Message from the headteacher

Some weeks are busier than others, but this has been an absolute corker. For this reason I find myself approaching my newsletter ‘bit’ very late on Thursday night. I am about to slump forward over my laptop so I will need to be extremely brief. Four things I want to share with you…

Firstly, ISN’T KYM GREAT? For anyone who doesn’t know, Kym is in charge of catering at Highfields School. I LOVE the food that they produce in our kitchens. Below is a picture of my lunch today. Tina made it and she told me that it was (from memory) celeriac and apple ‘slaw, chickpea curry, spinach dahl, roasted vegetable biryani and a flat bread. There was also a chicken option, but I have stopped eating meat at work after the EcoSchools-committee convinced me that reduced meat intake could vastly affect (positively) global climate change. The pudding was also gorgeous looking, but I didn’t have it because I’m trying to avoid any more of a middle aged spread.

Secondly, isn’t Mrs Morgan CRAZY about physics? I climbed sleepily out of my car at 7.30am on Tuesday only to be scared out of my skin by Mrs Morgan when she appeared from nowhere and screamed, ‘WHAT IS IT?!!’ I looked at the tin she held in her hand (see image) and suggested, ‘it’s a cake?’. ‘WRONG!’ she bellowed, ‘it’s a depiction of Rutherford’s discovery of the atom!’ She marched off towards the labs adding, ‘it’s for my A level lesson this afternoon…’ I totally love it when teachers are passionate about what they teach (and, come to think of it, it does look like Rutherford’s atoms).

Thirdly… don’t you love sport? This week I’ve spent several happy hours taking a deep dive into Highfields physical education. Deep dives are our way of offering encouragement and challenge to our curriculum specialists. Some marvellous activities seen including this lesson where Mrs Allen was teaching students to hurdle (alright, it’s not one of the all-time great sports photos - I’ll grant you that).

And finally, isn’t CCTV great? Well…no actually…not if it’s misused. We in schools can only look at CCTV when we have a clear reason to do so (GDPR). This week I was using it to review an incident, but I couldn’t help notice that in the five-minute segment I watched, no fewer than SIX hi-vis vest wearing staff (including me) wandered across the screen, doing their best to keep an eye on our precious students. Thanks to ALL STAFF who give up their time to wander around and keep things nice and calm.

So, at 11.23pm that’s your lot. Eyes closing.

Hope you have a nice weekend. We are…yawn…Highfields.

A Marsh Headteacher