Headlines By James Saunders 7th June 2019
These are just two of many areas that are making great progress. Welcome
Welcome back everyone, to the last part of the summer term. In six weeks I will have completed my first full academic year at Honywood and am looking forward getting stuck into the next year. We have made many changes and developed many aspects of the school over the last year and I thank you for your continuing support as we strive to achieve great things at Honywood. Our C11’s have officially left us now and are well into their exams. I wish them the very best as they navigate through this final part of their Honywood journey. This leaves us with C10 taking the spot as the role models of the school. Speaking of role models, I arrived at the start of the week to a lovely thank you card from the Essex records office and Coggeshall Listening Bench project. You will recall I mentioned three of our C10 Lead Learners before half term who had helped out with this project. They are now a permanent part of the Essex Records Office sound archives. Their legacy as role models will most certainly live on for future generations. This week I had two experiences with our learners that reaffirmed why I come to work every day and highlighted the great role models we have at Honywood. The first experience was talking to our C10 (soon to be C11) Lead Learners on Tuesday. It was impressive to hear how their ideas are starting to take shape; they spoke to the Leadership Team with clarity, confidence and conviction - a real credit. I am looking forward to seeing how our classroom environments will benefit from the work of the environment team - if you work at a garden centre they would very much like to speak with you. The virtual world learners also shared some great ideas about supporting learners with using technology - they are currently trying to get a representative from Google to visit the school.
The week ended with a lunchtime meeting with three C7 girls. They had arranged to come and see me off the back of one of their English lessons with Miss McPhail. Part of their studies involved presenting to the class on an important issue. Miss McPhail was so impressed with these girls that she asked if they could present to me. I sat in my office in awe as these girls passionately explained the effects of climate change on the wildlife of the oceans. They presented me with an emotional call to arms as they highlighted the importance of understanding our own carbon footprint and its impact on the environment. I have seen many presentations by learners in my career; this one was most definitely one of the very best. What made it so great was the careful thought that had gone into the words they used. This was not a simple reading off of slides. This work stemmed from an excellent grasp of persuasive writing and great English skills. They are now going to be talking with further staff and the Lead Learners about their ideas for how we raise awareness of climate change at Honywood. These three C7s are most definitely the Lead Learners of the future; they have already taking on the position of role models. I wish you a great weekend. I hope to see you at our family fun day Feel Good Fair this Sunday. Thanks To: Abbi, Esme and Georgia who presented me with an inspiring vision on their ideas for addressing climate change at Honywood. To: Lead learners who presented to the Leadership Team on Tuesday, Faris Bilbesi, Hannah Byrne, Caitlyn Ellis, Holly King, Fraser McLauchlan, Jess Rudling and Kate Southgate.