Headteacher’s Update

 

Summer Sunshine Extended by Student Exam Results – September 2022

The Summer Results Days were met by an early wake-up as Judgement Day loomed, and the mixture of nerves and excitement facing every teen still stirred in an elderly Headteacher who has done not far off 30 years of these days.

Over time I’ve experienced every emotion on Results Days. We as a school get the results the day before the students so we know what is coming. It is impossible not to keep an eye out for certain children when they walk up to their brown envelope. You want to see their reaction, their relief, their gasp, their response, and the human experience far outstrips the professional realities of exam scores on the doors.

I can remember sneaking out of one Results Day to wipe away a tear when a student I had worked closely with, and who had really battled in her exams, got her Grade 4 in English and Maths against all the odds. I knew what it meant to her and her family, the steps forward it offered her in life, and it was too big a moment to take in your stride. I still feel it years later. This Summer I saw a student who got a top grade in every single course, and I could not have been more impressed or proud; so strong academically, so independent and worthy of respect, but a real grafter too. It was so well-deserved. I only wish I had been that smart. Year on year too, you see the doctor, the lawyer, the midwife, the police officer, leap over the exam hurdle and walk out the building to make their mark on our society. There is such a magical thrill in knowing you played a part.

Conversely, there are always moments, even amidst fantastic school results, when those who miss out haunt your thoughts. The student you have known since they were very small missing out on the one grade that would have made a big difference to their college course. The student who has an incredibly difficult home life, and when they look at their results you see a quick glimmer of disappointment, before they brace and put the front back on needed to face the socio-emotional slog they battle against at home every day. Equally, the parent who stands beside their child trying to rationalise how things proceed from a missed university place, wanting to contribute, wanting to make it better, but having to rely on school staff to guide their child through their options in clearing. These are tough moments and the happiness of success is often over-ridden by the reality of the quick-thinking needed to resolve things for those falling short.

The Summer’s exam results were excellent. We are really proud of them, but once the dust settles on the professional accountabilities, it is the human experiences of the day that stay with you. When you see ex-student on the High Street, or in reception picking up their certificates, the conversation is about how good it is to see you… what are you up to… how great that is… of course we miss you. I have never had a bad experience and the over-riding desire of every teacher is to see every child make their way successfully. Success comes in many different forms and levels, but it is always worth celebrating and a teacher can still make a big difference when the student has been long gone. The relationship endures and there is always a smile when a twenty-something still calls you sir.

The sun shone this summer, and it shone very brightly on both Results Days, but when you look down the list of student names it is the personalities, the laughter, and the resolutions that you remember. Working in school is human experience and that is what makes it such a wonderful job. It is all-consuming, draining, and isn’t helping my hairline or blood pressure, but it remains special.

Matt Allman
Headteacher
September 2022

 

Managing a School Budget

It is well-recognised that in real terms school budgets have been declining for many years and so running a school requires huge creativity, cutting corners where you can, and effective bid writing. It is going to be even more challenging as we plot for energy costs to rise threefold and increasing demands for pay increases – again after over a decade of real terms pay cuts – without any sign of the government increasing budgets to meet the challenges.

Overall, we consider ourselves to be doing a good job. We have managed to secure over £3million since academising in September 2019. This was money we would never have received had we remained a LEA school and though it is ring-fenced to set site projects, so will not be able to be spent on equipment or salaries, it has played a huge role in upgrading our facilities.

Elsewhere, we really value to work of our PTFA which brings in between £15,000-£20,000 per year – a source of income that most secondary schools in the country would simply never dream of achieving and is a reflection of an incredible bunch of parents. Nonetheless, we do feel vulnerable at the moment as a number of then PTFA team have older children left in the school and are heading towards the end of their tenure. Equally, perhaps due to COVID, we have struggled to attract support from parents of younger children so there is a real risk that the PTFA will whither. In recent times the theatre, canteen, library, minibus fleet and more besides have benefitted so there would be a big gap – and the energy and positivity this group of parents bring to the school cannot be under-estimated either.

In terms of our strategic priorities in school we hold true to certain approaches that have seen our school and students flourish. We seek to ensure we have a larger body of teachers than we could get by with. This means we can dedicate more time to planning, cover any absences with specialist teachers who know the school, and move groups around to get the best possible outcomes. It also means our staff get more non-contact time than in other school which helps with recruitment and retention. We also focus on making sure the environment is well-maintained and consider that if facilities are at the best possible standard then the students will more likely follow suit.

These approaches have taken us from an under-subscribed, middle-ranked school to an over-subscribed school with superb outcomes for our catchment, county and national context. Even so, looking ahead, unless there is some marked intervention, we are going to have to potentially scale back on these tactics.

It is difficult to see how schools will cope with huge energy prices if budgets are not addressed accordingly. With teacher recruitment targets being chronically short year-on-year, we already know it is incredibly tough to get new staff and with a restricted budgets the climate and intake is unlikely to improve. Equally, schools will likely face a stark choice when it comes to the winter – lay off staff or keep the heating turned off ?

Clearly, the global landscape has had an impact, but the local landscape is our reality, and we’ll have to do something. A rabbit out of a hat in Drama, some creative Maths at A-Level, or a money tree grown in Science. We cannot rule out that the government will step in, but even then it is likely to be a tough Autumn and Spring Term. We’ll rely on parents to appreciate where we sit, students to show resilience and crack on, and we have faith our staff will not lose sight of the real priority – successful and happy children.

Anyhow, I have asked my mother to dust off her knitting needles, and though I wasn’t a fan of her design back when I was a student, I’m a bigger boy now, more able to cope, and vintage is in isn’t it?

Matt Allman
Headteacher
July 2022

 

Going In Blind

Our current Year 11 and Year 13 students have had a disrupted time of it – what with COVID knocking out 18-24 months – but they’ll be sitting exams this Summer which will at best take into account a partial consideration of their journey.

We are still awaiting confirmation on some of the courses for exams. What will be included ? What won’t ? How will grade boundaries work ? How will COVID absences during exams be handled ? We have known these exams have been coming for a good while now and we certainly need the full picture sooner rather than later. There is rightly a great emphasis on the mental health of young people and delays on such crucial matters surely standout as a major worry and concern for teenagers and their parents.

Equally, we understand that DfE Performance Tables will be in place for Year 11 cohorts where children will be judged on their progress since their Year 6 SATs. We can say all schools have gone through COVID, but we know that communities and districts had very different experiences and these cannot be factored into the rather blunt national average measurements. The current OFSTED approach has wisely moved away from a huge exam results emphasis but they remain a major factor and schools will be keen to see where they stand comes Results Day in August. Our Year 11 students and teachers both face huge pressure amidst unclear destinations.

