Headlines 14Nov25 by Honywood School

James Saunders

FRESH EYES ON LEARNING

Yesterday was one of those days where I got to spend all my time in the classroom. As part of my job I am afforded the privilege of being able to see our learners in action on a regular basis and watch them respond to the input of our great teachers. I have managed to get into classes frequently over the last two weeks. Wednesday however, was slightly different. Normally I pop into lessons on my own as I am walking around school but on Wednesday we had a few visitors. One of the great things about working in a trust of schools is the ability to share ideas and collaborate with others and that was indeed what we did this week. We hosted our yearly trust review. This involves the headteacher and a senior leader from each of our partner schools, the head of our teaching school, the CEO of the trust and of course, our staff. This was our first review with Mark Guest, the new CEO of the Saffron Academy Trust.

The day involved visiting lessons across the school (every subject and teacher was seen), talking to staff and to children. I had to step out of the programme for part of the day as I did not want to miss teaching my year 9 class. The day was a real success and provided us with the opportunity to get some external “fresh eyes” to look at the improvements we have made since they last visited at the start of January. Teaching came out strong, however what sits beneath teaching is the culture of the school which was recognised as being excellent. Whilst the team will put together a more detailed report I thought it would be nice to share a few comments from the end of the day debrief. They are not in any order - but I did put the ones that filled me with a warm glow first:

• This is a kind school!

• Inclusion is exceptional

• Children are happy in school

• There are strong relationships

• There is warmth and positivity

• Learners are well known by staff

• Learners feel safe, happy and staff care about them

• Learners are happy to talk and love their school

• Improvements in quality of teaching and learning are clear

• Excellent practice around modeling

• Assessment highlights some great practiceclearly visible and embedded

• Pupils have high aspirations including pathways beyond school

• Behaviour is excellent

• The strategy around attendance is good as is the communication and reward system

• Staff are happy and proud of the school

Some of the team members had never been to Honywood before. The feedback they gave was lovely. The whole team could not stress enough just how wonderful our learners are. I will feed back to you with more details once we have compiled the report.

I wish you all a lovely weekend.

James Saunders

THANKS

To the following learners for being the pupil voice at the Fresh Eyes review on Wednesday.

C7: Isaac Andrews, Chloe Briggs, Harper Marangou, Mason Winchester

C8: Stevie Davey, Benjamin Irwin, Oakley Maddox, Lillian Marciniak

C9: Daisy Balneaves, Roman Hague, Mohammed Malek

C10: Harvey Croft, Veronika Havryliuk, Ivy Murkowski

C11: Scarlet Cooper. William Lebaga, Frances Rassell

Well done to Charlie Aitken in C9 who competed at the HWA RANG Tang Soo Do European championships 2025 in Worksop on Saturday and was awarded Silver medal for traditional forms and bronze for his weapon forms (Bo staff). Brilliant achievement Charlie!

Well done to Emily Cullen in C8! Emily attended ADFP sparkle championships and won 1st place in pairs with her dance partner. Fabulous achievement Emily!

Congratulations to Kieran Tredgett (C10) on being selected to attend the Scouts' North America & Canada Expedition in 2027!

This incredible opportunity follows his selection for the Australian Jamboree, which he attended at the beginning of this year. Kieran has been dedicated to Scouting for the last nine years and has also served as a Young Leader at his local Beaver Scout group for the past year.

His hard work, dedication, and commitment have made these amazing experiences possible. Well done, Kieran!

Well done to Noah Williams C8, George Swinbourn C9 and Adam Coomber C10 who represented Honywood School by marching in the Witham Parade with their Air Cadet Squadron. The Cadets are still in training in the 295 Witham and Rivenhall Air Cadets and don’t yet have their blues so they marched in their school uniform and beautifully represented the school.

COHORT 7

Score: Honywood 10 Alec Hunter 4

Team. Felix Eyre (Capt), Isaac Banham, Thomas Bates, Finley Weavers, Max Lesiak, Jude Gee, James Casey, Jax Sears, Seb Robinson, Daniel James, Theo Flint, Noah Pearce

This was an excellent performance by the Cohort 7 team and straight from the kick off they dominated the game, which resulted in Honywood taking their chances and racing to a 5-0 lead. Following a number of positional changes, giving all the squad an equal amount of game time, Honywood continued to push forward in attack and the final score of 10-4 was a clear account of Hollywood's dominance. Goals coming from Max Lesiak (4), Jax Sears (2), Seb Robinson (2), James Casey and Theo Flint. There were some fine all round performances from Tom Bates, Max Lesiak and James Casey. Well Done C7. Keep up the good work!

Score: Tabor 1 Honywood 8

Team. Felix Eyre (Capt), Isaac Banham, Thomas Bates, Finley Weavers, Max Lesiak, Jude Gee, James Casey, Jax Sears, Seb Robinson, Daniel James, Theo Flint, Noah Pearce. Ozzy Bishop

In the first few minutes of the game Felix Eyre pulled off a fine save from Tabor’s attacking player but after that Honywood firmly took control by defending superbly. Honywood made many attacks on goal and were 5-0 up at half time. Changes were made in the second half, ensuring all the squad equal amounts of playing time, and Honywood scored another three well-made goals. There were some excellent performances from all the team with James Casey and Max Lesiak getting Players of the Game and Jax Sears getting a well-earned hat- trick. Other scorers were Seb Robinson (2) and Isaac Banham, Theo Flint and Max Lesiak scoring one each.

Mr G Walters