On Wednesday of last week I spent some valuable time with colleague Secondary Head Teachers developing further our planning proposals for sixth forms in our schools. During the course of the session I reminded myself of a somewhat bold statement I made at interview for the position of Head at Teddington School some eleven years ago now. I told the Governors that if I were appointed I would do all in my power to achieve two things beyond the normal school expectations – namely to have the school rebuilt and to introduce sixth form provision in the school. Grand words, but I am becoming increasingly confident that by the time I sign my last letter as Head of Teddington School, it will be an 11-19 school. Job done!

On Thursday, however, I got a headache. The person responsible for my suffering was our very own treasured Chef Andy. I lay the blame for my headache at Andy’s kitchen door because it was he who suggested having an “American diner” lunch day. So popular was it amongst our culinary astute scholars that the “main meal” queue stretched from the restaurant servery to the outside door at the end of the ground floor corridor, some thirty metres away. At the same time, the adjoining “snack meals” queue (normally a little more popular that the main meals queue) was, , empty. This situation rendered our normally controlled and civilised lunch queuing system redundant and, in its stead, a seemingly endless mass of enthusiastically hungry adolescents clamouring for burger, dogs, wings, fries etc. etc. I was the person who was establishing order out of the chaos and it made for a very challenging and long lunchtime. After all the under sixteens had been fed and ensconced in lesson five, my “dog and salad” was accompanied by two paracetamol!

Friday lunchtime on the other hand was a very different animal altogether, yet, as was the case the day previous, it ended with me requiring two paracetamol. This was because it was the staff v students basketball match in the Sports Hall. They do say that there is no fool like an old fool, and I suspect that this is particularly so when the “old fool” in question still holds the view that he still possesses all the attributes of a 25yr old PE teacher rather than a 57yr old Head Teacher. It was probably over thirty years ago since I ventured onto a basketball court yet I was first to volunteer when “the call” came! I boasted that my name on the advertising posters swelled the number of paying spectators, although I rather suspect that they had more Machiavellian motives than coming to see my array of Harlem globe-trotteresque basketball skills!

As it turned out, I survived the ordeal in acceptable fashion, craftily moving around the court looking as if I was both busy and knew what I was doing. Main thing was that both my knees and both my shoulders (all of which have undergone operations) remained unscathed so that I was able to leave the court with both body and dignity intact!

Friday evening was significantly more civilised as we held our annual Governors “Christmas dinner” in the school restaurant. With Chef Andy “forgiven” for producing an outrageously popular school lunch menu, he and his team (on a private, individual paying basis, I hasten to add) produced an excellent meal for the Governors who attended the evening. Seldom do Governors get the opportunity to socialise, and whilst much of the conversation was naturally school focused, it was a pleasure for Governors to meet in much less formal circumstances whilst enjoying some very good food in the process.

On Saturday we drove north to Ashby-de-la-Zouch to spend some time with friends who have very recently retired, one from the Immigration Service and one from teaching. I have to say, they seem to have settled very quickly into retirement and both my wife and I couldn’t help feeling just a touch envious. It got me thinking about my own situation. It feels odd to me to think that one day you are the Head Teacher of a large Comprehensive School with over 1200 students, over a hundred staff and a seven million pound budget, and the next day to be nothing and in charge of nothing. I’m not sure I fancy that! I am determined, post Headship, to do something positive with what will be nearly twenty years of Headship experience. So, whilst I will be happy to relinquish some of the responsibilities and the hours that headship demands, I will, nevertheless, seek to work in a consultancy capacity to support young Heads who would benefit from an experienced mentor.

Anyway, enough of that for now, I need to get in shape for next year’s staff versus students basketball match!

Highlights of last week

There was the basketball match of course. I am always impressed with our staff who are ever willing to undertake “unusual” activities to provide entertainment for our children. Such events help to consolidate the very strong student/staff relationships that we enjoy in the school. Thanks to Mr. Boateng for organising, and by some amazing sporting freak, the staff team, after lagging well behind for some time, scored a final basket (Mr. Thompson) with three seconds to go to give them a one point victory. (24-23) Lots of fun for everyone, and some funds raised as well.

Throughout the course of the last couple of weeks we have been undertaking our post-mock exam review meetings with Curriculum Leaders. These meetings allow us to look closely at how students in each subject are performing against their targets and then identify any strategies that need to be put in place for those students who require additional support. This year these meetings have been significantly enhanced by the benefit of an outstanding piece of computer software that Ms. Shaw has acquired which, without attempting to go into any complex details, offers an array of information to allow calculations, summaries, comparisons, evaluations etc. by subject, by teacher and by student. Very soon, each student in Yr11 will have an individual interview with either myself or a member of my Senior Leadership Team, where this computer package will be used to offer advice, support and guidance to our students at this crucial time in their education.

Congratulations (and entered onto our Achievement wall)

Jamie Sendles-White

Congratulations are due this week to two students, one past and one present.

A number of Teddington staff went to watch ex-student, Jamie Sendles-White captain Queens Park Rangers Under 18s in the Youth Cup against Everton at Loftus Road one evening last week. Jamie, who both played and captained well, led his team to a 1-0 victory and a place in the next round. Congratulations to Jamie, and we are looking forward to seeing him playing in first team colours for QPR in the not too distant future.

Ms. Reynolds wrote the following report following a recent event held on Sunday 15th January. She wrote;- eight Teddington students competed at the Southern Zonal Trampoline Competition in Uckfield. This was the highest number of students ever from Teddington that had qualified for this round of the competition. All the students jumped exceptionally well in a very tough competition. Although no one qualified through to the National competition the results were fantastic:

• Under 15 Girls Novice: Phoebe Wallman 11th place
• Under 13 Boys Novice: Team 4th place (Oscar Rudkin, Sam Woods, Daniel Robertshaw, Evan James)
• Under 13 Girls Elite: Rebekah Lumb 8th place; Team 6th place (Rebekah Lumb, Jessie Curtiss, Jemima Venn)

For a more detailed report, please visit the PE Blog

Many congratulations to all the team whose continuing hard work in training is ensuring that they continue to make excellent progress.

And finally, a welcome report from Mr. Salter;- The Year 9 girls’ Basketball team are Borough Champions after beating Christ’s 36-22 in the Final. Olivia Leach was MVP with a good defensive performance and 24 points. The team now represent Richmond in the London Youth Games in March. The players involved were: India Coomber, Catherine Forde, Lara Johnson, Olivia Leach, Hannah Munday (Year 9) and Beth Cotter, Isabella Gale, Izzy Lambros (Year 8). (Well, we do have some expertise in this sport!)

Results -  Last week

Fixtures- None this week

What’s on this week (for those involved)

• Monday – Yr11 GCSE German Speaking Controlled Assessments
• Tuesday am – Yr11 Triple Science Biology exam – Sports Hall
• Tuesday – Yr10 Art & Photography GCSE trip to British Museum/White Chapel Art Gallery
• Wednesday – Yr11 Subject Consultation Evening – 4.00-7.00pm – Atrium and 1st floor
• Wednesday – Full Governors Meeting – 7.00 – 9.00pm -Room 101
• Thursday am – Yr11 Triple Science Chemistry exam – Sports Hall
• Thursday – Rotary Club Photography Competition judging – Ground floor Conference Rm
• Friday – Murder Mystery “Who killed the Director”? – Theatre/Atrium/Restaurant – 7.00pm

Theme for the week – Holocaust Memorial Week. 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 website home page.

Last week’s student vote topic and outcome - ‘Which different teaching styles you find the best?’ 409 votes were cast -

So most of you prefer Practicals, Field work and Group work rather than Teacher-led lessons.

This week’s student vote is about Holocaust week.
In the news – Selected this week by 9AT

General

Last week I informed you of the research we were undertaking with our students regarding a “summer shirt” for our boys. The proposed shirt received fairly overwhelming support with a request that the logo on the pocket is made a little smaller. Mr. Law also took the proposal to the Governors Student Committee where they, too, thought it would be a positive and smart development. We have asked our suppliers if they can make the logo smaller and then they will manufacture it and get them in stock. I will write to all parents when they are available.

Parents/Carers will also receive a letter this week about the LA consultation on their proposal to have Sixth Forms in their Secondary Schools. The letter, which is self explanatory, will invite your views and comments.

I should like to thank the parents (5) who have offered to stand as Parent Governors. As we have more nominations than vacancies (5 volunteers with two vacancies) we shall be holding an election very soon. A letter will be with you shortly.

What made me smile this week

A young girl (yr8, I think) came up to me at morning break on Friday and proudly announced that she intended watching me play basketball at lunchtime. As she walked away she hesitated a fraction, turned round and said, in very caring tones, “you will be alright won’t you Sir?” Don’t you just love them?!

Have a good week.

Following a three day week and only two of them with children, the post Christmas honeymoon was well and truly over last week. That aside, I think there is so much to look forward to this year, both for the school and for me personally. The school will be required to decide on whether to become an Academy and with it all the attendant planning and management required regardless of the outcome. Assuming the local council vote in favour of the proposed 6th form developments we will have a significant amount of planning and preparation to undertake, including the management of another new building programme! In addition, we have all the usual Spring and Summer schools events to prepare for and enjoy. Here, I think of things like the School Production, the Summer Concert, Curriculum Enhancement Days, Sponsored Walk and Sports Afternoon, House Drama Competition, Activities Week, the Yr11 Prom and so on and so on. And then we will come full circle again back to the GCSE results in August and the annual cycle will start all over again!

Nationally, as I said last week, we have the excitement of the Olympics to look forward to – I suspect a “once in a lifetime event” for most of us. And then on a personal level I have the joy (and the expense!) of my son getting married in May. One down two children to go!

Given all the demands that these events make on my time, I did think that I might cut back on the amount that I prepare and write for my weekly Blog. But then, only a few days ago, I got this lovely Blog feedback comment from a parent who said how much she enjoyed reading my Blog, what I had to say in my introductions and hearing all about the various events, activities successes and achievements of our children, and how it all made her feel very proud that her children attended Teddington School – so how could I possibly think of cutting back now!

I have enjoyed one of those wonderfully diverse weeks – the ones that are non-stop and range from the sublime to the ridiculous – governors meetings on finance and Academies, budget planning, 6th form planning meetings, Senior Leadership Team training workshop, visits from two large groups of teachers from Sweden on Wednesday and then Finland on Thursday and then there was “chicken bone watch”. I should explain. Chef makes some outstanding savoury chicken wings (amongst his many other delights) and our children love them. Sadly, and I’m unsure whether it’s a modern day thing or whether it has always been the case, too many young children have an incredibly slack attitude towards litter and will happily throw whatever they no longer require on the floor wherever they may be standing or sitting at the time. I have a belief that children should be “educated” rather than disciplined into not throwing litter – which is a nice theory, but jolly hard to implement. I keep trying. Nevertheless, towards the end of last term I finally got fed up of picking up chicken bones at the end of break time, so I informed our children (and Chef Andy) that the flavoursome chicken wings would be no more. A shame for the many who are respectful of getting rid of their litter, particularly as I don’t like punishing innocent children, but I had reached the end of my tether.

At the beginning of this term I was approached by a small delegation of students who asked if we could perhaps try once more with Chef’s wings, so I agreed and informed the students in their Monday briefing that I would be giving it one more try until I find one chicken bone on the floor. Consequently, on Tuesday (Chef’s flavoursome chicken wing day) I was scouring the floor for bones. Weeks 1 Chicken bones nil! They’ll be on the menu again next Tuesday!

In addition to my battle with bones, I have also determined to get our children into school a little earlier in the mornings. I want them in the school building by 8.40, but a fairly large majority seem to think that it’s ok to be on school premises by 8.45, and do indeed seem to lack some sense of urgency in this regard. I’m happy to say that my presence at the school door each morning and my “welcoming” dulcet tones is having the desired effect. Although road works in the middle of Teddington over the last couple of days has not helped my cause. I aim to be standing at the door from 8.35 to 9.00am each day until the “message” is well and truly embedded!

Finally, if chicken bone watch wasn’t ridiculous enough, our Friday after school Murder Mystery play rehearsal certainly was.

Highlights of last week

The annual technology show for schools, BETT, was held last week. Mr Watling and Mr Cragg were there speaking about our use of ICT in general, and the music department in particular. As ever during BETT week, the school hosted delegations of foreign teachers and decision makers- this time from Sweden, Finland and Nigeria. Foreign visitors invariably arrange to see the school to learn about our ICT provision, but having toured the school always remark on the integration of the ICT with the teaching and learning. This year, Mr Watling and Dr Hui were aided by Digital Leaders Christian De Podesta and Ashley Allen as tour guides. Our visitors were particularly interested in how the Digital Leaders programme was used in such innovative ways, not only tapping into the great ICT expertise of our students to help teachers, but also giving our students experience in working in professional, adult meetings.

Finnish Delegation in Music Room

Congratulations (and entered onto our Achievement wall)

Congratulations to our yr11 core PE group who play golf on Thursdays. Following their session they go next door to the Coffee shop and enjoy a coffee and a chat. Mr. Sheldrake was approached by the manager of the shop who commented on how well behaved and polite they were, and a credit to the school. Well done boys, great news.

Results – last week

Fixtures – this week

What’s on this week (for those involved)

• Yr11 Reports issued to students this week
• Wednesday – yr10 Chemistry GCSE exam – Sports Hall – 9.00am
• Wednesday – PE Sports Teams photos – Sports Hall – after school
• Thursday – yr10 Parents Consultation Evening – Atrium – 4.00pm
• Friday – yr 10 Physics GCSE exam – Sports Hall – 9.00am

Theme for the week – Rights & Responsibilities. 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 our website front page.

Last week’s student vote topic and outcome – ‘which is your favourite season?’ – I suppose it was no surprise that the most preferred season was summer with 61% of votes with Autumn the least favourite with only 5% of the vote. Spring and winter were 15% and 17% accordingly.

This week’s student vote – Preferred teaching styles. (This will be an interesting one!)

In the news – Selected this week by 9AS

General

Your child may have complained to you at some point that, even though it may be quite hot, I insist they wear a jumper or a blazer in school at all times other than lunchtimes and in lessons as agreed by their teacher. My reason for doing this has been because I knew that as soon as I let boys remove their jumper/blazer they would soon look as untidy as they did in the old school, with long-tailed shirts constantly on display. Girls, on the other hand, would look fine in their new blouses, but I couldn’t let girls remove their jumper/blazer and not let the boys. A sure fire way to ensure out and out revolution!

Summer shirt

However, I have been mindful of children’s comfort and so have been talking to our school suppliers about a “summer” shirt for boys. I am currently getting the views of children on the proposal (photo) to see if they would be interested in wearing it. The shirt, which is a standard square-cut school shirt (therefore not unreasonably priced) with our logo on the pocket, can then be worn without a tie as demonstrated by our splendid model in the photo. If children do like it, I will announce at some point in the summer term that we can move to warm weather uniform, where girls and boys can then come to school in just their blouse/shirt should they wish. This shirt can also be used with a tie when we move back to “winter” uniform and wearing a jumper/blazer again. I must say, I really like it and I think the children will all look very smart. I will inform you as to the outcome once it has been voted on by the children and discussed with the Governors. Staff have already seen it and hold the same view as me.

What made me smile this week

One of our very many delightful young year 8 girls is Ava Shacklady. Ava has just undergone some surgery on both her arms and ended up with a full bandage/plaster arrangement from virtually shoulder to fingertips on each arm, thus making any kind of movement in her arms and hands extremely difficult for her. After only one or two days convalescing at home, Ava, in true pioneering spirit, was very keen to get back to school and, despite the obvious attendant difficulties, she did come back. When I was informed of this I felt that she deserved some recognition so I found out what class she was in at that time (Mr. Mahay’s Maths class) I picked up my very special stainless steel “designer” fruit bowl (a gift from some Swedish visitors) and placed in the middle of it, just one silver foil wrapped chocolate biscuit. I took it along to Ava’s classroom, walked in with it held high as a waiter might do, and made a ceremony of the presentation amidst rapturous applause for Ava as she clumsily scooped the chocolate biscuit off the fruit bowl with her two bandaged arms!

Well done Ava, a brave young girl who entered into the spirit of my little joke. Well, there has to be some perks to being a Head teacher!

Have a good week.

Happy new year – I hope it is a good one for everyone, for the school and, indeed, for the country as a whole as I suspect we could do with some good news! As a lifelong and fanatical sports fan (my wife informs me that if a game of tiddly-winks was being shown on Sky Sports she  would have no doubt that I would be watching it and cheering enthusiastically) I am hoping that the London Olympics (how exciting!) will lift our national spirits!

Well the last days of term came and went, and were actually thoroughly enjoyable. I had said to staff in our Monday morning “Staff Briefing” at the beginning of the last full week of term that the best way to manage tired and excited children is to keep things as normal and “routine” as possible. This was achieved, more or less, and as I reported in my last Blog, it resulted in a week that went very smoothly. With only one and a half days to go my message on the last Monday Briefing of the term offered a much more flexible approach to the final few lessons, although, whilst walking around the school on Monday, it was clear that in one or two cases there was a fairly tenuous link between the “Christmas video” and the subject being studied, but under the circumstances – the end of a very long term, the Xmas Factor an hour or so away, and final assemblies during the next morning, I think everyone had already done an outstanding end of term stint!

Our students love the Teddington “Xmas factor” and I am grateful to the young members of staff who take on the organisation of this event, which is not insubstantial. As I had suspected, the “performers” were of mixed ability (with some outstanding performances) yet all were received enthusiastically from a very supportive audience, and a quasi judges panel where I was required, quite out of character of course, to take on a Cowellesque role. Our students particularly enjoyed performances from a couple of our resident staff performers, Mr. White whose singing (with a little harmonica section) was rapturously received and Ms. Murugan who provided some excellent vocals for a staff group dance which, although a little short on precision, was amply made up for in enthusiasm and, it has to be said, comic value! All our children thoroughly enjoyed the event and I am sure they were very appreciative of all the efforts that many members of staff went to in order to stage the event.

That evening we held our staff party in Teddington. We had well over seventy members of staff attend and all had a very enjoyable time. Given the intensity of the normal teaching week, term and year, there are only few occasions when staff do manage to get together socially. I am sure that most “Organisational theorists” will acknowledge, as do I, that a big staff turnout to a social event is indicative of a happy, functioning and successful organisation.

 The final morning of term was our usual Christmas assembly prepared, as ever, by Ms. Waiting with students singing, reading extracts and reciting poems on the Christmas theme. An altogether more formal occasion than the previous day, a concept which our students were well able to both grasp and enjoy. End of term assemblies always mean saying farewell to colleagues and friends and I informed students of our leavers (which I informed you about in my last Blog) and asked them to think of how the leavers had helped them during their time with us. They showed their appreciation in the time honoured fashion of loud and respectful rounds of applause. And so finally for the students, it was their time to depart and begin a holiday which they had all been looking forward to for some considerable time. All that was left for me, was to share a mince pie and a glass of mulled wine with the staff and say our formal  farewells to all our leavers and to wish them every future success and happiness. I finished some pressing business, cleared my desk, gathered up all the lovely Christmas cards I had been given by staff, students and parent (and one or two nice “bottles” which I planned to enjoy over the holiday) and then I drove to the gym after which I treated myself, to what I at least believed, was a well deserved glass of beer!

My Christmas was spent with family and friends relaxing and, probably, eating a little too much, although interspersed with a few trips to the gym and some long walks, including an extremely blustery one on the Haworth moors. The only thing missing was my daughter who spent her second consecutive Christmas in New Zealand – still, there’s always a chance for next year!

Highlights of last week

Wednesday of this week was a staff Inset day where we undertook some continuing and very important work on teaching and learning strategies prior to a return to school for our students on Thursday.  They were greeted, in the weekly students briefing that I write for them, with my New Year’s Reminder of school “do’s and dont’s”. I find that a new calendar year is always a good time for such things and, if a Head is to ensure that school standards are consistently maintained to a high standard, (which is what I aspire to) it is essential to constantly remind children of school expectations. I make no apology for doing this to them on a regular (make that “daily”) basis!

On Friday I spoke to yr11 in a special assembly to remind them of how little time they had left in school and how important it was for them to utilise this time as effectively as possible. When I informed them that they had spent approximately 870 days in school since starting in year 7, and that their remaining 70 or so days of normal school timetable equated to little more than 8% of normal time left, this did actually raise a few eyebrows. I told them that they had always been a very good year group and we all wanted them to be a successful as possible in their forthcoming GCSE exams. This will not be the only time they are reminded of such things in the coming weeks!

Looking back, I could get used to a three day working week!

Congratulations (and entered onto our Achievement wall)

I have two boys to report on this week.

• Every credit to Tyler Young in year 7 who took it upon himself to do a sponsored walk around Richmond Park for a friend of the family who, at the age of 22, is becoming increasingly housebound because of chronic fatigue syndrome. Following his efforts, Tyler donated £110 to the Young ME Sufferers’ Trust and the ME Association. A wonderful gesture and yet another excellent example of how young people, despite popular opinion, are prepared to put themselves out for the good of those less fortunes than themselves.
• And sporting congratulations to Tom Hodgson, yr11, who has been selected to represent Surrrey U16 at football in the National County Cup against Oxford on Tuesday. An excellent achievement and we wish him good luck in the match.

Results – last week

Fixtures – this week

What’s on this week (for those involved)

• Yr11 reports will be issued to students this week.
• Monday – PTA meeting – room 101 – 8.00pm (all parents welcome)
• Tuesday – yr11 English Language GCSE exam
• Thursday – yr10 Core Science GCSE exam and yr10 Triple Science Biology exam

Theme for the week – UNICEF Week for change . 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 front page of our website.

Last week’s student vote topic and outcome – none last week. This week’s student vote topic – Seasons – which is your favourite?

In the news – Selected this week by 10BY

General

A look on the Student Briefing section of the school web-site (the new one of which will be going “live” soon – if that’s the appropriate terminology) will allow you to see my list of “expectations” that I raised with students on their return.

I am sure there are many parents who have an Interest in such matters, who will be keen to hear of a couple of “new arrivals” in the Science Department. Ms. O’Brien gave birth to a girl, Ciara Ameila (a healthy 9lb 3oz) and, not to be outdone, Ms. Brown gave birth to a boy, Oliver Henry (an even healthier 10lb!) Mums and babies are very well and we wish them a lifetime of health and happiness together.

