Dear Parents & Carers

We have been conducting school tours over the past few weeks, helping prospective parents and their children decide whether Myton is the right choice for them (of course it is)! In each tour we explore the whole school and go into several classes where we find, without fail, children eager to discuss their work with our visitors.

Apart from enjoying meeting prospective new families, these tours have reminded me just how much children enjoy learning new things, just for the sake of learning. In education, we can get obsessed with results and of course students need the best grades they can get, but it is great to see students enthusiastically showing off a product they are making or a piece of art they are creating, or talking about a book they are reading or demonstrating their language skills without having to link it to an exam. This is why I am delighted to read that Ofsted are proposing to get rid of the ‘outcomes’ judgement in inspections (a judgement based on a number and which forgets the humans in the system), and replace it with a ‘quality of education’ grading.

We are a school which has consistently been in the top 30% nationally and whose success is based on exceptional results in maths, English and humanities and very strong results in science and languages. However, we are also a school with a world class art department, we have students who are gifted musicians, performers, designers, technicians and fantastic sportsmen and women; and unfortunately over recent years, the education system has squeezed the opportunities for students to study these subjects. Hopefully, over the next few years, we will see value being placed on the breadth of the curriculum offered and the extent students enjoy learning, developing habits which will make sure they continue to enjoy learning throughout their lives.

My experience of showing people around Myton recently certainly leaves me in no doubt that a more forward thinking education system, which values a wider selection of subjects, would be met with enthusiasm by our students.

With best wishes

Andy Perry – Head Teacher

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