Head's Blog - October 2011

October Blog

Week Ending 7th October

It was lovely to open the school up to visitors this week with our annual Open Evening. If you were one of our guests, thank you for finding the time to come and find out about us.

I was amazed that with the new seating in the Main Hall that we still could not fit all of our visitors in, and that I had to do two separate presentations. I enjoyed the opportunity to highlight our 99% A Level pass rate and 92% UCAS success rate, as well as our 96% A* to C at GCSE. I also highlighted the excellent results in the traditional and ‘hard’ GCSE’s, if you missed the evening my presentation is here.

As ever the highlight of my presentation was the conversations with our current Year 7. It is such a brave thing to address as full hall of visitors in this way, and Antonia, Megan, Ben and Lochie were brilliant, I was so proud of them.

       

Our staff threw themselves into the event to create magic. With my responsibilities being very much ‘front of house’ I miss the activities happening around school, but as people left there was much talk of the re-creation of the Berlin wall, and the photos do suggest that Mrs Thurgood and Miss Hayes might have made very good military personnel if their careers had taken a different course.

              

 

 

All the children who visited Mr Thompson’s Science lab came back wide eyed in wonder at his work. To be fair to Mr Thompson, his lessons are routinely that captivating; in the digital age  young people can be hard to impress, but his enthusiasm and intellect coupled with his unique skill of making the complex simple have understandably earned him the reputation as a ‘legend’.

If you were unable to come you can access our new prospectus here, the insert here.

This was the first year we were able to run a House Competition on Open Evening, with all our visitors adopting a House for the night. I was in reception as the evening closed, and I was sure it looked like a Thompson win, but some late arrivals changed all of that with the results being

                Donaldson          327

                Cooper               319

                Thompson          307

                Bucktrout           199

I was pleased to be able to add to a commemorative shirt in our Reception Area this week. The first is celebrating Fiona Berry’s selection of the England Schools Football Association Tour of Eastern Europe. She has done very well, and we are delighted to be a part of her success. The second was a school uniform, a gift from the Mwanga Primary School in Tanzania (see past blogs). The third was a Tanzania shirt, presented to recognise all the work we have done with World Challenge over the last few years, enabling our young people to visit and contribute to the communities of countries as diverse as India, Peru, Morocco, Croatia, China, Norway, Tanzania and Kenya.

    

Closer to home I was glad to support the work of Jessica Kewley, Emily Sinker and Emily Higgins who organised cakes sales through the week in support of the Teenage Cancer Trust. The drive for them was the illness of a friend with whom they dance, and I am very proud of their efforts.

 

The week ends with my usual check on house progress in Community Contribution points; will this be the week I swap my Cooper badge for another?

Thompson had a really creditable 54% increase in Community Contribution points, Donaldson did well this week, with a 64% increase, Bucktrout were even better with 68%, but again I am in Cooper Blue after a splendid 82% increase! Congratulations to everyone in Cooper, they really are setting the pace!

 

Week Ending 14th October

It has been a pleasure to have so many visitors this week, as parents with young people in Year 6 have continued to come and see our school at work during the day; it is always a joy to share what we are doing with our local community. 

Over the last few days the work of Year Seven Science has caught my eye; Miss Smith created the opportunity for some brilliant creative work on cell structure.

 

       

 

The photos above showcase the work of Arun Dutta, Erin Beesley, Estera Pawlowska and Max Patrick, but in particular the work of Aimee-Rose Poulter caught my eye because she gave real thought to the materials she used to make each part of the cell, so that each item in the model represented and demonstrated the various cell structure properties. The hard exterior bowl represented the hard cell wall of a plant cell, there was a plastic bag to represent a cell membrane, green jelly for the cytoplasm of the cell, there was a small blue balloon filled with water to illustrate the permanent vacuole where cell sap is stored, and beads for cell organelles.  Great work!

  

 

On Monday we appointed some new Teaching Assistants; the field was really strong, and we have again been able to recruit well. They will all be exciting additions to an already good team and the colleagues will join us in the next few weeks, as soon as their CRB clearances come through. This was another occasion to be proud of our young people; they took part in the interview process in a variety of ways and as ever were a credit to the school. I should be used to it by now, but the perception and consideration they give to contributing to the selection process always astounds me; such wisdom from such youth makes my job a privilege. I really could not conceive now ever making an appointment without their input.

 

On Wednesday we had a good Trust meeting, which also allowed me to spend the following hour with our Chair of Governors. We are well supported in our school by our Governors, and I appreciated the opportunity to bring Mr Hall up to speed with a range of current school issues, and in particular the impact of our focus on continually raising expectations, standards and outcomes.

 

Mrs Williams arranged for Year 9, 10 and 12 Musicians to a take part in a workshop about the Music industry from Isaac and Richard from ‘Rock School’. Our budding stars were clearly interested in finding out how to ‘make it big’ in industry, and were keen to learn about the role of technicians, sound engineers, and the business side of the industry in record companies and management.

 

 

On Thursday we welcomed our Year 7 parents in for a subject consultation evening. This is a Year group that have made a great start and we are very pleased with them. The evening presented an opportunity for early praise and for us to start building that partnership that is going to be so important moving forward. Thank you if you were a part of a very busy and productive evening.