What made me smile this week

A very good friend of the school, an elderly lady, has, for the past decade, has sent me a Christmas card and enclosed three gift vouchers for me to give to children who, for one reason or a thousand, are deserving of a small gift. This is a lovely gesture which I have always appreciated. However, the nicest part for me is to call the selected children to my office to explain why I have called for them and to give them the voucher. The smiles on the faces of these young recipients are a joy to see. It is interesting that often in the past when I have given the voucher to a child who deserves to spend something on themselves, their first response is to say they are going to buy something for their Mum. I love working with children!

Have a good week

Phew – two days to go!

I was really impressed with our students last week, particularly the older ones. I had to go into assemblies to talk about a questionnaire that students in yrs 9/10/11 will be asked to complete at the beginning of next term. Whilst I was talking to them about this I took the opportunity to mention that both staff and students were feeling quite tired at the end of a long term with many either at the beginning of, the middle of or the end of illnesses, hence I said that we all needed their support to remain calm and supportive and to challenge the younger ones if they saw them being over boisterous or similar low level misbehaviour.

This they have done and our final full week of term has been much calmer than the one before it. We all enjoyed Chef Andy (dressed in the full Santa regalia) and his excellent catering team (dressed up variously as elves, Christmas trees and even as a Christmas present!) who provided two days of excellent Christmas lunches, complete with Christmas music, crackers and hats, and served inside Santa’s grotto, skilfully erected by the premises team! The video below of one of the days is worth looking at as it captures, not just the very nice food that was served, but the lovely atmosphere that was evident in the restaurant.

Other forms of entertainment for our students came in the form of a performance of “A Christmas Carol” for yr8 on Thursday afternoon, some students took part in a performance of Macbeth in the Grand Hall of Hampton Court, over a hundred students watched a performance of “The Snow Queen” at the Rose Theatre in Kingston, over 100 students took part in our Christmas Concert on Thursday Evening and a staff versus students netball match. Quite a creative week I would say! All are reported on below.

In addition, Mr. Sheldrake informs me that some year 11s enjoyed a Christmas round of Crazy Golf in New Malden. He reports some excellent hole in ones and the winner, with a breathtaking round of 38, was Will Strange. Well done Will, and it sounded like lots of fun!

All that is left of this term now is Teddington’s very own Xmas Factor which is something of an annual tradition. I have no doubt that all the “performances”, regardless of the ability and expertise of the performers, will be enjoyed with equal gusto by an appreciative audience before being “assessed” by the panel of judges (of which, I am very proud to say, I am one!) I think all the judges, unlike the less than adequate TV version, will be very kind to the performers! Students have the added bonus this year of a couple of special singing performances from two of our extremely talented staff members (Ms Murugan and Mr White, and a somewhat “mixed ability” staff dancing troupe! I don’t doubt there will be some photographic and video footage available for you to see in the new year!

On Tuesday morning we will gather together again in the Sports Hall, but this occasion will be more formal, taking time out to remember the importance and the meanings of Christmas, where we will hear some readings and enjoy some Christmas music from our very successful school singing group before we all depart for a well deserved holiday with family and friends.

As ever at the end of a term, we have to say farewell to colleagues who, in some cases have become friends. I am sure that staff, students and parents will wish the very best of luck to the following staff who leave us on Tuesday;- Mrs. McAteer (Head of Geography) is taking a one term sabbatical to undertake a programme of study at the University of London on developing teaching and learning skills in Geography, we wish her a fulfilling term and look forward to her return after Easter and the application of the knowledge and skills she will have gained.

In a similar vein, Ms. Sillis leaves after a term in the Modern Languages Department as she was covering for Mr. Garrett who has had a term in Spain developing the language in order that he can teach it to our students in the future.

We also say farewell to Mr. Jacob (Humanities) who is moving back to the North for personal reasons. Mr. Jacob has proved to be a hugely popular teacher and his teaching abilities are, using Ofsted criteria, “Outstanding”. Equally popular with staff, Mike will be missed by us all, but equally, we all wish him every success in his future career.

After over four years, Ms. Walton will be leaving us. Ms. Walton has played a large part in the development of the “Pastoral Manager” role and latterly has developed this role to incorporate specific support for children who are finding aspects of school very challenging. Ms. Walton, after helping scores of children whist at Teddington, now takes on a similar but wider Local Authority role and we wish her every success in the future.

Highlights of last week

• On Wednesday St Johns’ School Drama club and some of our year seven students who used to go to St John’s performed Macbeth in the grand hall at Hampton Court Palace. Mrs Cooper and the Performing Arts prefects watched the high quality performance and thoroughly enjoyed it. The students from year seven who performed were: Euan Ritchie, Matthew Steans, Ellen Evans, Daisy Bell, Alex Capon, Alma Sandifer, Alice Griffiths, Callum Emms, Jack Fendley, Lucy Choules, Izzy D’Netto, Tabitha Phillips.
• Also on Wednesday 110 year 7 and 8 students watched ‘The Snow Queen’ at The Rose Theatre in Kingston accompanied by Miss Clarke, Miss Watson, Mr Thompson, Miss Downes, Mrs Gill, Mr Brown, Mrs Watts and Mrs Cooper. The students behaved very well and the play got everyone into a Christmassy mood.
• On Thursday over 100 students performed in the “Christmas Cracker”. This event showcased Mr Cragg’s excellent singing groups. There are now singers from every year group in the school in the singing groups and they all sounded fabulous. Ms Bowman led the orchestra in some Christmas tunes such as ‘Winter Wonderland’ and ‘Let it Snow.’ The members of the KS3 Drama club performed 4 short scenes showing the excitement of Christmas Eve, the business of shopping and the joy of being surrounded by family and friends at this time of year. I had the good fortune to be at this event and was accompanied by two special guests, Jack Savoury, a local resident, well into his nineties, who has been a long time supporter of the school and always appreciates me collecting him and taking him to this event, which he thoroughly enjoys, and my youngest daughter! I felt supremely proud of the young people and teaching staff whose enthusiasm, energy, efforts and expertise combined to produce such a special evening. Here is a just a little flavour of the evening.

• Ms. Yarker has provided the following report of the performance of “A Christmas Carol”;-
  On 15th December, the Globe Players visited the school to perform “A Christmas Carol” for year 8. The performance was lively and told an abridged but entertaining version of the novella and gave year 8 an insight into the world of Charles Dickens, whose bicentenary falls next year. The students responded positively and were an excellent audience throughout. Students were asked to consider how in these recessionary times, the story may have many lessons for our society today.
  
  

  Christmas Carol

• On Friday lunchtime, for the princely sum of fifty pence, spectators in the sports hall enjoyed a fine array of talents on display in the annual staff v students netball match. Everyone had lots of fun and it was clear that the staff performed far better than they looked as they secured a comfortable victory over the students. Better luck next time girls!
  

Congratulations (and entered onto our Achievement wall)

On Friday and Saturday Katie Ramsden, Danny Sykes, Alasdair Sheldon, Gracie Moss and Talor Hanson performed in ‘Romeo and Juliet’ at Hampton Hill playhouse. Mrs Cooper and Mrs Watts watched the performance on Saturday night. It was of an exceptional quality – a very talented cast. Well done to them all.

Congratulations to our yr9 football team who won the Borough tournament after beating Orleans Park School in a thrilling “golden goal” extra time. Earlier, our yr8 team were runners-up in their tournament. Congratulations to them all.

It is not only the likes of “Strictly come Dancing” champion Harry Judd who demonstrates their expertise in the Blackpool Ballroom. Our very own dancing star is Harry Parker of 10BW who also performed there recently and came first in the ISTD National Championships. What a fantastic achievement and just reward for his many hours of practice. If you are interested, here is a short video of Harry performing a Viennese Waltz in the semi-final of this tournament.

What’s on this week (for those involved)

• Monday – p3/4 and 5/6 – “Xmas Factor ” – Sports Hall
• Tuesday – yrs10/11 Final Assembly – 11.05 then dismissal (approx 11.45)
• Tuesday – yrs 7/8/9 Final Assembly – 11.55 then dismissal
• Wednesday – 4th January – Staff Inset Day
• Thursday – 5th January 8.40 into building – normal start for everyone

Theme for the week – None for this week

Last week’s student vote topic and outcome – “Has Christmas become too commercialised?” -

So most of you think Christmas is not too commercial.

In the news – Selected this week by 10BW

General

It is often the case that some standards tend or slip towards the end of a long term. January is always a very good time to ensure that our standards and expectations are back to where they should be. Therefore, I seek your support in ensuring that children arrive to school on time, in their full school uniform (including the appropriate footwear) and appropriate hairstyles.

I should also like to remind parents that we have adopted a very reasonable approach to the use of mobile phones/devices. I do not think that it is unreasonable, however, that if these a seen and heard in lesson time they will be confiscated until a discussion with home has taken place. If we did not take these measures there would be a likely negative impact on the standards of teaching and learning taking place. We are often not helped in our efforts, however, when the children argue with us that it was their parents either texting or calling them. It is essential for the good operation of the school that such home/school communications should take place via the school office. Your support would be much appreciated.

What made me smile this week

This last WMMS of the year is courtesy of a parent who sent it to me last week. I am grateful to her as it is a lovely story!

Her yr7 son came home from school one day last week and reported on a “disaster” which had happened in his Humanities class. Mum then articulated a number of assumed “disasters” such as;- someone fainted in the classroom, he had a detention for homework, a fight broke out etc. and to each one her son simply said “no, worse than that”. After her suggestion list had been exhausted Mum gave in and said, “go on then, you will have to tell me”. His reply, spoken in very sad terms, was “Mr. Jacob is leaving”!

A lovely story and, indeed, a every fitting tribute to Mr. Jacob as I know that this is a sentiment shared by all the students who have had the good fortune to have been taught by him.

I hope that you all have a very happy, healthy and trouble free Christmas break. I look forward to welcoming all our young people back in to the school on January 5th for what I hope will be a successful and fulfilling 2012 for them all.

Enjoy!

I think it is the case that everyone is getting tired. I have had many discussions (heated arguments in some cases) with family and friends over the years when I have made a comment similar to this. Coming from a whole array of jobs and professions they find it difficult to understand how, given the number of school holidays and the relative shortness of time between them, a teacher can possibly make that statement. And one would have to have sympathy with that view point, but it remains the case nevertheless!

It is difficult, therefore, to put forward an argument in support of this view-point that would find favour, least of all sympathy, with most other workers in Britain. However, I don’t make the assertion in a bid to seek sympathy, I make it because that is what I feel and what I experience as the Head of a large secondary school.

Teaching is a very fast paced, highly accountable and “full on” profession. The number of individual conversations, communications, challenges, issues and resolutions undertaken in a day by teachers is far higher than most other professions. (I have read this as a piece of research evidence but as I am unable to locate the source I accept that this opinion may have less validity!) A teacher may see upwards of two hundred children through their classroom doors in a day that are educated as groups but all with their own individual needs and requirements. Planning, preparation and marking are all demanding and time consuming tasks which all get undertaken outside normal school hours.

Children too, of all ages, get tired as the weeks of a term wear on, for all the reasons that I have mentioned above. They become less tolerant and more fractious with their peers and with adults. Some become more difficult to negotiate with, less accepting of rules and sanctions and less respectful in the way in which they speak to school staff. The teenagers capacity to turn “body language” into a fine art becomes a fraction more difficult for staff to tolerate the more tired everyone becomes. Added to which, particularly in the Autumn Term, children have the growing excitement of a Christmas holiday to look forward to which adds further to their desire for less work and more play!

I could say more and I don’t doubt that there are some who would wish to put up reasoned opposition to my argument, but my point in making them is to express a view that I feel (and indeed have felt for a long time) that the traditional three term year, which has been operating with only minor modifications throughout almost the last century, has long since required changing.

Society has changed, the world of work has changed, teaching and learning styles have changed, the use and role of technology has changed and the examination system has changed significantly, yet we still operate the three term year with the same calendar layout as has always been the case. Throughout my career there have been several regional and national research projects that have looked into changing the school year. There has been talk of four term years, six term years, changes to the time and age of transition from primary to secondary school yet, whether through inertia or a reluctance to change a way of life understood by families for generations, the school year continues to exist pretty much unscathed.

My view is that our half-terms remain uneven (created around our national holidays) with some half terms being too long and some being too short. I would scrap the long school summer holiday as (whilst there will unlikely be a child or a teacher who doesn’t appreciate them) I have never really understood why they need to be so long. Given a choice, I would opt for six, evenly spaced, teaching blocks in a year (of either 6 or 7 weeks long) with a more even distribution of holiday periods in between. The longest holiday would be no more than four weeks. This way I think that we would avoid the “exhaustion at the end of a long term” syndrome as well as avoiding the need for that whole “re-capping at the end of a long summer holiday” process.

A simplistic model delivered by someone who won’t be subject to the vagaries of the academic year for many more years so, easy for me to write perhaps? Regardless of my views, or any others, we are all looking forward to Christmas!

Highlights of last week

Although it is one school event I have studiously avoided, I have been reliably informed that the Yr7 Christmas Disco was a great deal of fun for all involved. Thanks to Mrs DeBrett and staff volunteers and the excellent group of yr11 students for organising and managing the event.

On Thursday evening two drama based activities ran concurrently. One was a trip to see “Wicked” which was led by Mr. Cragg, who informed me on Friday morning that not only did our group of students thoroughly enjoy the production, but their attitude and behaviour was exemplary – he said he felt very proud of them. Mrs Hope also accompanied the students that night and she confirmed Mr. Cragg’s view of the behaviour of our students. Feeling equally proud were Ms Watts and Ms Cooper whose yr10 GCSE Drama groups performed their interpretation of “Our day out” in front of a very appreciative audience. The students involved, and for many it was their first time performing in front of an audience, were excellent and gave thoroughly convincing and thoroughly enjoyable performances. This event, which I had the pleasure of watching, bodes extremely well for their final GCSE practical performances in just over twelve months time.

On Saturday morning I went along to the excellent PTA Christmas tree sale, which was held in beautiful winter sunshine. Unfortunately though, and for the first time in several years, I was unable to buy our family tree when I was there. This was due to the fact that my youngest daughter, who ever since being knee-high, has deemed it her responsibility to be present on tree selection day, was unable to be there. So she vetoed my ability to purchase a tree in her absence! Nevertheless, I did enjoy a coffee and a bacon sandwich from their drinks stall whilst I was there though! As ever, my thanks go to the stalwart band of parents who are constantly working hard to support the school in so many different ways.

Congratulations (and entered onto our Achievement wall)

• Congratulations to Alice Newbould (8AT) who took part in the “Charlene Slater International Cup” for acrobatic gymnastics in South Tyneside last week. Alice, who trains at Heathrow Gym, secured a third place in the competition, thus securing a bronze medal. Well done Alice.
• Congratulations also to a group of our high performing yr10 Maths students who were entered by Mr. Jacob recently for the Senior UKMT Maths challenge. This challenge is aimed at 16-19 yr old Maths students and and passes are awarded at bronze, silver and gold level. Consequently, our students performed at levels way above their chronological age. The results were as follows ;-
  Bronze – Boseun Kang and Cathall Flynn
  Silver – Georgina Stewart-Fleming, Cameron Bose, James Hoppe and Aaron Bird
  Gold – Emily Harrison and Matthew Russell
  An outstanding achievement, well done to them all.
• Finally, congratulations to Angus Cunningham who is the creator of our school christmas card for this year. I think it is just what we all need right now! Well done Angus.

SPORTS RESULTS and FIXTURES

Results – last week 

Fixtures – this week 

What’s on this week (for those involved)

• Wednesday pm – Performing Arts prefects at St. john’s school production of Macbeth
• 110 year 7 and 8 students are watching ‘The Snow Queen’ at the Rose Theatre, Kingston.
• Thursday pm – yr8 see a performance of “A Christmas Carol” by The Globe Theatre”
• Thursday – Winter Concert – theatre/Atrium – 7.00 – 9.00pm
• Friday – Staff v Students netball match – Sports Hall – lunchtime

Theme for the week – Christmas/Hannukah

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.

Last week’s student vote topic was about Healthy Eating and the results from the 502 votes cast on the question ‘How important is it to eat healthily?’ were -

This week’s student vote topic - ’Whether you think Christmas has become too commercialised?’

In the news – Selected this week by 10BT

General

I informed parents a short while ago that we would be summarising the feedback that we got from parents at the yr7 Consultation Evening. This feedback was greatly appreciated and we were gratified that it was predominantly very positive. We will, however, ensure that we respond appropriately to the issues that parents have raised. The summary can be seen here.

We have just received the annual exam performance data summary (although it has arrived later than normal this year) from the Government. This detailed compilation of data (called Raiseonline) provides schools with a wealth of data to allow it to measure its performance in a whole range of categories. The key indicator of overall school exam performance is the “Value-added” score which is arrived at through a detailed and complicated formula which is way beyond my comprehension. In simplistic terms, a score of 1,000 is an indication that a school’s exam results is commensurate with the ability of its students on entry. Our overall score this year of 1.009.5 puts us just in the “significantly above expectations” category, which we are very pleased about. In line with national trends, our overall girls score was higher than our overall boys score.

I have the need to remind students about arrival times for the start of the school day and so felt that you should be aware of this also. We still have too many young people who have a somewhat slack attitude to punctuality despite significant efforts to address this problem. Children need to be aware that they should be in the school building at 8.40 to hear the buzzer that tells them to go tho their tutor base in readiness for an 8.45 registration. Some students still, surprisingly given all the times they have been reminded, have a view that their requirement is to be on school premises (ie just inside the school gate) by 8.45 despite that fact that it will then take them at least another five minutes to arrive at their classroom. I would welcome your support in reminding your children of this requirement. Thank you.

Each week a lot of information gets put onto the PE Blog and some parents may not be aware of its existence. I have asked our resident IT experts to put a link to this information so that it is more accessible for parents.

What made me smile this week

A couple of things made me smile this week but I shall be saving those for my best-selling novel about schools that I shall be writing in a few years time!

However, one lovely moment which I can report was when I was asked by a small group of very nice yr 10 Media students if they could interview me as part of a video presentation they had to do for their GCSE coursework. I said I would be happy to do that and invited them into my office which, as you may know, is physically positioned in such a way as the whole world and their aunt can see right into it at all times. Yet when the girls walked in to a room which they had seen lots of times from the outside, it nevertheless produced in them a strange and somewhat nervous reaction. Despite the fact that they were there for a very good and positive reason, this did not prevent them from feeling unduly anxious. I calmed them down, did the interview, gave them all a chocolate from my children’s chocolate bowl (occasionally raided by staff visitors also!) and then they left quite happily with, perhaps, a myth dispelled. Afterwards, though, I did ponder on the thought that it would be nice if I could get the same reaction from one or two students entering my office who perhaps deserve to have some apprehension and anxiety about a forthcoming meeting with the Head!

Have a good week.

Still not feeling particularly well, I have done my best to “just get on with it”. I don’t suffer alone as it seems that the school seems to be in the grip of a nasty little virus which many children and staff are falling foul of. It seems that every other person you pass seems to be either coughing or looking, as my old Mum would say, “med up wi cowd”.

In some ways, we exist in somewhat challenging times. Turn on the news and the majority of it is focussing on international, European and UK financial difficulties, rising unemployment and unrest and predictions of continued fiscal stringency and zero growth for years to come. On Wednesday we had the first major national strike by public sector workers since early on in my career in the late seventies. And on a personal level, like many people of my age who were sold the “Endowment mortgage” package as a wonderful way to pay off our mortgages AND have a handsome retirement lump sum for good measure, I have received yet more letters telling me of the growing shortfall between the actual and target amounts of my policies.

It would be easy to get quite depressed about such things, as I am sure many people less fortunate than I am do. I suspect that throughout my lifetime, there were always issues of an international, national, local and personal level which kept me awake at nights. However, I have always felt that the teaching profession, by its very nature, is one that can protect you from wallowing in a slough of despair. Working with over a thousand young people on a daily basis is an excellent recipe for keeping your mind off national and international affairs, if only because these are not the issues that are their greatest concerns or the daily currency in which they trade. For them, and how can we not feel envious of them, their concerns are such things as the injustices of being kept behind after school for five minutes, not getting out in time to catch the first bus home and ensuring that their Facebook page is current and up to date. Where will they be going at the weekend, who will they be going with, what will they be wearing, how will they get there, how will they get back and, more importantly, at what time!

I am conscious that I do the younger generation an injustice by saying this as I rather fancy that growing up in the 21st century is a jolly sight more complex and challenging for young people than it was for my generation growing up in the “swinging sixties”. That aside, my point is that working with children ensures that you remain “young at heart”, and not to be so will ensure that children very quickly “find you out”! It is certainly so for me, how else would a 57 year old bloke like me be aware of, and indeed hold knowledgable conversations (!) on, current music, films, comedians, TV programmes and fashion. However, on fashion particularly, I still reserve the right to not quite “understand”. Try as I might, I still struggle to appreciate the sartorial logic of wearing trousers below the buttocks, displaying a plethora of underwear and rendering walking capable only by waddle. But well, I am approaching sixty!

I can’t claim that I never worry about political issues and current affairs but I can claim that I am eternally grateful to the young people who keep me firmly grounded in their world where it is often enough just to get a little bit of instant gratification, even if it’s getting dismissed by a teacher a fraction early at break time so they can get to the front of the restaurant queue and, hence, get served about 60 seconds quicker than everyone else! Wasn’t life great when things were that simple?!

