Students have been really busy this week, covering a great range of activities. This includes completing the Duke of Edinburgh Silver award in high numbers, which is so impressive as the Award is very challenging and highly prestigious.

I am grateful to Barclays Bank, who provided an introduction to employment session with Year 11 this week. Our Year 12 Engineering Scholars Group took part in a national summit designed to explore ways engineers can help solve the climate crisis. The Tomorrow’s Engineers Week Schools COP Summit saw over 50 students from across the UK come together, coinciding with the UN Climate Change Conference taking place in Glasgow later in the month. Students heard from inspirational engineers at the forefront of reducing the effects of climate change and then held discussions hosted by broadcaster Fayon Dixon and former BBC presenter Susan Bookbinder that mirrored those being held at the COP26 Climate Summit in Glasgow. All students were given the opportunity to focus on areas of interest, such as protecting wildlife from the worst effects of climate change or motivating more young people to be more eco-conscious. They brainstormed ideas for how engineering can reduce the carbon footprint of the UK and how they can make an impact on reaching net zero themselves.

A group of enthusiastic Year 10 students were able to participate in the Jack Petchey ‘Speak Out’ Challenge. The fantastic Emily Pollet hosted an onsite workshop about confident public speaking which allowed students to improve their literacy and oracy skills. Students spoke about a range of subjects very close to their hearts, which included aspirations to be a chess grand master, wanting to address homophobia and racism in British society, and why they would want to be a whisk if they had to be a kitchen utensil!  Five students will be competing in our school assembly to see who can move on to the regional finals early next year.

Our History department has been working hard to ensure that the history of black and ethnic minority people has been interweaved into the historical narratives that we teach; recognising the importance of capturing our nation’s diverse past in our curriculum all year round.  October is Black History Month, which we wanted to use as a focal point to draw more attention to the contributions of black and minority ethnic people that have often been overlooked or neglected in history. The History team put together a selection of different key people and stories that we want to share with our students. At school we have also begun to hold diversity awareness meetings to open up the conversation and to amplify students’ voices.

Our Year 11 CCF students are back working alongside John Lyon School students looking at propulsion systems.  Their task is to create an aerodynamic wheeled vehicle that will travel furthest when propelled by an electric firework!

It has been brilliant to have our first sports fixtures in over a year this week, with boys football teams in Years 9, 10 and 11 starting the season, and girls netball in full swing in Years 10 and 11. The results showed a really positive start, with plenty more to come, and brilliant to have so many students out representing the school.

I was delighted to welcome back Elevate Education this week, who were leading some study and revision skills sessions for the whole of Year 10. Year 10 exams are fast approaching, so the additional boost to help them prepare seems to have gone down well with students.

Our Mandarin team were celebrating Moon Festival in lessons this week. Moon cakes are a particular part of this festival, and particular thanks to Mr. Fang for travelling all the way to Chinatown to source the finest fare.  

Continuing the food theme, we hosted a colleagues Macmillan coffee morning today. There are some star bakers in the staffroom, and funds raised for a really good cause.

It is brilliant to be back! This week saw the opening of our Sixth Form: the students are looking exceptionally smart. We had applications from 59 other schools as well as our own, and our Trailblazers continue to set the standards the rest of the school look up to. I know they have particularly enjoyed having a fully refurbished school, as they have seen us grow from a school on one corridor to a school of over 1,000 students and 150 colleagues. Our new Year 7s, our sixth intake, have had a really good start to the year and have certainly benefited from the week they spent with us in August in the summer school programme. As we are no longer in year group bubbles they know more about the school than some of our other year groups. This week, the talk of year 7 seems to be 7AY sharing news of their victory in the House Tug of War competition, and other Houses planning their comeback in the next House Event: origami. The ‘Brilliantly Black Project’, named by the students themselves, began for students in Year 11 with some inspiring success stories. There is plenty more to come in this, and all parts of Pinner High School. Exciting times!

Magnificent rainforest T shirts this week from Year 8 as part of their ecosystems scheme of work. They were tasked with coming up with a unique design and slogan, which they did very impressively. Mr Smith, Head of Geography, was amazed with the standard of work. I found it very hard to select some winners from such a high standard of work from the whole class. The Geography department have been especially busy, and are pleased to take our Year 10 students on their GCSE Geography field trip next week. On a similar theme, I hope map reading skills will be on display by the students on the Silver Duke of Edinburgh expedition, which began today!

