Headlines

By James Saunders

QUALITY OF EDUCATION

It feels as though every year we have a new challenge that tries to pull us away from our core purpose. After conquering the RAAC situation last year we look forward to a challenge/crisis free year (fingers crossed). I for one am glad to be able to devote more time and energy to our strategic plans rather than building plans. We enter the year with our efforts fully committed to what we value most - the quality of the education at Honywood.

Our capital enhancing curriculum continues to underpin our vision and is just as much about developing what we teach our learners as it is, how we teach them. Building character and achieving success continue to be a part of what we do. Our aim is for learners to leave us happy as well as successful.

I would like to take this opportunity to remind you of our five capitals (Moral, Social, Cultural, Knowledge and Professional) and highlight our curriculum principles. Please click the icon to view the video.

Our capital enhancing curriculum should:

1. Foster a love for learning

2. Be challenging, rigorous and personalised

3. Offer breadth and depth of learning

4. Be knowledge rich and culturally enhancing

5. Recognise the importance of connecting with prior learning

6. Be rich in literacy, numeracy and oracy

7. Require learners to showcase their learning effectively

8. Be transparent and demonstrate progress

9. Allow learners to acquire and develop their knowledge, skills and attributes

10. Model success and aspire for excellence

11. Require learners to build and demonstrate a strong set of shared values

12. Enable learners to leave us resilient, confident and successful so they can embrace their future

These curriculum principles can be mapped across our five capitals. It won’t surprise you to know that they are mostly concentrated in the development of knowledge capital. The thing that will make the most difference to success in this area is ensuring we have built a challenging and aspirational learning experience that progresses over the five years learners study with us. And the thing that ensures optimum execution of this curriculum content: great teaching and learning and great teachers. These are the things we will continue to develop into this year. With that in mind I would like to welcome the new teachers who have started with us this year. Mr Mantle has joined the Science department; Miss Strachan joins the English team; Mr Pragnell and Miss Goodchild both join the Maths team; Miss Da-Silva joins the Art team; Ms Soris joins the Computer Science team. They all bring a wealth of experience and expertise in their fields and have made a great start to teaching our learners.

If you are unfamiliar with our five capitals here is a quick recap/summary of them:

• Moral Capital: Day to day all learners and staff live through our core values and promote equity and well being.

• Social Capital: All learners leave Honywood

HONYWOOD CURRICULUM PRINCIPLES

fully prepared with the resilience, attributes and independence needed to embrace, and positively contribute to, society.

• Cultural Capital: Authentic learning is embedded in all aspects of the curriculum. Learners develop a rich vocabulary and contextual awareness through a culturally enriching curriculum.

• Knowledge Capital: Deep knowledge acquisition underpins all learning. Evidence-based evaluation and analysis of learning by teachers enables personalised learning design and drives continual improvement in the classroom through the sharing of best practice.

• Professional Capital: Leadership across the school is both learning and teacher centred and drives continual improvement through collaboration and the sharing of best practice.

I wish you all a lovely weekend

James Saunders

WHAT ARE CHILDREN LEARNING THIS TERM? CURRICULUM SUMMARIES

It has been lovely to receive so many lovely comments from families about teaching and learning over these past few weeks. During our daily tour with families, parents have been really impressed with how our high expectations and in class support create a climate that enables children to feel safe and happy. We aim to create a climate that is fully inclusive and allows everyone to access learning free from disruption. Our small classes and positive behaviour contribute to this climate. Feedback from new and existing families has also supported this. It is nice to hear that learners are embracing the many extra curricular opportunities we offer.

When we start each academic year, one of the top questions parents ask is “what are the learners learning?” and “how do we make them aware of what children are learning at school”.

In response to this feedback we have developed a curriculum section on our website under the Learning Tab. You can access the page here: https://www. honywoodschool.com/curriculum

Within this page we have provided links to an overview of what is being learnt in every subject in each cohort. The pages look like this:

Each subject provides you with an overview of this term’s topics, the key concepts and assessment points, as well as what forms of feedback and guidance they will receive and the key vocabulary they will be learning. If you would like to know a bit more about what learners are learning this term then please use the links below or browse the curriculum area of the website. We hope that this will enable families to engage in conversations about the learning taking place in school and improve their awareness of what is being taught.