Highlights of last week & Congratulations (and entered onto our Achievement wall)

• Last week I reported last week how a group of our science club students had been nominated for “Best chemistry video” in the NPL science film challenge. On Thursday we heard the excellent news that from a short list of three nominated films in this category that the Teddington entry had been selected as winner in the category. A trophy and a £75 cheque will be finding its way to school shortly. For more information about this event you can click here. So, more congratulations to Mr. Brown and his science film team of Ben Fleming (8BS) John Barman (8BW) George Osborne (8AY) and Max Chinnock (7BS).
• I was very pleased to be able to congratulate Katie Ramsden (9BS) who has been selected by students to be this month’s Jack Petchey Award winner. Katie was selected for her involvement in school activities, her contribution to her Tutor Group, her academic work, her involvement in school plays and her success in the recent speech competition.
• On Friday our cross-country runners were out in force:
  Teddington entered a strong team for the largest Borough cross country event in Richmond Park on Friday with around 12 different school competing. All students ran extremely well with notable mention to Year 7’s Tom Barton Clapp 11th and Savannah Coomber 14th, Year 8/9 Cicely Fraser 25th and Tom Ashley 7th, Year 10/11 Ella Widdop Gray 6th and Jamie Millbank 10th. Despite the cold all squad members really worked hard on the muddy course and in some races there were over 140 competitors. We hope to again have some students selected for the Middlesex Championship after Christmas at Harrow.
• Mr Murray reports:
  To celebrate Dickens’ Bicentenary the school has once again invited the excellent ‘Globe Players’ to perform for some of our students. On Friday the 2nd of December the whole of Year 7 eagerly waited in the sports hall for a production of Dickens’ most famous seasonal story ’A Christmas Carol’. As usual the production was of a very high standard and our pupils were mesmerised by the actors. This traditional story has lost none of its charm over the years and it was a real pleasure to watch a new audience be engaged in the performance. This week the Year 8 classes will be able to see this talented group perform again and I’m certain that it will be another success.
• Ms. Reynolds reports that Teddington had a really successful London Championships on Saturday. We entered four teams and secured a third, a second and a first place. Below are the names and positions of all our teams.
  Under 13 Girls Elite Team: London Champions; 3rd – Rebekah Lumb; 7th – May Curtiss; 8th – Jemima Witt; 11th – Robin Wheeler.
  Under 13 Boys Novice Team: 2nd Place; 4th – Oscar Rudkin; 6th – Daniel Robertshaw; 7th – Evan James; 8th – Sam Woods.
  Under 15 Girls Elite Team: 3rd Place; 3rd – Phoebe Wallman; 6th – Maddie Edwards.We also entered Georgia Wood in the Under 19 Girls Elite Comeptition. Georgia competed exceptionally well as she is the youngest in this age group and was competing against some current British Champions. She performed two very strong routines, and can use the experience she gained today in future competitions.Following Saturday’s results, the following will be going through to the Southern Zonal competition in January:
  U13 Girls Elite Team; U15 Boys Novice Team; Rebekah Lumb – U13 Girls Elite; Phoebe Wallman – U15 Girls NoviceCongratulations to all our competitors. I am sure that the results this weekend will motivate students to train with even more focus and enthuasiasm at the sessions run by Ms. Reynolds and Mr. Lumb so that this success can be built upon.

Results – last week

Fixtures – this week

What’s on this week (for those involved)

• Monday – Parents’ Evening for forthcoming ski trip – 6.30-7.30pm – Theatre
• Monday – PTA meeting – 8.00pm – Room 101
• Wednesday – yr7 Disco – 7.00-9.00pm – Theatre
• Thursday – yr10 Drama Showcase – 7.00-9.00pm
• Saturday – PTA Christmas tree sale – 9.00-1.00pm – entrance to school

Theme for the week – Student voice/School Council
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 front page of the website.

Last week’s student vote topic and outcome – Curriculum Enhancement Days – are they a valuable part of school life?
Yes, but only in KS3: 161 votes; 31%
Yes for everyone: 259 votes; 50%
No: 42 votes; 8%
Not sure: 47 votes; 9%

This week’s student vote topic – ‘Food for Thought – Should school provide only healthy food in the restaurant?’

In the news – Selected this week by 10BS

General

Once again I apologise for the inconvenience that the industrial action last Wednesday may have caused you and I hope that you are able to accommodate the modifications to the year 10 and 11 parents evenings.

I am happy to report that our Movember fund raisers raised a healthy amount of money for a very worthy cause, and in some cases at least, it seemed only right that the razor commenced activity again!

What made me smile this week

As you might imagine, a Head Teachers in-tray is seldom over-flowing with letters of thanks and congratulations. What a pleasure it was for me then when I received a letter from a lady who was struggling to get off a bus full of Teddington children when two of our more senior students made sure that she got off safely and without incident. All too often young people are pilloried for being selfish, reckless and thoughtless. I know they are not because I work with them daily, but it’s always a pleasure when their true worth is recognised in this way.

For some time now I have been exploring funding opportunities in order to pay the fares of children from our link schools in Cape Town to come and visit us. Ever since I made my visit I have been determined to develop staff and student links, knowing that it would be a truly wonderful experience for those we can support.

Consequently, I was absolutely delighted to hear confirmation from the Hampton Wick United Charity that they have agreed to give us three thousand pounds. This wonderful donation, from a charity that has regularly supported the school in the eleven years that I have been the Head, will enable us to bring four very lucky students over next year. After securing government funding for a teacher from Hottentots Holland High School to visit, she will now be accompanied by four very, very excited students as well. Thank you very much HWUC!

Have a good week.

Not by choice, but I have had one of those disjointed sort of weeks. Perhaps it was because of my advancing years that as no sooner had I “celebrated” my 57th year I was felled by what I will argue was the most severe bout of flu ever experienced by man! Well anyway, sufficient to knock me out over the weekend, keep me bed bound on Monday and Tuesday and then a “manful” struggle through for the rest of the week.

Tuesday evening and Wednesday was spent with Secondary Heads and key colleagues from the LA as we entered into preliminary discussions about the development of 6th forms on our school sites. Many parents will know that Richmond Council are committed to the development of post 16 provision in its secondary schools. Whilst we are only in the very early stages of planning and consultation it is nevertheless, following on from our rebuild, an exciting venture and one that I am very excited to be leading on behalf of the school.

Consequently, my first day in school was Thursday, and only then in the morning as I had a Local Authority meeting that I Chair in the afternoon. It was disappointing for me that I missed Wednesday’s Curriculum Enhancement Day as I really enjoy their diversity and the way in which our children embrace the challenges and opportunities that these days afford them. They are always very detailed in the planning and very tiring to deliver, but always appreciated and enjoyed by all. A regular timetable of lessons is absolutely crucial for a large secondary school to work effectively, but I think it is equally important that children do get the opportunity to learn in a different kind of way, in a different environment, understanding the interlinking nature of discrete subjects and to apply subject knowledge to practical situations. These aspects are frequently achieved within classrooms but to collapse the curriculum occasionally and to plan activities without normal boundaries can be a wonderful learning opportunity for children.

I was, however, back in school in the evening for our annual yr11 Leavers Certificate Evening, where children and many parents come back to school for the last time to meet up with old classmates and teachers for the last time and to collect their examination certificates. Even though our students had only been away from us for a few months they arrived at the evening looking older and more mature than when they left us. Whether it’s the fact that they are no longer in school uniform or whether their first three months in a different environment has had this effect on them is difficult to tell. They all really enjoyed being back in school for this final evening and one that allowed them to officially draw a line under their Teddington School days. Students, staff and parents all enjoyed the evening and felt that it was a fitting end to the five years at Teddington for this excellent year group. It was a pleasure also to receive the many thanks to staff of the school both on the evening and by email on Friday, from parents/carers who wanted to express their gratitude for our efforts over the last five years.

Highlights of last week & Congratulations (and entered onto our Achievement wall)

• Congratulations to the following boys who represented Richmond last Saturday at cross country in the first London Youth Games competition for 2012.  Team Richmond retained their cross country title, which was a great start to their defence of the London Youth Games after becoming champions last year. The boys were;- Sebastian Bray, Jamie Millbank and Evan James – well done boys.
• And more congratulations to members of our science club who made a video called “Chemical reactions” for the 2011 NPL Science Film Challenge. Mr. Brown who runs the club heard late last week that the video has been nominated for a prize in the category of “Best Chemistry Video”. An excellent achievement and well done boys. Mr. Brown informs me that the final decision will be announced at the beginning of December – we will keep our fingers crossed for them. Either way, it is a smashing video and you can see it by …..Ed? Our scientific film stars are Ben Fleming (8BS) John Barman (8BW) George Osborne (8AY) and Max Chinnock (7BS)
• Curriculum enhancement day, as I mention in my introduction, was another varied and interesting day for our students, and is now being used as the focus for our student vote topic this week. A video and photo montage of the day can be viewed here.
• On Friday, a group of yr11 students were addressed by Lord Haskel in their PSHE lesson on Friday afternoon. After a tour of the school Lord Haskel then spoke to the students about the importance of politics and the role of the House of Lords.

Results – last week 

Fixtures – this week

What’s on this week (for those involved)

• Monday pm – selected students on a “Oxford” course – Waldegrave School
• Wednesday – School closed to students
• Friday p1&2 – Music exam

Theme for the week – World Aids Week
In the news – Selected this week by 10AY

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.

Last week’s student vote topic and outcome – Managing Litter – after over 300 votes cast, 50% of these were in favour of our “litter louts” being made to wear hi-visibility jackets!
This week’s student vote topic – Curriculum Enhancement Days – are they a valuable part of school life?

General

You will know that we recently hosted a TEDx event, the first ever to be held in a state funded secondary school in this country. We were particularly proud of the outstanding quality of our young speakers on the evening who amply demonstrated that young people can perform publicly at a level which is commensurate of that of a very competent adult. Ticket numbers were limited by TED, but happily now, you can see these wonderful talks and those from our staff and visiting speakers by clicking here. Dr Hui gave the year group assemblies last week, explaining the significance of TED and TEDx and showing the students the highlights of TEDxTeddington. They were particularly impressed that the TED website is the first website shown onscreen in the current Apple iPad2 advertisement on TV!

A reminder that the school will be closed on Wednesday 30th and I apologise for any inconvenience this causes you. I am in the process of reorganising the cancelled yr10 parents’ evening and will inform those parents involved as soon as I am able.

What made me smile this week

As I said in my introduction, we had a very pleasant ex-yr11 Presentation Evening. As I was leaving for home, a group of boys were having some very friendly banter with me when one of them said “So I can call you Richard now then can I?” I said “Yes, I suppose you can”. There was a pause and then the following reply “Oh, right, thank you Mr. Weeks.”

Have a good week.

On Wednesday, Ms. O’Brien sent four yr7 students to me so that I could take a look at their homework. The homework task being to draw or make a “cell” in any way they like, using any materials they like. The outcomes of the endeavours of these four young children were outstanding, as you will see from the photographs below. The creative work of our four intrepid cell manufacturers (Luke Webb (7AY), Cameron Grewar (7AW), Daisy Georgeson-Bell (7AY) and Anna Hunt (7AW) – included the use of woods, stones, fabrics, jelly and various cake ingredients. They were brilliant!

This got me thinking about the whole concept of “homework”. For the duration of my career, and no doubt for the duration of the careers of many people before me, the issue of homework has always been a bone of contention for children, parents, teachers and indeed the education profession as a whole.

The concept of homework has long been debated within educational circles. There are those who believe that rigorous, regular and extensive homework on a daily basis for children of all ages is a crucial and central element if children are to maximise their educational potential. At the other end of the homework spectrum are those who believe that homework is neither necessary nor a contributory factor to the learning process for children. They believe that children should be allowed the opportunity to pursue individual interests, engage in family activities and have sufficient time to relax, socialise AND get plenty of sleep! I subscribe to neither ends of this spectrum but I fully recognise that this issue, pretty much like most in education, is both complex and with no absolute right or wrongs.

For children, the issue of homework is a little less complicated but no less contentious. For some, homework presents both an interest and a happy diversion for them. For others, it can be an annoyance, a bind, or sheer purgatory!

For parents, it can often be a frustration. Parents may take the view that the homework their children are receiving is either lacking in challenge, too challenging, too easy, too hard, too short, too long, lacking in relevance or too complex. Indeed I recall a moment in my first Headship where I conducted two parental interviews, one after the other, where one parent was complaining about her child not getting enough homework and the next parent complaining about their child getting too much homework. Superficially, this would not seem an uncommon occurrence but when I tell you that these parents had children who were in the same class, it gives you an indication of the complexity of this issue.

For teachers, there are no lesser frustrations. They have the challenge of perpetually having to prepare homework for the many classes they teach. They have to make it interesting, relevant, challenging and suitable for children of a wide range of abilities. After that they have the constant grind of ensuring homework is handed in, chasing up those who haven’t completed it whilst having to listen to the plethora of excuses for it not being completed. Then, they have to mark it. Week in, week out.

A complex issue for all concerned, and I could write at length on how there has to be balance, compromise and support from all parties involved in the process. In a nutshell, I believe that a good piece of homework should motivate, challenge, differentiate and extend the learning interests and abilities of the children for whom it is intended. Just as Ms. O’Brien’s “make a cell” homework did and the way in which those children responded.

Highlights of last week & Congratulations (and entered onto our Achievement wall)

• Congratulations to the following who competed in the Teddington junior open lawn tennis tournament over half-term. All the boys were congratulated on their commitment and positive sporting behaviour. They were;- Jamie Millbank, Zino Arbane, Jack Richards and Tom Mills.
• Congratulations to Amy Freeman, Molly Dickinson, Cheok Lok and Janneke Vennema-Osborne who were selected to play in the South Finals for the Richmond School Sports Partnership hockey team on Thursday.
• I am very pleased to announce that our most recent Jack Petchey award winner is Adam Pulford of 8AW. Jack was nominated for his being good at sport, always representing the school in a very positive way and always being pleasant and thoughtful to members of his tutor group. Another worthy winner, Adam is putting his £200 to buying some sports equipment for the PE Department.
• Ms. Harris writes below on two very interesting visits this week;-

“On Tuesday: 8 students attended a Hampton School collaborative event on Science, they were involved in a range of activities linked to developing their scientific knowledge: they were: Daniel Martin, Ben Capon, Christian de Podesta, Sarah Connolly, Alistair Brewin, Harry Bridge, Lily Vie, Tim Davidson and Cameron Hughes.

On Thursday, 15 students attended a Science in sport / GSK / London Olympics project where they did several practical activities linked to what happens to the body when drugs are used in sport (they administered adrenalin and beta blockers to water fleas), they met Graham Edmunds (twice gold medal paralympic athlete in swimming), did spot drug testing on urine samples, took part in lectures as well as a debate on prosecuting cheating athletes. The students who attended were Sarah Connolly, Alistair Brewin, Alice Wotton, Lily Vie, Christian de Podesta, Tim Davidson, Tom Ashley, Ashley Allen, Harry Bridge, Lara Johnson, Gracie Moss, Katie Ramsden, Lucie Iredale, Daniel Martin and Cameron Hughes. The Teddington students were ambassadors for the school, they were amazing in the debates: a real credit to the school.”

• To raise awareness of children in need, Chef Andy and the Cucina team have staged a “Foods of the world” theme this week. The food has been both very interesting and extremely tasty. I think it is excellent that Andy and his team are prepared to go to so much trouble to both educate and interest our students. The following video gives a flavour (no pun intended!) of the week.

• A small group of Year 9 students attended a ‘Your Voice’ event organised by the Police Counter Terrorism Focus Desk. Speakers described life changing experiences in the Armed services, Police, Fire Service, Sports and Religion, and included Johnson Beharry VC who described the events that led to his being awarded the Victoria Cross.
• And so to the madness that is “Children in need” day. As ever, our students entered into the spirit of the day, dressing up, arranging events and competitions (although I cared not a jot for the “teachers eat jungle food” à la “I’m a celebrity” – I will spare you the details!), having fun and, most importantly, raising lots of Money for Children in Need. When I have the total I will let you know what it is. For now though, enjoy the following video to get a flavour (bad choice of phrase for me today!) of the fun of the day.

Results – last week

Fixtures – this week

What’s on this week (for those involved)

• Yr11 mock exams continue
• Tuesday – School Council meeting – pm
• Wednesday- Curriculum Enhancement Day
• Thursday – 2011 Leavers GCSE Certificate Presentation Evening 5.30pm – Atrium

Theme for the week – Philosophy & TEDxTeddington.  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 home page.

Last week’s student vote topic was – ‘What types of bullying do you consider to be the worst?’ The votes were -

A record number of 492 votes were cast. This week’s student vote topic – Managing Litter. The videos of these discussion/voting topics can be viewed at our Teddschool Youtube channel

In the news – Selected this week by 10AW

General

I draw your attention to the letter I sent last week regarding the possible Industrial Action planned for the 30th November. The text is also on the front page of the school website. As soon as I have some concrete information I will let parents know. I apologise for the disruption that this may cause you.

Thank you to all the parents of yr7 children who completed our school questionnaire at the parents evening last week. This feedback is important to us in order to gauge where we need to direct our development efforts. Once your written feedback is collated I will put it on the web-site along with indications as to how we can respond to your issues. I was, however, that in the main your feedback was very positive. Thank you.

What made me smile this week

A personal “smile” for me was the fact that children somehow found out that it was my birthday and lots of children wishede me a happy birthday, and I even got a couple of cakes from some students and even a birthday card. That was really nice.

However, Mr. Watling, who recounted the following story to me on Thursday certainly made me smile hugely, as I am sure it will you, unless, of course, you are the parent who might have to pick up a shoe repair bill! He writes;-

“I stopped a Year 7 boy in trainers at break time and asked him where his shoes were. He pointed out that he had PE yesterday P6 and when he got home he found that he had two left shoes. He had brought the shoes in and was going to go to PE to sort the issue out.”

Literally thirty seconds later I stopped a boy who was hobbling and also wearing trainers. “What’s the problem?” I enquired.

“ I had PE yesterday” he said. “I put my shoes on and came to school this morning – it was agony” he added “ I discovered I was wearing two right shoes”, “ I had to take them off because it was so painful, so I had to put my trainers on”.

I gently led him to the other boy in the playground. “ I think you two need to talk” said I….”

Priceless.

Have a good week.

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

Fixtures – this week

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.

Last week was quite exciting. After literally months of planning, we staged our TEDxTeddington event at the school on Friday evening. Thanks to the limitless power of technology and the web, this global phenomena is now recognised throughout the world. Imagine then how exciting it was for us to be, we believe, the first UK state secondary school ever to stage a TEDx event. I will say no more about it here as Dr. Hui, who secured the event after having adopted the concept for our own Teddington format which has been working well for some while now, has written a report which appears below.

I am basking in reflected glory with regard to our TEDx event as, if I mention it to anyone who understands the TEDx brand, they will say something like “What, you’re hosting a TEDx – no way!” I just wave the comment off as if hosting global events is fairly run of the mill for us at Teddington!

If this wasn’t enough to make me flush with pride I enjoyed a very pleasant morning on Thursday showing off our school to a Headteacher and colleague from another county who are about to embark upon a school rebuild. They came to visit, in very much the way I visited several new build schools during the design period for our school, in order to understand the possibilities, opportunities and issues provided by a new building. I have always felt that it is incumbent upon me, having had the significant benefit of going through this process, to share what I have learnt with colleagues who are about to undergo the same process. It is a sadness that the BSF (Building schools for the future) funding programme is no more – our students have benefitted so much by ours, but nevertheless, some new builds are still happening and therefore I am always happy to share my knowledge and experience with them. On this occasion it was a real pleasure to hear how impressed they were with the building, the culture, the student behaviour and expectations and the teaching and learning that we have created since in the new school.

I started off by saying that it was an exciting week for the school. Well, it was also an exciting week for me personally as my daughter, who has been in New Zealand for eighteen months (she went originally for four) and is a nurse for an international cancer charity, had to come to Germany to collect some stem cells for a transplant patient. I neither understand the medicine, the science nor the logistics of any of this, but I do understand that she was granted four days before collecting it to fly into Heathrow to see her family. It was truly wonderful to see her again and, I write this on Saturday night, we have a very special family day planned for tomorrow which I am very excited about. Advice to parents of young children – enjoy every single day with them, it doesn’t go on forever!

Highlights of last week & Congratulations (and entered onto our Achievement wall)

• On Tuesday evening we held a Career Ideas Fair organised by Ms. Sheldon and parent Liz Brewin. It was a very interesting and pleasant evening where our yr10 and 11 students had the opportunity to walk around the theatre and atrium space talking to a wide range of professionals (made up of parents and friends of the school) who had kindly given up an evening to talk about the implications of their chosen profession. As you can see from the photo this was a well attended and successful event which we would hope to run again in the future. Thanks to the organisers and, as ever, members of the PTA who were on hand to provide refreshments.
• Take a look at the video to see the trouble that Chef Andy and our excellent catering team went to in order to provide some food and fun for our students on Halloween.

• I was delighted to see that the Maths department have started a Numeracy Group for yr8 students who will benefit from some additional Maths support. This is being provided by selected yr10 students. The value of such programmes is that both sets of students enjoy and get benefit from the experience.
• Congratulations to the following girls who have been selected to play the Surrey and London U16 School girls hockey championships finals this Thursday: Amy Freeman, Molly Dickinson, Cheok Lok and Janneke Vennema-Osborne.
• Congratulations to Oliver Freeman who won a very prestigious writing competition run by BA High Life magazine to celebrate 50 years since Roald Dahl wrote “James and the giant peach”. Entrants had to write a postcard from the most amazing place they had visited, imaginary or otherwise. The judges for the competition were Michael Rosen, Lauren Child and Quentin Blake. (Quite a line-up). Oliver was winner of his age group and second overall out of 2,000 entrants. Quite some achievement, very well done Oliver!
• And so to Friday evening. The following report is from Dr. Hui who, along with Mr. Watling, was the inspiration and organiser for this very prestigious event ;-

TEDxTeddington was a celebration of science, art, music and humanity. The twelve speakers included scientists from the National Physical Laboratory; an Emmy Award winning film maker; Teddington staff; and exceptional students past and present. The program explaining the TEDx format and all the speakers and talks is available here . The past students were Hannah Simpson, Charlotte Stevens and Suzie Wright. Current students were Hester Folley, Arthur Vie, and Talor Hanson. The event was sold out, and the 140 attendees were simply astonished by what was presented on the night. We believe it’s the first time a TEDx has been hosted by a UK state secondary school. It was certainly the first time we have taken the time to coach and mentor our students so that they can speak and perform on equal footing with world class speakers on an adult stage, with no compromises. Other firsts: the use of modern event management technology, selling tickets online, managing different ticketing categories, scanning e-tickets on entry, an event website and attendee database. First significant commercial sponsorship- thanks to main sponsors, local business BaseOne, as well as in-kind sponsorship from RM and Toshiba. The Houses of Parliament will be holding their own TEDx in June 2012, and their organiser Tom O’Leary is a local resident- so we were also sponsored by the UK Parliament!

