15th July 2022
HEADLINES
By James Saunders
I am sure that it would not have gone unnoticed that things have recently been a bit different at Honywood. We did not publish headlines last week because it was our last enrichment week of the year. I hope that like me you have been able to follow the exploits of our learners on Facebook. I would like to thank Mrs Frogley for all of the hard work she puts into our Facebook site to keep families updated with the exploits of our learners and the many teachers who took the hundreds of photos we shared with you all. I can see from the comments, that parents have really valued the ability to follow the progress of their children whilst they have been away and none of this would be possible without someone coordinating this. I would also like to thank our parents and community whose engagements with our social media bring it to life. I would like to thank our staff who have given up their week, away from their own families, to support the residential trips to Devon and Norfolk. None of these things are possible without staff going the extra mile. I was looking forward to spending time with learners on the Devon trip. However, after a short visit to hospital the week before I was unable to go and confined to school. My disappointment soon turned around once I got into school. We had a small group of learners from each cohort in school for the week and I got to share in the range of activities and local trips they took part in. HAPPINESS AND SUCCESS At Honywood it is really important that learners leave us happy as well as successful. In my experience this is only possible through effective and positive relationships. Our enrichment weeks and opportunities to develop social and cultural capital are all designed to build stronger relationships - we believe that to prepare learners for the future they must be able to build and sustain networks of relationships.
‘He was their inspiration. He made their lives extraordinary’ The tagline from Peter Weir’s Dead Poets Society; a film featuring the highly acclaimed performance by the late Robin Williams as Mr Keating the English teacher. The film, set in a world where the pressure to succeed is high, tells the story of the relationship that Mr Keating develops with his students. These relationships are arguably what set the students free from the shackles of the pressure to succeed. Through these relationships he inspired them to meet their potential. Dead Poets Society begs the question: ‘Is effective teaching more about good relationships than anything else?’ I think there is some merit in this question but it is not a case of one or the other. Our goal of happiness and success cannot be achieved if we just focus purely on academic rigour and likewise it won’t emerge if we just concentrate on relationships at the expense of learning and progress. Academic study is vitally important and helps to unlock many doors for us. However, without a focus on relationships we will not be able to create a support network and ethos that creates success and keeps those doors open once we walk through. We have had everyone back this week for the final full week of term. We finish on Thursday next week, which will be a half day therefore this will be the final headlines of the year. I would like to thank everyone in our community for their support over the last year. I wish you all a wonderful summer and look forward to our return in September. James Saunders