women.

The School provides quality education with ordinary means: our educational model fosters personal effort and study by each student, helping them to do their work as well as possible as a means of personal improvement, both spiritual and human, and as a means of rendering service to society. The mutual collaboration between the families and the School is an essential aspect of this educational project.

The School will take steps, with the help of the Foundation and parents, to make scholarships available to selected students of modest means.

At the request of the Ikota Educational Foundation, the Prelature of Opus Dei, an institution of the Catholic Church, provides priests to take care of spiritual and doctrinal attention for all the persons related to the School who desire this help. The priests act on their own responsibility when carrying out their work and are answerable to the Management team of the School. Opus Dei does not acquire any legal or moral responsibility in connection with the School.

The parents, the members of staff, and the students, upon joining the School freely accept to uphold, in all its ramifications, the content of the Educational Philosophy as summarized here.

INTEGRAL EDUCATION

We understand education as a system of actions both by the School and the parents, directed towards stimulating and developing the students’ aptitudes and criteria so that each of them will become a person of strong convictions, capable of acting in accordance with them in different circumstances of his life. Part of the educational task is the attainment of a transcendent vision of human existence and the cultivation of human and civic virtues, which are the foundations of human maturity.

Whitesands School tries to promote an all-round formation comprising intellectual, technical, cultural, physical, social, and spiritual aspects. All the activities of the School are aimed at cultivating a sense of responsibility, which makes the right use of personal freedom possible. Teamwork and mutual service assignments facilitate collaboration between teachers and students and among the students themselves. The students are helped to understand the value of well-done work as an ordinary means of attaining personal development. Without imposing criteria on matters of opinion, the students are taught to act freely and responsibly, with a spirit of service to others, as well as to cooperate in the achievement of the common good, social progress, and international understanding.

The students are taught to live in solidarity with society, to be open to changes in social, economic, and political life, as well as to be in touch with modern means of information, communication, and advances in science and technology. In a special way, the School provides means for developing the students’ motor skills through sports and manual work, as well as their aesthetic sense through creative arts and music.

In line with the wishes of the founders concerning the kind of education they want for their children, all the activities of the School are carried out in accordance with Catholic principles and ideals. This is done within the framework of a delicate respect for all religious beliefs since the School is open to students of all backgrounds without religious, cultural, or ethnic discrimination.

Respect for the legitimate opinions of all who form part of the School and the harmonious climate that is proper to it demands that expressions, ideas, and opinions of parties or political groups be excluded. Each one exercises his rights and civic duties in these matters outside the School environment.

PERSONALISED ATTENTION

The School will try to always keep a good student-teacher ratio inside the classrooms to be able to give a personalised education.

In the Whitesands School each student is personally looked after by an Advisor who takes care of the student’s personal formation and professional orientation. This work is done in close collaboration with the student’s parents.

Because of the Advisor’s contact with other School staff, the parents and the other students, he is in the best position to unify and interpret diverse data and carry out an effective orientation of the student. Without supplanting the student’s own decisions, the Advisor helps him to make good use of his freedom, reflect on his situation, reach his own conclusions, and be responsible for his actions.

The norms of educational discipline aim at cultivating the personal responsibility of all involved, in an atmosphere of mutual trust. Corporal punishment is excluded. Disciplinary action will always aim at helping the student find the effective means of rectifying, since only positive stimuli capable of moving the student to improve their conduct are considered appropriate.

It is a responsibility of School administrators and teachers to take effective disciplinary action to preserve at all times an environment conducive to education, for the benefit of all students.

PARENTAL INVOLVEMENT

The readiness of parents to be actively involved in the education of their children and to cooperate closely with the School is one of the criteria for the admission of students.

The educational activity in Whitesands School is conceived as being carried out by delegation of the parents and in cooperation with them, never substituting them in their educational role. The main task of educating the children belongs to the parents who are the first educators. The School collaborates with all its activities in this basic parental responsibility.

Whitesands School encourages the parents of its students to have a close and permanent relationship with the School, especially through their son’s Advisor who offers them the necessary orientation to ensure the effective coordination between the educational action of the family and that of the School.

The School offers various formative activities to the parents: technical seminars on child psychology, courses on family orientation, and other activities of personal formation. The School also fosters the participation of parents in the activities of the Association of Parents.

The Association of Parents provides a very effective forum for parents to bring forward a family point of view to the improvement of school activities, especially those that have immediate influence on family life. The Association also fosters collaboration, unity and harmony among the families and between the families and the School.

SCHOOL PERSONNEL

In the School, each teacher is an educator; he has to harmonise his tasks of instruction and orientation. His principal task is to stimulate the personal work and formation of the students. This principle is of particular importance when a teacher is appointed as Advisor.

Teachers are to be models for the students in their personal behaviour and work. A teacher whose life is not in agreement with the basic values and ideas of this Educational Philosophy should not remain in the School.

Teamwork, exchange of experiences, and active participation in research on educational issues are dominant features of the work atmosphere in the School. The Management team will use adequate means to ensure the continuing education of teachers, either through School-organized seminars, or through management-approved refresher programs outside.

Ikota Educational Foundation seeks to raise the dignity of the education profession. To this end, the Foundation puts in all the means to provide teachers with just and dignified working conditions and remuneration so that they may achieve personal and professional fulfilment.

The work of the non-academic staff is a very important component in the smooth running of the School. They contribute with their work to carry out the aims of the Ikota Educational Foundation. They receive the same treatment as the academic staff. They are always to be respected by the management, the teachers and the students.

THE STUDENTS

Forming the students in the use of freedom demands personalized attention and orientation. This encourages in the students the development of personal convictions and personal maturity as well as the capacity to be steadfast in their commitments, making them ready to face the demands of life in society.

In addition to their own personal effort, the students are encouraged to work as a team and to learn how to live with other individuals in a cordial atmosphere. The students are encouraged to live family values and to correspond with deeds, sincerity, and generosity to the confidence and efforts of their parents.

The students are taught to make good use of free time and recreation and helped to discover their importance in the development of one’s personality. Practical details of order, punctuality, tidiness, care for material things, and human refinement are fostered in order to enrich the student’s personality.

In agreement with their parents and according to their level of maturity, the students’ freedom is fostered as regards their desire to continue in or to abandon the School, in such a way that each one remains in the School because of convictions freely held.

The Alumni Association is an integral part of the School. This Association, following the aims and style described already, may organise activities in agreement with the Management team in order to foster relations among alumni as well as their bond with the School.