Walking into Anna Ancher’s ‘Painting Light’ exhibition at Dulwich Picture Gallery, I was struck by how her paintings bathed the rooms with an uplifting glow. At the turn of the year, even in winter’s stillness, that sense of light returning feels like a promise – bringing us hope and clarity.

In the school calendar, the Spring Term is short and intense. It is a season of new knowledge alongside fast consolidation, mock exams, coursework deadlines and the scaffolding that prepares students for their summer assessments and upcoming transitions. Yet, in my experience, spring also brings a certain lucidness: ideas that felt dormant in autumn begin to spark; routines sharpen and confidence grows.

It’s often easy to treat the upcoming term as a race against time, but as I wandered through the gallery rooms, I tried hard to slow down and notice. Ancher’s paintings prompted me to pause, to observe how light falls across a table, the quiet focus of a reader, and beauty in the ordinary.

Reading the OECD’s Education for Human Flourishing framework reinforced this message. It moves beyond a narrow view of education as human capital and instead proposes that schools should nurture broader human capabilities so that young people can lead lives of meaning, ethical competence, and contribution in a rapidly changing world. It identifies five core domains: adaptive problem solving, ethical decision making, understanding the world, appreciating the world, and acting in the world. Each domain is designed to support whole person development in an age of artificial intelligence and global complexity. Of these, I was most drawn to the latter two: appreciating the world and acting in the world.

Appreciating the world is often misunderstood as a nice-to-have. The OECD positions appreciation as both aesthetic perception and the lived experience of beauty in nature and the arts; it is viewed as a necessity for human flourishing. Crucially, it argues for encounters beyond one’s local culture: engaging with beauty across cultures builds better humans and citizens: open-minded and curious. It calls for experiences that are memorable and worthy of revisiting because such encounters deepen perspective and nourish purpose. Walking through Ancher’s exhibition offers a compelling case. Her art invited me to slow down and appreciate the beauty of light in everyday spaces.

Moving into the new term, I hope we can create more opportunities to pause and appreciate our surroundings. This does not require grand gestures. Small and intentional practices can make a difference. We can begin with noticing: encourage students to observe the changing light in their classrooms, the details in a piece of art already displayed on the corridor walls, or even the patterns in nature on their way to school. We can build these moments into our lessons to help students connect learning with meaning.

We can also curate experiences that invite aesthetic appreciation beyond the familiar. This might be a gallery visit*, a cross-curricular project linking art and physical movement, or even simply sharing a painting or piece of music from another culture during tutor time. Appreciating the world should be part of our shared vocabulary as it strengthens the very capabilities that underpin learning: curiosity, openness, and perspective. As we step into a new year and a new term, let us remind ourselves and our students that learning is not just about racing to the finish line; it’s about understanding and valuing the environment we live in.

List of female-led exhibitions across the UK in 2026.

Chiharu Shiota, Southbank Centre, London, 2026 

Japanese installation artist known for immersive thread environments exploring memory, absence, and the body.

A View of One’s Own: Landscapes by British Women Artists (1760–1860), The Courtauld Gallery, London, 2026 

An exhibition bringing together landscape works by overlooked British women artists active between 1760 and 1860, including Harriet Lister, Mary Lowther, Amelia Long, and Elizabeth Tyndall.

Tracey Emin, Tate Modern, London, 2026 

British artist whose work spans neon, painting, sculpture, and autobiographical expression.

Rose Wylie, Royal Academy of Arts, London, 2026 

British painter celebrated for large, playful, boldly simplified images drawn from pop culture and memory.

Frida Kahlo, Tate Modern, London, 2026 

Mexican painter known for self-portraits, surreal symbolism, and explorations of identity and pain.

Beatriz González, Barbican Art Gallery, London, 2026 

Colombian Pop Art pioneer whose brightly coloured works critique politics, violence, and mass media.

Veronica Ryan, Whitechapel Gallery, London, 2026 

British sculptor whose work explores memory, migration, ecology, and materiality.

Zineb Sedira, Tate Britain, London, 2026 

Franco Algerian artist known for film-based installations examining diaspora, cinema history, and political memory.

Ana Mendieta, Tate Modern, London, 2026 

Cuban American artist known for body earth works, performance, and feminist interventions.

Cecily Brown, London (tbc), 2026 

British painter whose gestural canvases blur abstraction and figuration.

Elsa Schiaparelli, Victoria & Albert Museum, London, 2026

Italian fashion designer celebrated for surrealist collaborations and radical, sculptural couture.

Angela de la Cruz, Ikon Gallery, Birmingham, 2026 

Spanish artist known for deconstructed, physically altered paintings that behave like sculptural bodies.

Kristina Lewis, Deputy Head (Academic) at James Allen’s Girls’ School.

Photo credit: Abbot’s Hill School