Conversely, schools will not likely be judged on the progress of their Year 13 students. The Centre Assessed Grades they received in Year 11 are not considered a suitable baseline to judge progress from. We know the national picture saw huge grade inflation, particularly from private schools, and from a school who was careful on judging those grades, we would have been open to our school being judged against them. Clearly, if a school had over-inflated, then their 2019 and 2022 results would likely be markedly lower than 2020 and 2021, and that would have said a lot about the quality of assessment and leadership.

However, amidst all these measurements, accountabilities and debates the most important consideration must be the children. We have to say our Year 11 and 13 students are doing incredibly well – they are on it, they are putting in the hours, and they are dealing with what is thrown at them. Both Year groups will be facing their first real exams, both will have nerves, but if preparation is important then they are bang on track. Likewise, the parental support for after-school sessions, Saturday classes and Holiday School is proving superb.

Finally, our teachers are still going blind into some courses but their pragmatism, work ethic and drive are matching their classes commitment and we have to think that when the first exam begin our students will be well-prepped. Whatever, the final grade, whatever the League Table placing, whatever the subsequent judgements, we cannot lose sight of the fact that we have seen a special effort from the whole Friary team. Whatever the Results Day brings, let’s remember that. Of course, results do matter, but so does the journey to the end and sometimes victory is there in defeat.

As the exam picture emerges we’ll get a clearer image – and we can say for certain that we’ll – students, parents and staff – go all-out to do our very best.

Matt Allman
Headteacher
February 2022

 

Sprinkling Fairydust

The Autumn 2021 Term was well worth celebrating with a relatively undisrupted term seeing busy classrooms – teaching given and learning taken on board. The sights of an experiment in a Science laboratory; hockey balls flying from one side of the Astro to the other; a workshop hubbub as wood is sawn and drills whiz; or the Music recording studios locked up to record the final exam performances; are lessons we cannot imagine taking place virtually.

Certainly, our teaching staff were delighted to be back and worked like Trojans to adjust their curriculums, not only to recap on lockdown learning, but also to whiz through gaps and get students up-to-speed as they moved towards their end points. Undoubtedly, it would be a mistake to think that the full return was simply a matter of getting back to normal; the adapted planning, the re-aligned assessments, the re-focused lessons, and more besides, was a mountain of extra work, and it continues to be essential to ensure that our students are thoroughly primed and ready for exams and the like. Indeed, with the additional pressures of covering for isolating staff, setting work for children at home, and dealing with their own family pressures caused by the pandemic, it would be fair to say our staff could not have worked any harder.

Even so, if you asked me what my favourite moments of the term were, I would not be looking on the classroom timetables, regardless of how superb the provision was. More, I would be looking beyond the classroom at the extra-curricular activities that enriched our students’ experiences and gave them opportunities that were wholly absent during the lockdowns. We are very much a school that takes exam results seriously, but just as important is the wider learning, wider experiences, and simple sense of fun, which often form the real and emotional memories of schools days and later become the basis of chat and laughter in re-unions in years to come. The great Macbeth delivery, or the breakthrough in simultaneous equations, will perhaps get a quick mention, but there will be bigger focus on the more ‘social’ activities which provide the personal growth that every child needs as they move to adulthood.

The Year 11 French trip was switched from Paris to the Peak District but it has always been about a rallying cry to kick on to the final exams and to get a team spirit going. There is a lot to learn from a pitch-black night-hike, abseiling down a towering bridge, or chatting in your bunks as you doze off from too much fresh air. The Year 7 Dedication Service at Lichfield Cathedral acted as a formal and spiritual marker of the transition into secondary school, also allowing families to take part in this step too, and later we were the only local state school back there for our Christmas Carol Concert where spiraling solos and precise technical performances were all the more special due to their recent absence. Similarly, taking the brave step to continue with ’Chicago’, despite growing pressure to stand down school shows, was a big reason for what was a very emotional sigh of relief for everyone – students, staff and parents – as loud applause, cheers, and the odd tear or two met the final bow. Likewise, the packed out Saturday School mornings, where so many students showed total resilience and commitment to fight-back against the COVID-stacked odds. I could add the fund-raising for St Giles or Guide Dogs for the Blind, the guest speakers bringing their special voice, the rewards events, the CV-building sessions, and much more besides. These were the events I’d point too as real highlights – genuine chances for a talent or aspiration to blossom – and often ones where families were just as much a part of it too.

It is obvious that the routine of the timetabled lessons is crucial in school, but the broader curriculum experiences, which many of our students cannot access at home, are equally valuable. Energy, smiles and shared achievement only add to academic success and we’ll be looking for more of the same as we head into 2022.

Matt Allman
Headteacher
January 2022

 

Reality v Performance in Schools

An old friend of the school dropped in recently to see how we were coping with the new term, to see how Year 6 Open Evening went, and to catch up on how the school had moved forward with COVID. He also tongue-in-cheek congratulated us on topping the Staffordshire DfE Performance Tables for secondary schools for the third year running.

Of course, we both laughed – the triple success was delivered courtesy of COVID which meant the Performance Tables were suspended and stalled as if it were still late 2019. Equally, both knowing education, we recognise that the Performance Tables give accurate indications but also come with serious flaws.

Does Manchester City’s Premier League title stem from them being the best club around or simply the richest ? Would Norwich City finishing 4th bottom be just as great a success as Liverpool winning the title given their different status and capacity ? All League Tables present a story, but it is only ever part of the story.

The DfE Performance Tables have certainly improved since they focused on progress (advance from Year 6 to Year 11) rather than simply attainment (how many 9s/A* a school gets). However, statistically school context is everything, and to believe a top ranking means the school is the simply best is ludicrous.

If you look at the top ten schools in the DfE Performance Tables you can see some common features. There is a higher proportion of EAL (English as an Additional Language) students and there are several which are single gender (usually girl-only). In 2019, we had one EAL student who scored around 50+ grades higher than the DfE expected and this helped our figures – imagine if a school had 10, 20, 30… of these cases. Was his success down to the fact that we as a school were superb or that he arrived in the UK late Year 5, scored low in Year 6 SATS due to language rather than ability, and once that gap was bridged then our school benefitted from his artificially low starting point ? Are these commonalities in ‘top’ schools coincidence or is the school catchment a big factor in how a school performs ?

Click here to check out the national performance tables.

Meanwhile, in Staffordshire, if you look at the ‘top ten’ schools according to the league tables, all of them have lower than average Free School Meals level (another DfE term used being a general ‘Disadvantaged’) of 28% of the cohort. Conversely, in ’bottom ten’ secondary schools most are above the national average figure. Of course, not all Free School Meals children perform poorly, but statistically they are more likely to do less well – after all this is why we have Pupil Premium funding. Again, is this down to a school being ‘worse’ or is it at least partly down to catchment ?

Click here to check out the Staffordshire performance tables.

