It’s been a really hard year I can tell you.
Some of you know that, because you talk to me.
The fact that the people in our school community, from the Local Authority to my leadership team, the parents, staff and children trusted and believed in me has made all the difference.
Arriving as a new Headteacher, at a school that then goes straight into a Notice to Improve, was not part of the plan. It wasn’t a surprise either.
Right from the word go, in 2009, OFSTED and I agreed on what the school needed.
When I received the OFSTED call this time, one year later, on the 1st of November, I was ready to be judged on what I had done in the year since I started.
We wanted OFSTED to see how the school had changed over the past year. We knew that the time before this year the school was not providing a good enough education, or experience. We now have some new teachers and a new leadership team and there is a real buzz around school.
For our children and the progress of our school it is all about looking forwards not back. These are new times, school has changed and there is no going back EVER! The changes and improvements will only continue and things will get better and better! Things will not slow down now OFSTED have gone. Oh no! We are loving watching children learning go through the roof!
We wanted OFSTED to see that the children were now very well behaved and had rules and boundaries, with higher expectations of them.
The last year has been spent growing a vision in school. Teachers know I don’t like worksheets, wasted class time, or the words "He can’t do it". I expect classrooms to be calm and organised and for all children to be on task and doing something.
Children know they have to take their jumpers off their waist during the day (but can tie them there at lunchtime so they don’t lose them!)
They know they are expected to hold doors and say thank you, that every piece of writing they do has to be their best effort, that they can go out at playtime and make as much noise as they like but in assembly they are silent and respectful of the adult delivering the assembly.
Parents know I expect them to support their child by reading at home and by communicating with school. They know that every day a child misses school or is late impacts the learning of the child. Parents also know that the school and home working together works best for their child.
I have enthusiastic, clever, kind teachers who have bags of energy and LIKE children!
Children feel comfortable in school to have an opinion and they work hard and want to learn. Most children have excellent behaviour and the children who find it difficult are helped by their friends.
A small minority of parents felt that children sometimes get away with bad behaviour. OFSTED looked into this and did not see examples of this. HOWEVER, I can understand why a parent might occasionally feel this.
If a child has not behaved well they are dealt with but I what I never do is have children punished or humiliated in front of others. If a child has behaved in the wrong way they are sanctioned. You wouldn’t know this as we don’t publish a `punishment` list. We also do not tell all our parents if a child is ever excluded. We DO on very rare occasions exclude children, when their behaviour has been such a concern to reach this serious point.
OFSTED saw lots of lessons and EVERY lesson they observed was OK. Many were good lessons. We are working towards all lessons being good.
They were happy with what they saw in our school and it wasn’t just an OFSTED inspection.
In our inspection we had a lead inspector who was a HMI. Her Majesty’s Inspector, the top inspector you can get and they know their stuff.
The parents’ surveys were very, very positive. Some lovely comments on the school. THANKYOU.
The childrens surveys were also positive.
The staff surveys were very positive too, and again, full of really praising comments and feelings of this whole TEAM spirit.
HMI Jeremy was rigorous in his checking of everything in the school. He talked to children; he ate his dinner with the children in the dining hall and interviewed lots of staff too. He was very impressed with our school and could see that the last year had seen a change that was going to carry on and on. He had been a Headteacher himself in various schools and his judgements were spot on.
I am over the moon with the whole school community and want to THANK everyone who knows this is the best school!
I’m not a fan of private education. If I could have afforded it for my children I wouldn’t have chosen it. My children came to the school I worked in, that’s how I measure standards in my school. Is it good enough for my children? Would I be happy with my children in that classroom? What would my children want? How would my child feel about that decision? If the answer is yes then that’s good. If its no, then I do something about it.
Please read the OFSTED report. Highlight all the positive comments and see how well we have done in just one year, reaching for the stars see…
There were more goods than satisfactories but OFSTEDs final judgement on a school is based on the las 3 years and not just the 1. So our overall judgement was satisfactory. Jeremy told me he judged my leadership as good and expected that, as the new senior leadership team grow and the school moves forward, the next OFSTED report will be even better!
Thank the teachers and support staff when you see them. This isn’t a 9 to 5 job. The newspapers say teachers get 13 weeks holiday a year. Rubbish. They work part of every weekend, most evenings and lots of the holidays. There are some teachers who have 13 weeks holiday a year and have weekends and evenings off. I would be interested in Jeremy’s judgements on their lessons!!!
Don’t forget to email me if you want to blog back to me .
head@brookhillleysprimary.notts.sch.uk