Of course the most important news is that our students were simply outstanding- readers will probably have been moved by the musical performances of Hannah, Hester, Talor and Suzie at other school events, but when they see the videos in the coming days (the event was professionally filmed) they will experience these students speaking from the heart and playing their own music. Arthur’s talk on ‘Time’, using high speed and time lapse videos, was both delightful and moving. Charlotte’s drawing skills were much admired by the professional designers in the audience. Suzie’s talk was simply inspirational and unforgettable. We were honoured to have talks from world experts Andrew Hanson (on Colour) (Who was also here on careers day!), and Michael De Podesta (on making the world’s most accurate thermometer) as well as breathtakingly beautiful videos from David Baillie’s work in Antarctica. Space and modesty does not permit me to wax lyrical on Mr Yarker’s, the Head’s, or my own performances. My co-organiser Mr Watling was master of ceremonies, and the whole thing was constructed by Mr Watling, Mr Law, Mrs DeBrett, Mrs Watts, and Mr Cragg. Thanks to the Fiona Nossiter and the PTA for the bar, and Chef Andy for the amazing food. I believe that this was simply an outstanding conference delivered by an outstanding school and I think I’ll start work on TEDxTeddington 2012 today.

Results and fixtures

Results – last week

Fixtures – this week

What’s on this week (for those involved)

• Some Yr11 mock and modular exams will be taking place during the course of the week.
• Monday – Speech competition for yrs7-10 – Theatre
• Monday – PTA meeting – 8.00pm – Room 101
• Wednesday – Rotary Club “Young Chef” competition – 4.30 – 7.30pm
• Thursday – National School Design Award Judges in school – am
• Thursday – yr10 Work Experience meeting – 7.30pm -Theatre
• Thursday – Duke of Edinburgh Award meeting – 7.00pm -Theatre
• Friday – cake sale (for South Africa sports tour)

Theme for the week – Anti-bullying This is an interesting weekly section. Both the Theme for the week and “In the news” can be accessed by the “Student News” button on the front of our website.

In the news – Selected this week by 10AS

General

The student vote on “Performing Arts” that we introduced last week, with over 420 students participating, was enjoyed by our students. The outcome of the vote has been announced to students in their Monday morning briefing and was as follows423 votes were cast – 170 voted for, 156 voted against (and 97 didn’t mind)). This week, we are using the this video to create another debate about careers education in schools.

Students may see some facial changes to some of our male members of staff this month as they enter into the spirit of the increasingly popular “Movember” to raise awareness and funds for the Prostate Cancer Charity. Whilst this is an extremely worthy cause, I can’t help thinking that there seems to be developing an element of competition amongst our younger members of staff, and I’m happy to leave them to it! Should you wish to offer them any financial support this would, I am sure, be greatly appreciated. Just ask your child to mention it to any participating member of staff – who, one would hope, will be self evident!

What made me smile this week

Three contenders this week, two professional, one personal. Firstly, it was a joy to see the success of our TedX event and, in particular, the great confidence and expertise with which our student speakers performed. Particularly so, knowing that as well as performing in front of a live audience, their presentations were being recorded and would be going out, literally, to the world in a short space of time. They made me feel so very proud as they represent all that is good about the younger generation, and that aspect which is so very seldom recognised by the media.

Secondly, our students had to vote for one of two members of staff who had been nominated to receive a Jack Petchey Leadership Award. Our two extremely worthy members of staff were Ms. Reynolds and Mrs. Waiting. The students, when casting their vote, had to say why they had chosen that person. I saw some of the things students had written, they were wonderful. I offer you just one for each member of staff. Of Ms. Reynolds, a student wrote “Miss Reynolds because of the way she does A-M-A-Z-I-N-G stuff for the school, like after school clubs…..” and for Mrs. Waiting, this priceless comment, “Ms. waiting because she is the best thing since spreadable marshmallows”.

And thirdly, seeing my daughter walk through the arrivals door at Heathrow on Friday!

Have a good week.

As I sit tapping away on my keyboard on Thursday evenings (if I have the time) and then again on Sunday evenings working away on my Blog, my wife does sometimes ask me if I feel that I have “created a monster”. Still somewhat surprised that so many parents seem willing to read my “ramblings” she is now curious as to how I find something different to write about week in and week out. I say to her “Well, often I am not really sure what I am going to write about so I just start typing and hope that, after a few sentences, something meaningful and vaguely interesting for people will begin to take shape”. And, as you may have ascertained, that is exactly what I have done on this occasion!

It is understandable that parents want to engage with their child/rens school. Lots of Government legislation and initiatives have attempted to categorise education (and schools) as just another service industry. Indeed there isn’t a teacher in this or any other school in the country that hasn’t been subjected to discussions with parents where the view they hold is one where it is the teacher’s responsibility to provide for their child, regardless of the needs of others and regardless of how uncooperative or unwilling their own child is actually being. Fortunately this is not a common occurrence for us, but nevertheless, it does happen, and I think it has evolved because of the perceived notion that all schools do is provide a “service”. You take your burger back if you don’t like it, therefore…

But teaching is so much more than just a service. Schools and teachers have an enormous responsibility for shaping the knowledge, views, values and interests of our young people. So what parent or carer would not have a vested interest in learning as much about the organisation, the people within it and the Head Teacher that leads on its overall values and beliefs and establishes the standards and expectations for the school that their child is in? I’ve never cared much about how my food is prepared and cooked in a restaurant, I’m just interested in whether it tastes ok or not. I was, however, very interested in the schools that my children attended, who their teachers were, what they were like and what sort of values they held. And indeed the outcomes of the individual and collective efforts of the staff in a school can have far more impact on a child than can a rogue Big Mac Meal!

A Head’s Blog, therefore, is a useful opportunity for parents to develop a “feel” for the school that is responsible, during the day time at least, for the all-round development of the most precious possession in their lives. I do, hope, therefore, that you continue to find my Blog (or the “Blag” as a few members of staff refer to it due to an unfortunate typo in its early days!) of interest.

So, happily justifying to my wife the need to continue writing, I do draw the line at “tweeting”, however, which is one concept too far for me. I neither understand why anyone would wish to do it and why anyone else would wish to read it. But maybe I’m just old fashioned at heart!

And my long awaited visit to Florence last week – what a truly wonderful place. All ready now to face the challenges of this very busy half-term.

Highlights of last week & Congratulations (and entered onto our Achievement wall)

• Congratulations to all the school prize-winners representing Teddington at the Jack Petchey Awards evening at Richmond Theatre last Monday night. The students collecting their awards were; Amy Scott (ex yr11) Tom Kneebone (yr11) Simon Edginton (yr9) Harry Booth (yr8) and Kit McKay (yr8). Thanks also to “Harmonika” who performed so well in front of a very large audience and for Ms. Bassett for organising our students and our part of the event.
• On Wednesday we had the biggest cake sale that I can remember! Through the combined efforts of staff and yr11 cake providers, the yr 11 sales team (who were very efficient, and very forceful!) and a staff team led by Ms. Thomas, Mrs. DeBrett and Ms. Harrison, the event ensured lots of satisfied customers and a handsome profit return of nearly 400 pounds to go towards the yr11 Prom.

• Yr8 Technology event- This report from Mr Jacobs.The following students attended a G&T Technology Day at Tolworth Girls school as part of the Hampton Collaborative on the 19th October 2011:
  Amelia Dyer, Alex Gilbert, Megan Keith, Alice White, Sam Highmore, Robert Watson and Heidi James. The day supported gifted and talented students in developing their problem solving skills and extending their subject knowledge in D&T it also focused on practical challenges and problem solving activities. One session was based in the Food Technology Room where students were grouped in mixed groups , so students from all schools worked together collaboratively. They will be sharing their experiences in Food Technology classes back in Teddington.
• Performing Arts Evening on Wednesday night was, once again, the best we have ever had. Over 100 students, from all yr groups, performed to a very high standard in a range of music, dance and drama presentations in front of a packed and very appreciative audience. Congratulations to all involved on what was a fantastic night of quality entertainment.

• A special thanks and congratulations to Lucy Bulford (11AT) who played a significant role in looking after someone in rehearsals for Performing Arts Evening who had a very serious injury. Lucy’s very sensible and mature approach during the incident was highly commendable. Well done Lucy.
• Congratulations to our winners Black History Month competition. They are; from yr7 – Jess Prince (BW), Florence Dunington (BW), Florence Wilding (BS) Jamie Coutts (AY) and Carina Rubino (AY) and from yr8; Eleanor Breaks (AT), Alistair McLaughlin (BY), May Curtiss (BS), Ellie Hicks (AW) and Alice White (AY). Very well done to you all and to everyone who took part.
• Finally, thanks to yr7 and staff who went outside the school to cheer on members of St. john’s Primary School as they ran past our school on Friday morning with the “Olympic Torch”. Our yr.’s gave them some rapturous applause and, as the runners were a bit late, they gave lots of passing vehicles rapturous applause also. Perhaps they were practicing?!

Results – last week

Fixtures – this week

What’s on this week (for those involved)

• Yr11 French writing controlled assessments and yr10 Core and Triple Science ISA exams to take place during lessons this week.
• Tuesday – Careers Ideas Fair for yr10 & 11 – Atrium/Theatre – 7.00 – 9.00pm
• Wednesday – U16 Surrey cup football – pm
• Friday – TedxTeddington Conference – Theatre/restaurant – 6.00-11.00pm

Theme for the week – Guy Fawkes/bonfire Night/Divali

This is an interesting weekly section. Both the Theme for the week and “In the news” can be accessed by the “Student News” link.

In the news – - Selected this week by 11BY

General

I should like to draw your attention to a new development by Ofsted. In the past, when schools were having an inspection in the past, they asked schools to distribute a questionnaire to ascertain parental views as part of the inspection process. They have changed this system and have now launched “Parent View” which 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.

I should also like to point out that, thanks in large part to the efforts and expertise of Dr. Hui and parent Natalie Raja that our new web-site will soon be complete and up and running. We all hope that it will provide a more interesting, informative and responsive service for parents/carers.

What made me smile this week

After a very busy and tiring half-term it was great to see many members of staff turn out to a staff “Bowling Night” in Kingston on Thursday evening. Around forty teaching and support staff got together for some light hearted “bonding” and it was great fun! Not least of interest were the vast array of bowling “techniques” on display throughout the night. These ranged from the carefree and flambouyant, (executed predominantly by those under the age of forty) to the more measured and reserved as demonstrated by the older ones amongst us! It was a thoroughly enjoyable evening, and a clear indication that the staff of the school feel a very strong bond for the place where they work. To most of us, Teddington is more than just a school and a place of work, it is somewhere that we feel deeply passonate about and extremely proud of!

Have a good week.

Ever since becoming a headteacher a little over fifteen years ago, I made a commitment to be the type of Head that is out and about with the children on a regular and daily basis as opposed to the type who opts for the office/meetings/managing at arms length kind of approach. My reason being that if a Head is to make any significant impact on the culture and ethos of the school, the quality of teaching and learning therein, the form and tone of the leadership and management employed, the relationships that exist and the rules and regulations within which all these elements can be effectively sustained, then the Head must be pivotal in the daily life of the school.

This is much easier said than done as the pressure to retreat to the office and to submerse oneself in an ocean of papers, email attachments, letters and an endless wave of new policies, strategies and new initiatives can be very tempting. I try very hard to strike a reasonable balance and this week has been one of those weeks where this “balance” has been tested.

I have been taking year group assemblies all week, yet from Monday through to Thursday I have been in meetings which have started at 7.30 and I have had to excuse myself to nip down to the Theatre to give an assembly and then re-join the meeting fifteen minutes later. Similarly, the development meetings into possible Academy status and discussions surrounding 6th form developments are crucial, and ones which, particularly the possibility of having a 6th form in the future, will have a significant impact on the development of the school in the future. So I find myself torn by needing to function both in the “here and now” as well as plan for the future. Given the past five years and all the planning and management of the new school build, it feels very much like deja vu. I am, however, striving hard still to keep the balance balanced!

We had a bit of a “to do” at yr8 Parents Evening on Tuesday night. We were entertaining another school in rugby fixtures and about half a dozen errant yr11s from the visiting team (an out borough school with whom we had not had fixtures before) found their way into the atrium and behaved in a loud and inappropriate manner, part of which included attempting to slide across the atrium floor. Mr. Law dealt with these students and the next day we contacted the school. I quickly received a phone call from a very embarrassed and apologetic Head who reassured me that he was as outraged by their behaviour as I was and that he had dealt with all the young men concerned. I told him I was very appreciative of his call and indicated that I don’t think that there is a Headteacher in the land who hasn’t had to apologise at one time or another for the unacceptable behaviour of a small number of his or her students! We had further year group fixtures during the course of the week which all passed without incident. (I bet their Head, just as I would have done, made absolutely sure of that though!)

I have received some very nice emails from some parents this week. We all lead busy lives and we all use a wide range of provisions and services during the course of them. However, we often take these things and the people who perform them for granted, and I must include myself in this. (Although I did, however, write to the surgeon and the team who operated on my leg to thank them for all their skill and expertise, even though it is hard to imagine anything that could have been more painful!) I am grateful, therefore, to the parents who sent in the very nice messages that I received – it really does make it all worthwhile!

I suspect we have all, at some point or another, echoed the phrase “It sounded like a good idea at the time”. I found myself saying this after agreeing to a family/friends gathering back in April and then having to drive for five hours up the M6 to Liverpool on Friday night. A very nice weekend, (and I was very impressed with what I saw of Liverpool) but perhaps not the best way to recover from one busy week and prepare for the next busy week. Still, I am excited as we are having a short city break in Florence over half-term, a place I have long wanted to visit. Of course I shall miss not being in school but…

Highlights of last week & Congratulations (and entered onto our Achievement wall)

• On Monday morning over 50 Year 7parents attended a coffee morning. This informal event was also attended by Ms Clarke Pastoral Support Manager, Mrs Bradwell, the School Nurse, Ms Dempsey the Educational Welfare Office all of whom answered many questions about the working of Teddington School. Ms de Brett was very pleased with the outcome and is trying to find ways to expand on this morning. Currently she is looking at a Fronter training session for parents and an information session about Math . The PTA helped with the tea and coffee and found that the morning gave them another opportunity to meet and explain about the valuable work that they do for the school. Thank you all for attending and I look forward to meeting you all again at the Year 7 Parent Evening on 17th November, 4.00-7.00pm.

Coffee Morning

• On Wednesday we hosted the girls u16 London Hockey Tournament. This was the first major sporting event organised by new PE teacher and hockey specialist Mr. Giles. Here is his report:
  On Wednesday the prestigious London Under 16s Hockey Championships were held here at Teddington School. Amy Freeman, Molly Dickinson, Cheok Lok and Janneke Vennema-Osborne were selected to represent a strong Richmond School Sport Partnership side. After gaining 7 points in the table, and an excellent 5-0 win in the final game against South Hampstead, the Richmond team progressed through to the next stage of the Championships.
  Congratulations girls!

• 

  Hockey U16

• Also on Wednesday, accompanied by Ms. Bassett, school council representatives from Teddington visited the Houses of Parliament.
• On Wednesday evening the Trestle Theatre Company performed their new play “The man with the luggage” in the school theatre to a full house of yr10 and 11 drama students, some yr9 students and some parents. The performance was visually impressive and was performed with just three actors playing many parts. Details of the tour and information about the play can be found at http://www.trestle.org.uk/pl352.html
• On Friday evening, following the success of last year’s event, the PTA held their second “Comedy Night”. This took place as I was crawling up the M6, but I know that it was another successful evening and the following report was prepared by the PTA.
  The week ended on a high as the PTA held its first social event for the year. Around 180 parents, members of staff and friends enjoyed the Comedy Night with three excellent comedians in attendance offering plenty of laughs – a good time was had by all including the comedians who were later heard tweeting about the great venue and audience.
• An intrepid group of French GCSE students set off for Paris for the weekend, leaving school at a quarter to midnight on Friday night and returning at the same time on Sunday. I have long since lost the stamina to brave such a long weekend with children (although I have done my share in my time) so I take my hat off to the four members of staff who gave up their weekend for this trip and to the young people whose enthusiasm and good behaviour made it all worthwhile.
• Starting this week, 13 yr10 Buddies have undertaken some “paired reading” with children in yr7 who need some additional support with their reading skills. They had three sessions in the Resource Centre last week and Mrs. DeBrett spoke very highly of both the Buddies, who listened very carefully and gave lots of support and encouragement, and the yr7 children who worked very hard during the sessions.
  

  Buddies

• This from the Art department:
  The beginning of this academic year we were fortunate to celebrate the success of two of our art and photography students, Jess Dolan and Fred Watson, on their artwork being highly commended in the ‘NASUWT Arts and Minds’ National Competition based on Celebrating Cultural Diversity. Out of 1000+ entries in total 11 winners and 1 overall winner were selected to attend the awards ceremony and receive significant cash prizes for both themselves and their schools.We are even more proud to announce that former Yr 11 student, Josie Roberts’ entry “Today…”, was one of the 11 winners selected. Students from only 3 secondary schools were selected for their work, which makes her achievement especially commendable. Josie and her mum were invited to stay a night at the Crowne Plaza Hotel before attending the Prestigious Awards Ceremony at Buckingham Gate in Central London with speakers from ‘The Anne Frank Trust’ and ‘Love Music Hate Racism’ presenting prizes. Both Josie and her mum had a fabulous time. Mrs White Head of Art and Design, also attended the event with Josie and her mum and also enjoyed the event very much as it is so rare to have the opportunity to share in celebrating students’ success on such an occasion. Congratulations to Josie once again and a special thanks to her Art teacher Mrs Bannister and Ms Swamy for making us aware of this competition.

Josie Roberts

Message from Miss Reidy Community Arts Co-ordinator – Remember, to win these competitions you have to be: “in it to win it!” so take advantage of all the competitions that come your way!

• Finally, congratulations to Jack Lewis (10BS) who has been promoted to the position of “Member of the youth parlaimane for Richmond”. This is a prestigious, influential and important position within Richmond, and Jack is not only thoroughly deserving, but will do an excellent job in representing the interests of the youth of Richmond.

Results – last week

 Fixtures – this week

What’s on this week (for those involved)

• Monday – yr11 Core Information Evening – Theatre – 6.00-7.00pm
• Monday – Jack Petchey Awards Evening – Richmond Theatre – 7.00-9.00pm
• Wednesday – yr8 “Hampton Collaborative” Technology visit – all day
• Wednesday – Cake Sale – Atrium – morning break
• Wednesday – Performing Arts Evening – Atrium & Theatre – 7.00-10.00pm
• Thursday – Non-uniform day
• Friday – Staff Inset day – no school for students
• Saturday – yr11 Art students involved in the “Big Draw” event to be held at Teddington Tennis Club. This looks like a very interesting event and may be of interest to you.

Theme for the week – Afri-Link

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 website. For this week’s theme, in order to give our students more information about our “Afri-link”, two students conducted two interviews, one with myself and one with Mr. Jacobs.

In the news – - Selected this week by 11BW

General

Could I remind parents/carers that this is the last week that they have to express their views regarding the possible conversion to an Academy. The questionnaire is available from the web-site.

We have a non-uniform day this week. Whilst children are not required to wear school uniform on these days, given our experience last time, children must not wear clothes which could either be deemed “inappropriate” for young children or which will negatively impact on their learning for the day.

What made me smile this week

On Thursday I invited my ex-Deputy Head at my previous school in Hounslow (he is now the Head there) to see our new school in action. He was truly taken back, not just by the building and our facilities and the quality of teaching and learning taking place that he saw in the classrooms, but most importantly by the appearance of our children and the quiet way in which they conducted themselves around the school. it was nice to hear and I will inform our students of his comments this week. (He also enjoyed his lunch!)

The above made me smile, but this made me laugh out loud! A teacher came up to me and said that, after asking an enthusiastic yr7 student what lesson they had next, the reply came back “English. I love English, it’s like Maths, but with words”. How wonderful!

Have a good week.

It always fascinates me how quickly the weeks roll by. It doesn’t seem five minutes that I was preparing for the new academic year at the end of August and here we are moving rapidly into the middle of October and our first half term break of the year.

In an interesting week where we enjoyed the last few days of our late summer weather, we also welcomed prospective parents and their children into our school as well as a delegation of educationalists from Japan.

On Monday evening we held our Information Evening for Parents as part of the Governors decision as to whether to convert to Academy Status. This is clearly a very important decision for the school (and the other four schools who are undertaking the same consultation process) and therefore it is right that we should consult as widely as possible. Consequently, I was quite surprised that we had only 35 parents attending the meeting on Monday. Despite the small number present we did, nevertheless, have a full and frank discussion where the pros and cons of converting to become an Academy were fully explored. It did not surprise me that the parents views appeared to range from supportive of the change at one end of the spectrum and opposing it at the other, and almost every other position within that range. That seems to be the case with all interest groups on this issue.

I am taking the view that the lack of attendance did not represent a lack of interest on the part of parents and will hope that more responses, views and opinions will come via the online questionnaire.

Prospective parents, along with their children in some cases, attended our “Open Mornings” on Tuesday and Wednesday. It makes me feel very proud that we are able to simply open our doors and allow groups of prospective parents to walk around our school, confident in the knowledge that as they look though any classroom window, or go anywhere in the school at any time, they will see good quality teaching and learning taking place within a well structured environment.

We used a good many of our yr9 students to act as guides for our visitors. As I looked on I was delighted to see our guides talking to their guests with evident confidence and pride in their school. After both days we received many comments and emails from parents who were keen to tell me just how impressed they were with their young guides.

It is not by coincidence nor an over inflated sense of loyalty that children speak so passionately in favour of their school. Children are perceptive, honest and have a keen sense of fair play. They will say what they believe, whether they are talking to their parents, teachers, visitors to the school or even Ofsted Inspectors. And will say it with passion! The fact that our yr9 students spoke so confidently and proudly to prospective parents about thier school, their experiences, their safety and their happiness is, simply, because they believed what they were saying. I could not have felt more proud of them.

Highlights of last week & Congratulations (and entered onto our Achievement wall)

• The first ever London Gymnastics Squad vs. West Midlands squad match took place on Sunday 2nd October 2011 at Harlington Sports Centre. The squad match featured an elite and development team from each region competing in individual trampoline, synchronised trampoline and double-mini trampoline. Two students from Teddington competed for the London Squad, Development team, May Curtiss in Double Mini Trampoline and Rebekah Lumb, Individual Trampolining and Double Mini Trampoline. May came a credible 8th place and Rebekah gained 2nd place in the Individual trampolining. The development team dominated the individual trampoline competition taking first place comfortably. Ex Teddington Student Beth-Anne Lumb also competed for the Elite Squad in all three disciplines winning the Synchronised Trampoline competition with GB International Emma Britton, taking the London Squad to a convincing win in the elite categories. Both May and Rebekah train at Kingston Trampoline Academy (KTA) as well as during the after school trampolining sessions, which are proving very popular both will be part of the Teddington Elite Trampoline Team who will be competing in the upcoming British Schools Trampoline Championships.

