Message from the Principal

I always find that the end of a year is a good time to reflect on what has gone well and what we want to still improve. We have had some wonderful high moments this academic year, starting in August when the Year 11 pupils received their GCSE results, and we are delighted to see from the recently published data that we have the highest Attainment 8 and English and Maths 9-5 scores on our side of Barnet, also putting us in the top 10% of all schools across the country. Fear not, we will never become an exam factory but we know that qualifications open doors to opportunities, and so they are important. Interestingly, those Year 11s who achieved the amazing outcomes visited Go Ape the week before their GCSE exams started.

Speaking of Making Memories events, this term we had our first Making Memories day of the year as well as the Together We Create (Arts) week. We also had a wonderful pantomime production from the creative team and many of our fantastic pupils. These were fabulous events and they have been publicised and celebrated on the website already, but are certainly worth mentioning again.

Last year our attendance earned national recognition as we were in the top 25% of all schools and top 10% of similar schools. Currently, this year’s attendance is in the top 7% of all schools across the country, which we know will help our pupils to make exceptional progress.

The culture in the school has felt extremely positive this term. We have introduced a new approach to ‘disruption free learning’ where staff have been more explicit about the behaviours we expect to see, and while we are still working to embed this, I am pleased to report that suspensions are down by 60% on last year. In fact, we have the fewest suspensions to this point in the year since we only had three cohorts and we now have more than double the number of children than we had back then.

Over the last year our Quality of Education leaders have helped staff to develop strategies to teach pupils in a way that they remember more. The outcomes suggest that this has been successful, and from September we are developing this further by focusing on how we give responsive feedback based on the information we learn from assessments, tests, and quizzes, which we know will make us even more effective educators.

We don’t usually say goodbye to colleagues at this time of the year but, on this occasion, we are. Miss Frankham joined the school when we opened back in September 2018 as our Art and DT teacher. As we grew, she became the Subject Lead of Art and has created the curriculum that is followed from Year 7 to Year 13, as well as being the driving force behind most of the art initiatives (like the Together We Create week), and she has also been a wonderful Learning Coach to many pupils. Miss Frankham is moving across the country, which is why she is leaving, and she will be replaced as the Subject Lead by Miss Lindsay, who having worked with Miss Frankham for the last 4 years, will ensure a smooth transition. Mrs Mangaram is joining us to complete the team. We also have Mrs Malli joining the school in January as a Lead Practitioner in Science, which is in preparation for Mrs Clyne starting her maternity leave during the spring term.

I hope you have a wonderful holiday period and I look forward to working with you in the new year to bring about even more exciting opportunities for our community.