Two quick stories, I had one parent contact me to say that Friary results weren’t as a good as a local grammar school because our average attainment score (how high the average grade was) was lower. I explained this would always be the case as we take all abilities, whilst grammar school takes only high ability students. It sounds obvious, but the parent took some time to understand the point.

In my previous Headteacher post, in a school with 60%+ Disadvantaged / FSM students, I saw a Headteacher at a local top ranked school say they had succeeded because their staff worked so hard. This may well have been true, but that is not to say that my school’s lower ranked results were down to a lack of staff graft or expertise – my colleagues could not have done anymore. Schools in catchments like this can sometimes have a revolving door of Headteachers and to what extent is this a surprise if they are even partly judged in this way ?

To emphasise, no child’s future is pre-determined, schools do (and must) work incredibly hard to close any social gaps connected to education, and there can never be an acceptance of under-achievement. Even so, the journey for different schools and different children will vary vastly and a blunt league table will only present a stark and partial narrative.

The good news is that the most recent OFSTED Inspection Handbook has prioritised the importance of curriculum – what the school provides rather than what exams results they achieve (though that does remain an important factor). This is a hugely positive step, thinking more about the rounded development and well-being of the child, and allows each school to take more care about what their specific cohort needs.  

Of course, at this time there will be many parents will be thinking about which secondary school they choose for Year 7, whilst others will be looking at which Sixth Form will be the best for their child. We would tell every parent to put the DfE Performance Tables in a context and add them to a wide range of research: OFSTED Reports, websites, press reports, talking to current and former students, current and former parents, visits to the school, and more besides. A holistic judgement is the key.

It could be viewed that as a Headteacher, of a school ranked ‘highly’, I am shooting myself in the foot when we say take the DfE Performance Tables with a degree of caution. Even so, though we were thrilled by our 2019 success, we know it was a single year, there is still a lot of work to do, and we know school performance cannot be a permanently upward trajectory. After all, three (COVID-supported) years of table topping may not be four, but that does not mean our school is performing any better or worse.

Even so, we would argue honesty and integrity on our offer matters a lot. We’ll chase every grade for every child, but we’ll also chase their well-being, their happiness, and their personal growth. Education is about being rounded, it comes in many forms of which exams are just one, and if the last 18 months have taught us anything it is that simple pleasures are more important than personal glory.

Good luck to everyone choosing their school – it is a big call – and the more transparency on the means of making your decision the better.

Matt Allman
Headteacher
October 2021

 

Full Steam Ahead

There has been a real thrill in plotting in school events for the 2021-2022 academic year. The thought of the new stage-lights firing a spotlight centre stage on the next generation of Friary theatrical stars gives a warm glow; the fixture schedules promise trials and tribulations on the playing fields which will bring a buzz of excitement for all Year groups; and even the ever-popular PTFA Oktoberfest brings more of a smile than ever as a fun and busy social event with friends of the school looms with bratwurst and oompahs a plenty. 

Of course, though government advice and Health & Safety risk assessments show a less intrusive way to school life, there remains a trepidation and caution that we keep everyone safe. Yet, there is also the safety net provided by opportunities, experiences, learning and fun, which are an integral part of every child’s upbringing and which have been left in deficit for the last 18 months.

We are going to be retaining some COVID measures including staggered lunches and hand sanitisers, and other measures such as serving screens in the canteen and optional face-masks will provide an extra safety net whatever external advice says. Even so, we would argue health and well-being extend far beyond COVID, so we will plough on with Year 11 residential trips (albeit in the UK rather than in the heart of Paris), we will plough on with a mixed-age ‘Chicago’ as the whole-school show, and we will plough on with the whole of Year 7, and their families, attending Lichfield Cathedral for our Dedication Service. The balance between keeping safe in life, and living life, has to be struck and schools are crucial in playing their part in this.

We’ll also no doubt experience complications with the vaunted vaccination roll-out. I have already been served with Google printed legal documents promising all sorts of sanctions if the NHS School Vaccination Team jab students on our site. Likewise, threats from anti-Vaxxers that I will personally be standing in Nuremberg-style trials in years to come contrast sharply with other parents who refuse to let their children attend due to the serious risks. We can be sure that arguments about staying locked down or opening wholly up are going to come from a very broad  spectrum, sometimes in the venomous way that today’s society is capable of.

Certainly, we’ll all be facing new challenges as we deal with a different national approach, we’ll all have our own barometers of what is acceptable, and we’ll all make our own decisions on how life is led. Nonetheless, for us school must remain a place of opportunity, and we will be ensuring we offer as much as we can; whether it be catch-up classes, homework club, gardening club, or choir and jazz bands.

We’ll all be keeping a careful eye on COVID statistics and government decision-making but I also hope to see you through this term. Schools are better when the children buzz, the parents get to connect with the building, and the curriculum is as exciting and varied as possible.

We’re more than hopeful that this term is going to be fun.

Matt Allman
Headteacher
September 2021

 

Here Comes the Sun

The Summer Term began to remind us what ‘normality’ looked like as, despite a surging COVID rates in the final couple of weeks, there were glimmers of hope in terms of school life. Certainly, there remained a lot of uncertainty, but there was also a fair amount of hope for the next academic year.

Sure, a staggered Sports Day lacked the baying partisanship of a full-on whole-House battle, the Prom and Year 13 Leavers Meal bit the dust, and the traditional Year 9 trip to Chateau Beaumont didn’t even get out of the car-park, let alone reach foreign shores. Even so, Rewards Day inflatables provided much energy and fun, Year 7 coming back into a ‘normal’ school day did a great deal for their school integration, seeing the faces of our PTFA talk about the Oktoberfest to end all Oktoberfest’s showed parental support was primed, and the removal of face-masks was met with cautious optimism.

We are very much a school that places a high emphasis on students doing well in their exam results, but we also place great stock of fun and laughter. Admittedly, there wasn’t rip-roaring laughter this term but there was at least a faint but growing smile. 🙂

Perhaps the biggest deal of the term was the culmination of the Teacher Assessed Grades which saw Year 11 and Year 13 exam results determined by teacher judgement. The trepidation after the DfE’s “mutant algorithm” was still fresh in minds, press reports of parents arming up with lawyers to challenge every grade meant communication of processes were vital, and government statements and last-minute changes brought much gnashing of teeth. However, we felt as we ended the term that we had been scrupulously fair, had avoided the huge inflation that was mooted, and that we could look everyone squarely in the eye and say we had done the right thing on every grade.