The week began with an all staff training day in preparation for our Sixth Form opening in September. It was an inspiring day looking at the exciting future for our students and school. Our Sixth Form has the strongest foundations, and we can’t wait to bring it to life with our students. Our Trailblazing Sixth Formers will be supporting our inaugural summer school for our new Year 7 students. It is brilliant for us to have such role models to work with our younger students. 

A Deep Learning Day took place on Tuesday; students responded very maturely to the sessions and in particular Year 9 students engaged very well with the session on everyday sexism led by the charity ‘Hope not Hate’. They analysed how various sources of media present men and women differently and considered ways of challenging this narrative. Students also considered the importance of issues such as the #metoo movement, gender equality and consent.

We are so proud of the diligence and commitment shown by our Year 7 and 8 students on the Mandarin Excellence Programme as they participate in a series of national Chinese exams. Only 76 schools across the country take part in this prestigious programme, and we are so impressed at the levels our students are reaching. We wish them all the best of luck as they show off what they have learned.  These tests present a fantastic opportunity for our students to familiarise themselves with the format and experience of taking GCSE in a lower stakes setting 3-4 years early!

A few green fingered Year 10s volunteered to help improve the environmental quality of the school this week. Under the guidance of their teachers they learnt how to plant new flowers, construct a new flower bed and even clean up the school pond.  Mr. Smith commented that “The teamwork and positive attitude of the students was magnificent and the transformation in such a short time was nothing short of remarkable.“

Next week is 'Walk to school week'. Please encourage your child to walk to school.  If they would usually travel by car, please encourage them to be dropped further from school to reduce congestion and pollution around the school.

‘Solutions not Sides’ came into school yesterday and hosted a workshop with some Year 9 students on the Israel/Palestine conflict. They hosted a Zoom call where students could speak to and ask questions of both Israeli and Palestinian people. The programme that they offer gives a critical approach to education on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, aiming to tackle Antisemitism, Islamophobia and polarisation around the issue of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in the UK. The programme has been formulated with the input of both Israelis and Palestinians as well as senior members of Jewish and Muslim communities, and is designed to prepare students to make a positive, solutions-focused contribution to debates on Israel-Palestine. More info is on their website: https://solutionsnotsides.co.uk/

This has been the most ‘Pinner High School’ week in a long time. Team building activities, academic enrichment, Head’s Challenge events, student led initiatives and sports clubs all featured for our students, and was brilliant to see them embracing the opportunities available to them. And more new spaces open in Computer Science!

Years 7, 8 and 9 were all out on the field for a full day each of team building activities led by ‘Wise Up’. They provide a range of different tasks that required diverse skills, and the students rose to the challenge together really successfully. One student summed their day up as ‘really tough and mind bendy, but really great!’

I am very grateful to Bridget from the ‘Meat Like it Used to Be’ butcher in Pinner for coming to school to demonstrate how to properly joint a chicken, and donating one to each student in the Year 9 Food Technology class so they could do it themselves. This was extremely generous, and I am very grateful for her time and effort- and the chickens! Students were utterly absorbed in the process and made real progress. Thanks to Mrs Stephenson for organising it all.

Colleagues in the English department are running a Poetry competition for Year 7 and Year 8. More details are here: Foyle Young Poets – of the Year Award The poem can be any length and any theme. The deadline is Thursday 29^th July and the students can submit their poems via dedicated Google Classrooms. The winner will be announced in October! The Google Classroom codes are here: Year 7 code: lzdycd7 Year 8 code: f2zugkb

In the last week I was pleased to be approached by two student groups hoping to launch new initiatives, Year 10 led Wellbeing Wednesdays looking at different ways of offering support for each other, and Year 9 students looking to start an Aspiring Activists group. I watch both with interest, and am grateful to my colleagues providing the support to help this happen.

The same colleagues are able to provide 19 sports activities every week, running outside the Head’s Challenge activities which started coming back last half term, and gradually continue to do so over the next few weeks. It was brilliant to have our Silver Duke of Edinburgh participants training this week before their forthcoming adventurous journey, and plans coming together for an onsite Year 7 camp.

And in the background, 1505 Teacher assessed GCSE grades being moderated and processed, and the Year 11 Leavers Celebration assembly on Monday. It could be a lump in the throat moment after 5 Trailblazing years!