They arrived on Wednesday 24th November and the 25th was my birthday! Finally, all the pressure has been and gone and we can now continue to make progress.
My birthday was pretty crap to be fair - but got started when I got home on day 2 of the inspection at 8pm! I was exhausted...
One of the inspectors came to observe my Year 11 lessons on day 1 (midday); he arrived before me, which wasn't a great start, as I teach at the other end of the design department. I ran in, dumped my books; booted up the PC & IWB and got the students on task straight away! Well, all 5 of them!
As each student arrived, I gave them specific tasks and got each student working on their final practical project straight away. I had a chat with the inspector, showed him the seating plan, data & individual student tracking sheets (hit) and then continued doing what I do.......20 minutes later, the inspector left my classroom and thanked me.
Later that day (the 24th) I met with the inspector again for my Specialisms meeting which went according to plan. The Specialisms received a mentioned in the final summary/report, so I cannot ask for more than that. We know what areas we do well in and which we need to improve. It certainly didn't justify printing off 3 trees and over 500 pages of A4 evidence for the 2 days prior to the HMI visit!!!! Leadership received a good comment - which is always good for the team - to let the rest of school know - we do know what we are doing and know what we need to improve. One slight concern, was that HMI suggested we know our school so well, that they couldn't suggest any 'areas for development!'
Feedback during the 2nd day - suggested the lesson was a solid 'good'....so all in all, a positive end.
Snow:
Well, mixed really! Frost, ice and staggered starts to each day this week; certainly not helped by the re-occurring problems we are facing with our 50 year old heating system in the building. I normally do not feel the cold, but more and more, my bones have had chills and my nasal passages are becoming steadily congested. I think we've had 13 days without any heating! Yesterday was much worse when the ice and snow caused our electrical system to fail which turned off the electricity/lighting on the ground and first floors of the main building! The water also failed which meant we survived until lunch and sent the students and staff home. Oh, the life of an academy.
So, we open our new Food Academy this week. This has been a 2 year project for me after receiving a £300K sum of cash from the DCSF. We are almost spent up, but Brent Council have stuck a spanner in the works and have significantly delayed expenditure! I have managed to connect with Mrs Lopa Patel MBE and look forward to meeting her to officially open the room and welcome our staff to this small celebration of great exam results; new facilities and a successful HMI!
On Tuesday, I have a meeting with the TDA for our Training Schools Annual Review. I am quietly confident, so we will wait and see. Wednesday, I am off to Warwick - snow permitting - and leading a presentation on Blue Sky Education to 35 headteachers and our sponsors! No pressure; but I'm simply going to show what I know; be myself and add a bit of pazazz!
2 weeks to go; or should I say 10 morning alarms until Santa comes to town...oh and p.s. I found my old NQT notes from 1997 and will attempt to write my 1st book in 2011.... Not many jobs on the market (not good news, considering cutbacks and redundancies on the horizon! I have the White Paper to read - all 95 pages of it; my ASCL council notes to ponder and the continuous policies to (raise my eyebrows) read from Gove!
Location:Grenville Pl,Barnet,United Kingdom