Truth be told, we’d much rather have had exams. We were measured on sending children home when COVID cases bit, meaning we had high levels of attendance, and felt our exam cohorts would have performed strongly. Even so, it is clear there was no other option than what the government opted for – regardless of whether grades go through the roof or not.
Most exam results are simply a passport to the next stage. The GCSEs get a student into Sixth Form, or onto an apprenticeship, but success there will be short-loved if the teenager does not perform. It is not about giving every child a top grade, but it is about making sure they are not impaired by guesswork grades based on what students got in previous years. The doors of opportunity should not be closed to meet DfE benchmarks, but going through that door and thriving in the room needs more than that initial grade. Similarly, it is foolish for a school to give grades that set a child up to fail in their next stage, but it would be wholly wrong to slam shut a career route to ensure 9-4 levels don’t go above national averages.

The passport idea means that as (hopefully) COVID dissipates and results likely go back to previous levels the playing field will level out. It is not as if A-Level results are scrutinised so much once a degree, apprenticeship, or work experience are in place. This year’s student should not be disadvantaged by circumstances, and even if some do get too high grades, it is unlikely in the long-term this will hamper those who follow. Of course, a journalist or a politician may make scandalised headlines but eventually some world story will knock them off the front page and we can solely focus on the day job rather than having to keep one eye on what knee-jerk reaction is on the horizon.

Anyhow, thoughts now turn to the Summer Holiday, though in school with the whole-school re-wire continuing at full speed, a rapid turnaround on a big Sixth Form extension, on-going roof work, three new Science laboratories, new outside lighting, a new security system, and more besides, there won’t be much time for a break. Even so, many of us seem to be holidaying in the UK this Summer so let’s hope the weather matches the season. We all deserve a break after a pretty miserable school year and if we see a few more freckles and a healthier glow in September then that will be a welcome sight as we go again in 2021-2022.

Have a great summer.

Matt Allman
Headteacher

July 2021

Come Together

The Spring Term began with an opening, swiftly followed by a closing, and after a lengthy lockdown, we have now seen national testing figures go through the roof as schools have been mobilised to enable re-opening. If any term has been a rollercoaster then this has been it.

Our ‘call to arms’ to parents to help with the COVID testing was met in spades as well over 100 people stepped forward to help. The commitment involved online training, orientation sessions in school, and then 3 weeks of daily testing. However, the whole team worked like clockwork and it took just a fraction over a fortnight to get it all done. The feedback from the volunteers was that the students have been fantastic – lots of thank-yous and growing confidence – whilst the feedback on the testers has been that they have been calm, caring and supremely organised.

The reality is that the school would have really struggled without this support and there can be no finer example of a school and community joining forces to successfully complete a seemingly terrifying project with such relative ease. There is no doubt the ‘recovery curriculum’ came charging out of the blocks at our school due this collaborative effort.

Looking forward, this joint approach will be required for two big challenges that stretch out ahead of us for the rest of this academic year: Y11 & Y13 Grades and the Recovery Curriculum. Undoubtedly, both of these demands are challenging and will bring concern and worry in homes across the UK, never mind just Friary families. As always, a priority for us will be to be as open and transparent as we can be – to be direct and clear on what is happening and to get down to delivering what we promise.

The Year 11 and Year 13 grades this summer will be decided by teachers. We are meticulous in tracking our children and so this should be a relatively straight-forward process though one that we will take considerable care on. Our parents receive regular reports which specify where their child sits and so it is about layering more recent work onto the existing well-informed judgements. Naturally, we will not be running exams, but there will be formal assessments to guide us to our judgement, and these are all shared on our website and with the students. There are press articles calling out “pointy-elbowed parents” demanding their children get top grades but they have not crossed my desk yet. Last year, no one complained that their grades were too high, a small group said their grades were too low – but none got over-turned, and without an exam to prove oneself then there may be opinions that differ. All we can do is be straight, fair, and honourable in making a professional judgement and I can promise that we will resolute in being all of these things.

Elsewhere, the plotting of the ‘Recovery Curriculum’ is well underway, and where the remainder of the school year would have seen countless interventions for those facing exams, instead attention will swing towards those with exams in Summer 2022. The talk from government is that schools will not close again so we are where we are with the courses ahead of us. The Year 10s and Year 12s can await changes by the Exam Boards which should lessen the load, whilst the Year 9s are going to focus on those subjects they have picked in their pathway choices so their focus will narrow sooner rather than later. Generally, we see the academic deficits will be in Maths and French – which are very sequential – and with general literacy (reading and writing) so this is where we will be putting our shoulders to the wheel.  However, my biggest concern is socio-emotional rather than academic, as life experiences and relationships are far tougher to claw back. The Year 9 Normandy Trip, the Peak District Walk, fund-raising for House charities, or sitting and laughing with friends over lunch cannot be repeated and these gaps ae tougher to fill.

The common theme on all of these topics is obvious: home and school working together. This is always an important ethos but it has never been more important than it is now. We need to ensure that the testing collaboration becomes the spirit of the next few years and we all remember that each of us wants the same things for every child: safety, happiness and success. If we keep this shared goal ahead of us then there is nothing we cannot achieve in ensuring this cohort go on to thrive and are not defined as being a COVID generation. Of course, they are much better than this and working together we can prove it.

Matt Allman
Headteacher

March 2021

So Long 2020

There is a children’s book called ‘Cork on the Ocean’ which opens by saying: “Bounce on the ocean, ride over waves. Voyage out into the blue…” and from a personal perspective I’d argue that everyone this term at The Friary has gained a big appreciation of the adventures that cork went on.

We began the with last minute COVID guidance coming out on the Summer’s last Friday afternoon before the Monday of the new term. Now, as we end the term, we are being told we’ll have a Friary version of M*A*S*H when we return with Mr Rose as ‘Hawkeye’, Ms Cain as ’Klinger’ and Mr Drury as ‘Hot Lips’. Certainly, this term more than any other has taught us to roll with the punches, and we’ll deal with whatever is thrown at us in January, but who knows what that will be or when it will start.

Even so, whether our staff have to act as M*A*S*H , Grange Hill, or Guardians of the Galaxy, I can say with confidence that they will do an amazing job, We have steered clear of Year closures due to their COVID vigilance and care in school and at home, their attendance levels on deck have actually been better than ever, they have navigated every challenge through making great suggestions or coming up with creative responses, whilst also rolling with the school line, and despite having their own health, family and personal worries, they have remained on even keel. They have stoically listened to my wrangles with Track & Trace Apps, balanced child care when their own young children have been sent home to isolate, and maintained a work focus even when facing the ultimate family loss. It would be very remiss of me in this public forum to not give them all a very public expression of ’thanks’ as we end this term.

