It's late on Sunday night and I've just got back from a two day trek down the Northumberland riviera to celebrate our 33rd wedding anniversary, so please forgive me for the brevity of this week's episode.
I had all sorts of ideas for things to tell you about this week: I Pads, teaching The Tempest, linking Enrichment with Art and a mad notion for our next non-uniform day. Anyway, I'm tired, especially my feet, so all of that will have to wait for another time.
So before I fall asleep at the keyboard can I just thank everyone who contributed to and attended our open evening last Wednesday?
I thoroughly enjoyed showing prospective parents round Moorside and once again felt awe inspired by the professionalism and enthusiasm of our excellent staff. I'm also glad to report that a number of parents took me up on my offer of a tour during the day and that offer is still open if you're interested.
Just give me a ring or send an e-mail.
Talking Head
Monday 27 September 2010
Saturday 18 September 2010
Being Open
Choosing a school is a big decision.
All parents want their kids to be happy at school and to receive the best possible education. And being happy is the starting point because you just don’t learn properly if you’re in an environment you don’t like.
I’m mentioning this because we’re in the season of parental choice. Year 6 parents and carers have to choose a secondary school before the end of October and all schools are staging open evenings to show what they have to offer.
Before I go on to our forthcoming open evening, can I just give some advice to all prospective parents, choosing a secondary school. First of all, you should definitely go to its open evening because the event will tell you something about how well the school is organised, its facilities and its sense of pride. You’ll want to talk to the staff, of course, but there should be students there too and so have a word with them. I was put off choosing a secondary school for my kids because some pupils were trying to demonstrate a science experiment, but couldn’t say what it taught them.
But don’t leave it at the open evening.
There’s plenty of research you can do on the net – just Google the school and you’ll be sign posted immediately. And through gritted teeth, I have to admit that the OFSTED report is a must.
It’s also essential that you see the school as it really is so arrange a visit during the day. If it’s a good school, they’ll welcome you gladly and arrange for you to walk through lessons to get a feel for the place. An outstanding school (like one we all know starting with M) will offer a meeting with the head and for him/her to take you round in person. They’ll let you go where you want and (don’t laugh) insist on you seeing the toilets. That’s because we all know that the probable low point of a school are the toilets so they’re a kind of bench mark for the school’s consideration for the students. It’s a bad sign if they’re always locked in lesson times and, worse than that, if they’re graffiti ridden and smell of cigarette smoke, head for the car.
All this brings me to our open evening (and yes I will be encouraging parents to come to see us during the day and bundling them into the boys toilets whether they like it or not). It’s going to be a bit strange because in a way it will be an open evening for a school which doesn’t exist yet. We’ll be working alongside the sponsors in promoting the Consett Academy, but we’ll also be showcasing where Moorside is right now because that will be the foundation for the new school.
So if you want to find out more about the Consett Academy, come along to one or both of the forthcoming open evenings for prospective parents. The Moorside event is on September 22nd, 2010 at 6.30 pm and the CCSC one is on September 23rd at 6.00pm. You’ll get the chance to see at first hand what’s happening in the schools right now and hear about the sponsors’ proposals for the new academy and how they will build on our good practice.
All parents want their kids to be happy at school and to receive the best possible education. And being happy is the starting point because you just don’t learn properly if you’re in an environment you don’t like.
I’m mentioning this because we’re in the season of parental choice. Year 6 parents and carers have to choose a secondary school before the end of October and all schools are staging open evenings to show what they have to offer.
Before I go on to our forthcoming open evening, can I just give some advice to all prospective parents, choosing a secondary school. First of all, you should definitely go to its open evening because the event will tell you something about how well the school is organised, its facilities and its sense of pride. You’ll want to talk to the staff, of course, but there should be students there too and so have a word with them. I was put off choosing a secondary school for my kids because some pupils were trying to demonstrate a science experiment, but couldn’t say what it taught them.
But don’t leave it at the open evening.
