Blood, Sweat and Years.

Long view. A Green Day song about a self-absorbed lifestyle, as well as what we need to do to ensure we keep pushing on, and improving what we and our pupils do. I've said before, recently, that complacency is the enemy. That's still true.

This may seem like a contradiction, but we also need to be measured. Being non-complacent doesn't mean throwing everything at everything at all times and hoping something works. That is naive. We must work smart; if we work smart, working hard is worthwhile. If we don't work smart, it isn't. It's as simple as that.

We're still settling into some fundamental changes - the new timetable is firmly embedded, and we need to make sure we're using it to our advantage. That doesn't just mean how we teach in those shorter sessions; it includes how we plan, when we plan, the way we approach assessment and all of those other things that we do, which make our teaching effective.

On Wednesday, we are going to meet and discuss the way this new school day works, and ensure that we make it work for us. We have, as a team, with various comings and goings, being working steadily, improving sustainably, for several years. It might be worth, for all staff - old and new - revisiting some of the ideas we have looked at. Hattie's effect sizes and marginal gains theories seem pertinent to the situation we are in currently.

Think on these - how can we ensure that we are effective practitioners at all times?

The easy yards are behind us - remember, we're pushing for the details that will ensure that we are, without any doubt, anywhere, ever, an outstanding department. That's always been the aim.

Porpoise.

Sorry. I mean purpose. The inane burbling of Peppa Pig is beginning to drive me towards insanity. Bong bing boo. We live on a bizarre and often confusing planet. Our leaders arm people, then declare them evil, and want to attack them, and the people they're fighting, who are the people we armed them to fight in the first place, in some bizarre version of the Hegelian dialectic, which leaves us suffering from acute cognitive dissonance, as endless wars coagulate and clot, running into one, and the Scottish people do what their capitalist-imperialist bankster overlords tell them to...

Or something.

Which brings me to our purpose. Clarity of language, clarity of thought; a love of language. If we wish to continue improving, in all the meaningful ways as well as the ones which keep the governmental parasites away, we must inculcate and develop these characteristics in our pupils as early as possible. I don't think many of them learn to love words, and appreciate the power that language holds, at primary school. It's even less likely in the future, when many will have learnt to recognise the link between letters and sounds, without a natural affinity for meaning and subtlety. Newspeak writ large.

We are privileged to be able to help them explore poetry, in its various forms. Drama, music, novels, short stories, journalism, whatever; we teach this subject for a reason, so let's ensure we get that reason across to our young charges.

Purpose and relevance are paramount.

Eternal Challenges.

We are an ambitious department, an ambitious team, and that ambition has served us well. However, we must continue to harness this ambition; it must work for us, not against us. The Tao teaches much.

Know contentment and you will suffer no disgrace. 

It is the way alone that excels in bestowing and in accomplishing.

We have been following our way for some time now, through change of staff and change of pupil, through new schemes and new initiatives. Some of our opponents have fallen, though their legacy will live on. Whatever we have done before will be meaningless if we fail to keep to our way, if we fail to remain humble and work towards our goal. There are a million quotes on the internet which show that every problem contains an opportunity. To date, we have found the opportunity inside the questions posed, and we have met them.

This is at the heart of what we have done well. It must remain so. The challenges we face, we face as a team, as a unit. They are steps, on which we may fall, or else o'erleap. We will do this by remaining open, honest, reflective and hard working.

He who knows others is clever. He who knows himself has discernment. 

He who overcomes others has force. He who over comes himself is strong.

Finally, this is a video which claims that Michael Jackson was a time traveller. Enjoy.

Cracking on.

Thank you all for such a positive new beginning. It seemed like a seamless transition into the new academic year. You all took on your classes like you'd never been away / been here forever - the response of the pupils to our high expectations has been excellent.

We've set a standard now - and that's just base camp. There is no summit to reach, there never could be, but we're going to keep heading further up, doing more and more, seeking to improve in every way we can. We'll start this in the coming weeks with LSt and LSm running some meetings, with the way that we integrate our new member of staff into the team, and in how we share our excellent practice to become even better.

 We're well placed. But many  have been - England in 1990, Gordon Brown in 2007 and Hale Bopp in 1997 - and it didn't always end well. Your job is to keep it going, keep it improving and ensure that we come as close to fulfilling the massive potential that our department and pupils hold as we can.

No pressure.