Trampolining

• Mr Cragg and Mrs Cooper accompanied Harmonica to the South London regional final of the Jack Petchey Glee Competition. In July the group passed through the qualifying round and then a bootcamp in August. The South London regional final took place at the Broadway Theatre in Catford.The competition was fierce, and although the group was highly commended Harmonica did not make it through to the final. The members of Harmonica are Florence Parkin, Lara Medicis, Ava Shacklady, Daniella Wilmot, Francesca Lake, Janneke Vennema Osbourne, Jake Bushell, Talor Hanson and Hester Folley. (Apologies for ommission from last week’s blog.)
• As I mentioned in my introduction, we played host to an educational delegation from Japan. Here is Mr. Watling’s report of the event.
  The school was asked to host a delegation of 16 Japanese government officials and Headteachers on Thursday. Their focus was to look at the ways that the ethos of the school are displayed in the behaviour and general attitude shown by students. The visitors were treated to a school tour and a question and answer session with staff and students from our Pastoral Team. They expressed their amazement at how 1,200 students used our facilities, and were impressed by the calm and ordered atmosphere shown throughout the visit. The tours were assisted by two of our newly created Digital Leader students, who answered questions on school life in general, and also by the expert translation skills of Mrs Restivo, from our Languages department who has spent some time out in Japan as a language teacher. They will go back home to Japan with many interesting observations, advice and good practice acquired during the visit. Thanks also must go to Ms Walton, Mrs Blomley, Ms Thomas and Ms Morozgalska who gave time to speak to the delegation. The morning concluded with Dr Hui giving a short thought provoking presentation on the use of ICT in classrooms – plenty of food for thought for our visitors. Their afternoon stop I learned was to be Eton school. Quite a contrast I feel!

Japanese delegation

• Dr Hui accompanied 11 students to the Richmond Youth Services Summit on Friday 7th October. They listened to speeches by our local MPs Zac Goldsmith and Vince Cable, and participated in workshops on such issues as charities, social enterprise, policing, health services and young parenting. Several workshop organisers made a point of commenting on the intelligent and enthusiastic contributions made by the Teddington students. Our students also made the most of the opportunity to engage directly with our MPs.

Dr Cable receiving advice on financial matters from a Teddington student.

What’s on this week

• Monday – Yr7 “Coffee Morning” – Restsurant – 11.15-12.15
• Tuesday – yr8 Subject Consultation Evening – 1st floor – 4.00-7.00pm
• Wednesday – Hosting London Girls’ U16′s hockey heats – both pitches – 10.30-3.00pm
• Wednesday – Borough School Council Meeting – Houses of Parliament – 10.20-4.30pm
• Wednesday – yrs 10/11 Drama “Man with the Luggage” – Theatre – 7.00-9.30pm
• Friday – PTA Comedy Night – Atrium & Theatre – 7.00 for 8.00-11.00pm
• Friday – Paris trip departs – Opposite the rec – 23.45 (returning Sunday 23.30)

Theme for the week – Black History Month

This is an interesting weekly section. Both the Theme for the week and “In the news” can be accessed by the “Student News” link.

In the news – - Selected this week by 11BT
Members of staff are regularly interviewed by students for ‘In the news’. This is an interview with Ms Harrison.

General

Once again this week we have had a report of a cyclist being injured in a road accident in Teddington. Whilst it was not one of our students it was,nevertheless, yet another cyclist who has suffered an injury and become another cycling accident statistic. A cycling member of staff reported the incident to me, indicating that he had not been wearing a cycling helmet and had incurred a head injury. Yet again, this is another reminder to all our young cyclists about the importance of wearing a cycling helmet on our busy roads. Indeed on Thursday morning as Mr. Law and I were on the gates checking our cyclists, not only were we disappointed to see so many without helmets, but we also saw a small number of bikes which had no brakes, and one with no brakes didn’t have a seat either! I do worry that some of our cyclists underestimate the potential dangers on the road, particularly when I am told by members of the public that they notice our children in a group racing down Broom Rd. I will be addressing these issues with our students in assembleis this week. I do hope, by the way, that the injured cyclist makes a full recovery from his accident.

On Wednesday we are very pleased to be hosting the London Girls U16 Hockey Tournament. This will mean, however, that both astro turf pitches will be out of action at lunchtime. On this day we will be opening the MUGA to yrs 7&8 and I will supervise on the rec. for anyone in yrs 9-11 who would like to play football there. Students might wish to bring in their football boots for that lunchtime.

What made me smile this week

As I moved towards my office on Wednesday morning I overheard one of our yr9 “Tour Guides” replying to the question from a prospective parent “What’s your Head teacher like”. Not knowing that I was very close behind her she replied, quite matter of factly, “Oh, he’s really nice, but he can be scary sometimes”. It could have been worse I guess!

Have a good week.

I have often commented about the very diverse nature of life in a large secondary school. Last week I wrote of the extremely frenetic week I had inside school, yet now I summarise a week which could not have been more contrasting.

I have written on a few occasions about my trips north to visit my father, and the contrasting emotions that these trips created in me. After leaving school fairly early on Monday I collected my wife and two of my three children that live in England and we began a sombre journey north in readiness for my father’s funeral on the following day. For my final such visit north I had once again, without the need for any explanation, very mixed emotions. My wife and son were an enormous support on the day yet my daughters, both present and absent, were overcome by the occasion – I felt deeply for them.

Ever the pragmatist, my father would have been the first to say “I’ve had a good innings lad, so no need for grieving” so we toasted his “innings” which was full of flair and invention and recognised that whilst he didn’t quite make his century he did, nevertheless, have an outstanding “knock”!

Back on Tuesday night in readiness for a Wednesday 8.00am start to our half-termly Head teachers meeting with the Director of Education. Thursday was a series of out of school meetings and Friday was a trip into London for a conference on the new Ofsted Inspection Framework – something I need to be totally familiar with if we are to achieve a hard worked for and much hoped for “Outstanding” grade following the anticipated inspection at some point during this academic year.

So other than Wednesday afternoon and our “Open Evening” that night, I spent the week “managing from a distance”, courtesy of the ubiquitous email! But Wednesday evening was a great delight. We calculated that we had something around a thousand visitors during the course of the evening who toured the school, spoke to our staff and students and engaged in the many activities that were being staged. In addition, I did three speeches to a packed theatre, very ably supported by two year 11 students, Alex Noble (11AW) and Amy Freeman (11AT) who impressed the audience greatly by the very skilled and confident manner in which they presented their excellent speeches. It was gratifying for everyone involved to get some very positive feedback from prospective parents both on the evening and by phone call and email the following day. We now look forward to inviting them back to our morning visits when they can see the whole school in operation later this week.

Ms. Waiting informed me that as she watched out of her classroom window on Friday after school, she saw 80 or so Year 7 and 8 students who had turned up for Football practice on the astro-turf with Mr Sheldrake. She informed me that they all had a wonderful time in the autumn sunshine and it was lovely to watch and hear them. They were are all so keen. What a nice way to finish a week.

Highlights of last week & Congratulations (and entered onto our Achievement wall)

• Our German visitors enjoyed a full programme of activities throughout their stay with us and as well as the language and cultural opportunities shared, friendships which will in some cases last a lifetime, were further consolidated.

German Exchange

• As already mentioned, the students who helped out on Open Evening, particularly our yr11 prefects, worked exceptionally hard and were a credit to the school.
• I am delighted to announce that Laura Morris (11 AY) is the September winner of the Jack Petchey Award. Laura has been a committed, supportive and hard working student throughout her time in the school – a thoroughly deserving winner.
• Congratulations to Jack Nunes (for Windsor House) and Mika Vennema Osborne (for York House) who were the winners of the Modern Languages “Passport Competiton” last week.
• Congratulations are due once more to our very own baseball star, Walker Goodman. Walker played “shortstop” for the London Mets who won the National Championships for the second year in a row – with both the semis and the final being held in Richmond this year. Congratulations Walker, it’s great to know that we have a such a talented baseball player in our school.

Walker Goodman

Results – last week

Fixtures – this week

What’s on this week

• Monday – Parents Information Evening re Academies – Theatre – 7.00pm
• Monday – PTA Meeting -Room 101 – 8.00pm
• Tuesday – Open Morning for prospective parents – 9.30 – 10.00am
• Tuesday – Parents Information Evening for Paris trip – Room 206 – 6.30 – 7.00pm
• Wednesday – Open Morning for prospective parents – 9.30 – 10.00am
• Thursday – Post 16 Options Evening for yrs 10 & 11 – Atrium – 4.00 – 6.00pm
• Friday – Day trip to Houses of Parliament for some Student Council members

Theme for the week – House System. 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 front of our website. In the news - Selected this week by 11BS

General

Parents may be interested to know that by virtue of our developing relationship with Teddington Hockey Club we have now established a weekly hockey coaching clinic. From this week, every Thursday after school from 3.30 to 5.00pm on the astro, three 1st team players from the men and women’s teams will be running the sessions. These sessions are open to girls and boys in all year groups. Each sessions will cost just a pound and payment will be taken at the session.

What made me smile this week

I don’t think that it is any coincidence that when I spend a lot of time out of school there are fewer incidents that make me smile. I think the missing ingredient is children!

Nevertheless I did have an interesting conversation on Monday with a young man who wasn’t wearing his school shoes. I asked him where they were. He said that he had lost them. I asked him if he had looked in the changing rooms (yes) I asked if he’d looked in his locker (yes) I asked if he’d checked his form room (yes) and I asked if he’d been to the General Office, to which he replied, once again, in the affirmative. I then told him that I wasn’t sure what else he could do and he replied by saying that I needn’t worry because he was sure they were somewhere in his brother’s bedroom!

Have a good week.

So soon into the new year and we had one of those “full on” weeks last week!

We held our Richmond College Post 16 Evening on Monday night, Yr10 Core Subjects Information Evening on Tuesday night, Full Governors meeting on Wednesday night and the PTA yr7 Welcome Evening and AGM on Thursday night. We had Yr 7 on their Induction Programme at Thames Young Mariners from Monday through to Thursday, half of yr10 out on Tuesday visiting Kew Gardens for the day to support their GCSE studies, our German exchange students arriving on Thursday lunchtime and yr7 photographs day on Friday. Add to that the approximately fifteen hundred individual lessons that were taught throughout the week and our regular clubs and activities that take place each week, and you end up with what can only be described as a pretty full schedule.

I am always impressed with the energy and enthusiasm that our staff display on a daily basis, particularly from those who, a little like me, are entering our more “senior years”. Yet somehow they manage to scurry around like teenagers still, cutting a swathe through masses of children who somehow seem only capable of moving quickly when we don’t want them to! I was in conversation with friends at the weekend and I mentioned the work schedule that I, and many of our staff had just undergone. I was asked how we manage it. I told him that the answer was quite simple; working with large numbers of energetic teenagers keeps you feeling young and being active all the time (thus avoiding any vague possibility of boredom) keeps you feeling lively and invigorated. We do what we do because we enjoy it and the feedback that you get when such events go well for children and parents give you an enormous sense of job satisfaction.

As hectic as my professional life, I wouldn’t swap the challenge and the daily variety of activities and experiences for any other profession. Except, perhaps, to work as Martin Johnson’s assistant and help make the England rugby team the best in the world again!

Highlights of last week and Congratulations (and entered onto our Achievement wall)

• As mentioned above, our yr7s had their “Induction day” last week. Everyone had a great time and faced some challenges and forged new friendships. Here are some photos of our students “in action”.

• Also, our yr10 Art, Graphics and Photography students spent a day at Kew Gardens. They had a succesful trip and with good weather (for a change). The following are some phots of the day.

• Congratulations to Jack Butler, Sam Seagers and Gok Vamatheva (yr11) who climbed up Mount Snowdon last weekend as part of their Bronze Duke of Edinburgh Award with the Ham Youth Centre. Jack told me it was a long hard walk – approximately three and a half hours up and around three hours down – but thoroughly enjoyable. An impressive achievement.

• Congratulations to Josh Abbs  7AW, who came third in the Middlesex Under 13 Squash Tournament.
• Congratulations also to Izzy Lambros 8AS who, for the second year running has been selected to represent Girls U 14 South East Basketball team. Well done Izzy, and we look forward to seeing how her basketball career develops.
• Ms McGrandles reports – 12 students from Year 11 spent their weekend completing and Outdoor and Adventurous Activity Unit at an OAA centre in Kent. The boys participated in various activities ranging from archery to orienteering. The students developed specific skills and techniques during each activity and built up confidence and team work which was needed for the more technically demanding sessions. These included the sky climb with a 40m high zip wire descent , Jacobs Ladder and the favourite of the trip, 3G Swing. The students will now spend the next half term finishing the unit and writing up their experiences.

Results – last week 

Fixtures – this week

What’s on this week

• Monday – yr10 English Controlled Assesments
• Wednesday – Open Evening – students finish at 12.45 (Limited lunch service available)
• Thursday – students to arrive at school at 9.45

Theme for the week – Citizenship

In the news – Selected this week by 11AY

General

I shall be writing to parents shortly to inform them that, from half-term onwards, we are going to only send out hard copies of letters to those families who haven’t yet signed up for “Parentmail”, this being a much more efficient way to communicate with parents. I would ask therefore that if you haven’t yet signed up for Parentmail and wish to, please do so, and to ensure that you inform us of any changes to your electronic address if you receive letters by Parentmail already.

Please note the information that I have sent out regarding the consultation process for considering converting to an Academy. All relevant information can also be accessed from our web-site. This is an important decision for Governors and it is essential that they get as many parental views as possible in order to assist them in their decision making process.

What made me smile this week

There are two contenders this week.

Firstly, I had the good fortune to take the yr8 assembly on Monday morning. The theme for the week was “World Languages” and the MFL Department had prepared an excellent assembly for me which gave me the opportunity to ask lots of questions, have a lot of “audience participation” and throw lots of sweets around. I know that yr8 enjoyed the assembly, but perhaps I enjoyed it just that little more!

Secondly, I was out at the front of the school on Thursday lunchtime when a coach arrived fulll of our German exchange students. These children had already met each other as our students had visited Germany towards the end of last academic year. It was a joy to watch how both groups ran to each other and offered genuinely affectionate greetings. It was a lovely moment and really quite emotional – another reason, beyond sharing languages and cultures, that make the exchange so enormously valuable.

Have a good week.

As I write I am taking time out from acting as ‘Tour Guide’ as our school once again opens its doors to members of the public as part of the ‘London Open House’ scheme. It is particularly pleasing to see so many people of all ages, unconnected with the school currently, who have sufficient interest in our building to visit us on a Saturday. It is nearing 4pm and we have just a few later visitors finishing their tour. We have had a steady stream of people since opening at 10am.

I look on in admiration at the number of teachers, support staff and Governors who have willingly given up a precious Saturday to help out. Not least, the parents of the PTA who, as ever, are out in full force providing refreshments for our visitors – never missing an opportunity to raise some additional funds to benefit all our young people!

It has been fascinating to hear the comments from visitors. The constant refrain was “well, schools weren’t like this in my day” and indeed they weren’t. But neither was society, the power and influence of IT and the nature of future employment.

Despite being supremely impressed with the architecture, resources and facilities, what seems to intrigue them most was a Head Teacher’s office which, with its open balcony looking like the prow of a ship, was completely exposed to the whole school. I fended off, with good humour, and pretending it was the first time that I had heard the quip, all references to the Romeo and Juliet balcony scene, royal and religious podiums and even comparisons to Statler and Waldorf’s viewing position in the Muppet Show!

However, for those interested (and there were many) I explained the educational justification for such a design – one minor, yet integral part of the overall design philosophy we evolved for the school. In short, I informed them, it is all about ‘seeing and being seen’ for everyone. This philosophy of openness and accountability of actions of everyone in the school, especially the Head, ensures levels of performance, accountability, enjoyment and safety which cannot be achieved in a school environment with a plethora of physical boundaries such as corridors, walls and corners. Our new school building has had exactly the positive impact we had hoped for – the school is a calmer, more controlled and a safer environment than what we were ever able to achieve, despite our very best efforts, in our old and very challenging building.

The corollaries of such improvement are; advances in children’s enjoyment of school, their learning experiences and their examination outcomes.

Having had our first full week back in school, whilst I know it is very early in the new academic year, I can fully endorse the comments that I made.

Highlights of last week (and entered onto our Achievement wall)

Once again I have some noteworthy events and achievements to bring to your attention;-

• Congratulations to our Under 13 cricket team who, last week, became Middlesex Cup winners for a second year running.
• At the end of last year Jess Dolan (11AT) and Fred Watson (last year Yr11) entered a piece of their art work into the “NAS/UWT Arts and Minds” national competition based on celebrating cultural diversity. Out of thousands of entries nationally they were two of a very few students whose work was selected as “Highly commended”. Congratulations to both who received a certificate and a badge in recognition of their achievement.
• The Art department is celebrating yet another excellent set of GCSE results. This being further confirmation of the “Outstanding” grade they received from Ofsted last academic year. You can see examples of the yr11 GCSE course work below.

• A year 11 History class had a very interesting lesson last week with a Vietnam war veteran- this report from Bill Urquhart (11BW)

This Thursday in Year 11 History classes, we were privileged enough to have been visited by an actual Vietnam Veteran; because we are studying this topic we were extremely lucky to have Mr Hasham as a resource. The US ex-helicopter pilot told us about his time in the Vietnam War and our class quizzed him on areas which we would otherwise never have the chance to explore in such detail. I think that a really significant part of his talk was that he had brought in a US flag that went over the body bag and coffin of one of his deceased squadron members who died in combat.. It gave an amazing feeling to speak to a Vietnam Vet who otherwise can only be seen and “heard” in photographs or textbooks . Thank you very much for coming in to speak to us Mr Hasham and we appreciate the emotions and experiences you relived for us.

Results – last week 

Fixtures – this week

What’s on this week

• The yr7 Induction Programme at Thames Young Mariners is on throughout the week
• Monday – Richmond College Post 161 Evening for yr11 & parents – 7.00pm – Atrium
• Tuesday – yr10 Art trip to Kew Gardens
• Tuesday – yr10 Core Subjects Parents Information Evening – 6.00pm – Theatre
• Wednesday – Full Governors Meeting – 7.00pm – rm 101
• Thursday – German exchange students arrive from Konstanz
• Thursday – PTA yr7 Welcome Evening – 7.00pm – Atrium
• Friday – new yr7 photographs

Theme for the week – World Languages

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 front of the website.

In the news – Selected this week by 11AW

General

You will see later today from our website that the consultation process to investigate the possibility of converting to an Academy has begun. There will be important documents for you to consider, a questionnaire to complete and an Information Evening arranged in order to help you through this process.

What made me smile this week

It is always a great pleasure to hear of the progress that some of our ex-students are making. Consequently, it was wonderful to hear this week of how ex-student James Lightfoot-Brown had captained the England U-20 Sevens Rugby team to Gold Medal success in the recently held Commonwealth Youth Games in the Isle of Man. This is a fantastic achievement for a very dedicated young sportsman. I know that many of us are following his career with interest.

Firstly, let me apologise for not writing a welcome ‘blog’ last week. In actual fact, I did. But having written it, I then failed to complete the very simple task of sending it to Dr Hui to put on the website! Still, here is this week’s!

I spent the week before last in school preparing for the new academic year. In school with me were a few members of staff doing similar, and the premises team along with a couple of contractors still working, a year later, on the last of the new build ‘snagging’ issues.

I have to say it was very pleasant. I sat at my desk working away in the relative quiet in what, to all intents and purposes, felt like a new office complex. Whilst I worked at my desk for a good few hours each day, in the absence of 1200 children and well over a hundred adults, I have to say, it didn’t really feel like work! Two staff Inset days and three school days later, I confess that my ‘care-free’ work days of last week felt like a very long time ago!

The start of a new year is always an exciting and uplifting time. Students and staff alike are buoyed by an energy and enthusiasm which, alongside “new (academic) year’s resolutions” carries everyone forward in a wave of optimism.

Friendships are rekindled and summer holiday tales are given and received with gusto.

Best of all for me, though, is my first assembly with the new year 7. There is no group in the school more clean, smart, shiny, enthusiastic and optimistic than the 240 eager faces anxiously waiting to embark upon a new and exciting chapter in their lives.

Naturally, as is the way of human nature, the intensity and longevity of optimism and enthusiasm will vary from individual to individual. I did, however, tell them all about how successful our last year’s Year 11 had been and how the vast majority of them had maintained their enthusiasm throughout their time with us. I spoke of a simple formula for success – the more you put in, the more you get out. The greater the effort the greater the success!

My hope for our new Year 7 and for the rest of the school also, is that they have a safe, happy, enriched and fulfilling academic year.

Highlights of last week (and entered onto our Achievement wall)

From last week’s Blog!

Our excellent year was topped off by some outstanding GCSE results achieved by last year’s year 11. Once again they managed to secure the prestige of getting the “best ever” results achieved by a yr 11 group. Can our current year 11′s do it again next summer?!

Well done to Daniel Sykes (yr 9) who was selected from hundreds of young people to star in a new musical staged by the Youth Music Theatre UK. A great achievement Daniel, well done!

This week

Three very notable achievements to bring to your attention this week;-

• Sam Knott (now yr8) sat his Maths GCSE exam in the summer and achieved an A*. A very gifted mathematician, Sam, also a very modest young man, was in the top 1200 out of the 250,000 young people who sat the national Junior Maths Challenge last academic year and has now qualified for the Junior Maths Olympiad. Fantastic achievement!

• From outstanding intellectual achievement to outstanding physical achievement – Over the summer, Jamie Millbank (yr10) along with his Father and Uncle, cycled the 1152 miles from Land’s End to John O’Groats in fifteen consecutive days. (And that’s uphill!) The average day was around 75 miles, but Jamie informed me that on one day they cycled a hundred miles. This is an amazing feat of physical endurance and I have nothing but respect and admiration for Jamie, his Father and his Uncle. The event was to celebrate Millbank senior’s entry into his fifties – and what a way to do so! Heartiest congratulations to all.

• The following students were successful in achieving LAMDA (London Academy of Music and Dramatic Arts) certificates;- Clara Pillitz yr11 (Grade 4-Distinction) George Jackson yr10 (Grade 4-Distinction) Sofia Raja yr8 (Grade 4-Distinction) James Roberts yr8 (Grade 2 – Distinction). Congratulations to them all and it is excellent to see that we have a number of students in the school who are developing their expertise in the performing arts.

