17th May 2024
HEADLINES
By James Saunders
EXCELLENCE I have had some great chat’s with a few people this week about the theme of excellence. It has prompted me to spend some time thinking about excellence. I have been thinking about what excellence looks like in a school. I don’t mean outstanding, I mean excellence. I feel that there is a difference between the two. I feel an excellent school, a school striving for excellence, can be outstanding, but can an outstanding school be excellent? – maybe and maybe not.
lasagne’ - something my wife has never said to me. At Honywood we want something more than that - a longer lasting state of excellence for everyone.
Excellence feels steeped in culture, in a work ethic. Striving for excellence suggests something timeless that will not fade with a new trend. It’s almost unattainable as when you reach one level you are already striving for the next and the next. It implies continual reinvention and improvement. Being excellent is not a thing – it is a state of mind Excellence is the fourth of our core values at – an approach to your work and life. It is simply Honywood. Along with Trust, Respect and Equity, wanting the best always. No one would argue T.R.E.E is what is important to us each and every that we would not want that for every one of our day. We were deliberate in our choice of the word learners. excellence - as as fan etymology the choice of words matters to me. There were so many words I have done a little research into what excellent we could have chosen, so why excellence? Why schools do - the ones that have always been on not outstanding for example? top of their game. For one, they never give up and always strive to better themselves. Not because Outstanding is a word that seems to carry a they are told to but because they want to. They lot of connotations in our profession. It has a evaluate the impact of what they are doing to wider reaching impact on society too. I have ensure they are always effective and challenging even known it to affect house prices in some everyone. They tend to have a strong vision communities. As a result it brings some baggage, rooted in the curriculum and a culture of inclusion, pressure and some stress. I have never really ambition and relationships. The individual is the bought into the whole outstanding thing. Not sovereign unit in these schools and no one gets because I don’t care or lack high standards but left behind. What is taught and why it is taught because I feel it is something that is very much in is central to excellence. Knowledge and skilful the moment. The badge, or label, so to speak is questioning are key features of every lesson. simply based on whatever educational zeitgeist Challenge is high and learning is sequenced for a is trending at the time. Outstanding today is not deliberate purpose. necessarily outstanding tomorrow – especially when the criteria changes. Outstanding for me Forget about the trends. Wanting the best is a compliment over a nice dish – ‘outstanding for every single child, believing in every single