Introduction
I should start where I finished last week. I put my final full stop on my Blog at about 9.30pm last Saturday night, saying that I was looking forward to a special day when all my family (and associated partners where available) were coming to us for a special lunch as child number two was on a flying visit from New Zealand. I am happy to report that we had a very memorable meal, what can be better than good food, good drink and good company. I offered advice to parents to make the most of their time with their families whilst they can, I’m inclined to repeat that message again – it was very painful saying goodbye to her again on Tuesday morning!
So, like all things, we have to take the rough with the smooth. I couldn’t help feeling that acutely on Wednesday morning. After walking around at morning break time enjoying chatting with our children and meeting children and teachers from visiting schools for the South London girls U14 hockey tournament, and even visiting the hockey pavilion to sneak a free cup of tea from parents who were providing refreshments for the tournament, I then walked back into school. That was the “smooth” part. After walking into the Atrium I accidentally slipped and fell, putting all my weight onto my fairly new second knee replacement. (This was the “rough” part!) I confess to squealing like a baby, a non too pleasant sound, which I am fairly sure resounded around the school. If I can take any joy from this experience it was the following. I have written on several occasions as to how proud I am to be the Head of a school which has, at it’s heart, a genuine sense of care and concern for all it’s members, regardless of age or status. So it was not because I was the Head teacher that all members of staff, and students, present came very quickly to my aid. This would have happened regardless of who it was that was hurt. Support staff and teaching staff very quickly, efficiently and with care and concern checked that I was ok, moved into a medical room via a wheel-chair, arranged another member of staff to drive me and my car home and another member of staff to follow behind to bring that member of staff back to school. They could not have done more for me, they could not have been more professional, more efficient and more caring in helping me out. My comfort comes from the knowledge that our staff would do exactly the same for anyone in that position. It is very good to know.
I spent the rest of Wednesday and Thursday (where I spent the day on school work – I can’t tell you how much work you can get done without interruptions!) ensuring that I let my knee settle down a bit and returned to work, perhaps a fraction sheepishly, on Friday. Well, it is fish and chips day in the restaurant on Friday!
Highlights of last week & Congratulations (and entered onto our Achievement wall)
Despite my inability to stay on two legs and complete a full week, many others in the school managed to do so, and with some with some considerable aplomb. There is much to celebrate then from last week, and in one or two cases, the week before as I didn’t have the information to report on them.
- It came to my attention only recently about how much progress one of our excellent young sportsmen is making in his chosen field of Hockey. Robbie Oliver (11AT) represented the South U16s at the “Futures Hockey Cup” in the Midlands last weekend. This is a regional tournament where North, South, West and Midlands all play each other. After a successful tournament, Robbie and the South team came second overall. Following on from this event, Robbie has now been selected to attend a Performance Assessment Camp at the Lilleshall sports training academy. This is effectively an England trial for Robbie who is unfortunately nursing a torn tendon which has kept him out of the first trial. However, Robbie still hopes to attend another England trial during the Christmas holiday period. I am sure we all wish Robbie the best of luck in his trial and we hope that we will soon have another full England Junior hockey player in our midst.
- On Friday the 4th of November Jack Lewis (yr10) recently elected as the Borough Youth Parliament representative for Richmond, not only had the opportunity to visit the House of Commons to participate in a live debate, but also actually spoke in it! Jack has written a report which can be accessed by this link – it is well worth reading.
- On Tuesday we held the finals of our annual speech competition. After every student in yrs 7-10 had been required to research and present a speech for their class competitions, the winner from each class then repeated their speech to the year group as a whole. These formal events were held in the Atrium throughout the day on Thursday with judges made up of staff and governors to select first, second and third place speakers for each year group, based on a range of public speaking criteria. I had the very good fortune, along with Ms. Thomas and governors Mr. Ferguson and Mr. Ffookes to judge the year nine competition. The standard was exceptionally high and it was extremely difficult to choose eventual winners. The video below is the excellent winning yr9 speech from Katie Ramsden. I must thank the whole of the English Department whose additional efforts ensure that students at Teddington school benefit from a very valuable learning experience, which is a far from common nationwide experience. Thanks also to all the student audiences whose behaviour was impeccable and to the staff and governors who gave up their time to act as judges and ensure that this experience was both a formal and a significant one for all our children.
The results for each event were as follows;-1st 2nd 3rd yr7 Ed Reynolds Jessica Hart Ethan Ward yr8 Finn Cotter Frankie Oldham Helen Wherry yr9 Katie Ramsden Daniel Martin Joey Thompson yr10 Mohammed Elhadi Talor Hansen Oliver Goodwin
- Following the success of the girls U16 South London Hockey Championships being staged at Teddington, this was followed up this week by us hosting the U14 championships. Organiser Mr. …….writes the following report;- (I’m waiting to get this from Matt.)
- Also on Wednesday the Richmond U16′s hockey team were back in action in the Surrey and London finals. They did extremely well and were eventual runners-up in the tournament, losing narrowly in the final. Representatives from Teddington were Amy Freeman, Molly Dickinson, Cheok Lok and Janneke Vennema- Osborne.
- Further individual success comes in the form of Talor Hanson (yr9) who has recently been selected to play the leading lady in a production of Romeo and Juliet. The following link will give you more details. This is a significant achievement for Talor and we wish her every success. Congratulations to the following Teddington students who also have parts in this production. They are Alasdair Sheldon, Daniel Sykes, Katie Ramsden and Gracie Moss.
