5 January 2020

Image of Principal’s Blog #5

Pa’lante!

Welcome back – and, although it is somewhat belated – Happy new year. We’ve already put some considerable distance between us and the break. Things start fast at our school. Starting the term with a trip for 200 students to Chester Zoo, Indian chefs cooking up in F36 with Year 7, Year 8 progress evening, Year 11 starting the GCSE countdown and Year 10 work experience. Things here are never dull. The dust never settles.

This year, thanks to the dedicated work of Mrs Casewell, Miss Towers and Mrs Lloyd, we’ve taken the Year 10 work experience week to a different level. Not only have we had the usual placements for individuals out in a range of workplaces but we’ve had a team of students led by Miss Towers taking a deep dive into the digital economy and visiting companies across our regional landscape to learn about key functions of their business. This is a great opportunity for our students – one which they have embraced fully. At the time of writing I’m just preparing to leave and visit the Year 10 group complete their week at Bentley. Superb work from everyone.

I’ve asked several colleagues this week how work experience now compares with their experience. As you would guess every response and reflection was different. Some good, some not so good. What we do here however, is certainly more expansive and ambitious than the one I experienced.

This Day and Age

I have often asked teachers in training and development sessions to pause and recall the teachers who have had the most powerful impact on their lives. Those people who, even now, create a reaction inside them so strong that it connects back to their time at school, and to reflect on how they have contributed, in however large or small a way, to where they are now and, more importantly, who they are now. I always ask them – who do you want to be when someone looks back on you and considers who you were in their lives. It is a powerful exercise once someone commits to it. Memory and imagination are wired on the same circuits.

I’m currently in the process of observing teaching across the academy. Myself and Mr Pickles will visit every classroom over the next few weeks to look at performance through a coaching filter and look to see what we can suggest as the next development steps for our teachers. This week, whilst visiting the English team, I had several conversations with Year 11 students about the most cited challenge at GCSE. Poetry. Suddenly, it was me searching back into the memory. Back to the 1980’s. Frodsham High School, poetry and my English teacher Mrs Day. If teachers can make a life changing impact on you, then Mrs Day was and is responsible for shaping a huge part of who I am.

I was incredibly lucky at high school. Somehow, I had Mrs Day from Year 7 through to Year 11. I have no idea of who I would be had this not happened. For five years I had English four times a week. Same classroom throughout that time. Same seat opposite the window. Same friend sat next to me.

We studied poetry for our GCSE (O levels back then!!) from an anthology called, ‘This Day and Age’. It remains possibly my most treasured book. An anchor to that most formative time in my life. It is a time machine of a book. The syllabus at the time required the reading of Auden, Larkin, Macneice, Thomas, Sassoon…Somehow, thanks entirely to Mrs Day, I got it. She made reading, writing, language and communication real and important. When I think back, to me at 15/16 years old and switched on to poetry – that’s great teaching.  

It was the message in a more obscure poem that Mrs day has seared into my consciousness. At the end of the poem ‘Le Meije’ by Michael Roberts, there is a note dedicating the poem to Otto Bron, a climber killed on the Col du Geant in 1938. It reads - ‘Il faut toujours faire le plus difficule’ – Always do the most difficult. Although, amongst all the poetry we studied over those two years, the poem itself is far from memorable, the quote has been. I’ve used it many times. Language teachers will, I’m sure, point out the mistranslation. However, it is the message that is understood that is important. Always do the most difficult.

I was at high school between 1982 and 1989. Just like the time we live in now, it was a turbulent, vibrant and pivotal time for the country we live in. I was in 5S between 1986 and 1987. Seemingly, a long time ago. But the message transcends that time and is still as vital, urgent and powerful now as then. Always do the most difficult. This is how we grow as we go forward in life. Take on challenges. Push yourself beyond your perceived limitations. Never give up and never, ever be afraid of stretching yourself out of your comfort zone. Teacher, student, parent, carer - whoever we are and whatever role we play in the lives of our young people – what better message is there to give.


The Learning Partnership