Message from the headteacher

I had a very interesting discussion in my Personal Social Health Education (PSHE) lesson with Y7 this week. In it we explored introvert and extrovert personality types. It turned out that I was one of those in the lesson who identify most comfortably with the ‘introvert’ descriptors. Students were a little surprised by this, but I explained that although I’m used to talking to very large groups at work, I am very shy in my personal life. We then got talking about how most personality descriptors are a sliding scale and that we are all a bit of a mix of everything. I really enjoy that lesson every week…

The extroverts in Y7 geography were in their element as they approached members of the public as part of their field trip to Matlock on Wednesday morning. It’s the first time I’ve been selected to accompany the trip and I loved watching the students interact with their community and understand features of travel and of flood defences in the area. As usual on this particular field trip a member of the public made sure they checked in with the teacher and complimented us on the behaviour of our students. This is them as they trouped down into Matlock Park and updated their surveys.

When you work with 1,309 students every day you become used to being asked the same question several times (‘how long to the end of break?’ etc). Sometimes I like to vary my answers to see what happens. I picked up an apple from the floor when on lunch duty with Y7 this week and looked around for a bin to deposit it in. I kept forgetting that I had it and so walked around absent-mindedly for a while which caused a number of students to ask, ‘what are you carrying that apple around for?’. I told the first few the truth but when the ninth student asked I explained that I was carrying the apple around in the event that I had to win favour with an angry horse. I walked off but felt immediately regretful as they stood uncertainly in silence, presumably wondering what they would have to offer in the event of a similar scenario involving them.

As usual I have been in and out of lessons all week. I got my hands on some killer cheese straws in Y7 food and in art I came across these etchings by Ellie (L) and Levi (R). I loved that lesson because of the way that the teacher recognised the strength of the work (BTW I think they are both brilliant) but was also unafraid to challenge the students further. The discussion that ensued was all about choices of composition (notice the differing placements of the bottle in each piece). I love watching teachers work their magic.

Я сподіваюся, що ви чудово проведете вихідні та насолодитеся поступовою зміною сезону на осінь.

Have a good weekend!

A Marsh Headteacher