Headteacher’s Review

HEADTEACHER’S REVIEW 2019/20

David Collins

I started the 2019/20 review with the line “Hopefully a year never to be repeated.” Unfortunately, you don’t always get what you hope for. However, through the difficulties, restrictions, and closures, I was proud of the way that students, parents, and staff responded to the challenges. Results for 2019/20 were excellent and after the short-lived debacle of the “government algorithm” that was used to calculate A-level grades and then quickly abandoned, students received grades for GCSE and A-level that were commensurate with their work. Due to the way that these results were calculated we took the decision not to publicise the outcomes for the school, but this should not diminish the individual achievements of the students who fully deserve the grades they attained.

We were able to welcome all students back into school in September and everyone adapted incredibly well to the new protocols, strict seating plans, cleaning of classrooms and year group areas for lunch and dining. What was clear through the attendance and attitude of students was that the thought of not being in school had lost its lustre after the first lockdown. Students immediately responded to the challenges of returning to classroom-based teaching and the effort and attainment from most was excellent.

In previous reviews, I have been able to detail monthly the additional activities that take place at the Academy, but unfortunately the pandemic curtailed planned trips to Iceland, skiing, the battlefields of France and many other extracurricular activities. I would like to thank all the staff who provided activities in some form, even with the restrictions that the school was placed under. The work of the peripatetic music teachers, delivering lessons behind scenes, the pre-recorded music and dance shows that were denied a live audience, extracurricular clubs defined within year group bubbles and the continuation of the Duke of Edinburgh award in restricted fashion. I appreciate that for many students it is the extracurricular opportunities that really make their education and I hope we shall see a return to something approaching normality next year.

In December, we started to see an increase in positive cases as the “Kent (alpha) variant” started to sweep across the county. In the final week of term our attendance was the lowest I hope it will ever be and over the Christmas holidays the announcement was made of another lockdown.

At the start of the pandemic many educational professionals predicted that the pandemic would lead to a new way of educating students with virtual learning becoming the norm. In my opinion the lockdowns confirmed one long held belief, that the best education takes place in classrooms with direct contact between teachers and pupils. I would like to thank everyone for their commitment to remote learning and it may be used in extreme circumstances in the future, such as extreme weather, but it is a very poor imitation of the classroom-based experience.

In March, we returned after a bout of lateral flow tests and fully face-masked, and this again was dealt with by students and staff with incredible resilience. I assumed, incorrectly, that the testing of all consenting students and staff before their return to school would be a logistical nightmare, and it is on these occasions I realise what a great team I work with, as these new expectations are handled with minimum fuss and maximum efficiency. We also returned to the news that GCSE and A-level grades would be based on teacher assessment grades and not external examinations.

From March until the May half term students in Year 11 and 13 worked diligently to provide evidence to justify teachers grading decisions. In June, we received our first ever set of International Baccalaureate (IB) results, I would normally wait until next year’s review to talk about this year’s results but as the IB results arrived so early in the summer term I am including them now. Unlike the GCSE and A-level results, the IB moderated every single piece of work submitted to ensure global equality. The results for Knole Academy students were fantastic and every single subject exceeded the global average. When you consider that the IB is generally studied in the top independent schools, to produce results significantly higher than global averages is a testament to the hard work and resilience of all the students and staff involved. Unfortunately, as we reached the end of the academic year, the delta variant started to sweep across the county, and we saw the number of positive cases go up amongst staff and students and the cancellation of our taster events and school sports day. It did not however prevent large cohorts of Duke of Edinburgh students completing Bronze expeditions in the Ashdown forest and Silver and Gold expeditions on Dartmoor.

However, this should not be considered a year that was dominated by Covid, as much as it was in our thoughts and planning every single day. The students and staff at Knole worked incredibly hard all year to get as much out of their education as was possible, there is significant coverage in the media about lost generation and loss of learning, but I genuinely believe that the students at Knole are in an excellent place to move forward. I seem to have spent most of the year dealing with one new expectation after another regarding factors often beyond our control. I hope that for most student’s life within school has felt normal and has provided some stability when they have been denied so many other opportunities.

We ended the new with the Year 11 and 13 proms. I must admit that these are not events that I look forward to, however this year felt a little different. It was nice to be able to provide a prom to these students who have missed out on so many of the enrichment activities that we would normally offer. I hope all of those who attended thoroughly enjoyed themselves. I finish by stating a new hope, that next year will be a bit more normal.