- The Geography Department is celebrating Lara Johnson who has recently been awarded a highly commended prize in the prestigious ‘Young Geographer of the Year’ competition. Congratulations Lara.
- More congratulations are due to Joe Evans 11BW, who won the Richmond heat of the Rotary Club Young Chef of the year competition on Wednesday evening. Mrs. Zebrowski offers the following report;-
Four contestants, from three local secondary schools, took part in the challenge to cook and serve a seasonal, three course, celebration meal. Their efforts were judged by two visiting professional chefs. Joe’s winning menu was pea and ham soup, soda bread, chicken in creamy mustard sauce with vegetables and lemon cheesecake. He will now go forward to the South West London round, at Merton College, in the new year.
Well Done, Joe and many thanks to Chef Andy for his professional advice.
This is an annual event, so any budding cooks in Years 9 and 10 should speak to Mrs. Zebrowski about taking part next year. - Dr Hui and Mr Watling attended an Education Ambassadors conference organised by Toshiba, where they shared best practice ideas with 20 other schools with exceptional ICT provision. Teddington reported on the success of its student Digital Leaders program, and TEDxTeddington- the latter somewhat to the admiration of the other delegates, who were all aware of TED.
- Finally, on Friday morning break we had a cake sale in aid of our sports trip to South Africa. I have to say, I have never seen so many and varied cakes – enough, as it turned out, to continue the sale at lunchtime as well. Loving a good cake, we had ample eager ” shoppers” to work their way through the merchandise. A fraction short of £400 was raised on the day. Staff and students fortunate enough to be going on this trip are already planning a series of Car Boot Sales as their next fund-raising venture.
Results – last week
| Date |
Year |
Gender |
Sport |
Opponents |
Venue |
Competition |
Result |
| Monday 7th Nov |
9 |
Boys |
Table-Tennis |
Various |
Hampton School |
Borough Tournament |
Runners-up in pool |
Fixtures – this week
| Date |
Year |
Gender |
Sport |
Opponents |
Venue |
Competition |
Time |
| Tuesday 15th Nov |
7/8/9 |
Boys |
Badminton |
Various |
Grey Court |
Borough Tournament |
Leave: 3.20pm |
| Tuesday 15th Nov |
10/11 |
Boys |
Badminton |
Various |
Grey Court |
Borough Tournament |
Leave: 3.20pm |
| Wednesday 16th Nov |
7 |
Boys |
Indoor Athletics |
Various |
Grey Court |
Borough League |
Leave: 3.20pm |
| Wednesday 16th Nov |
7 |
Boys |
Indoor Athletics |
Various |
Grey Court |
Borough League |
Leave: 3.20pm |
| Friday 18th Nov |
7/8 |
Girls |
Indoor Cricket |
Various |
St. Mary’s Uni. |
Borough Tournament |
Leave: 8.30am |
What’s on this week (for those involved)
- Yr11 mock exams in the Sports Hall throughout the week
- Tuesday – Some yr9 students visit Hampton School – all day
- Wednesday – Full Governors meeting – 7.00pm
- Thursday – Some yr9 students visit Kings College London – all day
- Thursday – Yr7 Consultation Evening – 4.00 – 7.00pm – 1st Floor
- Friday – Non-uniform day (Children in need)
- Friday – PTA Wine & Cheese Tasting Evening – 7.30pm – Atrium
Theme for the week – Children in need.
This is an interesting weekly section. Both the Theme for the week and “In the news” can be accessed by the “Student News” link on the school website.
In the news – Selected this week by 10AT
General
I recently drew your attention to a new development by Ofsted to seek parental views as part of their inspection process. “Parent View” is an online questionnaire that will allow parents and carers to give their views on their child’s school at any time of the year. Here is the link.
As there is every possibility that we may have an Ofsted inspection at some point in the near future, parents may wish to visit this site in order to give the Inspectors the advance information that they are hoping to receive through this initiative. I should point out that this is a “general” questionnaire and it is not seen by schools. Consequently, it remains the case that if you have any concerns regarding your child at the school, it is essential that you bring these to our attention by contacting the school directly.
Advance notice: Mrs. White, our Head of Art and Photography teacher is having an Open Studio exhibition Private View, where she will be showing recent work and doing a talk about the ideas underpinning her practice. Any interested parents/carers would be most welcome to attend the Private View on Friday 25th November. There will be plenty to see and do as there are nine floors of studio spaces, artists’ presentations (7 – 8pm) and an exhibition in the ASC Gallery. Artists’ books and visual resources will also be on show.
Private View Friday 25th November 6 – 9pm Open Studios continues Saturday 26th November 12 – 6pm
Studio 709, ASC Studios, Erlang House, 128 Blackfriars Road SE1 8EQ (corner with St. George’s Circus)
What made me smile this week (through gritted teeth!)
I was on my way, in a wheelchair, from the medical room out into the atrium ready to be taken to my car. Waiting by the medical room was one of our young hockey players who had got injured during the competition. Whilst she was clearly in pain herself, she looked at me and said “I hope you get better soon Mr. Weeks”. Doesn’t it just restore your faith?! I wished her a speedy recovery too.
I wrote the above on Thursday evening, assuming that as I would be hobbling around school on Friday in a bit of pain I might not be given to too much smiling. As I mentioned earlier we had a cake sale at break time and I was doing a bit of queue supervising when a small year 7 girl came up to me and said “Sir, I’ve bought you a cake”, and handed over to me a cupcake with a malteser on the top. There were two other members of staff nearby and we all agreed that these were the very special occasions that you can only get working with young people. It was a lovely moment.
Have a good week.