Elsewhere, our students have done an amazing job too and their response to a radical overhaul in daily life since September has been nothing short of astounding. They have adapted to one-way systems, face-masks, sanitisers, staggered bells, and tweaks to provision without complaint and it must have been tough. School life is ram-packed and so contradictory to the mantra of distancing, isolation and shut down which is drummed out elsewhere. However, though there have been some crazy cases at home – such as having to visit a family to confirm a COVID case when no parent call came in or sending home children when a test result waiting parent decided to drive a group in – every child we have dealt with has handled things calmly, resolutely and maturely. The Year 11s have grafted on the catch up at the after-school boosters and Saturday Schools, the Year 13s have studied relentlessly at home, and attendance levels have been nothing short of superb across the board. It seems that school is very much seen as a valuable and worthwhile part of life and this only makes us very proud as a school.

Of course, the students have been backed by their parents and they have also been a force for good in our school too. Even in this last few days of term I am receiving emails from parents volunteering their services for the proposed testing in schools and their have been numerous Xmas / End of Term messages too which are usually pulled together and sent to all staff. The support has also been there through charity donations and both Seward (Midland Air Ambulance) and Johnson (St Giles Hospice) have seen House Weeks raise high levels of donations in tough times, Equally, the PTFA have been incredible in coming up with imaginative approaches and plans to keep the crucial funds rolling in; whether it been walking Lichfield with the Round Table on the adapted Santa Run, setting up the Friary PTFA shop, or donating stock to the North Lichfield Food Bank. I am very much a believer that a school is a product of it’s community and so many fantastic parents are bid drivers of any success we achieve in school. 

There is no doubt that we will need this team approach in the new term; whether it be in managing COVID testing with likely little support or resources; dealing with home learning which may well be for longer than the initially proposed first week; or coping with potential closures if we fall victim to the staffing shortages other local schools have had to endure.   We are well aware that we will not be able to ‘please all of the people all of the time’ but being able to rely on goodwill, tolerance and empathy does make things a whole lot easier and we recognise this cuts both ways.

Anyhow, we now have a quieter Christmas than usual and, though it is unlikely to provide the usual level of festive fun, it does at least give us all time to pause, and take a breath, before we launch into 2021. We can all check out that cork that we will inevitably pull out of a bottle at one point or another and reflect on what we have had to deal with this year and what we still have to overcome. Nonetheless, together, and as one, we will do it – I am sure.

Matt Allman
Headteacher

December 2020

 

Into the Unknown…

The training for headship covered many things; leadership, management, data, finance and vision, but it never covered global pandemic, so whilst some of the facets of that training have certainly helped, there has been a lot that has been learnt on the job.

This summer has been spent planning the COVID re-opening – risk assessments, extensions, one-way systems and all – whilst juggling the grades crisis that hit all the headlines. When I communicated with a local politician, I asked whether the Department for Education wanted me to focus on the COVID re-opening or sorting out the grading chaos for our 300+ studnets. Of course, there was no answer – though we both knew the answer was “both”.

This week the news about facemasks dribbled out after decisions taken in Scotland and then, at the very end of the final ‘holiday’ week, we learnt that for the Monday of opening week we’d have Tiers 1-4 in place for different types of opening. The risk assessments were done, the processes were in place, the communication was rolling through, and then it was thrown up in the air again. Of course, this is a challenging and fast-moving situation, it is not easy for anyone, but with decisions having to be made using the best information available, you only want it to be clear and with you as soon as possible.

The first week of term will see us communicating the COVID-safe systems to the staff who lead them, then to the students who will join the staff in following them, but we also have on-going decisions to make on masks, tiers, assemblies, school events, and so on. This will keep being a live topic and regardless, though we can mitigate the threat, we can never eliminate it.

The facemasks one is interesting. Today – on 29 August – we are going with optional usage in communal areas but this may change as the week rolls through.

The situation with face masks is not simplistic. There is no real call to wear them in classes as learning would be very tough and that is the main point of the students coming in. How do 30+ children hear one person with a muffled voice ? How does a French teacher assess speaking skills ? How does a DT teacher give instructions in a busy workshop or kitchen ? Equally, in the canteen / eating classrooms, they’ll need to be taken off to get the food into mouths. The real area where they may become necessary will be the corridors which will take in perhaps no more than 20mins per day and where the risk is already due to be mitigated by one way systems, staggered arrivals / departures, staff supervision, etc. Is it feasible that compulsory face masks will be expected ? Absolutely. Do we think this full step is needed at this point ? No. Would we support a child / family who felt it would be safer for them in the corridors ? Of course.

From a personal perspective, recent weeks have had literally hundreds of positive parent messages – which really meant a lot. Conversely, one parental email this week said I was not prepared to take “tough decisions” and preferred to “sit on the fence”, whilst another locally posted message commented that “Mr Allman doesn’t appear to be the brightest student in the class” (no disagreement here J). There is no complaint on this – nowadays it

is the Headteacher’s lot to take this on the chin – but it does illustrate that there can be vehement feelings regarding what should and should not be done in schools.

What will we do then ? Well, we’ll certainly listen. We’ll take on professional and government advice. We’ll respond quickly to what comes at us. We’ll do our absolute best to help ensure COVID is abated, catch-up is secured and our students’ and staff’s sanity is restored by the comfort of welcome routine. As always, we’ll plot our own course, within our own specific context, and we’ll still do our best to be open and frank with those closest to us.

We’ll keep our fingers crossed that this is good enough and that we all come through the next few months safe and well.

Matt Allman
Headteacher

September 2020

 

Algorithms & Soothsayers

It was this week that Boris Johnson informed us that the grades fiasco was simply down to a “mutant algorithm” which was one-way of describing what has probably been up amongst the biggest fiascos in British educational history.

Certainly, the last 2-3 weeks have been an exhausting trial – for students, parents, teachers and anyone connected to the whole sorry tale.

One a personal level, I have tried to explain why universities have removed places before grades have been finalised (it made no sense to me), tried to explain a government predictor (that I never really believed in), and tried (and often failed) to give the definite answers to individual questions that stemmed from ever-changing national policy. Often those involved are justifiably fraught and when I can’t answer it does not help. For a generation all too often labelled as ‘snowflake’, they have had to come through a blizzard that no other cohort ever had to face.

Historically, schools, and school leaders, have lived or died by their data. School judgements were at times made solely on what the data said; no matter what the school was like, how the school as working, or how the school was improving. School leaders could change based on those scores – like a football manager who misses out on a Champions League place, though without the life-changing pay-out. Thankfully, OFSTED have assured the teaching profession that is no longer the case – and they would argue it never had been – but the confirmation was still a welcome statement to hear.

The government algorithm largely ignored teacher grades, and was more based on teacher rankings in the class. It then took into account Year 6 SATs scores, what a school’s subject area had got over the last three years, and other indicators, that bore little relevance to the humans who were due to sit the exams. We had one subject area that had huge teacher shortages three years ago, though we have strong new teaching staff now, but the legacy of

those historic results was inflicted on the students of today. This meant that the individual was labelled by the school and area they were in, like schools they were labelled by data, an outlook which was thankfully overturned, but had (at least partly) applied to schools for all too long. Context should never be an excuse for a school, but it is a factor on the lives of those who commit to working in it.

