School Values
As a school community we believe that the ethos of the school should be built on a foundation of values. We want to digest the values everyday so that we can internalize these values through our ‘Learning by Doing, Doing until we Become’ philosophy. Our values apply to both our staff and students.
The values we focus on are:
- Respect
- Integrity
- Care
- Empowerment
- Responsibility
- Innovation
- Community
- Excellence
These are at times addressed directly through lessons and assemblies but also permeate the whole curriculum. Either way, they are the basis for the social, intellectual, emotional, spiritual and moral development of the whole child. We encourage children to consider these values, and thereby to develop the knowledge, skills and attitudes that enable them to develop as reflective learners and grow to be stable, educated and civil adults.
Respect
We value every team member as unique individual with potential to grow and contribute to the community. Our belief that every member should be valued also means that we should strive to respect different opinions or perspectives and uphold the basic rights of each individual. Mutual respect is the basis of every relationship between two persons.
Integrity
Seeking the truth should be the habit of an excellent learning organization. In that spirit, we will seek to learn the truth about ourselves – no matter how brutal it may be so that we may grow – through Knowledge Management. We believe that only if we confront the true picture of ourselves – through real data and open conversations with stakeholders – will we continue to learn and improve. As purveyors of knowledge and values, especially of honesty, we must strive to uphold the truth in our words and deeds. Having integrity also means that we must stand together in any crisis with an aim of resolving it amicably and with minimal, unnecessary or negative impact.
Care
As the second home for young children aged 3-6, we must provide a caring, comfortable and safe environment for our young to learn, play and grow. Safety must always be the hallmark of our care culture. We believe that we need to build a culture of care by first showing show we care for our staff. When care for our team like family, they will have the emotional energy to look after the needs of our little ones as if they are looking after their own children. In the same spirit of Care, we should also uphold the standards of responsiveness to the people we serve.
Excellence
Based on the Core Theory of Success, the quality of results or outcomes of any organizational effort is positively affected by the quality of actions which is in turn affected by quality of collective thinking. As an organization, we develop quality culture and collective thinking through quality of conversations which is influenced by the quality of relationships. The positive reinforcement loop is established when the quality of results strengthens the relationships between members or teams in an organization. This is the positive energy of excellence we want to harness even as we embrace Learning Organization theories for school improvement. Excellence is a journey, not a destination. As part of our effort to foster a ‘Great Place to Learn and Work’, we celebrate team success even as we seek to recognize every individual effort and reward some key outcomes together.
Responsibility
Every part of the body must play its part well so that the whole body can grow and remain healthy. We believe that when every one plays his/her part diligently and well, our organizational effectiveness and efficiency will improve and our students will benefit by learning more and better.
Innovation
‘IN’ are the two characters in our school name. Innovation is hence central to the culture of Rainbow. Innovation, Creativity and Enterprise are the core attributes of individuals who will taste success in the globalized knowledge economy. Like Thomas Edison, we will have to learn by trying out new things. We cannot expect new results by doing the same things.
Community
No man is an island. Our Student Leadership framework begins with Personal Mastery and Peer Leadership in the classroom. At the higher levels, we develop Community Leadership and eventually Global Leadership. For community leadership, we aim to nurture students who can empathize with people from different segments of society and will take initiative or steps to help make the world a better place. As we model positive habits of civic-mindedness and relationship building, we should also gain awareness of our cultural, historical and geographical heritage. All these are key skills that we believe will be central to the 21st Century Competencies.
Empowerment
Following our motto of ‘Empowerment through Education’, we have chosen this value to underscore our belief that our efforts to educate every individual – child or adult – will help each individual feel that they have more choices as well as the ability to seize these opportunities. As the old adage says, ‘Give a man a fish and he eats for a day; teach the man to fish and he eats a lifetime.’ We will continue to improve and leverage on our systems and structures to uplift members of Team RAINBOW to be exemplary educators and service leaders. The adoption of Distributed Leadership model for decision-making is a practice to facilitate Autonomy, one of key features of a culture of empowerment.