Dr Michael Thompson Visits

Merchiston is now Scotland's only all-boys school, and we are commited to ensuring that we cater for boys in the best way possible. As we all know, boys and girls are different, and a key advantage of Merchiston is our ability to gear learning and pastoral care towards the needs of boys.

We were therefore delighted to welcome to Merchiston last week Michael G Thompson PhD, psychologist and author of many books, including:

• Raising Cain: Protecting the Emotional Life of Boys
• Speaking of Boys: Answers to the Most-Asked Questions about Raising Sons
• Best Friends, Worst Enemies: Understanding the Social lives of Children
• It’s a Boy

Dr Thompson is the leading authority on boys’ issues in the United States, and has spoken to and consulted with schools and associations around the world.  His themes include:

• Current brain research and what it tells us about boys’ social-emotional development, learning and needs.
• Global trends in boys’ achievement, success and well-being
• How boys fare in educational settings and how effective practice can help boys learn and grow
• Reflections on the value of boys’ schools based on more than 20 years of clinical practice for boys and consultation with boys’ schools.

A pdf of his notes from the lecture he gave to all staff, and a large number of parents is available to download here.

On a similar note, you may be interested to read our page on the benefits of boys only education, or Dr Mortimer's letter recently published in The Independent.