Posted on: February 12th 2010
I arrived at 7.50am this morning and headed straight to breakfast club where I enjoyed eggs on toast whilst having a chat with Jake O’Riordan. I like breakfast club – it s very sociable and lively with teachers, pupils and parents all munching together. At 8.20am I quickly caught up with Mrs Fern to discuss the day ahead; today’s conversation focused on the logistical issues surrounding our netball team’s fixture that day; who would accompany the team and what the knock-on effect would be.
I then made a cup of tea and headed for some classrooms. I started with Miss Lipitch’s maths class – a lovely lesson; purposeful and engaging. She has a very encouraging manner with the pupils and they clearly thrive with her. I then moved into the two Form 2 classes. First Ms Burke’s class where I watched a creative writing lesson – again, really rewarding. It was productive and warm and the children were absolutely absorbed; a real joy to watch. Mrs Gouws, meanwhile, had her children editing and commenting on the work of others. This is very sophisticated and their comments showed a maturity and understanding you would expect of much older pupils. All in all very inspirational – and it occurred to me on my way back to my office how warm the relationships between pupils is, enabling such great discussion without fear of getting something wrong (or, for that matter, fear of being critiqued by others).
At 10am it was more ‘Tea with the Head’. Some teachers were keen for me to see some children before the half term holiday, so I made some time during first break. I saw Immy Pickering, Noor Kubba-Hyde, Jacob Holland and Alice Field. I had a lovely conversation with them all and told them how pleased their teachers were with their progress. Strangely, my packet of penguin biscuits appeared to be empty, but luckily I had some lovely M&S chocolate biscuits on standby.
I then carried on with the School Development Plan work I had been doing yesterday. I began to work on a section going through our achievements over the past few years. The primary purpose of the plan is of course to discuss our ideas going forward, but it’s important to understand what has gone well and why as this provides a frame for what else we can achieve.
At 11.10am I met with two boys who have reached five order marks. When older pupils reach five order marks they are sent to me. They miss their breaks for a day and we have several conversations. I never shout or get angry; we simply talk about why it has happened and we agree targets for the future. They are nice boys, just exuberant. I asked them to come back to my office after lunch when we would discuss whether they should go to football in the afternoon.
During lunch I started to work on a fairly lengthy report I have to write following my ISA accreditation visit last week to a school in Essex. The report has to be both factual (number of staff, policies in place and so on) and personal (my opinion on various things). I pretty much got it finished by 1.15pm.
I then managed to check some emails and found a lovely message from a parent who was very generous and complimentary towards the school. She didn’t need to, but the fact she took the time to send it means a lot.
And then to the two boys. We talked again. They had been thinking and they shared their views with me. I was encouraged by what they had to say, so agreed to take them both to football. I popped my own kit on (any excuse) and we drove up to Powerleague where I scored a goal. I know this shouldn’t be cause for celebration, but I’m still grinning about it now!
Earlier in the day I had asked Mrs Fern if I could take her Form 6 class for the last lesson. I wanted to talk to them about the up and coming general election and the chances of a hung parliament. We talked through what a hung parliament is and the chances of it happening. They are a nice bunch and eager to learn. I enjoy this type of relaxed lesson where you just talk and listen.
After the lesson I popped down to the office. I hadn’t seen Mrs Joannides or Ms Milligan all day and wanted to make sure they didn’t feel neglected (actually I think I was feeling that!). We had a nice chat and spoke about some training we’ve organised for next week. I then managed to grab Mrs Bedi to talk through some ideas she had for drama next half term. From there I went to the table tennis club. I’ve been hurting since my painful defeat last week. It didn’t get any better. Perhaps the time has come to quit my losses. But did I mention that I scored a goal at football?
Just as I was getting ready to leave Mrs Habgood talked to me about where she had got to on our new assessment system. She was on good form and we talked about plans for the week ahead – somehow her plans seemed much more exciting than mine. Ah well.
I left at 5.40pm.
Well this is the last of my intensive two week blog. I hoped you’ve enjoyed hearing about some of the things I get up to. I’ve tried to give you an insight into my role as Head but also some of the things that happen within the school. From my perspective, I’ve thoroughly enjoyed writing the blog, and it’s also quite interesting reading back through some of my old posts. I thoroughly enjoy my job and I’m so incredibly proud of the school to which we are all part of, and I hope this has come through.I’m sure by now very few people are reading this last post, having given up after a few days in! But for those who are still reading – or who have had the misfortune of stumbling across it when googling something else entirely, thanks for reading and I do hope to keep going on a rather less frequent basis in the future. Maybe once every couple of weeks.