What’s on this week

• Monday – PTA meeting – Room 101 – 8.00pm
• Tuesday – yr11 BTEC Parents information evening – Science Lab 3 – 5.00pm
• Thursday – German exchange meeting for parents – Room 206 – 6.30pm

Theme for the week – Values

This is an interesting weekly section.

In the news – Selected this week by 11AT

General

From last week’s Blog

I know that many of our students achieve great things outside school. If I am informed about them (directly to me or via your Tutor/teacher) I will formally recognise them through my blog to parents, this Student News and the Achievement Wall. It is very important that we celebrate and feel proud of all our successes – of which we have many!

This week

Every year, we ask volunteers from Year 10 to act as ‘Buddies’ for the new year 7. Below are some photos taken by budies Henry and Cathal for the new year 7 which you may find interesting.

I think all members of staff have noticed what a difference the new school uniform has made to the appearance of our students. With continued parental support and the diligence of the staff, I see no reason why we shouldn’t maintain these higher standards from now on.

What made me smile this week

Speaking of uniform! It is interesting that children will do all they can to “customise” their school uniform, regardless of whatever compulsory items of clothing they are required to wear by a school. Blazer sleeves being rolled up, skirt folding, ties short and wide, ties long and thin and shirts flaring out from under jumpers are just some of the corruptions I have challenged this week. I did, however, see some sights to cheer me during the summer. These were, older men with their shirts hanging out. If this develops as a trend it will be a sure fire way of ensuring that the ever trend conscious youth of today will be required to return their shirt tails back inside their trousers once more to avoid looking like their Dads. Result!

I suspect it’s a sign of increasing old age when you begin to make statements like “how time flies” and “it only seems like yesterday”. I still recall hearing as a young boy my Grandma saying, in her Irish/Yorkshire lilt “My ‘ow the year ‘as flown by, so it ‘as” – was she mad, I thought! And now here I am writing about how quickly this academic year has passed and how it doesn’t seem five minutes since we moved into the old school. Well, my family keep reminding me of how I’m turning into my Dad so… perhaps I’ll just age gracefully!

I have been delighted about how well the new building has stood up to the rigours of over a thousand young people and a hundred plus adults using it on a daily basis. Thanks to the respect that the children have had for the school and the rigid rules and procedures we have consistently applied throughout the year, apart from a few minor issues other than the need for some repainting due to natural wear and tear, the building looks just as good today as it did in September. It is my continuing responsibility to ensure that the building remains in this condition so that it can be enjoyed by children for many years to come.

As ever, we have a number of staff members who are leaving us next week and, as ever, for a variety of different reasons. Some leave for promotion, some leave for family reasons and some (far fewer) leave because they are at the end of their careers. But all leave with very fond memories of a school which has, inherently, a culture of concern and care for all members of its community, regardless of their age or status. In my end of term letter I will single out two of our leavers, one from the teaching staff and one from the parent body.

I shall be offering my fulsome praise and respect for Nicky Tivnen, a parent of the school fro the past 11 years and for most of that time an incredibly active member of the PTA. Goodness knows how many social and fund-raising events Nicky has headed up, and how many thousand of pounds she has helped to raise for the benefits of thousands of Teddington school children. Now Nicky’s third and last child leaves the school, so does she. On behalf of everyone involved with the school I can only offer Nicky our most sincere thanks and wish the Tivnen family the very best for the future.

Teaching is a demanding and challenging job. Successful teachers care about children, they know and love their subject, they remain up to date with modern teaching styles and philosophies, they are enthusiastic, lively and energetic. Easily said, easy to do for a while, but to sustain for a career spanning four decades, the last two of which (19 years) have been spent at Teddington School, as Mrs Liz Kearns (English) has done, is an incredible achievement. In addition to consistently teaching English to a very high standard, Mrs. Kearns has involved herself in endless additional school activities. Indeed only recently she has been seen leading groups of children through the Surrey hills on D of E expeditions and supporting year 7 children on a day trip to France. I, for one, hope that I still have Mrs Kearns’s levels of energy and enthusiasm when I reach my retirement age! Literally hundreds of young people from Teddington owe a debt of gratitude to Ms. Kearns. On everyone’s behalf, I extend our heartiest thanks to Mrs. Kearns and wish her a long, happy, healthy and well deserved retirement.

I would like to conclude my final “Introduction” of the year by praising the collective efforts of all my colleagues at the school, both teaching and support staff. Their combined efforts, commitment and expertise have enabled our children to experience a vast array of curricular and extra-curricular activities, helping them to enjoy and develop their innate talents and abilities and achieve all that they have during this academic year. We are a very good school, due in large part to the combined efforts of an excellent staff and student body.

Highlights of last week (and entered onto our Achievement wall)

It’s been another full week of activities and successes. Two Curriculum Enhancement days and our Teddington trek/Sports day have been the highlights. So many things happened on these days it would take far too long to write about them all. However, there will be many photos available of all the events that have taken place this week, which will give you a flavour of all that has been taking place. I would like to mention the following though. Our Thursday Teddington trek and sports day was a wonderful day! The sun was shining and our nearly seven hundred year 7-9 students walked from the school to Teddington Lock, over the river and down to Kingston, back over the bridge and back to school. Our students were an absolute credit to us all. They looked very smart in the new style PE kit and their behaviour was excellent. Standing on Kingston Bridge I beamed with pride as members of the public stopped to say how pleasant and well behaved our children were. This attitude continued throughout the morning and into the afternoon where athletics events were hotly contested and fervently supported by an enthusiastic and interested crowd. After the final event we gathered all the children together and gave out, firstly, the results of sports day and then the overall House positions for this academic year. Lots of cheering and shouting, but no booing or ill-discipline. What a fantastic day!

The following photos were taken by Dr Hui. There is a brief description at each link, and the opportunity to view the photos individually or as a slide show via the slideshow button. The photos are available as high resolution downloads, by double clicking into any photo and then clicking ‘view all sizes’:

• The Geography Field Trip to Bushy Park for Curriculum Enhancement Day.
• The Science trip to the Royal Observatory and National Maritime Museum for CED.
• The Teddington Trek.
• A flavour of Sports Day.

Mrs Waiting’s video montages are available from the student briefing.

For your information the Sports Day results were as follows;-

Group congratulations to the year7 rounders team who came runners-up in the borough tournament. Ms. Reynolds said they played the best rounders that she had seen all year.

Ms. Galbraith is very proud of 7BY and 7AS whose collective efforts to raise funds for Readathon have seen them raise around £400 through reading hundreds of books. Their money will go to Macmillan Cancer Care and the Roald Dahl Foundation with 20% of the total coming back to the school by way of book vouchers.

Final group congratulations to year10 who have been on work experience for the last two weeks. With one or two very minor exceptions, the feedback we have received about our students from the many and varied work places they have been assigned to has been outstanding. Well done everyone.

Results – last week 

Fixtures – this week

What’s on this week

• Year ten work back to school after work experience
• Wednesday – Tudor House Drama Competition winners trip – Queens Theatre (all day)
• Friday – Dismissal following assembly; yr9/10 – approx 11.55, yr7/8 approx 12.45

Theme for the week – Review of the school year

The weekly “Theme” is always worth looking at, as is the Monday morning Student Briefing and Friday’s “In the news” which can be found from our web-site.

In the news – Selected this week by 7BW/7BY

General

We were contacted last week by someone on the school nurse team. They had been made aware that some of our students have been swimming in the Thames along with students from a couple of other schools. They asked if we could get a message out to parents to remind their children of the risks from currents and infections that children take when swimming in the Thames.

I should like to take this opportunity to thank all parents and carers for their support and positive involvement with the school throughout the year. Such support is vital to us in our efforts to ensure that our children maximise their learning potential. I wish you and your families a very happy, safe and enjoyable summer period.

What made me smile this week

It was Wednesday, Curriculum Enhancement Day and just after break time. Half of the year 7 cohort had spent the first part of the day making kites in Design Technology and they had just gone onto the recreation ground to test them out. I stood on the staff balcony which overlooks this area. What I saw (and heard) was around 100 or so young children in their new school uniform, enjoying themselves enormously. They were running around laughing and shouting and watching their kites fly with varying degrees of success but celebrated with equal gusto. As I watched this very childlike and innocent scene unfold I thought, as I complete my 35th year in teaching, all is well with the world!

Until September!

Well I made it back to school – of a fashion! Teaching is one of those professions where it’s not possible to say “I don’t feel great so I think I’ll take it easy in work today”. If you’re in, you’re working full tilt, and that’s all there is to it! And I had forgotten just how tiring it all is! I can’t claim to have been as effective and “visible” around the school as I normally am but it has been gratifying to hear from some staff AND students that they feel comforted by the fact that they can see me, at varying times in the day, standing in the corridors leaning on my crutches, watching children and staff moving around the school. It’s nice to know one has some uses!

Children are interesting creatures. Whilst adults clearly display some signs of surprise at seeing someone again after a long period of time, children just seem to take this in their stride. It’s comforting in a way; the fact that they simply walk by you after not seeing you for a few weeks, many tucking their shirts in as they go as they always do, offering you just a nod of recognition. The “recognition” varies in degrees of exuberance dependant upon the confidence and characters of the individual student. The occasional, more confident/mature one has said “How’s the knee Sir” or, more worryingly given the amount of times I’ve communicated with them in my absence, “What’s wrong with you Sir?”

With yr11 already gone, and yr10 on Work Experience, it has been a relatively quiet week (for which I was very grateful!) yet despite two-fifths of the students missing we have still had some notable achievements, some of which are outlined below. Not least, however, has been the three yr10 students who have undertaken their work experience in our school kitchen. Thanks to the enthusiasm of Chef Andy and his excellent catering team, each of these students were helped to prepare their own “Main Course” during the week which were all thoroughly enjoyed by our hungry diners!

It has felt very good to be back and to share the stresses and strains and the joys and pleasures of everyday school life. Yet, whilst I hope to continue making health improvements in order to contribute more to activities in the forthcoming week, I can unequivocally confirm that I will not be an active participant on the sponsored walk on Thursday morning or the staff sprint at Thursday’s Sports afternoon!

Highlights of last week (and entered onto our Achievement wall)

• On Monday we held our yr6 Induction Day. It was a lovely day. Apart from the fact that our soon to be yr7 were understandably quite chatty and excitable, they were very enthusiastic, very well behaved and enjoyed the varying activities that we put on for them. They were all very ably supported by our group of yr9 “Mentors” who did an excellent job in supporting our new students and letting them know, from a student’s perspective, the culture and values of the school they will be entering in September.
• Mr. Garrett writes the following report about our recent German Exchange visit which, one again, was a hugely enjoyable and successful trip. My thanks to the members of staff whose organisation and attendance enabled this very rewarding trip to take place.
  ‘This year the Language Department took a record-breaking 42 students to Konstanz for the annual German Exchange. The students were welcomed with a huge buffet provided by the parents of the Geschwister Scholl School and then set off for some time with their exchange families. Our students went on various daily excursions to Meersburg, Stein am Rhein, swimming in Konstanz, as well as witnessing a variety of lessons at school. The weekend was spent with exchange partners and their families and on Monday morning exciting stories were retold of hiking in the Alps, sailing across Lake Konstanz, horse riding and even a rugby match against the Germans, which of course they won! The behaviour and attitude of the students was outstanding and many students have already arranged to return to Germany in the summer holidays.’
• Our singing group, recently successful in a performing arts competition, have been performing yet again. Mr. Cragg writes the following report of their performance on Wednesday evening. Here is a video of a recent performance.
  The Teddington Sextet (Lottie Vennema- Osborne, Janneke Vennema- Osborne, Hester Folley, Talor Hanson, Jake Bushell and Francesca Lake) sung 5 songs at the book launch of Lyndsay Russell’s latest novel, ‘Making it Big’ which is doing very well in the paperback chart. The group were extremely well received and were approached by music agents who were interested in booking the singers for other prestigious events.
• Simon Edgington 8BT competed in the GoKanRyu Karate World Cup tournament at the National Indoor Arena, coming 4th in his age group.
• The London Borough of Richmond were winners for the very first time in the 34 history of the London Youth Games. A great achievement for a very small London Borough, and many of our students were representing Richmond. Click here for more information.
• On Thursday evening we held our third annual Sports Awards Evening in the splendid surroundings of the Live Room and Rose Room at Twickenham Rugby Ground. Once again it was a fabulous evening where students, parents and staff, dressed to suit the occasion, saw and heard all about the many and varied sporting events, activities, trips and visits that have taken place throughout the year. We celebrated individual and team successes and with the last awards of the night we congratulated the runners-up and winners of the boys and girls Sports Personality of the Year. These were as follows; Male Sports Personality of the Year, runner up James Church, winner Linus Field. Female Sports Personality of the Year, runner up Josie Roberts, winner Alice Hall. Heartiest congratulations to these and all the other individual and team winners (full list on the PE Blog). The occasion amply identified the activities of a thriving PE Department and the opportunities the offer to our students who, in turn, have made very significant contributions and achieved some very notable successes. I know of only a very few secondary schools (most of which being fee-paying schools) who stage such an event. Ours, organised by Ms. Reynolds and very ably supported by all members of the PE and Performing Arts Faculty was an outstanding event, displaying just what can be achieved, throughout an academic year and at a showcase event, if the combined aspirations and desires of staff and students are sufficiently high.

• Mr Murray reports on ‘Battle of the Books:
  Last Wednesday, a group of excellent Year 8 pupils attended the Borough’s annual ‘Battle of the Books’ event, hosted by Richmond Park Academy. Each year the local Library service organises this activity where teams from each school read a selection of new fiction literature and then are quizzed on them.
  Around one hundred questions based on the six book selection were asked with a separate round on general literature knowledge. Spirits were high in the Teddington group who had managed to get an answer for each question.
  Each year we are also treated to a presentation by one of the short listed authors and this year was to be no different. Elizabeth Laird who wrote ‘Witching hour’ was hugely entertaining and inspiring explaining how she plans out her work, what the life of an author is like and where she finds her inspirations. The Teddington students were also lucky enough to get their copies of her books signed by the author at the end of the event.
  I am delighted to report that Teddington beat off all other competitors to claim the title this year! I was filled with pride at not only their performance but also the respect they showed to their fellow competitors throughout the day.
  The pupils who were victorious are as follows,
  Izzy Harrop, Lily Vie, Kieran Kaur-Ruax, Sarah Conolly, Siobhan Croall, Alex Foley, Tom Ashley, Cameron Hughes

Results – last week

Fixtures – this week

What’s on this week

• Year ten work experience continues all week
• Wednesday – Curriculum Enhancement Day (Incl. Yr7 trip to Boulogne)
• Thursday – Sponsored trek (am) Sports Day (pm)
• Friday – Curriculum Enhancement Day

Theme for the week - forgiveness

The weekly “Theme” is always worth looking at, as is the Monday morning Student Briefing and Friday’s “In the news” which can be found from our web-site

In the news – Selected this week by 7BT

General

• “Carry The Olympic Torch”. The Olympic Torch Relay is coming to Richmond in 2012. The torch is carried from host city to host city and was carried from Beijing in 2008 to the UK. The Olympic flame will be carried in relay all across the UK and will travel through the Richmond borough on the way to the Olympic stadium for the 2012 games. Each school can nominate themselves to be part of the torch relay. If we were selected it would be a fantastic opportunity for our school and students. We need to get at least 100 pledges from staff, students and parents so; please go to the following link and pledge your support. http://www.lloydstsblondon2012.co.uk/In-your-community/National-School-Sport-week/ or visit www.SchoolSportWeek.org and scroll down to “pledge your support”. Thank you!
• On Wednesday after school the teaching staff met in order that the 10 Staff Development Groups who have been undertaking action research on various teaching and learning topics throughout the year, reported back their findings to the rest of the staff. The quality of the research and reports impressed me enormously and re-affirmed my view that the best training resources in a school are the staff themselves. Mr. McGrath, in his leadership role of i/c Professional Development, has worked with staff to develop this active approach to in-service training this year and the outcomes have been very impressive. Each group has shared their outcomes by putting their research findings on the staff “shared area” of our IT network and followed this up with their reports on Wednesday. Research topics, all with a focus on enhancing teaching and learning have included meeting the needs of the gifted and talented learner, learners with special educational needs, the creative role of ICT in the classroom and creativity and innovation in the classroom. A complete list of the topics can be seen in my Spring term report to Governors or through contacting me at the school. Much of this work is already finding its way into our classrooms and we wish to further consolidate this work as these development groups continue next year in modified forms as appropriate.
• After all the hard work of the many parents and other involved in the PTA “T-Fest” event, what a great pleasure it was to hear from the organisers that the event raised four thousand pounds. Money which will find it’s way into the school to provide additional support and opportunities for our children in the future. Another fantastic job, and a great last event for long serving PTA stalwart, Nicky Tivnen, to bow out on (more next week!).
• My summer term report to Governors, which I presented at Wednesday evening’s full governors meeting, will shortly be available on the web-site for parents to read. A key discussion item for the governing body at the meeting was to decide whether the school should move to the “Consultation” phase of considering whether the new “Academy” status would be appropriate for Teddington School in the future. After much discussion the governors voted that we should proceed to this stage. This means that in the autumn term we will undertake detailed consultation with staff and parents prior to a final decision being made. Consequently, you will be hearing more on this in September. I should like to re-iterate that Wednesday’s decision commits the school only to a consultation process. A final decision will be made after this process has taken place. I should also like to point out that the same discussion will be taking place at the next governors meetings of the other four non-academy Richmond secondary schools.

What made me smile this week

Very occasionally last week I hobbled down a flight of stairs, for no other reason to kill two birds with one stone and undertake some of my daily physiotherapy requirements alongside undertaking some general supervision. As I gingerly took my first steps down from the second floor, one of our younger students, on crutches, came up to me. He said “Sir, my card has been coded so I can use the lift, would you like me to take you down?” Don’t you just love them?

Have a good week

Well, here I am again! What I wrote prior to having my knee surgery (which became a second total knee replacement) was partially accurate. Yes I was “institutionalised”, yes I did feel fine up to receiving anaesthetics and yes, I did feel pretty awful immediately after the operation. But I was a bit “out” on my assessments as to when I would be feeling up to receiving and sending school e-mails and a bit “out” also on my capacity to respond to the challenges of physiotherapy. I suspect, like it or not, I’m not quite as young and as resilient as I used to be!

Still, my return today means a total absence of six weeks which was roughly what I was hoping for, but I cannot claim to be anything like my sprightly and mobile self.

The six weeks, though, has been something of a trial and could have, without boring you with the gory details, filled up a couple of episodes of “Casualty”. My two experiences of midnight visits to our local Accident & Emergency Department I have to say, did not fill me with great heart and confidence. How much would I love to get my hands on their “systems management”? I reckon I could slash the average waiting time of most people’s visits by at least 50%, and that was just one of the improvements I could suggest!

My wife has been an outstanding support over these weeks although I have felt some sympathy for her as she has rushed around after me and undertaken all the household chores that we normally share. This feeling of sympathy was no more so than after a somewhat bizarre incident a couple of weeks ago. Finding sleep extremely difficult, my wife suggested that along with the plethora of antibiotics and painkillers I had to take I might try a camomile tea in a bid to aid sleep. She offered to make the tea but I stubbornly refused saying that I should be doing this sort of thing myself by now. So I did. I boiled the kettle and as soon as it was boiling I immediately poured it over the camomile tea bag in my mug. I then promptly caught my finger on the little bit of string attached to the tea bag, pulling the mug over onto its side, the contents of which went directly over the operation scar on my knee. Had I been aiming for it, I could not have achieved a more direct hit. I screamed (literally) and my wife ran into the kitchen and promptly poured gallons of cold water onto tea towels and over my knee. After about fifteen minutes when the pain had begun to subside, my wife looked heavenwards and said quietly “Whatever next Richard?!” After a string of difficulties over the previous few weeks this really was the last straw for her – she now makes the night time camomile tea!

For my part, I could only imagine the pain endured by someone with large scale burns, but at least for the first time in five weeks the pain from my knee operation was not the pain that prevented me from sleeping!

As I indicated earlier, I have not felt much like school work. However, what has been a great pleasure is to look at the weekly “Student Briefing” which is compiled by Ms. Waiting and celebrates highlights from the previous week. If you look at these week on week (and they report in a very similar way to this Blog) you see a vast array of interesting and innovative events and visits that our students and staff have taken part in. As a Head (and particularly one who is off work) it is hugely impressive to read of water-sports holidays, trips to Iceland, Music and Drama Concerts, House Drama competitions, water rocket competitions and PTA (T-Fest) summer extravaganzas, to name but a few. These kinds of events at this level of frequency do not happen in every school.

Last Wednesday was the yr11 Prom at the Richmond Hill Hotel. After a memorable “Last Day” and an equally memorable “Final Assembly” I simply could not let their Prom pass without being there. So, for the first time in nearly six weeks I put on a suit and shoes (not my DJ as, once again I found that it had been “borrowed” and not returned by my son!) and, with some degree of anxiety, I set off to Richmond. Having got there and met up with staff and students for the first time in a long while, I enjoyed a wonderful hour or so with them. Our students looked fantastic, and just like on their previous two leavers events, their behaviour was exemplary and full of joy and fond memories of their time at Teddington School. I can’t count the number of our young adults who either came to thank me for their time at Teddington or asked for a photograph with me, or both. They were fantastic, and it was a joy to see the friendly, respectful rapport that was evident between them and the many members of staff who were there. This event further reinforced my view that I must continue to vehemently defend the quality of today’s young people, so often roundly, and unjustifiably, condemned by society at large.

There is a well accepted managerial concept that good schools can function effectively for a reasonable period of time without the Head Teacher being present. Led very effectively by Ms. shaw and Mr. Law, the whole staff of our school have ensured that this has been the case for Teddington in my absence. On the one hand, it’s gratifying to know that there are effective management structures in place for the school to run effectively in my absence, but on the other hand, it is quite comforting to know that you have been missed, if only just a little bit! Fortunately, (or maybe they were just being kind to me) sufficient members of staff on Wednesday evening said that they were missing me – enough, anyway, to prevent me from feeling completely unloved!

So I’m back, certainly quite a bit slower than normal and definitely not firing on all cylinders, but back nonetheless – and glad of it!

