enter!
Welcome to the Thomas Tallis Common Room...
The common room at Thomas Tallis’ Post-16 Centre is small but full of life. Tucked away in one corner there’s a young man with a sketchbook, putting the finishing touches to a pencil drawing in the style of Lucien Freud. There’s scratchy hip hop leaking out of someone’s iPod ear buds while they puzzle over pure maths. And in another corner, three girls are perched on the window ledge, sipping on Fanta. “The most beautiful thing about Thomas Tallis,” says a current student, who joined the school way back in Year 7, “is that it’s so mixed. You get everyone here, all types of people and that’s a special thing. “ One long-serving teacher agrees: “We’re lucky enough to have a full spectrum here.” We pride ourselves on the fact that Tallis is an inclusive school, which celebrates the diversity of its intake.
So what’s on offer? You’ll get inspirational teaching and creative learning in this place
Year 12 and 13 are all about extending your knowledge and sharpening those skills you acquired during GCSE. You’ll be able to choose from a wide range of subjects at Tallis, including Art, Further Maths, Chemistry and Philosophy. Obviously, there are plenty of other subjects on offer and the excellent teaching and strong tutor system ensures that you’ll be able to squeeze everything possible from each course you take. We achieve excellent results each year and we’re consistently high up in the borough league tables. We are not a results factory though, and believe that the social skills and enrichment you gain from the Tallis Sixth Form are equally important. The sixth form is an equal mix of students from Tallis and those from other schools in the state and independent sectors, some from as far afield as Sweden and Nigeria. It’s a vibrant, mixed environment that makes for a sparky education.
but that’s not all folks... At Thomas Tallis we want you to make the most of
the academic and social opportunities on offer.
In recent years we have reached the national finals of the Debating Matters competition, beating top private schools along the way. Students have taken part in enrichment trips to New York, to see theatre in Athens and to visit Belgian war graves. When one student found he needed more from the curriculum, Tallis offered him Astronomy as an extra. And that’s on top of all the everyday stuff, the radio station, the newspaper, the events (staff v student basketball matches; making films, podcasts and fanzines; helping out with the Fair Trade committee) and the opportunities for mentoring students in the lower school. Professionals from all walks of life regularly visit the school: ceramicists, film-makers, graphic designers, politicians and poets expand horizons and extend learning. Variously the school is described as “buzzy”, “creative” and “lively”.
our vision expressed...
We know exactly what the school ethos is. “It embraces individuality, it’s
about making a difference, and it’s about going beyond the curriculum.” says the Head of Year
The head of Sixth Form is sitting in her office, surrounded by papers and phones and books. Her door is open and you can hear the bursts of laughter and shouting from the common room - well, the office is in the common room, albeit tucked away in a tiny corner.
“There’s a belief and determination in our students,” she says, “they celebrate success
and they’re willing to take risks. They’ll often go beyond what we think education is, but
still with rigour and discipline.” If a student has an idea, Tallis is willing to run with it and crucially, fund it. Take the radio station. “Students learn about the subject matter but they also learn about communication and relationships.
These are precious skills.”
Pastoral care is equally important, and students have access to our fully staffed counselling
service as well as formal and informal mentoring. Students meet with their tutor at the start and end of each day and have a fortnightly individual tutorial.
Life through a lens It’s not all about A-Levels. You should check out what’s happening on the BTEC courses...
Some students enrolled on our BTEC media course because they were IT obsessives who wanted to get deep into technology, or mediaphiles who wanted professional skills to get a foot in the door. “A levels aren’t the only measure,” says the head of media. “This is a way of finding your talents and developing your skills. By the end of the course we had people posting films on MySpace and transforming into real experts.” The BTEC group have made a film of an anti-bullying conference at Charlton FC which was distributed Greenwich-wide. There was a professional covering the conference who had forgotten his leads. We’d done equipment checks and had everything plus spares. He had to borrow ours. What we did really mattered.” We presently offer courses in finance, health and social care, business and art and design and there will be an expansion of the BTEC offer in the near future.
Committee HQ The Sixth Form Committee runs events, raises money for projects both within and without the school and acts as the official voice of the upper school...
The chair of the Sixth Form Committee is sitting confidently on a desk, orchestrating the chatter around her. “Alright everyone,” she says. “who wants to organise the music at the cultural evening?” Various volunteers are found, whilst questions and answers fly across the room: the precise content of the African snacks on offer, if anyone can add to the belly dancing already promised; whether fruit cocktails are a good idea. The agenda marches on and plans for the new term are discussed - how students can get a show on the common room radio station (answer: hand in a playlist and you’ll be allocated a slot); deadlines for student newspaper Peeping Tom and a request for contributions for their fortnightly cake sale. “I’ll do some,” offers a lad at the back. “Yeah,” says his mate, rocking back on his chair, “angel cakes are really easy, man.”
in for the long haul... If you’ve got questions, there’s always someone around to help
A significant number of staff members have been walking up Kidbrooke Park Road and through the school gates for ten, twenty or even thirty years . “It’s a good school,” says one long-serving teacher. “Tallis works a kind of alchemy on students. You see young people transform quite dramatically. The older members of staff imbue the younger teachers with the Tallis ethos and ensure that the magic has persisted.” Teachers with new skills are constantly joining the school and many stay for a long time. The student-teacher relationship is more relaxed than in the lower school, a dynamic which reinforces the key concept of independent learning. “Teachers here encourage us; they suggest things to read and they don’t get bored of all our questions” say two students who joined in Year 12 and are now applying for Oxbridge. “In other places they’d be too busy to see you in their lunch hour.”
The story continues into the new building...
Next!
There are big plans - and the Sixth Form community will be expected
to take part in shaping the most dramatic change in the school since
it opened in 1971. “We’ve had a school council for over ten years so it’s well embedded,” says the Headteacher. “It’s important to us.
We’re interested in what students have to say and we like to act on it.” As well as the obvious arts focus, new courses are constantly
coming online as the school grows. And what’s the best thing about
the Sixth Form? “This is a dynamic school. We’re helping support
young people to become independent learners and citizens ready to
meet the challenges of the future.”
Thomas Tallis School Kidbrooke Park Road London SE3 9PX t 0208 856 0115 • f 0208 319 4715 e admin@thomastallis.greenwich.sch.uk w www.thomastallis.co.uk