Message from the head

Y11 and 13 assessments appear to be going well. As you may know, senior leaders aim to tour the school at least once a day to ensure that classroom staff are being supported in their work. On many of my ‘sweeps’ at the moment I find myself coming across classes who are hunched over assessments, carefully trying to demonstrate the skills and knowledge that will enable their teacher to reflect an appropriate grade for them. We’ve had a range of meetings with heads of department about these assessments. Mainly we’ve discussed the format and propriety of arrangements, but we’ve also touched along the way on the enormous breadth of the curriculum that our students undertake.

This breadth is what excites me. A couple of sixth formers found me peering the other day into a sixth form classroom (I don’t always like to disturb the lesson so will sometimes observe through the door window). The students asked me if I was alright (I suppose I must have been frowning) and I asked them, ‘what do you suppose a beach profile is?’. As luck would have it, they were geographers and explained to me that beach profiles allow coastal scientists to predict how wave conditions etc will affect coastlines. This made me think of the publican in Devon whose business literally fell off the edge of a cliff thanks to the relentless action of the waves over time. Presumably the pub was built in the days before beach profiling could prevent it.

As you may know, my own area of the curriculum is the arts and on Wednesday evening I stayed late to sit in on some Y11 drama assessments. Like so much Y11 assessment work going on at the moment, the students had clearly invested very heavily in the process. I wrote to the students later that night.

“Dear Year 11 Performers, I want you to know how moved I was by the experience of seeing your performances last night. I was quite surprised by my own emotions on seeing live theatre for the first time in a while. Somebody like me really relies on the arts to make them feel human. A wise person once said, ‘we read to know we are not alone’ and this is how I feel about the arts. Your work last night reminded me that I am not alone in coming to terms with all that life has to throw at us. I loved the way you delved so skilfully into narratives and brought them to life. I loved the way that you committed to character and had me connect with the character you were playing. I felt so sad for the character in Tissue and then, moments later, I felt a kind of thrilling revulsion of the woman in Two.

For me, examinations such as GCSE and A level have always been an added detail. They are tests to allow you to demonstrate what you know to new establishments such as sixth forms, colleges, universities or work . But learning in schools is about far more than examinations. In the performing arts, for example, you are communicating with lonely souls like me and you are reassuring us that with, all our quirks and foibles, we are not alone. You remind us that there is a world of human experience out there, some of it even more strange and various than our own.

Thanks again for making me laugh and cry and ‘feel’ again as we begin to work our way out of this pandemic. I will never forget your year group, your drama group and your performances last night. Mr Marsh”

Exams are a necessary part of life. But young people learning about the world around them and their fellow inhabitants… that’s what school is really about.

Have a wonderful weekend. We are Highfields.