In the brave new world of academy planning, one finishes earlier some Fridays (it’s only 5 o’clock and yes, by headteacher standards, this is early – especially given that I’m now back home). So rather than sit with my feet up and feel guilty in the knowledge that at least one member of my leadership team is still likely to be toiling away at HCC, I’m travelling there in spirit to write about what’s going on.
There’s no getting away from the fact that a large part of what’s going on is the planning for our new academy. More and more staff and students are getting involved in different aspects of the planning and it’s beginning to feel very real to us at last. Firstly, I am delighted to report that we have now appointed the Academy Leadership Team for September. Niall Smith, Greg Hayes, Alison Hollands, Dafydd Humphreys and David Collins are all taking up roles in the new structure, which will be published shortly. On Monday we interview for the remaining ALT post and again it is gratifying to report that we have a strong internal field from which to make that appointment. A depressing number of academies seem to start by axing some or all of their leadership teams, whilst we are in the happy position of being able to expand ours from within the college.
The appointments process continues apace over the next few weeks and we hope to have our entire teaching workforce secured by the Easter break. The appointment of support staff will begin immediately afterwards.
However, it’s the students who are really beginning to take a lead in sorting things out for September. The Uniform Design Group, comprising years 7-10, has been working with a Dutch designer, Marloes tem Bhomer, as well as HCC art teachers, to work up some distinctive but practical uniform ideas which they exhibited in Art 2 this lunchtime. The designs should be ready to present to parents by the end of term.
Then on 24th March six HCC students with Mr. Collins fly out to Sweden for two days at Kunskapsskolan Nykoping, where Skolchef (headteacher) Marcus Brunberg has arranged a full programme of activities which should build up some really good links between our two sets of students. The students will be filming and recording their visit to share with their peers back at HCC the following week.
Away from the Academy, at the top end of the school we have another very important group of young people – our year 11 students, who as I write have just 27 days of compulsory full time education left before their GCSE written exams begin. Parents would be intrigued to see our staffroom cupboard doors – once the showcase for interesting photos of Mr. Crossan and colleagues enjoying the staff Christmas party, but now a sea of ‘amber’ photos of our potentially high achieving students who are getting ever closer to achieving their goal of at least five top grade GCSE passes including English and Maths. In today’s staff briefing Mr. Scruby and Ms. Rodgers were hopping around excitedly in front of these photos having just added a load of ticks next to students’ names, indicating those who have already achieved a top grade pass in English and/or Maths. What a great accolade for those students who have now achieved a grade C or above in both of these crucial subjects, ahead of most of their peers nationally.
All the above augurs very well for this summer’s Year 11 exam results – but well before then Year 10 have the chance to show us what they’re made of, when they sit their first pre-GCSE assessments in the next two weeks. We are looking to this year group to break some key academic barriers – their target is for more than half the year group to achieve the ‘magic 5’ WITH English and Maths. Ms. Taylor assures us that they can do it!
As with my last two blogs, I end with more than a nod to our specialist arts college status: a record of my appreciation of the magical production of ‘Charlie & the Chocolate Factory’ which students for years 7, 8 and 9 performed for our local primary schools and for all key stage 3 year groups at HCC. Tristan van Rhyn’s Willie Wonka was mature and professional and will live long in the memory, as will the singing and dancing of the ‘Umpa Lumpas’ and the brilliant individuality of the rest of the cast. Big congratulations to Ms. Arthur for her first full scale production – we look forward to more!
It’s still Friday, I was still writing, but it’s now after 6pm, and in the words of Cathy MacGowan – the weekend starts here! Here’s to it, hope it’s a good one for you, and we all come up smiling on Monday morning.
Sue Demont