Highlights of last week AND Congratulations;-

• Congratulations to the Nine Year 9 students who went to a debating workshop at Hampton School where they learned debating skills and then took part in a knockout competition with students from other Richmond schools. Arthur Vie and team , Mobeen Salih and team and Mohammed Elhadi and team all made it through to the Final and Mohammed and his team won the whole competition! Well done to everyone who took part.
• Miss Reynolds writes – We have had two students compete at the English Schools Athletics Championships this weekend. Ella Widdop-Gray (Year 9) competed in the Junior girls high jump and finished 5th. Linus Field (Year 11) competed in the Inter boys 400m and finished 4th – missed out on 3rd place by 1 tenth of a second.
• Mr Cragg and Mrs Cooper have some good news – ‘HARMONICA’ is a Glee group made up of 9 Teddington students from years 7 – 9. These are: Fran Lake, Janneke Vennema Osbourne, Hester Folley, Talor Hanson, Jake Bushell, Daniella Wilmot, Florence Parkin, Ava Shacklady and Lara Medici. They competed in the ‘Jack Petchey Glee Club Competition, getting through to the regional finals which take place in September. They will spend a day with a professional choreographer and vocal coach. If they are successful in the regional finals they will go to the national finals and perform at the Savoy Theatre in London’s West End! Click here to listen to one of their latest tracks.
• Many congratulations and well done to Ms Pollard and team for organising such a wonderful Year 11 Prom on Wednesday. It was a very special occasion for our Year 11 students and was a night to remember.

• Congratulations to the Year 10 Duke of Edinburgh students who all successfully completed their assessed expedition this weekend. They were required to navigate their own route over 24k whilst carrying all their overnight camping equipment and food in their rucksacks, and all passed with flying colours.

Results – last week

Fixtures – this week

This week for those involved;-

• Monday – Year 6 Induction Day – We welcome the Year 6 students who will be joining the school in September. The school buddies will be busy supporting the new tutor groups. Make sure that you also help and support our newest students.
• 7.30am-5.00pm Year 9 (5 students) Lee Valley Trip
• The German Exchange returns
• Wednesday – Battle of the Books Competition for 8, Year 8 students at Richmond Park Academy. Please note the Library opens at 9.30am as usual
• Thursday – Year 8 Photograph Day
• Thursday evening – The Teddington School Sports Award Evening at Twickenham Stadium

Theme for the week – Human Trafficking In the news -  7BS Always an interesting item which includes school, local, national and international news chosen by a different tutor group each week.

What made me smile this week

Once arrived at the Prom, I fought my way through lots of students coming up to speak to me and hobbled onto the DJ’s podium. I was given the microphone so I could say a few words to them all. I told them how much we all thought of them, I wished them a memorable evening, a wonderful summer, a wonderful set of exam results in August and a wonderful future. I may be existing under a cloud of ignorance but the spontaneous chant of “Weeksy, Weeksy, Weeksy…….” felt borne out of genuine affection. I joined in, but with a tear in my eye!

Have a good week.

Mr Weeks is still recuperating from his knee operation.

Highlights of last week AND Congratulations

• T-FEST – Thank you to the PTA, to parents, staff and all of you who came along to support this event on Saturday afternoon. The weather was kind and the afternoon turned out to be hot and sunny. There were lots of interesting stalls and entertainment was provided by the Year 9 singing group, by the school Jazz Band and our very own school rock band. Mr Jonny White also gave a brilliant performance to an appreciative audience. It was wonderful to see everyone contributing to make this such a successful event. The school PTA treasurer is still counting up the takings and I shall let you know how much was made as soon as possible.

T-Fest

• Thank you to Mrs Cooper, Mrs Watts and Miss Trevelyan for organizing the third House Drama Competition. It was a wonderful evening by all accounts and the standard of performances was exceptionally high. Well done to all involved and thanks to the PTA for providing refreshments. Year 10 students Nina, Hannah and Jordan have reviewed the evening’s performances. Click here to read their comments (Word document). You can also watch a video montage of the competition here.

• Congratulations to our newest Jack Petchey winners -
  May Award – Lea Joseph 10AW – Nominated by her Head of House for the support and kindness she has shown to her friends. Her teachers point out that she has never used her personal problems as an excuse for not doing her work and has made excellent progress in her GCSE’S through her hard work. She has remained positive and supportive of others and always has a smile for everyone.
  June Award – Harry Booth 7AW – Nominated by four students in his form for being helpful to other students in class and with their homework. An excellent start to his career at Teddington
  Also nominated were:- Arjin Adakkara, Vanessa Lok,Frankie Oldham ,Jade Proetta,, Jessie Curtis, Hester Folley, Danil Martin, Siobhan Croall.
• Mr Murray writes – Well done to Olivia Leach (8AT) who was runner up in the 13-16 category in the World Book Day Design a Bookmark competition. This was a national competition and she has clearly beaten lots of children much older than her into runner up position. She won £50 book tokens for herself and £150 for the school.
• Ms Pollard and Ms McGrandles went to Wimbledon to see our students who had got through to be ball boys and girls at the 125th Wimbledon Tennis championships. You will have to wait for pictures of them as they will be used in the PE department sporting year book which will be on sale at the Sports Awards Evening on 7th July. Both teachers had a great day spotting celebrities and watching some great tennis matches. They also saw these players- you might have heard of them?
• A notice from Mrs Zebrowski –
  The Staff cream tea held last Tuesday to raise money for Cancer Research raised an incredible £415.70! This will enable us to make a fantastic donation to such a worthy cause.
• TEDxTeddington news: RM and Toshiba have also signed on as sponsors, a reminder that TEDxTeddington has corporate as well as local appeal- we’re delighted that these businesses are helping us to put on a great show. If you’re interested in attending, please Tickets are available here.

Fixtures

Results – last week 

Fixtures – this week

This week for those involved;-

• The final Yr11 GCSE exams take place this week.
• Monday – 7.30-9.00pm New Year 7 Parents’ Information Evening in the Theatre/Atrium
• Tuesday – 9.00am Yr 10 & some Yr 11 Science Module Exam
• Wednesday – Year 10 French Speaking Assessments Exams – students have individual times/ venues from their languages teachers.
  German Exchange students leave for Konstanz (returning on Monday 5th July)
• Year 9 (9 students) Public Speaking Trip, Hampton School
• Year 11 Prom, 8.00-11.15pm – Richmond Hill Hotel.
• Thursday – School Closed to students 06.00am – 11.30pm
• Thursday evening Year 10 Drama Trip – Blood Brothers, Phoenix Theatre. Leaving Hampton Wick Stn 6pm arriving back at 11.30pm –
• Friday – 8.40-9.50am School Council Meeting
• Year 10 French Speaking Assessments Exams – students have individual times and venues from their languages teachers.
• Saturday 2nd & Sunday 3rd July - Duke of Edinburgh Assessment Weekend – Bentley Copse Campsite.

General

• Don’t forget to get your entries in to Miss Reidy by Tuesday 3.15pm for the NASUWT Cultural Diversity competition of either creative writing or imaginative artwork ‘Celebrating Cultural Diversity’
Click here to tead one of these entries by Sophia Raja 7AS.

Theme for the week - Art Week  In the news – 7AY  Always an interesting item which includes school, local, national and international news chosen by a different tutor group each week.

Mr Weeks is still recuperating from his knee operation.

Highlights of last week AND Congratulations

• Thank you to Mr Cragg, Mrs Bowman, Mrs Cooper, the school orchestra and the singing groups for a wonderful summer concert on Thursday. Well done to all involved and thanks to the PTA for providing refreshments.

• Well done to the team who took part in the National Physical Laboratory Water Rockets Challenge on 15th June. This from Mr Brown:

The team comprising of Arthur Vie 9AW, Edward Ross 8BW, Sam Bird 8BY, James Adler 7BW and Christian Willington 7BW were there to attempt to launch rockets the furthest distance and for the longest time. This being my first involvement in creating water rockets for competition I was extremely grateful for the expertise of Arthur Vie. A veteran of the competition, Arthur created a fantastic launching mechanism and two high tech rockets – one of which incorporated a parachute mechanism. I must also commend the work of other students who attend Science club who also worked tirelessly to create their own rockets all of which were also launched at the competition.

We were up against stiff competition however the Teddington ‘Kingfishers’ showed tenacity and determination and did rack up some well needed points in both rounds of the competition. I was extremely pleased that we achieved a respectable 19th place out of 36 schools taking part.

An enjoyable (and wet!) time was had by both staff and students who attended. I have especially enjoyed the experience of working together with students and learning for myself the complex science and engineering of Water Rocketry. I must also admit that I reveled in the opportunity to compare tweed jackets with the fellow scientists of NPL. I hope we can build on the ideas and designs we currently have to improve our performance in next years event.

Thanks to Mr. Balistrari, Ms. Murugan, Dr Hui for the photographs, the Science Technicians especially Mr. Brown who drove us in the school mini.

Next up at Science STEM club? Making the sticky stuff – Glues! Come along on Tuesday 3.30pm -4.30pm, Lab 4!

• All of Year 10 students have now had their post 16 Options talks and Ms Clarke has visited all of the Year 10 classes to talk them through the work experience process and to issue health and safety booklets and student log books.
• Congratulations to the students that took part in the recent UK Junior Maths Challenge. Teddington students did really well, achieving – 7 Gold, 10 Silver and 14 Bronze. Best in school – Samuel Knott who qualified for the next round …the Junior Mathematical Olympiad.
• TEDxTeddington news: we’re delighted to announce that local company Base One has signed on as lead sponsor, and a more enthusiastic and friendly partner it would be difficult to imagine. A reminder that there is a strict seating limit and as word spreads (and TEDx attracts national interest, it’s not just a school event) the event will sell out. If you’re interested in attending, please buy your tickets now.

Fixtures

This week for those involved;-

• Yr11 GCSE exams and revision timetable continues
• Rehearsals continue for the House Drama competition on Thursday. Check the rehearsal schedule carefully-
  STUART – tech and dress after school on Monday.
  TUDOR – tech and dress after school on Tuesday.
  ALL FOUR HOUSES – Wednesday 3:30pm – 7pm.
  Notice from Mrs Cooper – HOUSE DRAMA TICKETS ARE ON SALE. ORDER YOURS BY WEDNESDAY
• Tuesday there is a student U.N. Day at Lady Eleanor Hollis School
• Tuesday – LA Sports Day for those students representing the school.
• Tuesday – Charity Tea Party for Staff to raise funds for Cancer Research
• Thursday – 9.00-10.30am Year 11 Clearance Morning – venue Restaurant/Atrium/Library
• Thursday – House Drama Competition – Theatre –6.30 for 7.00pm start.
• Friday – Non-uniform Day for PTA fundraiser – £1 or a donation for the tombola, bottle stall etc. Remember to sell the raffle tickets and return the stubs to the office
• SATURDAY 25TH JUNE 4.00-7.00pm PTA T-Fest.

General

An important notice from the PTA – Please remember that T-Fest is on Saturday so do keep selling your raffle tickets. Details are as follows:-

Live music featuring Jonny White, BBQ, Inflatable dome, Bungee Trampoline, Bouncy Castle, Coconut Shy and many other stalls and sideshows. We’re’re looking for teams of 6 (5 players + 1 sub) for the 5-a-side football tournament – they can be male, female or mixed. Cost to enter 50p per person payable on the day of T-Fest (25 June) but they need to register before the day. Contact Mr Sheldrake to register your team. Prize for the winning team!

STAGE COMBAT for Current year 8 and year 9 students: The practice of creating the illusion of physical combat for Theatre, Film or Television. From September a 10 week course of stage combat lessons will be offered. The sessions will take place on Monday evenings from 3:30pm – 5pm from 12th September in the school Theatre. Please ask your form tutor for a letter from the red bag if you are interested. There are only 24 places available and they will be allocated on a first come, first served basis. The workshops will be delivered by the company RC Annie. (The classes will cover fighting without weapons initially and then weapons will be introduced.)

It has been decided that, at the end of school, 3.15, cyclists may now leave via Trowlock gate as well as the main gate, but should use the marked cycle paths, observe due care and attention, and follow the Highway Code.

Theme for the week - Refugee Week  In the news – 7AW  Always an interesting item which includes school, local, national and international news chosen by a different tutor group each week.

Finally: A contribution from Dr Hui:
As I drove in to the car park this morning I noticed a poppy growing by the car park. I thought readers would like to look a little closer and see what I saw. There is a slideshow button on that link. The first picture shows the poppy next to my car. The photos can be downloaded at high resolution from the link, if anyone would like them.

Mr Weeks is still recuperating from his knee operation.

Science Club information. On the 15th of June the school’s Science club will be taking part in the National Physics Laboratory Water Rocket Challenge 2011, students in KS3 have been busy building rockets for the event and hopefully they will have an enjoyable afternoon. They are up against stiff competition as many schools are taking part so we wish them the best of luck.

Mr. Brown, Ms. Murugan and Mr. Balistrari who all are involved in running the club are also happy to announce that the club has now joined the Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics Network (STEMNET). Many schools are part of this network and this gives them the opportunity to share ideas for projects, compete in challenges and organise visits from ambassadors who are experts in a particular field. The main aim is to create opportunities to inspire young people in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics. They are looking for new members to the club so if you feel that your son or daughter would benefit and enjoy this opportunity to get involved then please encourage them to attend. Mr. Brown has created a video to show a few activities which have been run at the club and also to promote some upcoming activities.

 
TEDxTeddington: this will be a remarkable evening of dinner, science, art and music at the school on 4th November 2011. Tickets for parents and students went on sale this weekend and already half have been sold, before the event has been advertised to the other local schools or to the public. The TED organisation limits us to just over 100 seats, so if you’re a TED enthusiast, please book early because it’s clear the event will sell out and we’d like to accommodate as many of our own parents and students as want to come. Tickets are available here.

Highlights of last week AND Congratulations

• On Tuesday there was the annual visit to Thorpe Park for 9 lucky year 7 students (thanks to Teddington Rotary Club for sponsorship). Miss Walton reports that ‘A great time was had by all – even when the heavens opened. They all went home soaking wet but happy! Thanks to Miss Walton, Mr Boateng and Miss Thomas for driving the minibus’.
• Well done to the group of Year 9 students for their successful D and T workshop at the Royal Institute of British Architects last Wednesday. Click here for a video montage of their visit. Mr Dabney and Mr Yarker have sent this report:-
  ‘A group a year 9 students who have chosen Graphics GCSE next year were invited to go to the Royal Institute of British Architects in Portland Place, London, by the architects who designed our new building, BDP. We were shown some fantastic models of buildings that they have designed and talked to some young architects about what they actually do. There was also a workshop session where they designed new building ideas on a small ‘footprint’ of land, just the same as here, our new building was originally an Astroturf and many people did not think it big enough for a school. It was an interesting afternoon in a special place which we would not normally go to’.
• More photos from the Cowes visit to the Isle of Wight. Click here for a video montage of the activities.
• Mrs McAteer has also got the Year 10 students to produce a Blog of their week in Iceland. Click here to read it.
• Teddington School students attended the Thames Water London Youth Games Regatta achieving medals and made it into the local news. Click here for details.
• We have received a request for a pen friend from a year 7 student in Germany. Would volunteers please contact Mrs Green in Modern Foreign Languages.

Results and Fixtures (please check back for update)

This week for those involved;-

• Yr11 GCSE exams and revision timetable continues
• Year 10 There are Spanish GCSE Speaking assessments
• Yr10 Post -16 Options talks continue
• Yr10 Miss Clarke will be visiting all Year 10 classes to talk about work experience and to hand out the w/experience Logbook and Health and Safety booklet
• Year 9 Science Examinations
• Tuesday – German Exchange Meeting – Room 206, 6.00-7.00pm
• Tuesday – South Africa Tour Information Meeting for Parents 7.00-9.00pm
• Thursday – Summer Concert – Theatre – 7.00-8.00pm, doors open 6.30pm

General

Theme for the week - Setting and Achieving Goals  In the news – 7AT  Always an interesting item which includes school, local, national and international news chosen by a different tutor group each week.

Mr Weeks is still recuperating from his knee operation.

Highlights of last week AND Congratulations

Some lucky Teddington students enjoyed two, very exciting trips over Half Term. A huge thank you to the staff who organized these events and well done to our students for their excellent behaviour on these trips.

• Thank you to Miss Reynolds and her team of 11 staff for organizing a very successful water sports week on the Isle of Wight. Miss Reynolds reports -
  ‘Over half term, 80 students and 11 staff travelled to Cowes on the Isle of Wight for an action packed week of water sports. Throughout the week students and staff took part in dragon boat racing, windsurfing, kayaking, dingy and keel boat sailing. If that wasn’t enough, there was also a full programme of evening activities which included Bowling at Ryde, a visit to Sandown Pier, an Iron Man competition and a fancy dress disco. Evan James won the Best Fancy Dress prize for his Energizer Battery costume. It was a fantastic week, although very tiring!’
  

  Cowes trip

• A big well done to Mrs McAteer and Mr Jacob for taking 22 students on a field trip to Iceland. Mrs McAteer reports that everything went smoothly and our students were a credit to the school. This expedition was a first for Teddington School and gave students a once in a lifetime opportunity to experience the geographical wonders of Iceland. Click here for a video montage of the Icelandic trip.
• Just before Half Term some of our students attended an award giving ceremony at Richmond Library with Mrs Bide. Gok and Ikram gave this account of the evening -
  ‘The event was the Cover Story competition held in Richmond Library. Teddington School had five prize winners who received certificates and vouchers from the award winning author Malorie Blackman. This was followed by a question and answer session with Malorie conducted by Ikram Bashar, Gokulan Vamatheva and Honor Danns. The audience found the questions interesting and were entertained by Malorie’s lively and humorous answers.’
  

  Malorie Blackman

• Mrs Cooper reports that -
  Danny Sykes in 8BT is well known in school for playing the role of Seymour in the red cast of ‘Little Shop of Horrors.’ After intense auditions Danny will be performing at the Rose Theatre in ‘Korczak’ during the last week of August. (He attended a casting weekend this week and has a small speaking part and lots of singing! Danny also recently performed at the Leatherhead Drama Festival and got an honourable mention (& certificate signed by Michael Caine) as Best New Young Actor 

Results – last week 

Fixtures – this week

This week for those involved;-

• Yr11 GCSE exams and revision timetable continues
• Year 10 There are Spanish GCSE Speaking exams taking place all day on Monday
• Yr10 Post -16 Options talks continue
• Year 9 have Maths exams on Tuesday and Thursday afternoons
• Some Year 9 students will have the opportunity to take part in a D and T design workshop at the Royal Institute of British Architects as guests of our School Architects, BDP.

General

Theme for the week - Prejudice  In the news – 7AS  Always an interesting item which includes school, local, national and international news chosen by a different tutor group each week. This can be accessed from the ttfd link on the home page of the web-site.

By the time you read this introduction I shall be a fully institutionalised resident guest of the NHS.

After a somewhat innocuous rugby tackle all of forty years ago, I began my life-long battle with “dodgy knees”. A syndrome which I am sure many contemporaries of mine can relate to. Forty years ago they didn’t mess about – a damaged cartilage, rip it out! And so began my troubles. Well that, and a life devoted to the pursuit of a plethora of sporting activities, many of which the human body was probably not designed to undertake.

When people today complain about the length of operating waiting lists I still smile when, after injuring my knee just prior to going to PE teacher training college, I received a letter just after my graduation which said “you have been on our waiting list for three years, would you still like the operation?”

And so it is, on Saturday morning my long suffering wife will drive me to Ashford Hospital at a ridiculously early hour, for what I calculate will be my eleventh “procedure”. (Nine on the knees and one on each shoulder.) So, as a veteran of the operating theatre, I know the procedures only too well. I should make it clear that I have nothing but admiration and respect for all who work in the medical profession – indeed all three of my children have chosen such careers, and I feel enormously proud of them. However, and I suspect by virtue of the nature of the process and a need to ensure order and efficiency, I know that, as I said in my first sentence, I will be “institutionalised”. By this, I mean that at the precise moment I am assigned a bed, given a little cubby hole for my belongings, assured that everything will be fine and there is nothing to worry about (said in very kindly, if not ever so slightly patronising tones) my previous identity as a fully self-sufficient, professional adult male will bear no significance to the experience I am about to undergo.

I don’t complain about this, I just state it as a matter of fact. From having overall responsibility for an organisation of around twelve hundred children, over two hundred adults and a multi-million pound budget, I will be reduced to being allowed to make only the very basic personal decisions and requests for myself, and only then after they have been approved by any number of the wide ranging members of staff whose attitudes and availability will determine the quality and speed of my provision and service.

I know already that I will quite enjoy the feeling of being sedated prior to surgery and I will have no fear of the experience. (I have total trust and confidence in the enormous professionalism of the surgeon and the large team of experts who will take good care of me.) I also know, however, that I will come round from the surgery feeling awful; nauseous and in a lot of pain. I know also that I will not be in the best of moods so will probably consolidate that status by having Leonard Cohen (nicknamed “Happy Harry” by my wife many years ago when he was in his prime) on continuous loop on my iPod. In order to deal with the whole hospital experience I will keep myself to myself and will not, therefore, make much of a friendly bed neighbour. I just hope my bed neighbour feels the same way.

I will be as competitive over my physio/rehab as I was when my cartilage was removed some thirty plus years ago and after every other surgical procedure since then. I will also work hard to be discharged at the very earliest opportunity. One incentive for that will be my daughter visiting from New Zealand – the first time we have seen her in over nine months. She’s a nurse – a busman’s holiday for her then!

I will then take the best part of two weeks to begin to feel anything like human again, but by the time everyone at Teddington is back after their half-term break, I shall be ready for firing off a few emails!

I don’t know how long I will be off school, the surgeon suggests between six to eight weeks but given my competitive nature, and my past experiences, I think I can reduce that time. I may be back on crutches but I will be able to join the merry band of student “crutchees” who ride the lift on a daily basis. In addition, with the benefits of electronic mail, I will be able to keep in touch and contribute in that way prior to my return.

Mr. Law and Ms. Shaw will share the overall running of the school and I have no doubt that they will ensure that everything will remain as normal until my return.

Dr. Hui who makes my blog “happen” each week will put up the basic diary of events in my absence and any other information he gleans from Ms. Waiting who works with me to produce the weekly “Student Briefing”.

I wish everyone well in my absence and, as soon as I feel able, I will write again.

Note from the Editor: We have news that Mr Weeks is safely out of surgery and that his predictions about his post-operative condition was accurate.

