Posted on: February 11th 2010
My arm was twisted a few weeks back to attend a breakfast seminar this morning. I said yes, and actually I’m pleased I did – it considered the future of independent schools, with various possible scenarios for the next twenty years. A lot of it was really just guess work but it gave me lots to think about – things like what parents will expect from schools, how independent schools might interact with and/or support the state sector, and so on. All great food for thought and I’ll be interested to see what actually happens!
I got back to school at around 10.30am and Mrs Gouws immediately popped by for a quick chat on Sports Relief. She would like us to do something for this important fundraiser and we spent some time discussing ideas, which you’ll no doubt hear about soon as she’s keen to involve as many of you as possible!
After our meeting I carried on working on the School Development Plan. I read a lot of work that Mrs Habgood and Mrs Fern had put together – ideas that they have developed for teaching and learning as well as new curricular ideas. All their proposals feed into the overarching objective of the plan, which in turn feeds into the ethos we have and want to continue to develop for the school. I then spent more time looking at our staff and ways to ensure that they continue to be motivated and valued at the school. This involves our professional development programmes as well as things like giving our people the freedom to try new things or initiatives that might interest them. The huge success we enjoy at the school is down to the talented group of people I work with and it’s important that the school recognises this.
During the early afternoon I carried on with the on-line child protection course I had started last week. I then did a fair bit of admin. I’m trying really hard to get on top of all my messages but it’s a bit dispiriting when yet more ping into my inbox as I’m working!
In the afternoon I had a meeting with the school’s lawyers. We are still working through the trust we are setting up. It’s actually incredibly complicated due to the stringent rules developed by the Charity Commission. Anyhow, we spent a couple of hours going through various scenarios and I’m reasonably hopeful we will have something up and running for the Summer Term.
Half way through my afternoon meeting I left my office to fetch a glass of water and Jake Levy stopped me. “Mr Malley, wait there!” he ordered me in an authoritative tone. Naturally I did as I was told. He disappeared for a moment, then came back with a series of photographs of him at a recent Karate event looking quite the pro. Since Karate is, frankly, a great deal more interesting than legal jargon, I hung around for ten minutes or so to talk to him before apologising to the lawyers and slipping back into my office.
Following my meeting I caught up with Mrs Fern. She let me know that we had booked some philosophy training for our staff during one of our staff training days before the Summer Term. I then liaised with our IT provider as they are doing yet more work over the half term break.
And then more admin; I left at 5.15pm hoping to get home at a reasonable hour but alas, Hammersmith Bridge was closed and two and a half hours later I finally made it!