In an area of ‘Disadvantage’ the data will more likely be ‘lower’, or even “patchy”, and so this year’s students in those areas were inevitably going to be more adversely affected. Those schools can often struggle to climb the league table rankings as the scoring system is weighed against them, just like the students facing the “mutant algorithm”. Elsewhere, if you were in a class of 5 or less then the teachers’ grades stood from the off – which seemed to help independent schools which more often have smaller class sizes. What did Orwell say in ‘Animal Farm’ – “All animals are equal but some animals are more equal than others”.

Of course, teacher predicted grades were shot down as being over-generous and to some extent this will be true. Teachers are not soothsayers, if they were we’d all be predicting the lottery numbers, and I could throw some of my winnings at that sports’ hall roof. Instead, teachers say what the child is capable of – what they have shown they can do at their best. It is a call, not a certainty, and it can’t factor in the problem at home the night before, nerves on the day, or the critically misunderstood question. We cross-referenced our ‘predictions’ against report grades to ensure we were being fair, these had already factored in varying types of ‘mocks’, classwork, assessments, homework, and the like, and though they will not be an exact replica of what would have happened on the day they would be a fair representation.

Even so, there are some students who feel a grade was too low, (though no one got in touch to say their grade was too high), but the good news is that the next stage of life will iron out any under or over prediction. In the long-term, things will even out, and at least with the teacher predictions, opportunities are much less likely to be lost. If this year’s exam cohort fall short next time, then that is their responsibility, but at least it will be down to them, and not where they lived, what their parents did, what they did in Year 6, or whether a subject teacher became seriously ill three years ago.

We are still awaiting a clear contingency for what will happen if we are in this position again – but my hope is that we will not be. Not next year, and not ever.

Matt Allman
Headteacher
August 2020

 

Headteacher’s Update – July 2020

We have ended the term with something of a sigh of relief but also a real awareness that we have a very busy year ahead of us. I am currently reading headlines regarding concerns about a mental health crisis for young people, rows about undeserved teacher pay increases, rumours about a second wave, fears about the proliferation of County Lines in towns and cities, and that’s all before we get to implement our health and safety plans for the new school year.

When I think back over lockdown it certainly inspires a sharp intake of breath. It has definitely taught us all a lot, not just about school, but also about family life and wider relationships.

Certainly, with home learning, there is a lot I am delighted with, but other elements that with the benefit of hindsight I would have wanted done differently.

The Streams video lessons numbered 330 by the end of lockdown and this is definitely something we will extend for revision and catch up next year. On top of this, many staff set-up PowerPoint lessons with video explanations integrated into them too. Even more impressive was the 392 Teams seminars that were rolled out over the last 3-4 weeks of term. We wanted to make sure it was all set-up in case there was a second lockdown so we are delighted we got there. The rules of using Teams / Zoom for the office are a bit different to running them with 1,200+ children and it initially proved a nightmare to secure safeguarding permissions and parameters. However, if we’d known how long we’d be out in March, then we’d have started it sooner. We will though keep the seminar approach as we still don’t believe this style of ‘teaching’ works for ‘normal’ lessons with large class sizes.

These advances were made whilst wrestling with a mountain of other new, or at least extended, initiatives, but seeing the sacrifices made in other sectors, we were more than happy to do our bit.

On top of the online learning provision we also… opened for Key Worker and Vulnerable children throughout the lockdown – including Easter and May Half-Term… ran ‘safe-and-well’ home visits for targeted children… staged in-school mentoring for SEND and targeted children… co-ordinated food vouchers… supported a Staffordshire County Council food distribution hub on our site…made fortnightly tutor phone-calls… made more regular calls for ‘Cause for Concern’ students… liaised with social workers and other such professionals… provided free laptops for targeted children… provided free internet dongles for others… staged ‘virtual’ events like the ‘Sizzler’ and Sports Day… staged online assemblies… disseminated many other activities on various platforms… and the list does go on and on. I also recall our staff coming into school in the first days of lockdown with sleeves pulled over hands for every door and a very real sense of national fear before we quickly pulled ourselves together and cracked on.

More recently, we were also delighted to see an overwhelming proportion (95%+) of our Years 10s and 12s return to school in June when the government allowed us to re-open. It was fantastic to see them, and whilst Year 10s got the chance to have 2 hour small-group sessions with each of their subject teachers, the Year 12s got weekly 2 hour classes for each subject. Our Year 6s matched their attendance rate in their primary transition sessions and we were delighted we went the extra mile for them.

Elsewhere, we have already undertook a huge amount of site work and things are not stalling over the break. Both mobile classrooms have now been totally refurbished and there has been a mass of redecoration across the site. We worked with Staffordshire County Council to re-cover a large portion of roofing across the sports centre and, in partnership with the Greywood Multi-Schools Trust and our fantastic PTFA, we are extending the canteen for September. There is no doubt that our switch to academy status facilitated the major works here and there will be more to come too.

Meanwhile, our teachers are spending the summer re-designing courses so that we can ensure all students, but especially those starting or mid-way through their exams programmes, can catch-up on the inevitable gaps. We have also re-jigged our budget to recruit extra teachers in key subjects – not easy with an inexpensive rod and bait and a very small pool to fish in – so that key exam groups can benefit from smaller class sizes as we whiz through content. This is going to be far from easy, but we genuinely believe that during lockdown our students, staff and parents responded superbly and are confident that the vast majority of Friary students will be ahead of their competition in other schools.

The last big summer job will be the Health & Safety plans for the full re-opening and I am currently surrounded by risk assessments. This is not much fun, and it does seem like ‘Mission Impossible’ to totally eliminate all risks, but we have taken the approach that if we are sensible and realistic then we can do a great deal to make things as safe as they can be.

Every single one of us will have a story to tell about our lockdown and we will all have dealt with challenges that we had never even imagined. At our school, we would not claim to have done the most, but would claim to have done our bit, and that ‘bit’ would not have been possible without the backing of a fantastic bunch of staff, so many committed and upbeat children, and a whole heap of wonderful parents.

Fingers crossed you all get to enjoy the holiday and let’s hope the second wave is just part of saying goodbye to your child on their first day back at school.

Enjoy the summer – wherever it does or does not take you.

Matt Allman
Headteacher
The Friary School

 

The Comeback

Amidst media recrimination and blame-games, and ever-changing government advice, we as a school are delighted that the comeback is in sight.

The government’s secondary advice came in much later than the primary advice, and we were struggling to see how the newspaper photos of ‘bubbled’ primary classrooms and playgrounds could possibly play out in our school. Classes change all the time, specialist rooms are required, numbers are much bigger, but although we are still not crystal clear, we do have a clear plan we are putting into place.

