Marching on together...

As we head into March, I'd like to thank you all again for your hard work since Christmas. We're now on the run up to Easter, with a lot of work to fit into the next five weeks. These five weeks are particularly important as, this year, April is the cruellest month; 8 days of teaching, interspersed with various holidays and a very important wedding. Some royal bloke is getting married too. This means that we essentially have 5 weeks to prepare our KS4 pupils for their exams, and to make sure all coursework resubmissions are up to scratch.

As such, enormously massive thanks are due to all that supported the coursework sessions over the last week. These seemed to be successful, with clear improvements in work evident. A lot of attention will be lavished on our KS4 classes, as we prepare for the exams and undertake lots of discussing and role playing with Year 10. It is really important that we all get the best possible marks out of Year 10 in the next 5 weeks, as we get ready to change things about according to their results from the January exam, which we receive in a couple of weeks.

With all this focus on the older pupils, it may be a little too easy to forget out KS3 groups. We must keep working hard with these children - if we get things right at the start, it can only make things easier later. To use a rather cheesy metaphor, if the roots are nourished then the rest of the plant can flourish. As such, we need to ensure that our ongoing assessment of these groups is accurate and consistent - a little and often approach, using appropriate resources, will stop any unnecessary drama at a later date. To support this, we have a few new stamps available. Please make sure that old ones are returned this week and that we sign the stamps in and out so all can use them.

Finally, this week includes World Book Day. We've all had our pictures taken with favourite books, and various activities have been organised by JB and LS. Let's make it an excellent event, and use it to promote the enjoyment of reading, because, despite the pressures of exams and White Papers, we teach this subject for a specific reason.

So near...

As we approach a well earned week off, it seems an appropriate time to reflect on the work we've done since the start of 2011.

It seems like another life time, but it's only 6 weeks since Year 10 sat the first GCSE 2012 exam, the results of which we eagerly await in the middle of March. This will be a great point to take stock, examine how we have done, and move forward accordingly. The results we received in January from Year 11 early entry show what we can achieve when we are focused and work together. I look forward to seeing more of this over the next few weeks, as we support the Year 11 coursework and revision sessions. Thank you for the excellent response in terms of volunteering to support this.

If we communicate well - somewhere between this and this - we can only succeed. We all want the very best for the people we teach, so we have to make sure we support each other in reaching that goal.

This week, apart from aiming at a week off, we have MYCD on Wednesday, which is always an excellent opportunity to communicate with parents and carers. Make sure you use the messaging system on OPT to communicate information, whether positive or negative, about the pupils you teach. This is what makes MYCD effective. I'm also looking forward to teaching with my peer coaching partner this week; I love wearing tracksuits and running about aimlessly, so P.E. teaching should suit me.

Once again, thanks for your hard work leading up to the KS3 APP scrutiny, and for the consistently excellent teaching. After the holiday, we will need our next set of schemes ready to go, and be ready to launch World Book Day upon the unsuspecting masses.

We're always busy, and we always ask a lot of each other, but we should never lose sight of why we do this job.

Have a great week.

This week...

Hopefully, everyone had a good time on Friday. The food and company was excellent – although I think I may go for a two chilli dish which doesn’t make me cry if I ever go there again. Back to it this week, with another packed week of teaching and learning.

Thanks to Helen for her work on the Year 8 exams last week, and all of you who supported. Enjoy your marking – it is good to see the exams focus on specific AFs for APP at KS3 allowing AFL and other acronyms to be further embedded in our work. Performance Management observations were also successful – I know I saw an excellent lesson with a challenging group, and heard about other great lessons, so well done.

Highlights this week include Progress Reports and the return of our work experience students. This always provides entertaining discussion, something we can harness for Speaking and Listening. Look out for assessment opportunities throughout the next few weeks, as pupils present ideas independently. The new KS4 booklet should also be taking shape this week.

Could you all send names of 100%attenders to me by the end of Monday? A focus on years 9 and 11 would be excellent. More ideas for rewards will be appreciated, too. Also, names of Clever Cookies and Wonderful Workers should be passed on early this week. It’s vital that we play our role in encouraging good attendance and high attainment – I don’t want us slipping behind Maths or Science, ever, in terms of how much pupils like our subject, and attainment. Our timetable for half term has been confirmed – we’ll be in on Thursday afternoon and Friday morning; have a think about how you can help and we’ll discuss it this week.

Lastly – have a great week. Keep talking, keep listening and keep smiling.