Highlights of last week AND Congratulations

• At the beginning of the week we had artists from Orleans House Gallery in school working with KS3 classes in Art, Design and Technology making carnival parade sculptures for the forthcoming Twickenham Carnival. This was great fun for everyone involved and there is a video of the event available here.
• On Thursday a small but enthusiastic group of yr7 & 8 worked with Ms. Milner and Mr. Garrett after school at “Singalang”. Intrigued, I went along at about 4.30 and had a wonderful time listening to a group of enthusiastic students, accompanied by Mr. Cragg on guitar, singing some pop “classics” in German and in French. They were excellent. I think more people need to benefit from seeing their performances – we’ll work on them!
• On Friday a small group of students went to Orleans park school to take part in an IT day. I have no details as yet as I didn’t see the students in school, but I hope they had an intestine and worthwhile day.
• Saturday night was the PTA James Bond extravaganza night. I had intended to be there as it sounded as if it was going to be a really good evening. Particularly as our very own Shirley Bassey (Ms. Murrugan – Science) was due to perform. Note from the Editor- the following report was received from the PTA this morning:

Shirley Bassey

• Congratulations to our two resident skateboarding experts Milo Simmonds and Tom Ten Grotenhuis (both of 7BW). Milo won the Beginner’s skateboarding competition and Tom came second in the Intermediate skateboarding competition which was held at Kingsfield Skate Park last week. Well done boys.
• And finally, more sporting congratulations, this time to Georgia Pallas, also of 7BW who won a silver medal in the Pentathlon last week as well as being a finalist in the British Youth Championship fencing competition (Epee). A great achievement, well done Georgia.

 Results – last week

Fixtures – this week

This week for those involved;-

• Yr11 GCSE exams and revision timetable continues
• Yr8 reports issued this week
• Monday pm – yr10 Spanish Speaking Assessment

General

• May I draw parents attention to a letter I have sent home regarding uniform and appearance of children whilst at school. I look for your support in this matter.
• The Office Staff are becomingly increasingly concerned about how the first they hear about a child’s illness is when their parents arrive at reception. There seems to be a growing practice of children texting their parents about matters before they are even discussed with any members of staff. This is clearly an unacceptable situation from our point of view and, therefore, we would ask for your co-operation on this matter also.

Theme for the week – Design and Technology Week In the news – 8BY Always an interesting item which includes school, local, national and international news chosen by a different tutor group each week. This can be accessed from the ttfd link on the home page of the web-site.

What made me smile this week

Continuing the medical theme, I recall a very long time ago asking my eldest daughter (the one in New Zealand currently) what she would like to be when she grew up. She indicated that she wasn’t sure, but she knew she didn’t want to be a teacher because we were always “stressed” and complained about not having enough money. I did inform her a while ago that she has probably chosen one of the few career paths that are arguably more stressful and less well paid than teaching!

Have a good week.

We had a Consultant in school on Monday of this week and when I saw him he said that in preparation for his visit he was looking at our web-site and read my blog. After asking me how long I had been writing it he commented that it must be getting quite difficult for me to think of a different theme every week. I agreed with him, particularly as I had no idea what I would write about for this week. But, courtesy of agreeing to watch the new series of “The Apprentice” with my wife (instead of going off somewhere else to do some school work – having previously vowed that I would never watch the programme ever again after the last series!) my theme for this week unfolded before my very eyes!

As I write, installment two on Wednesday evening will be starting shortly. So if you detect any lapses of quality in my writing, or a sudden outpouring of hackneyed platitudes, I can only apologise, and suggest that you take the matter up with the BBC.

I must congratulate “The Apprentice” research team as they have done it again – bringing together a group of 16 young people who all fit somewhere along the “unstable extrovert” continuum. 16 young people who appear to have egos as big as houses, unswerving self-belief and confidence, swaggering (indeed staggering) arrogance to match, and no shortage of aggressive mannerisms and trite business clichés to support their behaviour.

Sadly, however, I could only conclude that they all appeared (I know it’s early days yet so I may be being unfair to one or two of theme here) to suffer from a very distinct lack of innate management ability, people and motivational skills, empathy, tolerance, understanding, sensitivity, etc. etc. – all the skills which, in my view, are essential qualities  of true leaders and managers. Still, I guess that 16 egos all smashing into each other like a pin-ball colliding against cushions, bumpers, lights and bells for the next three months, will probably make for far more interesting TV than observing 16 people who have the capacity and desire to work together in a truly collaborative and creative way. Perhaps the BBC is happy to let the “Open University” lead on that one!

I have something in the region of 150 adults, at varying levels of seniority, working at Teddington School undertaking a wide range of teaching and non-teaching duties. None of whom would be able to fulfil their responsibilities to a satisfactory level if they were to adopt anything like the styles, clichés and mannerisms of these would be young apprentices. Indeed if they were to, I suspect that I would be wanting a conversation with them at their earliest convenience. And that brings me on nicely to Sir Alan himself. Clearly, he is a very successful man and his achievements in the world of business and commerce are many and notable. However, I can only hope that his Boardroom bullying, patronising and sarcastic “performances” are purely for the benefit of TV drama and TV ratings.

Leaders in Education were, for a long time, derided by the world of Industry and Commerce as “soft and fluffy”, lacking the ruthless cutting edge so cherished in the “real world”. However, certainly for the last ten years, the quality of educational leadership and management has become recognised nationally as being of the highest quality. There is no shortage of accountability at Teddington School, (or any other school) just ask my Senior Leadership Team and Curriculum Leaders who are questioned regularly on plans, actions, progress towards targets and outcomes. There is real challenge at such meetings, but they are conducted in a civilised and respectful manner where everyone has the opportunity to express their views and opinions without fear of ridicule or insult. Surely, this is what really happens in the business world and actually what these young apprentices should be aspiring to?

The programme finished a short while ago. I watched it all with half an eye (which was more than enough). I saw nothing in it that would persuade me of the need to change any of the views I have expressed here!

I think I’ve seen enough for this series now! 

Highlights of last week AND Congratulations;-

 It was one of those wonderful weeks; so much achieved by so many people in so many different ways.

• We began the week with the yr11 final assembly. It followed an excellent last day that we had with them on Friday and it was an equally memorable event. Family members and staff shared a very memorable occasion with yr11. As the assembly unfolded it was punctuated with “oohs”, “aahs”, applause, laughter and, of course, a few tears. The friendships built up over five years (and in some cases many more) were evident for all to see as was the pleasure and enjoyment that they had enjoyed whilst being at Teddington. Thanks must go to all those students who spoke and performed so passionately on Monday, but also special recognition should go to Ms Reynolds and Mr Cragg who devoted a lot of time to preparing for the assembly, to Mr. McGrath who offered senior leadership support, and especially to Ms Thomas and Ms Pollard whose considerable efforts were responsible for making this assembly so special for everyone present. This is a video of the Year 11s
• As part of a Curriculum Enhancement day a few weeks ago, the Art Department used the day for yr9 to contribute towards a Richmond Borough record breaking attempt to help the Fairtrade foundation to create the longest piece of bunting ever produced. Staff and students working in the Art department are well used to winning prizes these days and they can now add the “Secondary School Prize” for creating the best bunting in this competition as well. Another one for the trophy cabinet- well done everyone.
• Continuing the theme of success in art, on Tuesday evening Ms Reidy attended the private viewing at the Royal College of Art as four of our students’artwork had previously been selected to be entered into a special “Young Art 2011″ exhibition. The four successful students, along with their parents, were able to enjoy seeing their work exhibited in such a prestigious gallery. The successful students were Julieta Caldas, Alice Davies, Jasmine Heming and Charlie Jefferson all of year 9. Furthermore, it transpired that Jasmine’s work was officially selected as “commended” – which was a status assigned to only 10 out of the 140 students whose work was being displayed in the 11-13 category. Another fantastic achievement, well done everyone!
• It was a great pleasure to get feedback from Ms McAteer on Wednesday mooring after the year10 geography filed trip to Hampshire the day before. All staff who supported the visit commented on the excellent behaviour and attitude of all the children on the visit. Indeed a couple of retired teachers who were in the area and close to where the children were working, approached our staff to say how very impressed with what they were seeing. This came as no surprise to us, but what a shame the perpetual “youth fault-finders” don’t want to see and hear these stories. These photos were taken to record the geographical points of the day, but do also convey the great enjoyment that was had by all.
• Well done to Simon Edgington (8BT) who has been nominated as April’s Jack Petchey Award winner. Simon is a well deserved winner and was nominated by students for his all round contributions to the school. Simon is putting the money towards the PE & PA Department.
  

  Simon Edgington

• The opening ceremony on Friday afternoon was fantastic – I had the theatre doors opened up to the atrium in order that all our special guests could see our children leaving school at the end of the day. Their departure and the students who were present and performing were an absolute credit to the school – I was so enormously proud of them!It was a wonderful occasion. The student photographers were busy and, with the help of Ms. Waiting, they have created this video for you to see . These are further photographs of the occasion.
  

  School Opening

• “The Bronze Duke of Edinburgh group were outstanding” (Ms. Harrison writes) “on their practice expedition around Wisley this weekend. They remained in excellent spirits throughout the weekend, navigating their way around 24km of Surrey countryside (some more successfully than others!) and surviving a chilly night under canvas. The behaviour of the whole group was impeccable and a thoroughly enjoyable weekend was had by both staff and students. Everyone went home on Sunday happy,  if not a little bit tired!” Well done to the students, and thanks to Ms. Harrison and all the staff who gave up their weekend to enable this event to happen.
• Cricket report from Mr Sheldrake: “On Friday 13th May 2011, the Boys Under 13 Cricket team played Ardingly Prep School, Sussex in the Second Round of the David English National Cup. Teddington batted first and got off to steady start from Harvey Rudolph and Joe Lavender. This start enabled Sam Dixon to accelerate later in the innings and with some blistering shots enabled Teddington to score 149 runs off 30 Overs, with Dixon finishing with an excellent 61 Not Out. The opposition required 5 runs per over for victory and were up with the run rate for the first 5 Overs. However, the Spin combination of George Havord and Zac Abbs was too much for Ardingly and they collapsed to 108 Runs All Out. A great spell of bowling by Alex White enabled him to finish with figures of 5 Wickets for 12 Runs. The Boys will play Whitgift School in the Third Round and remain the only state School in the Competition.”

Results – last week

Fixtures – this week

This week for those involved;-

• Yr11 GCSE written exams begin this week
• Wednesday/Friday – Yr10 Health Talks in RS lessons
• Thursday – “Singalang” – 3.30-5.00 pm (Mr. Garrett and Ms. Milner)
• Saturday evening – PTA James Bond Extravaganza!

General

• If your child cycles to school please could I reiterate the importance of them having a padlock which they use to attach their bike to one of the cycle stations. I would also suggest that it is worth having cycle insurance also just in case. Many children cycle to school at Teddington, which is a very good thing. Our cycle area is safe, close to the main entrance and covered by CCTV. Nevertheless, an unlocked cycle will always be a temptation to some people visiting our site.

Theme for the week – Christian Aid Week In the news – 8BW. Always an interesting item which includes school, local, national and international news chosen by a different tutor group each week. This can be accessed from the home page of the web-site.

What made me smile this week

Read on if you have a reasonable interest in rugby. If, however, you are in the rugby apathy camp, save yourself a couple of minutes!

Mr Watling walked into my office the other day and informed me that some recent “networking” he had been doing had resulted in us getting “some rugby player” to visit the school. He followed this up with “have you ever heard of someone called…..” and he paused here a moment to recall the name he had been given, “er…Toby Flood”. I smiled and said that, given my long and deep rooted affinity with the world of rugby, it was likely that I would know who the England Fly-Half was! Nice result though Mr. W, even though you were unaware of the extent of your networking achievement!

Have a good week.

This is quite a momentous week as two events occur simultaneously. On the one hand we expect the very extensive “snagging list” for the new building to finally be complete and on the other hand, on Friday afternoon we are holding the “Official Opening” of the new building.

Whilst I am not a great fan of such events, it is entirely appropriate that we have this “official” opening on Friday for several reasons. Firstly, it will allow the very many people and groups of people involved in this project to meet together formally in the building that they helped to create, and then allow me the opportunity to thank them all for their significant contributions. It will also be an opportunity to formally summarise the success of the project and then enable us to draw a line under the past and to look forward to a school with a long and successful future in prospect.

In thinking about what I will say on Friday I gave thought to the nature of the BSF programme and how the school, the Local Authority and the Local Council embraced this concept. BSF stands for “Building Schools for the Future” and fully five years ago, all those involved with this project were very keen to achieve just that for Teddington. From our knowledge and research, we read about and saw examples of newly built schools which failed to achieve that ambition. In a creative moment I invented the acronym RIP (Refurbishing Institutions of the Past) which could arguably be attributed to many newly built schools up and down the country. It was because of this that I argued strongly for a complete rebuild rather than a refurbishment of the old school – I felt that, conceptually, the physical configuration of our old building would preclude the pursuit of a true school of the future.

It was a very long and complex story but on Friday I shall inform the large gathering of students, staff and the many guests who have been involved in the project, that I firmly believe that all our collective efforts have indeed enabled us to create, physically and culturally, a school and learning environment which is very much more appropriate to the needs and expectations of our children, future educators and employers and of society a a whole in the 21st century. In short, our collective efforts have completely embraced the BSF concept, enabling us to deliver an outcome which was at the forefront of the thinking of those who set the BSF policy in motion a few years ago. Justification enough for a celebratory Friday afternoon where all involved can give themselves a well deserved pat on the back!

But prior to that we have our annual “Year 11 Final Assembly” this morning. This event marks the occasion where the normal school timetable for year 11 ceases and they move into their “revision and exam timetable”. This is always a very enjoyable, memorable and emotional event;- a “rite of passage” and a time when students in yr11 arrive at the point where their lives are never going to be the same again. I think that students, staff and the parents in attendance look upon this event with a mixture of emotions. Indeed this time last year, after the formal assembly, some parents came up to me and said “goodbye” and informed me that a 16 year association with the school had just come to an end. Bitter-sweet stuff – there’s a lot of that in the teaching profession!

(I’ll report on this event next week.)

Highlights of last week AND Congratulations;-

• This was the week where it was clear that the exam season had begun. Whilst yr10 exams have been in full swing all week, GCSE practicals also began with the first batch of Art exams getting underway.
• On Friday, yr11 had the honour of a “free and final” non-uniform day as they attended their very last “normal” school day. As well as undertaking the ritual “shirt-signing” (which I’m not sure I quite understand as my son, who has just turned thirty, still has his scribbled over school shirt hanging forlornly in a wardrobe at home!) as a new treat this year (and courtesy of funding from the PTA) we sectioned off the outdoor social space at the back of the school and served yr11 with a free pizza lunch prepared by Chef and his team. The weather was kind and staff and students mingled happily together in what was a very enjoyable occasion.
• Once again the PTA plant and cake sale was very well attended. As well as good quality plants and cakes competed for the shoppers attention the PTA, once again, raised money which constantly allows our children to benefit from additional resources. Thanks again to all involved.
• The school Jazz Band played at Chestnut Sunday in Bushy Park. We’ve received this comment via the website:
  “I visited Bushy Park on Chestnut Sunday and heard the school jazz band play there. I thought they were excellent and performed very well. The band deserve all the praise they get, and more. Well done to all members.” [CM

Results – last week 

 Fixtures – this week

This week for those involved;-

• Monday am – yr11 Final Assembly
• Monday 8.00pm – PTA meeting – Room 101
• Tuesday – yr10 Field Trip to Hampshire
• Friday afternoon – School Official Opening Ceremony
• Saturday/Sunday – Duke of Edinburgh Expedition – practice weekend – Wisley

General

• “Year 11 exams – the final push”! Mr Law writes “Year 11s are now starting the final push towards their examinations. It is a crucial time for them and the school will be continuing to support them on the “home straight”, as I am sure parents and carers will be also. As part of the final preparations we have now launched the yr11 modified timetable. This sets out the specialised and focused revision sessions that year 11 teachers will be running from the 10th May onwards. The modified timetable allows students, with parents and our help, to plan their own customised revision schedule around their examination timetable and the carefully structured sessions in the modified timetable. All students will have been given a paper copy of the timetable last week, but an electronic version can be found at this link. The Further Mathematics Support Programme has three online revision sessions during May aimed at students who are targeting an A or A* grade in their GCSE Mathematics this summer. Please click here for information.
• NASUWT  Arts and Minds ‘Cultural Diversity’ competition. See this leaflet for entry information.  This is a very worthwhile competition which promotes and celebrates cultural diversity in the UK. A competition with good prizes, for both school and pupils, from the NASUWT. There are 2 categories:
• Creative writing (anything from poetry to song lyrics)
• 2d Artwork (anything from photography to collages)
• Parents may be interested to know that on Saturday morning we held our annual “Senior Leadership Team/Chairs of Governors Committees” conference. A bit of a long winded title, but in short it is the culmination of the development work that I have undertaken within the school relating to what the key issues and priorities should be for the school next academic year. Along with the Governors present we review progress on this year’s targets and agree the key themes and related actions for next year. The session will form the basis of our new School Development Plan which will be produced over the next few weeks. Any parent who is interested in seeing the SDP is always welcome to do so.

Theme for the week - Looking after our school

In the news – 8BT. Always an interesting item which includes school, local, national and international news chosen by a different tutor group each week. This can be accessed from the home page of the web-site.

What made me smile this week

Short but sweet! A student came up to me this week and said “Sir, I read your blog this week” long pause “I thought it was very interesting”. Result!

Have a good week.

I’m sitting on a train heading north feeling very stressed. I’m going to visit my father. My father doesn’t believe in “stress”, he says it’s a concept invented by my, significantly “softer”, generation. As a rule he generally follows this statement up with a reminder to me that no one knows the meaning of the word “stress” unless they’ve lived through the Second World War. I do not deny the horrors of this or any war, nor do I deny the horrendous experiences that many of my father’s generation endured, but I can’t help feeling a sense of imposed guilt sometimes at not having been there myself.

My father, or rather my journey to see my father, is the source of my stress today. The dangers of booking train tickets online and not taking the credit card that was used to pay for it! A very slow tube journey, the purchase of a new ticket in the hope of a refund from the other and, because of all the above, a quick sprint to the train just before the doors closed. I’m unsure as to what word/s my father’s generation would use to describe in simple terms the physiological and psychological reactions I had to this experience – but me, having not been in the war, I’d call it stress!

After being fuelled with a much needed injection of caffeine and beginning to feel much calmer, I sit and muse on the father/son relationship and conclude by drawing some Head teacher/School relationship parallels. I recall my childhood, it was a very, very good one – extremely loving and caring, lots of fun and very clear moral guidelines to steer me through to adulthood. It had its ups and downs as in all cases, but I doubt it could have been better, despite the austerity of the post war society that I was brought up in. From my earliest recollection, I admired my father without reservation – his love and affirmation meant everything to me and I reckon I have spent most of my life trying to emulate and impress him, seeking his approval and trying to make him proud of me. I like to think I have succeeded.

I try then, to recall when that indefinable yet specific moment in time came for me when the balance of the father/son relationship suddenly tips the other way. That moment when the life experiences, the knowledge, the skills, the power and influence of the son suddenly moves into the ascendancy. And when the desire to impress and the need to emulate fades into the need to tolerate some unshared views, actions and opinions – a time when the nature and the parameters of the on-going future father/son relationship shifts forever. I can’t remember when that was, but it must have happened. My father is now a frail old man nearing his ninetieth year. He is a fraction of everything he ever was. The “super-hero” status no longer applies. But he’s done his job though, his son now has three beautiful grown up children who love him in the same unreserved way as he does his father. All are engaged in the caring professions where they will spend a career helping those less fortunate than themselves. I should be more tolerant of “his ways”. I may inherit them as well one day, and will rely then on my children’s understanding and tolerance!

So, where am I on this cycle of life? – I visit my Father (I suspect there are just a few visits left to make) and my children still seek my views and opinions as, presumably, they remain of value to them. When will the turning point be for my eldest child and I as he turned thirty a few days ago? At some point in the future for sure, but not for some while yet I hope!

I ponder the same thoughts on my role as a Head teacher. I approach the completion of my eleventh year as Head of Teddington School, a journey where I have given myself totally to the advancement of the school and the good of its occupants, and I firmly believe that there is still much more that I can do and offer to the school in the future. However, I was asked recently whether I had given any thought as to when I might retire. I replied that I had no thoughts of retirement, but indicated that if ever I felt that I was no longer contributing to the good of the school and that any adult or child in the school was unable to relate my status to my personality and performance (the day the balance of the professional relationship tips the other way) then it would be time for me to go – but not for some while yet I hope!

Highlights of last week AND Congratulations (Carried forward);-

• I spent an excellent day in the Modern Languages Department – see “What made me smile”
• A number of GCSE practical exams took place last week in Art, Photography, Drama, Languages and PE and all the teachers involved were very impressed with the attitude and performance of our students.
• Throughout the week beginning 11th April many of our GCSE students attended revision classes both at Teddington School and at Lady Eleanor Holles School. I was very impressed with the number of students attending these sessions and grateful to the many members of staff who interrupted their Easter break to take them.
• Some of our students have achieved notable success over the last few weeks;-
• Amy Scott (11AS) is our latest nominated winner of the “Jack Petchey” award.
• Congratulations are due to Harry Christie (10AS) who, along with his partner, represented Kingston Rowing Club at the Inter regional regatta over Easter and won a silver medal in the J15 double sculls event – an excellent achievement. Both are now in full training for the National Schools Regatta which is held in May

Harry Christie

• Congratulations to Jack Cooper (yr11) who was recently selected to shoot for England Schools in the Schools International match and performed extremely well.
• During the first 3 days of the Easter break; Miss Reidy, Sculptress Ruth Wheeler and over 70 parents and students, ages ranging from 7 to 15, gathered together to be creative and make public art sculptures using young willow called ‘withies’. Each day everyone worked together in small groups to weave different sculptural shapes. The sculptures made for Hampton wick infants and Hampton School are inspired by natural forms such as bull rushes, dragonflies and flowers. Teddington’s three impressive sculptures can be seen as you approach the building from the main entrance on Broom Road. These three tall sculptures have been inspired by a year 9 classes drawings of our school’s interior architecture. Much fun was had learning new skills and making new friends. Well done to all involved, a great success!

Withy Sculptures

• Harry Parker (9BW) came 3rd in the National ballroom and latin dance finals in Blackpool.

Harry Parker

• A group of girls in yr9 received an award at an official presentation at York house before Easter as they came runners-up in a Crime Prevention Poster competition. They received their certificates from the Mayor.

Crime Posters

Results – last week