Our first priority will be targeting students who we are more concerned about, although whilst we read many schools are going just with 1-to-1 meetings, for us this is just the first phase. We want to ensure that every child, sees every one of their teachers, at least once. The idea is that they check where they are, what they are missing, and what they need to do next. Even then, we know this won’t be enough. We still don’t know what the Year 10 and Year 12 exams will look like or when the exams will take place. It is a difficult one to reconcile when you are being told to sort catch-up, without knowing what we have to catch-up, nor for when. However, we have to do what we can and we’ll use our judgement to deliver our best.

We do know that safety will be forefront in the minds of parents so we are looking to ensure we give clear guidance on what we are doing and how things will operate. Our students are not small children, so will need to take on the responsibility for their welfare, but we also have the responsibility of putting the framework in place for them to do it, and before our opening on W/B 15 June we will 100% ready.

Equally, there is an important job to do with those Year 7-9 students who won’t be back in till September. It certainly struck me that weeks in isolation means there is a lack of face-to-face contact and however good online work and tutor calls may be they lack that human interaction that we all need. Consequently, we are planning to roll-out more and more video lessons and are working on a plan to use Teams (like Zoom) lessons for smaller groups where we think they can be more effective.

Finally, I wanted to acknowledge the image in some of the media, and from some elements of government, that teachers, or more accurately teacher unions, are keen to block a return to school and to be blunt are just seeking to skive. Whatever, the standpoint of these national players, I can be absolute in saying that I have not seen this in any staff at our school. They have come in even during the most fraught of pandemic times without complaint, they have worked through holidays without complaint, and by far the most common refrain is they are bored with this and want the children back.

So, we have a re-opening, and we are hopeful for full re-opening in September. We want everyone to be safe, but we want everyone to be back. Whatever, Boris, Keir, or X or Y union leader say, this is something that all the conversations I have suggest is something we all as teachers, parents, or both, want.

Matt Allman
Headteacher
The Friary School

May 2020

Opening During Lockdown

We are now just over a month into lockdown and this is certainly the strangest of times. The journey into school is through empty streets, but the silence in our usually vibrant school is almost deafening, as our skeleton staff supervise a small number of Key Worker children and murmur welfare calls home to their tutees.

We have no news on the re-opening but are using the time to prepare for it. We are already installing extra hand sanitiser dispensers, building changes are planned to improve rooms that would be best placed for any re-opening, and our staffing structure is set-up to facilitate home learning. We are getting in a glut of Health & Safety forms from our provider so are learning more and more what re-opening will entail.

We are learning too about home learning as we go along. An early lesson was that though our systems were already well set-up in Show My Homework, we saw that we had rushed too much work to begin with. This was largely because we did not want criticism that we were not on-the ball, but it quickly become a swamp so we have scaled back and are aiming for a more manageable load for students and parents. Those of us who are staff and parents have already learn that home learning not straight-forward.

We are keeping everything crossed we can move toward some sort of re-opening in the Summer Term but are awaiting government announcements like everyone else. We learn of changes when you do, but at the moment the focus is rightly on health care. It is though likely that school re-opening will become a bigger issue when things ease but we’ll have to wait and see when that is.

Finally, thanks again for the overwhelming number of kind and generous messages we have received over the last few weeks. When you feel your back against the wall, you soon learn who your friends are. We are lucky to have so many.

Matt Allman
Headteacher
The Friary School

April 2020

 

Healthy Minds

The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, or William & Kate, have been one of the very many high-profile people involved in flagging up mental health support for young people. Many of us will remember a teenage William dealing with the emotions caused by walking behind his mother funeral cortege, and his wife recently commented in their work with Young Minds that: “A child’s mental health is just as important as their physical health.”

As a school, we have long prioritised this issue with our students and amidst the relentless drive for exam results, sporting success, rewards / sanctions, and so on, we have consistently pursued an agenda of fulfilling one’s personal well-being needs. Of course, when you face a child experiencing difficulties you always think could we have done more, could we have prevented this, could we change what we do. Every child matters for us, really matters, and despite the professional stance towards our job, we’d be lying if we said we never felt a more personal pain when we face a child in need.

The support we offer is varied and at many levels. It could be from the dozen or so external mentors involved with the school… specialist links with more counsellors for issues like bereavement, drugs, etc… our close relationship with Dr Cameron Shields as our local CAMHS lead… high-level staff training… Student Support and pastoral leads meeting weekly to discuss vulnerable children… specific Focus Weeks… targeted support schemes… key times, such as exams, are weaved into advice… PHSE sessions too… a national E-Safety Award for this area of high risk… incentives and rewards… and the list does go on. Perhaps the focus we most prioritise is a willingness to talk and listen – not always easy in a family circle, never mind a hectic 1,000+ school – and even my door will get plenty of children dropping in for a chat or a request for help.

Mental health though is very much an internalised issue and unfortunately, though we can look for all the signs, we cannot read minds. A child will spend around 14% of their year in school. The other 86% is spent a home, much of it asleep, much of it online. This means we can offer only so much in the time we have, and cannot put a protective shield around a child 24/7, even though we often would like to. When we think of how support services have been cut in recent years, we can see that there will inevitably be gaps; Young Minds report that in 2017-2018 half of the 11,482 children needed treatment waited more than 18 weeks following the initial assessment and only 14% began treatment in 4 weeks. This is even presuming that the child will open up and recognise there is a problem in the first place.

One of our latest developments is creating a Year 8 Character Award for September 2020 which will be based around our Friary Ethic and focus on personal development and well-being both in and out of school. Year 8 sees the teenage years begin and we think this programme will help by providing an additional focus and emphasis that we can harness as a means of building up our students’ capacity to take care of themselves, as well as those around them. We often reflect that when our Year 11s (or Year 13s) march out of the doors for the last time then all the support we have provided melts away and, though they are rarely alone, they will never likely have the level of backing they will have had at secondary school. We can only work towards preparing them for this moment, just like readying them for their exams, their workplace, and their relationships.

We take our responsibility for each child’s mental health as being the here and now, and the years ahead. If we can provide the lifebelt to rescue a child in their school years, or the foundations to support the ability to cope in later life, then we have done our job. It won’t be measured on a league table, or be graded a 9-1, but if we achieve this then we have achieved such a lot.

Matt Allman
Headteacher
The Friary School

February 2020

 

As Unbalanced as the Premier League ?

The recent publication of the Department for Education’s performance tables was a big deal for schools. Having been a Headteacher in a school that is performing well, and another with its back against the wall, there is a mix of anticipation and fear. Will the school stack up favourably ? Will the governors or trustees be happy ? Will staff get a boost or a kick in the teeth ? Will the Head keep their job ? How many parents look at them anyway ?

