Posted on: May 18th 2012
This week has flown by; a day in Form 3 teaching Maths, English, Drama and Art was exhausting on Monday, but lovely to spend the day with the children! Tuesday, I was at the Department for Education as an advisory Head on an education proposal panel, followed by a very interesting and pleasant visit to Queen’s College on Harley Street to meet with Dr Frances Ramsey. In the past two years, under Dr Ramsey’s leadership, their GCSE results have already improved by 8% and the perception of the school is changing. I found it a warm and inviting school with a purposeful buzz.
Onto Wednesday and a visit to the Form 4 pupils on their two night residential to PGL @ Marchants Hill in Surrey. It was super to see them all in a completely different context and being so fearless- up trees and onto zipwires! I had my feet firmly planted on the ground, but had a go at the archery.
Leaving them all smiling and happy, I headed off to Hampton Court for a Heads’ dinner and an early night, ready for a full on HT conference on Thursday.
As busy as it was, meeting with our Education Committee and discussing our School’s Self Evaluation Form, what we’ve done this year and our next steps for school development was very exciting. It’s so valuable to get input from our new governance structure (which consist of Mr Malley, an Independent School’s Inspector and Education Consultant and an existing School Principal) and positive feedback about what we’re doing well. At the time of writing, today is no less busy, I’ve already taught F5 English (some fabulous creative writing based around an animated narrative), taught F6 Shakespeare (Romeo and Juliet) and am preparing for our F6 pupils to broadcast live to an Independent Schools Association conference in Harrogate, this afternoon whom I nominated as ‘Inspirational Pupils’.
A very full week! I often wonder how many other jobs are this varied, interesting and stimulating?!