Headteacher’s message

Sometimes I make students laugh without really meaning to. On Thursday morning I stationed myself on an external path and insisted that students stop to look at the tree pictured. I was worried that they might pass their day without reflecting on the beauty of its form and colour. Some of them thanked me for my concern whilst others seemed not to understand and giggled nervously. Eventually I settled into discussion with a Y9 called Rhys who knows me well (I taught him last year) and we passed a few minutes on why it’s important to appreciate beauty and not to swept along too much by the day’s events. I think he may have been humouring me, but I don’t really mind.

On the more prosaic side of my day to day job I have been really frustrated to note that we have been making more exclusions than we normally would. Our robust approach and high expectations have meant that exclusions have reduced hugely over the last 18 months or so. We hate exclusions. They are counter-productive are only used by the school to a) protect the victims of disruptive behaviour and give them respite or b) remove a student temporarily who absolutely refuses to follow adult’s instructions. When dealing with these students we take into account context, special needs, the narrative of the child and their various issues. Sometimes we back off for a few moments and give the child time to reconsider. Sometimes we transfer the matter to another member of staff to avoid the child having to lose face. If, despite all our guile and experience, the child still refuses to comply, we ask parents/carers to collect because they are ‘beyond the care and control of the school’. We have 1,202 students. To maintain their safety we need guaranteed compliance with reasonable requests. Most often what we are asking them to do is go into seclusion which is our attempt to avoid exclusion. This room is large, airy, separated by year and well-staffed and gives us all time to reflect and figure out what to do next after an incident has occurred.

Having said all this it’s interesting to note that most recent exclusions come under local authority code PH (public health) which they introduced to empower schools to deal decisively with students who undermine or refuse to comply, despite friendly reminders, with basic Covid safety measures. Covid19 is beginning to affect our learning again, but we are doing our best to make sensible judgements informed by Public Health England, the lead agency on Covid case management.

To put things in context, even on a worse than average day, 1,197 students behave perfectly well and contribute very well to our happy and inclusive atmosphere.

Whilst on Covid we have listened to our community members and feel that we need to improve communications even further so we are introducing Weduc. This is an app which will send you notifications, especially urgent ones around Covid countermeasures when we have a positive case. An email will be issued shortly with instructions on how to download the app - please download it as soon as possible to ensure you receive the latest information. We are also working on the school website and will upload our new website on Saturday for you to view.

Phew. That was a heavy and not very interesting newsletter. In an effort to end on a lighter note I can tell you that this morning as I drove to work in a stunning sunrise they played House of Fun on the radio. Later a student passed me on the school gate singing quietly ‘this is a chemist, not a joke shop’. Small pleasures.

Have a wonderful weekend. We are Highfields. Always.