Heads Blog - Week Ending 18th November 2011

After the many joys of Take Over Day, and our exceptional Armistice Day Remembrance, it was good to have my blog back!

MONDAY

I was not in school, but spent a ‘Professional Development’ day with Professor John West Burnham. It was a part of three days I will spend with him over the next months exploring the theme of ‘New Leadership Demands’. It was a really useful opportunity to stop and look in detail at the issues raised by the fast changing Government policy, to weigh the implications for Boston Spa School and then to consider the type of leadership our school and community will best serve us looking forward.

It is a rare opportunity to reflect professionally and to be challenged in my thinking by such an eminent academic, and next week with our Senior Leadership Team, we will ask ourselves some tough questions.

TUESDAY

I started the day at a monthly meeting with our local North East Leeds Secondary Headteachers.  These are key meetings focussed on the needs of the most vulnerable in our communities.

After a day and a half out of school the paperwork and emails had built up, so regretfully too much of the remaining time on Tuesday was spent shut up in offices; disappointing because that is not how I think this job should be done.

WEDNESDAY

Great news in Music! Congratulations to Mrs Williams, who has secured £1,600 of new money to introduce young people to Music Instrument lessons.

This is targeted money to be spent on children who, because of their personal circumstances, have never had the opportunity to experience instrument tuition. I am really grateful to Mrs Williams for securing this money for our young people.  It is so important that access to these opportunities are for all and I am delighted that we can widen participation in Music in this way. It is a lot of money and will enhance the learning of many children.

I visited our instrument tuition lessons on Friday, where Euan Dunlop was being taught drumming by using a Lilly Allen track with one of our valuable ‘peri’ teachers Mr Roberto.

 

THURSDAY

Lots of time in lessons today, making up for the start of the week. I especially enjoyed Maths. Three highlights were Mrs Stockton Pitt’s Year 7 class where progress was just so evident; Miss Catchpole’s Year 7 group, where Lauryn Sloane worked out and then explained to the class, the formula for calculating the ‘n’ number in sequences; then on to Miss Mackenzie’s Year 10 group where the class  were working out the areas of irregular shapes - the best thing here was seeing a class with many C grade targets doing A grade work!

FRIDAY

I have really enjoyed our new school uniform, but it was good today to celebrate our sense of community by having a non-uniform day in support of Children in Need.

           

 Miss Blackley has been running events all week, including rugby conversion competitions, penalty shootouts against the House leaders and ‘Pudsey Bun’ sales. Many of our young people have distinguished themselves this week, but particular credit must go to a small group of Year 9, who really went the ‘extra mile’ in supporting the Children in Need. Well done to Chloe McLaughlin, Lisa Jones, Scott Robinson, Harvinder Singh, Nicola Gales, Chelsea Sharpe, Jake Armitage, Noami O’Brien, Andrew Slinger and Alice Thompson.

NEW COLLEAGUES

Our recruitment strategy continues to impact well upon our school, it has been great over the last few weeks to introduce some more new staff to our school, as either Learning Guides or Teaching Assistants. Welcome to Richard Gouland (an ex student), Jessica Watson, Jacob Brown, Katie Butler, Stephanie Elliston and Hannah Rudman; they are all great additions to our school team and we are delighted to have secured them!

SPORTS SUCCESSES

A good week for our senior Footballers. In Year 11, we beat Roundhay 5-4 after extra time in the Leeds Schools Cup, with a ‘Man of the Match’ performance by Jake Douglas, and in the Leeds Schools League we beat Corpus Christi 4-1, Mr. Colley was reluctant to name a ‘Man of the Match’ telling me, ‘they were all good’.

Mr Keens’ Year 10 side continue to do well, with a 3-1 victory against Corpus Christi in the Leeds Schools Cup, taking on Rodillian or Woodkirk in the next round; congratulations to Josh Horsfall who scored a stunning hat trick in this fixture. Year 10 also had a 3-1 away win at John Smeaton; ever the perfectionist Mr Keens is dismayed at this result, he believes that we should have scored many more.

 

HOUSE SUCCESS

My ‘Take Over Day’ bloggers were great, but unfortunately asked for the Community Contribution Points score too early in the day. An easy mistake to make, the winners for last week were in fact Thompson; their first week as top scorers!

I have worn my red badge with pride, indeed so pleased was I with the turnaround in Thompson fortunes, I wore a red tie every day too.