Nowadays, the performance tables largely judge school’s on their Progress 8 figure for Year 11 results. Previously, schools were ranked on attainment which simply listed schools on how may A*-C grades they got. This was obviously skewed towards schools with a More Able intake, so unsurprisingly the usual trend saw grammar schools do best, then schools in more affluent communities, then the rest all followed in behind.

Progress 8 was about levelling this playing field by comparing school’s Year 11’s results with how well the children did in their Year 6 SATs. This was to show what progress had been made in each students’ best 8 subjects (hence Progress 8) from the beginning to the end of their secondary education. The students are compared on English, Maths, often Science (Double), and then the other best four results they got. The theory was that the school’s with more challenging cohorts would not be penalised.

Even so, Progress 8 is not without its faults. The scoring system does not take into account the school’s cohort or catchment – a partly understandable legacy of Michael Gove’s determination that expectations should not be limited for any child.

However, those schools with higher Disadvantaged / Pupil Premium students (usually measured by whether they have ever needed Free School Meals) are hampered by the fact that statistically those children will make less progress than those that are not Disadvantaged. On average they will be 3 grades lower in their Best 8 than the national average. Consequently, can we really say a school with 60%+ of Disadvantaged children can be fairly compared to a school with less than 10% ? Can a school drawing from a deprived city community be fairly compared to a school sitting in a leafy village ?

Elsewhere, if you look at the Top 10 schools in the performance tables they all have a common trend: high numbers of EAL students. EAL students are children whose first language is not English. The average % of EAL student in schools is 16.9% but in the top Progress 8 schools their portion is far higher. Only two of the Top Ten have less than 50%, and even they are well above the national average. Eight out of ten are treble, or even five times, higher.

Conversely, the ethnic group with perhaps the biggest problem in terms of making good progress in schools is White British: especially White British working-class boys. The evidence is clear that certain ethnic groups perform far better than others with factors including aspiration and opportunity playing a part. Elsewhere, a child entering the UK education system in say Year 6 might score poorly in their SATs but once their English improves their progress (and the school’s results) will rocket from that artificially low base. Again, can a mixed school with 90+% White British students be fairly compared to Tauheedul Islam Girls High School (82% EAL) in Blackburn who top the performance tables ? Clearly, they are doing an amazing job, but the argument is not a debate on their excellence, but rather the justness of the comparison .

The list goes on… In 2017-2018 London schools had an extra £800 per pupil compared to schools in the East Midlands – is a comparison fair ? You can compare figures of SEND students… Looked After Children… Girls v Boys… Context is everything.

In many ways these performance tables are like the Premier League. The context of the club is everything. If Aston Villa or Sheffield United stay up this season, will that be a lesser performance than Manchester City gaining a Champion’s League place ? How much was the excitement for the greatest Premier League win – Leicester City – down to their flowing football or their context compared to their far bigger spending rivals ?

The reality is that the performance tables tell a story but not the whole story. They are similar to OFSTED Reports that give snapshot – in OFSTED’s case, often from years before – that somehow becomes a daily reality in the mind of a reader or prospective parent. It is often schools in a tougher catchment that struggle to recruit, and when league tables and OFSTED slam the school, then jobs there become all the more difficult to fill. It is dangerous when the means of judgement become a barrier to improvement. Indeed, The Fair Secondary School Index, published recently by the University of Bristol and the Northern Powerhouse Partnership, reveals that: “More than half of schools currently classed as ‘underperforming’ would no longer fall into this category if pupil background was taken into account in progress measures.”

There are numerous ways to compare schools and you can view the different performance tables.

  •  You can check out the DfE Performance Tables here.
  • You can compare Staffordshire secondary schools here.
  • You can evaluate schools – based on 2018 results though – through the Fair Secondary School Index here:

I’ll leave you with two final thoughts.

My favourite performance tables story comes from watching the news about five years ago when a government minister or the like came onto the national news and expressed his anger at school performance. He was incredulous when he said: “Do you know that almost half of secondary schools are below average!” I guess that’s deal with averages isn’t it ?

Finally, as a school, we very much view the DfE Performance Tables as a quick check on how we are doing, but not the be-all-and-end all. By the time they have come out we are already well set on driving up the new Year 11s for the following summer. We could be up, we could be down, but as long as we know we have done the best we possible could for each and every student then we’ll take that. Rudyard Kipling said: “If you can meet success and failure and treat them both as imposters, then you are a balanced man”. We celebrated last summer’s GCSE results with our Year 11s back in mid-August, and as a senior team had a quiet celebratory drink that evening, but it is now November, and our eyes are already fixed on Summer 2020.

Life moves on, time passes, and that’s one measurement no one can argue with.

Matt Allman
Headteacher
The Friary School

November 2019

 

Not Skirting the Issue

The summer holidays bring a gnawing in the pit of your stomach. Two ‘Judgement Days’ are looming. You’ll not sleep the night before, you’ll need no alarm, and the adrenalin will be pumping. It’s Results Day.

Thankfully, students and staff did amazingly – I know every press release says that – but they really did. I’ve been primed to talk to all and sundry about Jaguar apprenticeships, Russell Group, hard-won ‘4s’, but they’ve not been the hot topic. Instead, I’ve been talking skirts.

Skirts have never been my specialist subject – not my Mastermind first pick – but as a school we made a change and this term saw D-Day. Our new school skirts created a fuss, certainly a cost to parents, and I’d be lying if I said every child was over-enamoured. Even so, the girls (and parents) have been fantastic and I’ve had more compliments about the skirts than anything else. Sure, we’ve had great exam feedback, but the skirts are the show-stopper!

So was change worthwhile? Will new skirts make students safer? Bring better results? Well the simple answer is ‘No’, but often there isn’t a simple answer.

The summer saw the latest wave of our refurbishment programme. Does a painted wall bring more 9s? No. Does a smart, clean environment make work more pleasurable and show we mean business? Absolutely.

Every Year 10 and 11 student received a personalised Headteacher postcard? Does that guarantee exam success? No. Does it show that each student is unique, prized and cared for? Absolutely.

Does the new skirt mean everyone passes English and Maths? No. Does it instil pride, high expectations and bring a real buzz to the school year? Absolutely.

A school should pride itself on pursuing every marginal gain. Graft to nudge every individual over their line. Standing still as a school, accepting the status quo, resting on laurels or reputation, will only let a child’s education drift and fail badly. If a school isn’t relentless in championing their students’ education, then who is ?

So if you drop in on The Friary School’s Open Evening (24 September), you’ll hear the rallying cry to go again, to keep refreshing school life, and to continually move forward. Last year’s students shone, but next year’s need to shine brighter still, and fighting every child’s corner is a commitment not to be skirted.

Matt Allman
Headteacher
The Friary School

September 2019