Heads Blog - Week Ending 13 January 2012
On Monday we held the count for our Parent Governor elections, which was won by Claire Blakey and Tony Wildgoose. I am grateful for the support we receive from Governors and for the time they give us.
As Tony was re-elected, he went straight back into his duties on Tuesday and led a Governors’ meeting where they met with our young people. A wide range of school matters were discussed, and I appreciate the time given by both Governors and the young people. Thank you to Finola Daley Dee, George Davies, Sophie Rymill, Polly Orton, Elise Curtis, Sally Marshall, Lucia Batley, Ashley Haigh, Rebecca Wood, Niamh Kerry, James Hullock, Taylor Robinson, Sophie Martin, Dan Cook, Adam Kerrigan and Laura Midgley.
I enjoyed spending time in our Humanities lessons this week. In Geography, I watched lessons on urbanisation and read some great student work on why Las Vegas is running out of water. I also visited Year 9 classes doing GCSEs in Geography and History; I saw revision lessons on coastal erosion and another on totalitarianism. It was excellent to be told that these young people, although in Year 9 are working to Year 11 GCSE targets grades.
The big event in Year 11 was the arrival of the GCSE module results for Maths. Some really encouraging news as 123 young people have passed their GCSE Maths in January, with the classes exceeding their A and A* targets by over 3%. There is still much to do, but also evidence of much good progress.
Although our ‘core’ business is our lessons, our extra curricular provision is important to us. I enjoyed hearing more of ‘The Wiz’ rehearsals this week and was delighted to see that we have 3 or more House events taking place every week. January also saw the launch of the new PE Extra Curricular programme. Please encourage your daughters and sons to take a full part in this. Full details of the programme are here.
On Tuesday I did an assembly for Year 9 about their Option choices for Years 10 and 11, with a similar presentation to parents on Thursday evening. I was pleased so many parents attended, and grateful to the Learning Team Leaders who also attended to answer parental questions. If you were unable to attend I have placed the presentation here and the booklet here.
The highlight of the evening for me was a presentation by current Year 10s, talking about their choices and how they were going. I often describe being Head of our school as a ‘privilege’ and it is never more so than when I hear our young people speak publically. Congratulations to Sally Marshall, Isobel Reed and Amy Stocks.
One of the key foci of the Options process has to be progression, so it was also good this week to open recruitment to our Football Academies in partnership with The Leeds United Foundation. We are currently recruiting male and female footballers aged 16-17 for our new full time Football Study Programme, comprising of both theoretical and practical lessons including coaching from UEFA coaches, with an opportunity to attain a BTEC Level 3 Qualification in Sport (3 A Levels equivalent) and also to represent The Leeds United Foundation in the colleges league. There are also opportunities to develop coaching and leadership skills via other various qualifications. The programme will also enable students to gain valuable work experience with The Leeds United Foundation structure which will enhance their career prospects. There is an Open Evening in the Eddie Gray Suite at Elland Road on Monday 30th January at 6.30pm. Further details are available from Mr Swales swalesm01@leedslearning.net
On Wednesday I attended the last of my three professional development sessions with Professor John West Burnham. This one looked at the imperative of collaboration in leadership. It was a useful preparation for the Family of Schools meeting the next day. Each of our local primaries is well led, however changes in central government policy and the resultant shrinkage of the role of the city will require us to find a local solution that ensures the standards achieved in our schools continue to meet and exceed expectation.
We were also proud to represent Leeds United (as previous winners of the N Power Football League Cup) in the Regional Finals held in Bradford this week. In our group we played against schools representing Hartlepool FC, Scunthorpe Town FC and Bradford City FC. We finished 2nd in our group and progressed to semi finals to play winners of the other group, Hull City. We lost 3-0. Hull City then went on to win the tournament and will represent the North of England in the next tournament. At least we can say it took the best team to beat us! Well done Holly Smith (the player of the tournament), Megan McNamara, Lauryn Jeffreys, Elisha Bates, Megan Maxted, Ellie Davies, Rachel Ffrench (Captain) and Chloe Pugh.
Congratulations are also due to Molly Garbutt, in Year 8, who has got through the Leeds trials to run in the West Yorkshire Cross Country Championships on Saturday 4th February in Halifax. Cross Country is a sport that requires significant individual discipline and I am delighted with Molly’s success.
It was great to welcome our local Primary Schools into school this week for the Sportshall Athletics Championships. They were organized by Mr Potter and Mr Lynskey, the events build up to local finals on Monday, and then on to the Leeds City Finals, which we are pleased to be hosting.
The Primary Schools involved this week -Barwick, Collingham, Colton, Deighton Gates, East Garforth, Green Lane, Kippax, Manston, Methley, Ninelands, Primrose Lane, St Edwards, Strawberry Fields, Swillington, Temple Newsam Halton and Wigton Moor; the winners of the 4 competitions were - Strawberry Fields, Wigton Moor, St Edwards and Green Lane.
Mr Potter and Mr Lynskey could not have staged such a huge event were it not for the work of our young Sports Leaders, from Years 8 to 13, who gave up their free time after school and did an amazing job, so thanks and congratulations are due to Harriet Lee, Charlotte Appleyard, Gemma Armitage, Megan Hofman, Hameet Mankoo, Amy Martin, Teah Renton, Hannah Theweneti, Jess Ward, Emily Wardman, Brad Bennett, Chris Holmes, Nick Holmes, Jonny Hunter, Rob Thomas, Zoe Cockburn, Laura Dixon and Lucy Ward.
On Friday I visited some English lessons, and came across Miss Stevenson’s Year 7 who were writing poems about poems for an anthology that is to be published. The work of Harvey Ewen caught my eye; for all its other qualities, it is also the first poem I have read containing the word ‘haiku’,
Amazing poems jam packed in one book
Next page is desperate to be read
Tremendous poems so good the book never closes
Happy horrible horrific haiku
Onomatopoeia spread across the page
Love stories are gently read
OMG it’s nearly the end of the book
Ghoul’s ghost goosebumps by the horror poems
Yet another good book!
