Headlines

Saunders

SCHOOL REBUILDING PROGRAMME

Last Friday Mr Munro and I were invited to the Department of Education headquarters in London. As we sat waiting in the lobby we were struck by the gallery of previous secretaries of state - there have been seven in the last five years. It certainly made us reflect on the ever changing landscape of education and explained why we always feel like change is upon us. Because the people dictating the policy at the top keep changing.

Our visit however, was not to review past secretaries of state; it was to begin our journey through the School Rebuilding Programme (SRP). You may be aware that after navigating the RAAC crisis we were placed on a list for a new school. It’s fair to say we garnered quite a bit of publicity regarding RAAC - this was intentional as the end game was always to get on that list. We also managed to deal with the RAAC issue pretty rapidly as a result.

Anyway, we are finally, but slowly, starting to move forward. There is a long journey ahead of us but I just wanted to share that you will all be a part of that journey. My vision for our school is always to be the beating heart of our community. Our input into the new build will keep that vision at the forefront. The less exciting stuff comes first - surveys and planning permission. After that we get to feed into the design process through the project brief. This is where your input will be really valuable. Nearer to the time I will be providing you with opportunities to feedback and interact with the project as it unfolds.

In the meantime, I have two 500-page documents to plough through. While that might sound a bit dry, I’ve already uncovered some incredibly creative and exciting aspects within them that give a wonderful glimpse into what our future school could look like.

We got to meet with a couple of architects who are employed by the DfE specifically to work on the

SRP projects. There is a huge emphasis on creating sustainable, “healthy and productive spaces”. For instance, the designs explicitly prioritise natural daylight over electrical lighting to boost the health and wellbeing of both learners and staff. What I find most exciting, however, is the focus on “naturebased solutions”. The new building guidelines aim to establish strong connections to the outdoors, linking the interior learning spaces with the surrounding landscape and framing beautiful views of courtyard gardens. As a school that encourages learners to be outside at lunch and break times, this is a welcome feature.

The outdoor environments themselves are designed to be a true “sanctuary for physical activity and learning”. The plans encourage direct, inclusive access to nature across our entrance, courtyards, and playscapes to spark “daily intrigue and imagination”. As we start feeding into the design, we may even have the opportunity to incorporate fantastic features like a gym trail, daily mile or regulation walking route, outdoor learning canopies , and traverse climbing walls!

My first deadline is to complete an updated school questionnaire to enable them to start the planning process.

Wherever we end up, we will do it together.

And whilst I am on the theme of a trip to London. Yesterday was the cohort 11 trip to London - the first one I have missed. This trip still remains one of my favourites. It is always lovely to see learning group leaders who have supported their groups for five years enjoying each other’s company. Whilst the day had an element of challenge and competitiveness the real winner is always the culmination of a shared journey. A journey marked by the warm relationships that exist within each learning group. Schools will often miss out Cohort 11 when it comes to enrichment experiences

as they have exams to focus on. However, I feel that this trip was a welcome mental health break which allowed them to enjoy time together and, for a short period of time at least, forget about the pressure of exams.

I would like to thank Mrs Frogley who is central to the organisation of our enrichment programme. It is a colossal ask of all of our staff to support a day such as this - for one thing, it meant that 19 staff were not in the building. To name them all would take an entire page. Every member of staff supports and contributes to our enrichment programme and the personal development of all our learners. Whilst this is the last trip for C11 we look forward to many more enriching experiences next term.

Have a lovely weekend.

James Saunders

This week, we had the pleasure of welcoming Louis Langenberg from the National Education Nature Park to Honywood. He came to work with the Climate Action Team and some members of the School Council to help us map out our school grounds. Using flow diagrams that Louis brought with him, we identified various habitats around our school site and considered areas that could be developed to increase biodiversity. Hopefully, we will be able to put some of these ideas into action and create areas of our school that will encourage more wildlife and biodiversity. If you have any spring bulbs that have now flowered and are no longer wanted or any wildflower seed mix, we would welcome any donations. Thank you.

Climate Action Team

Further to our Climate Action Challenge in Headlines of 27th February, some C8 learners and a friend went for a litter pick around their local area. Well done to Tegan, Emily, Clara and Mya (Mya is not a Honywood learner) for improving your community, protecting wildlife, and reducing environmental pollution.

Well done to our C7 girls who, on Tuesday 17th March, won their netball match against Ramsey very convincingly 16-0! They are looking forward to the district tournament next week! Well done girls!

This photo has been produced with the agreement of all parents.

A group of learners who play brass instruments were invited to participate in a workshop at the Braintree Institute organised by the London Musical Theatre Orchestra. Meeting other learners from local schools for the first time today, they rehearsed together preparing for a performance at the end of today for parents. The learners were outstanding and throughly enjoyed their experience. What an opportunity to work with professionals from the industry. Well done to all of the learners who took part.