Headmaster's Message
Dear Parents
It is a clear sign that the school year is gathering pace when first our Year 6 pupils go off to what for most of them is their final entrance exam at Princethorpe College and then I start to hear Christmas tunes drifting through into my office from the first nativity rehearsals in the hall. I have spent a good deal of my time this week over at Princethorpe looking at applications for Year 7 places as part of the admissions panel over there. It is genuinely impressive how each and every application is looked at in some detail and all aspects of the child’s strengths are discussed, not just the academic. I know that lots of independent schools say they look at the whole child before making offers but this isn’t always entirely accurate. I can promise you that at Princethorpe College, it genuinely is. Whilst our Year 6s still have a nervous wait for offers to come through, at least they now know they have gone out there and done their best. There is nothing more they can do and now is the time to settle back down into the comforting routines of school.
Tonight, after our own movie night, I will be at the Princethorpe annual prize-giving event, something many of our current pupils will be aspiring to attend in a few years’ time.
Earlier in the week Mrs Forth and I attended a fascinating professional development training course on improving outcomes for the children in our school. We discussed a lot of key areas and in particular the importance of having clear success criteria for the lessons that we teach and enabling the children to work and learn collaboratively. There is well tested evidence to show that this is significantly the most effective way to learn, when pupils are fully engaged and actively involved in the process with the ability to influence the learning, as opposed to being the passive recipient of the teacher’s wisdom. The importance of teacher feedback, both verbal and written, was also strongly emphasised. These messages fit in well with the whole school aim this year to provide a broad and engaging curriculum and we will be sharing what we gained with the rest of the staff in professional development sessions in due course.
I’d like to wish our footballers good luck in the ESFA tournament at the weekend and thank our sports staff for the extra time they willingly give up to staff and coach our children at these important events.
Whatever you have planned for the weekend, I hope you find the time for some well-earned rest. I think I might need to do exactly that myself!
Best wishes
Joe Thackway