Cohort 7 - Autumn Term Curriculum

Cohort 8 - Autumn Term Curriculum

Cohort 9 - Autumn Term Curriculum

Cohort 10 - Autumn Term Curriculum

Cohort 11 - Autumn Term Curriculum

INDEPENDENT STUDY

“Independent Study is not an optional extra, but an essential part of a good education”. -1999 White Paper, Excellence in Schools

I would like to take the opportunity this week to update you on Independent Study (IS) so that expectations and requirements are clear. The aims of Independent study, or homework, are as follows:

Independent Study enables learners to:

• Consolidate, apply and extend work covered in learning sessions or prepare for new learning activities.

• Access resources beyond the classroom.

• Develop research skills.

• Have an opportunity for independent work.

• Demonstrate progress and understanding.

• To enhance their study skills e.g. planning, time management and self-discipline.

• To take ownership and responsibility for learning.

• Engage parental cooperation and support.

• Create channels for home/school dialogue.

Communication of Independent Study

All Independent Study should be communicated to learners via Google Classroom and, where appropriate, feedback will be given using Google Classroom. Not all Independent Study will require the use of Google Classroom, however there is an expectation that this is consistently used to communicate it. This year we have introduced IS booklets for C7 and C9. The IS booklets should stay at home and should be completed when

set by teachers in google classroom. Each completed IS booklet should form a knowledge organiser of a key topic that learners have been covering. Learners should take a picture of each completed IS and upload to google classroom - their teachers will support them with this. This will allow teachers to monitor their understanding and the completion of the booklets. Once a booklet is completed it should then be brought back into school to support preparation for end of topic assessments. After these assessments a new booklet will be issued for the next study period.

Independent Study should always be labelled as ‘Independent Study’ with a due date and time set. Parents are able to receive a weekly summary of all work set in Google Classroom. This summary should provide a short digest of work set in Google Classroom - we label it Independent study so that it is easy to differentiate between classwork.

Responsibilities: The role of the Learner

• To listen to Independent Study instructions in class.

• To check Google Classroom each day after 3.30pm noting the Independent Study set and deadline

• To ensure that Independent Study is completed and marked on Google Classroom as ‘handed in’ prior to the deadline.

• To attempt all Independent Study to the best of their effort.

• To inform the class teacher of any difficulties before the deadline.

Responsibilities: The role of the Class Teacher

The class teacher controls the direction of Independent Study and the nature of tasks undertaken which will broadly fit into one of the following three categories –Consolidation; Application; Preparation. The teacher will:

• Set Independent Study according to their timetable.

• Provide the stimulus.

• Give full and comprehensive instructions.

• Set reasonable deadlines for completed Independent Study and ensure that they are met.

• Provide help and support.

• Inform the Subject Leader, Cohort Leader, and Learning Group Leader as appropriate, when problems arise.

If you are not set up to receive a weekly summary of work set in Google Classroom please contact the school so that we may set this up for you.

Team:

C7 Football

Ben Irwin , Ralf Gooding, Dougie Hopkins , Finley Doughton , Leo Hammond, Manny Munro-Johnson, Ethan Yerby, Rosie Cagney, Heath Saunders, Eddie Hutchison, Louie Tunnell, Bobby Keig, Zach Bishop, Kalen Dodson and Tyler Farrow

Ramsey 3 Honywood 3

The first half was an even game although it was the Ramsey goalkeeper who was called upon to make some good saves from the Honywood strikers. Ramsey eventually made a breakthrough and took the lead from a corner and it stayed this way until half time despite Honywood pressing to even up the score.

In the second half, Honywood equalised from good attacking forward play with Ethan Yerby finishing the move with a great shot. Ramsey then started to play the quicker football and took full advantage from two defensive mistakes to take a 3-1 lead. Honywood finally started to dominate the game with Eddie Hutchison and Rosie Cagney causing problems to the Ramsey defence. Hutchison eventually broke through and finished off a good move to make the score 2-3. With all to play for, Honywood were now on top and it was an excellent shot from Ethan Yerby from outside the box that equalised the game. Honywood continued to attack trying to get the winning goal but the match ended with a final score of 3-3. This was a good performance for their first game as a team. Well done! Joint players of the match were Rosie Cagney and Ethan Yerby.

This week C11 Geographers were in Colchester city centre and Walton on the Naze for the field studies work. They were rewarded with a glorious day to be on the coast measuring longshore drift and coastal erosion! All skills they will be expected to know when completing their GCSE next summer.