Bang!! Bang!! Bang!! (The hymn book is struck three times by Mr Carter.) “Please stand”. 900 students rise to their feet. The two Deputies and I swoosh up the steps, gowns billowing, to take our places on the stage. “Thank you; Please sit down….” This piece of theatre begins each one of our whole-school assemblies … Continue reading
I love this song by Ian Brown. Play it as you read on…is there a better acrostic song?! It is better sung than written down but here is a sample: F.E.A.R. For each a road For everyman a religion Forget everything and remember For everything a reason Freeing excellence affects reality Fallen empires are running … Continue reading
The KEGS student newspaper was published after much anticipation. It is a classic issue; student voice at its best. Read the whole thing here. And read more about our Independent Student Newspaper here. But, this post highlights, the festive favourite: Cake Corner. I was honoured to be asked to participate. This is what being on … Continue reading
Earlier this week , we held a whole staff meeting to reflect on the success we’ve enjoyed this year. In terms of examinations, it has been a great year for us with record results at GCSE and A Level and our best ever Valued-Added score at KS4. But there is a sense in which things … Continue reading
It is uncontroversial that for us to solve Humanity’s problems, to create the conditions for a sustainable future and also to maximise the cultural richness of our lives, we need to develop our collective capacity to be creative and innovative. It also flows fairly obviously that our education system should contribute to this process. Creativity … Continue reading
I’ve been on a fantastic professional learning journey in recent weeks: listening and talking on the conference circuit (#lfe2012 #SSATNC12, #elconf); burying my head in my tweetdeck and the library of blogs and youtube clips that follow; hosting a TeachMeet (#TMEssex); reading a couple of books and having the privilege of visiting some amazing schools. … Continue reading
At the heart of the discourse about effective schooling is the well-evidenced view that teacher quality plays a massive role in determining student outcomes. John Hattie, Dylan Wiliam, Michael Wilshaw, Michael Gove…they’d all agree on this. We’d all agree on it. As a Headteacher it is one of my core responsibilities, no…it is THE key … Continue reading
