13th January 2023
HEADLINES
By James Saunders
WELCOME BACK TO ANOTHER GREAT TERM AS PART OF THE HONYWOOD FAMILY
our learners. I think the inspection managed to capture our culture and ethos well.
I hope that, like me, you have all had a restful break and have entered the new year with a refreshed zest and enthusiasm. The autumn term is always the most gruelling and when schools around us started to finish for the holiday whilst we were still going I know that some of our learners were beginning to fade. It was certainly a busy term we even packed in an Ofsted inspection.
Thank you for supporting our learning review process last Friday and into this week. I received a lot of positive feedback from appreciative parents. We will also be piloting some more traditional parent’s evening events too in the coming term. This half term is going to speed by rather quickly. We already only have 4 weeks to go. If the autumn was about running the marathon, the spring term is about short sprints. With little time we have a lot to do. C11s are entering the final phase of their education before they begin their exams - in fact a few courses have already had some of their official assessments.
Coming back to start the term with the Ofsted inspection behind us has made for a really positive start to the term. Most of you will be unaware of this, but we received the Ofsted call right at the end of term last year. Do you remember that day when temperatures were in the 40s and I had to close early for health and safety reasons as classrooms were reading in the mid 40s on the thermometer. Well yes - they wanted to visit then. Unfortunately there was only one more day left of the term and so there were not two full days for them to carry out the inspection so I was able to defer it. When you defer it they don’t specify when they will return. We expected them to come in at the start of term and have been counting down the days. I am looking forward to officially sharing the outcomes with you soon. I received a draft copy of our report for checking towards the end of the holidays and have approved the contents. It is now a case of waiting for it to go through the Ofsted system to receive the official publication.
I had the privilege to listen to Mrs Bansropun talk about careers to C8 in assembly this week. The assembly was timed well to coincide with the beginning of guided choices. Some of us are certain about what we want to do in life whilst others have no clue - I was one of the no clue ones. However, the choices we make for GCSE’s can have an implication on the paths that we take post-16 and beyond. Luckily, for people like me - those who are unsure what they want to do we structure our curriculum choices in such a way as to keep the programme of study broad and balanced. Our C8s will eventually get to choose the GCSE’s they wish to take across our core disciplines of liberal arts, creative arts and science and industry. This will ensure that they do not close any doors as they progress to post-16.
Thank you to everyone that fed into the process and shared their feedback. Whilst it was all It has been great to start the term with some anonymous the lead inspector shared many lovely exciting enrichment as a group of C10 learners comments and feedback from the community and went off to Essex University for a Maths Day.