There’s plenty of research you can do on the net – just Google the school and you’ll be sign posted immediately. And through gritted teeth, I have to admit that the OFSTED report is a must.
It’s also essential that you see the school as it really is so arrange a visit during the day. If it’s a good school, they’ll welcome you gladly and arrange for you to walk through lessons to get a feel for the place. An outstanding school (like one we all know starting with M) will offer a meeting with the head and for him/her to take you round in person. They’ll let you go where you want and (don’t laugh) insist on you seeing the toilets. That’s because we all know that the probable low point of a school are the toilets so they’re a kind of bench mark for the school’s consideration for the students. It’s a bad sign if they’re always locked in lesson times and, worse than that, if they’re graffiti ridden and smell of cigarette smoke, head for the car.
All this brings me to our open evening (and yes I will be encouraging parents to come to see us during the day and bundling them into the boys toilets whether they like it or not). It’s going to be a bit strange because in a way it will be an open evening for a school which doesn’t exist yet. We’ll be working alongside the sponsors in promoting the Consett Academy, but we’ll also be showcasing where Moorside is right now because that will be the foundation for the new school.
So if you want to find out more about the Consett Academy, come along to one or both of the forthcoming open evenings for prospective parents. The Moorside event is on September 22nd, 2010 at 6.30 pm and the CCSC one is on September 23rd at 6.00pm. You’ll get the chance to see at first hand what’s happening in the schools right now and hear about the sponsors’ proposals for the new academy and how they will build on our good practice.
Saturday 11 September 2010
This Way to Enchantment
You can’t miss them because they’re the ones with puzzled faces and learning passports flapping open at the timetable page as they try to navigate from lesson to lesson.
You might know that some of our younger pupils take a lesson called Enrichment. Anyway, year 7 had Enrichment on Tuesday afternoon and Jim Green, helpful as always, was on the corridor directing the traffic of newcomers.
Apparently, an earnest young man said to him, “Is this the way to Enchantment?”
Well, I thought that was great.
First of all, I think we should give serious thought to making that change of name official.
And secondly, that charming error was somehow in keeping with how things have been for me in the past few weeks.
I know it can’t always be like this, but life has been magic recently. I had a legendary summer holiday in some beautiful places with much loved friends and family. I’ve sat in a luscious Mallorcan garden watching the sun go down over the mountains, picnicked on a hot Sunday afternoon on Primrose hill listening to the lads crashing in six goals against Villa and fended off the badgers trying to steal food from my tent by Ullswater.
It’s been great.
But Moorside was never far from my thoughts, especially my speculation about what news would come on August 24th about our exam results.
Well, it was like winning the lottery.
We had a hunch that they would be good, but in reality they were by far the best on record and confirmed that 2009-10 was the most successful year overall in Moorside’s long history.
You’ll find the figures elsewhere on the website and they confirm Moorside’s place among the top schools in the country. I’ll just give you a couple of statistics.
84% of year 11 leavers beat the expectations we had of them based on SATs and test results at the end of year 6. That means that we added value to the learning and achievement of the overwhelming majority which we think will put is in the top 5% of schools nationally.
It’s easy to start a new term on the back of news like that and the whole Moorside team should take the credit for creating a school culture which produces such stunning outcomes.
And Moorside isn’t just about exam results as you’ll know from the wealth of other great work we do, but exam grades are a symptom of our very high professional standards and 100% commitment to our young people.
But that’s not all of the good news.
On Monday, for the first time ever the entire staffs of Moorside and Consett Community Sports College came together for a joint training event as part of our preparations for amalgamating as the Consett Academy next year. It was a landmark event which certainly left me full of optimism about how well we’ll work together from now on.
If you want to find out more about the Consett Academy, come along to one or both of the forthcoming open evenings for prospective parents. The Moorside one is on September 22nd, 2010 and the CCSC one is on September 23rd – both at 6.30pm. You’ll get the chance to see at first hand what’s happening in the schools right now and hear about the sponsors’ proposals for the new academy and how they will build on our good practice.
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