Message from the headteacher

Last week it got a bit busy and I thought I may have more time this week … how wrong I was.

I would like to thank at this point in time all staff, students and families for their support over the coronavirus issue. As you can imagine it is a busy time for all school leaders as we do our best to keep up with and follow national guidance. Highfields parents/carers have been fantastic and seem to have realised that the best way they could support was to let us get on and do our jobs in preparing for all eventualities as best we can. The only single issue we have had arose when someone forwarded one of our emails to the Derby Telegraph suggesting that we were somehow covering up a confirmed case of coronavirus. The journalist involved luckily dismissed this as nonsense, but it still took valuable time to resolve. Those of you involved in healthcare or education will know that currently I am running from meeting to meeting trying to ensure that we are top of all the things we are supposed to be. Perhaps the most pressing issue early in the week was keeping up with student demand for soap in toilets. We are currently using around 3 times the usual amount, so we check the toilets hourly to ensure a good supply.

I am the kind of headteacher who tries to avoid inundating families with letters and communications. My hope is that when I do write to you, you assume it is for a reason and read what I have to say. Please rest assured that when I have something to tell you (other than we are following current DfE and Public Health England advice as it comes in) I will be in touch immediately. Today, as is typical at the moment, I will be checking in with our cleaners, site staff, senior team and health and safety manager to ensure that we are doing everything we can to enhance the safety of our community. Recognising that things are developing daily I would not be surprised if I have written to you more formally in response to emerging events by the time this newsletter reaches you on Friday evening …

Elsewhere in school, when students are not asking me when the school is going to close they are in lessons as usual. We have recently completed deep dives in music and dance. Deep dives are our strategy to understand and celebrate how a subject curriculum is put together, what works about it and what could do with some more thought. I’m thrilled that a recent visit by our school improvement partner for Derbyshire celebrated the robustness of these deep dives and noted the extent to which middle and senior leaders undertake them collaboratively.

Anyway, this week was dance and I found myself in a really brilliant dance lesson. You can only really understand how difficult something is when you try it yourself. A number of years ago I was pulled out from a salsa lesson because my flailing arms were ‘a physical threat to other dancers’. After this I took up martial arts where, puzzlingly, the instructor assured me that my flailing arms presented no physical threat to anybody. In today’s lesson students were coming to terms with the Brazilian art of Capoeira which is a kind of fighting dance. The piece was based on one studied at GCSE as can be seen from the excerpt below from the scheme of work (that’s the dance teacher’s nail polish, not mine). I was really impressed with the dance teacher’s attention to detail and her apparent refusal to accept standards that did not meet her expectations. It was also brilliant to see boys taking on direction as enthusiastically as girls.

So, thanks again for supporting us through a difficult period. Please continue to follow all the advice which we forward to you from relevant agencies, some of which will be included in this newsletter. In a number of cases, families have been supremely responsible in communicating with us where there is a worry and working with the school calmly and thoughtfully to reduce the risks to others. I look forward to a time when this particular challenge is on the way out rather than on the way in.

Have a good weekend.

Student Bulletin

Week commencing Monday 16 March 2020 Year 10 Engineering Controlled Assessment in lessons until Easter Year 11 art/photography exam preparation in lessons until 20 March 2020 A level art/textiles exam preparation in lessons until 1 May 2020

Monday 8.40am – Year 7 assembly Year 13 geology students visit to Castleton (full day)

Tuesday 8.40am – Year 8 assembly 8.40am – Sixth form assembly 4-7pm Year 7 parent consultation evening (sports hall, Lumsdale)

Wednesday 8.40am – Year 11 assembly 7pm Evening of Dance (Bowler Hall, Starkholmes)

Thursday 8.40am – Year 10 assembly Year 9 & 10 science students visit to Keele University’s electron microscope unit

Friday 8.40am – Year 9 assembly

See extra-curricular clubs section for lunch and after school activities