 

Thursday was a big night for our Year 7 Football Team, coached by Mr Pratt, who beat Corpus Christi High School with goals from Joe Wilton and Mason Jessop. Our Year 10 team, coached by Mr Keens, beat Cardinal Heenan High School 2-0 in the 2nd Round of the English Schools Football Association Cup, with a 'man of the match' performance from Adam Weatherill and goals from Jack Boyle and Josh Horsfall; a great results for Boston Spa, as the same fixture last season saw a 6-0 defeat, accompanied by shouts of 'taxi for Keens'.

Finally, and some might say ‘at last’, a Friday that also sees me change the House Badge on my lapel! The highest scoring House this week, and by just one point, is Bucktrout; I am proudly wearing green, much to the delight and comment of the young people in Bucktrout; well done Mr Brennan and his House, but how long before Cooper House reclaim top spot?

Week Ending 21st October

YEAR 7 HOUSE ACTIVITY DAYS

 

This week the young people in Year 7 celebrated the last week of term by throwing themselves into an Activity Day at the Leeds Sailing & Activity Centre at Yeadon Tarn.

 

Each day, the young people from one of our school houses went along to Yeadon Tarn, with members of the year team, their form tutors and the House Leader, and took part in canoeing, problem solving, orienteering and a climbing wall.  Everyone had a really good time, helped by the surprisingly good weather; we learned new skills and got to know our new friends and teachers a little better in a different, challenging and safe environment. 

 

I am really grateful to Mr Mackenzie and all the staff who contributed to running the event, to our parents for their support in ensuring all pupils arrived so well prepared for their day out and most of all to the Year 7s for being so positive on all four days.  Congratulations all round!

       

       

 

VISITORS

We have continued to have loads of Year 6 visitors this week. It has been great to talk about our school to local families and to meet the Mums and Dads and their children. Thank you to all those of you who took the trouble to join us; we met some lovely people.

 

READERS

Our Year 8 keen readers have helped choose the Royal Society Young People’s Book Prize winner for 2011, one of the world’s most prestigious awards for Science writing.

As part of an innovative judging process the winning book will be selected entirely by the young people. Six of our Year 8 boys, Edward Chapman, Christopher Hepworth, Toby Hirst, Will Meadmore, Jake Smith and Joel Summerfield, have joined schools and youth groups across the UK to help choose a winning Science book.  Each Judging Panel will choose a winner from six shortlisted books and submit their vote. The votes are then collated by the Royal Society and the book with the most votes will win the prize.

Our boys started the judging process in June, when they were in Year 7, and have continued to meet regularly in the library under the care of Mrs Chapman until they submitted their vote last week. The book they have voted as winner is "The Icky, Sticky Snot and Blood Book", with "How the World Works" coming a close second. We have to wait until all the votes from around the country are counted before we know the actual winner which will be announced on December 1st.

I am so pleased that the local press has featured their work:

 

 

THE WIZ

I was disturbed on Tuesday after school by the same Jackson track being played repeatedly at some volume in the Main Hall. I went with my (stern) Headteacher face on, expecting to bring quiet, but I found over 60 young people in a dance workshop for our spring production of the 'The Wiz'. I know I am biased, but it was breathtakingly awesome. 

There were eight groups with ages from 11 to 18 in each, devising their own routines to the music. I stayed much longer than I should have done, but the work Miss Heath is doing here is fantastic.

 

MATHS

The highlight of my time in lessons this week was in Maths where I saw a 'Mean, Mode, Median and Range' lesson in Year 8 with Mr Patten. The teaching of these terms and managing the difference between them in different contexts is often a stumbling block for young people; however Mr Patten had written a song, bellowed out with some enthusiasm by the group! While it was unexpected, it was brilliant in the way that it secured the learning outcomes and enables the young people to apply the learning to new situations. A great lesson from a new entrant to the profession.

 

ROTARY CHEFS

The Annual Rotary Chef Competition is taking place, and I was delighted that the Boston Spa heats were held this week. 

We had nine young chefs entered,  Claire Roberts, Sam Porter, Keiran Roche, Hifzah Mahmood, Amy Martin, Charlotte Hodgson, Laura Eatwell, Courtney Fisher and Bradley Smith. 

They were asked to create a two course healthy meal for under £10. The students worked diligently to produce some wonderful meals. The winner was Charlotte Hodgson who made a goats cheese and caramelized onion quiche  with new potatoes and a green salad with her  own French dressing, followed by an upside down pineapple sponge cake. The runner up was Claire Roberts who made a chicken hot pot and a creamy lemon curd and raspberry cheesecake 

Charlotte will now compete against other Leeds schools at Thomas Danby College for the second round of the competition, which will be judged by Simon Gueller from the Michelin star Box Tree Restaurant in Ilkley. Congratulations to all who took part, and best of luck to Charlotte in the next round.

      

NEW STAFF

It is good this week to welcome Miss Bradbury to our school, as Learning Manager in Science

 

 

Each subject team has a Learning Manager, and they do a great job covering for absent teachers and thus enabling us to secure the quality of lessons in a way that casual supply does not allow. When not covering lessons, she will support young people in their learning in Science and support Science teachers with their groups.

 

FRIDAY PERIOD 5

I never cease to be amazed by the talent in our school, and as I end the term I visited as many lessons as I could during period 5 and I walked past the amazing art work by Connie Inglis in Year 11. Connie's work is the pencil drawing on the right, and is a copy of work by Gerhard Richter, a part of a really impressive portfolio of work she is doing on portraits. I am so pleased she agreed to let me share it with you.  

HALF TERM

Our young people and staff are looking forward to a half term break. I trust that it is a safe and restful time for all of our community.