Dear Parents and Carers
It has been really good to see all the students this week. This time last year the second school lockdown had just been announced and we finished this term fearing the worst, therefore it is somewhat a relief that we are all back in school. Speaking to many of our students, it does seem there were an awful lot of disrupted Christmas breaks but I hope, even in those cases, that everybody managed to fit in some festivities over the two weeks.
The whole Omicron/Covid saga will play out in the background this term and we will do our best to keep everybody fully updated as rules and regulations change – almost daily it seems at the moment. Far more important is that January is the month of the A-Level mock exams and the GCSE mock results and, given this information, students will be very clear where the gaps in their learning are and be able to take control of the next few months. As we go through the papers with the students, it is the message of taking control that we will be pushing; establishing what knowledge and skills are in deficit and then doing whatever it takes to fill those gaps. I will be urging my colleagues around the school to relegate discussion of grades to the bottom of the list as this is something students can’t control. What they can control is how hard they try to learn the skills and knowledge they need to gain even more points next time round. Every bit of research I have ever read on this shows that praise and criticism of effort will bring results, praise or criticism of actual outcomes will not and in fact will often make kids give up.
This will be our message to all those students heading into an exam season, which now looks almost certain to happen as planned – don’t concentrate on the grades, concentrate on effort and the grades will sort themselves.
Best wishes
Andy Perry – Head Teacher