Principal’s Blog #2

“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us...”
(Dickens. A tale of two cities.)

For the purposes of disambiguation, this quote came to mind earlier in the week as we experienced a day of fire alarm disruption followed by one of focused effort, excellence and calm. So as we finish another busy week across all areas of the academy, I once again reflect on our huge potential in the student body that, when aligned with our values and working all out for success, is one of positive energy capable of achieving anything it sets out to.

Monday night saw us host our first PTA. A small turnout but big on ideas is probably how I’d describe it. We discussed fundraising and ways to get more parents engaged with us. Several ways forward were agreed, but two key decisions came out of it: we need to find a more appropriate brand for the group and a unanimous view that we should quickly get a survey out to parents asking for views on a range of ways forward. Look out for that over the next week or so.

The Army day made quite an impression on everyone, especially the canteen staff it seems! The students gave it everything and certainly gave us feedback that we should do this type of team building activities more regularly. The best bit for me - the Army instructors telling me how positive our students were and how, compared with a number of north west schools they had visited in recent weeks, we were the most cooperative, hard-working and respectful. More visitors leaving us with a good impression. A big thanks to Mr Feast for arranging a successful day.

Other highlights this week - Year 10 and 11 watched a performance of An Inspector calls in our Drama Theatre from a visiting theatre company, the library continues to boom thanks to Miss Livesey’s leadership and whilst observing lessons across the Science department I have been lucky enough to watch an exceptional level of teaching quality. To see Year 9 successfully grapple with top-end GCSE questions and make it look effortless is a credit to Mr Casewell’s team and their ambition for our children. Chapeau Science.

So another week comes to an end. 13 weeks until GCSEs begin. You can almost hear the tick-tock across Year 11. What a great group of students they are!

I’ll leave you with this photo I took of a note that appeared on my desk on Tuesday. When I spoke to all of the student year groups on Tuesday morning I referred back to our values and what I expect of everyone. I mentioned resilience and that our values say that ‘we work hard and never give up’. A student’s response -Good to see that it resonated.

Have a great weekend.
Mr Fraser