The Confidence Game

More than anything, private, independent schools are all about confidence; that is, the successful ones inspire parent's confidence that their children will do well in their next school and in life. Schools that fail the confidence test generally founder.The opposite of confidence is doubt, something that all too easily creeps into schools, fueled by small missteps in execution that suggest to parents that their confidence is unwarranted. Confidence is hard to build; doubt is easy to foment and quickly becomes contagious among families. Job One for heads of school is to be worthy of confidence, however fickle it may be.