This Week
Week beginning Monday 17th June 2013
In teaching we often talk about the acres of time we will gain when Year 11 and Year 13 leave for study and examinations. It is like a beacon of light that we hang onto for preparing new programmes of study, meeting with new teams and archiving the year’s records and resources. We also have this year, what staff are calling, “The Big Migration,” where departments are moving to be in Directorates, based around a Director of Learning, who will be a Vice Principal. With all of this going on, it is with amazement and respect that the Principal noted this morning in our staff briefing the following amazing activities that took place last week. Well done to all those who made them so successful:
- The Sixth Form Art Display, which contained work I thought superior to much of what I encountered in the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition last week-end!
- The Year 10 “Bookalog” was released; this is a publication full of reviews and reading inspiration, created largely by Year 10 literacy leaders working with Mrs Page
- The ICT/Maths Able, Gifted and Talented day where students worked on creating games applications
- The Spanish Dali Trip
- The Hunstanton Geography Field Trips
- The Extra-Curricular Activities Evening for Year 6 parents and students; this was well attended and buzzing as always. Carole Olsen will be sorely missed when she completes her work in this area at the end of term. However, we are pleased to keep her at Hinchingbrooke, where she will begin training as a Science teacher.
It is always difficult to trace the impact of such activities on achievement, but form tutors tend to note a rise in “buy in” of students who take part in trips and activities; with this positive contribution to the school and their social life, such students then appear to attend more regularly and achieve higher grades in examinations. Recently, through sporting leadership and student voice representation, I watched the confidence of a group of students from Year 10 discussing the way in which they hoped to lead the main body of the school when they step up to be in Year 11 next September. It is one of the joys of teaching to watch such positive development.
Di Beddow
Vice Principal Development