Monday is the first day of our long awaited refurbishment at the school. The photo collection above shows a selection of rooms on the disused side of the school that are about to be significantly upgraded. Many of our Trailblazers have waited almost as long as I have for this, so we are all very excited to get it underway! The plans between now and completion in summer 2021, go through 3 phases designed to minimise disruption. As a result of this we are moving assemblies from the hall to the Pinnacle, as the hall is in the first phase of work. This is scheduled to be returned to us in September, ready for when our student numbers reach 900. Our last assembly in the main hall was an important one; celebrating LGBTQ+ month, and the inclusive school ethos noted as Stonewall Champions. With rainbow flags in each classroom as a sign we are committed to this, we had an informative presentation on appropriate use of language.

The last few weeks have seen intensive activity to recruit additional colleagues for September. I have seen very strong fields for many posts. The advantage of a growing school is being able to predict in advance which posts will be required, and filling them early. A small number remain, and I would encourage you to pass the message on to anyone who you think might be interested in joining our ‘Outstanding’ team: https://www.pinnerhighschool.org/news/?pid=0&nid=5 My colleagues continue to set high standards, and our Investors in People Health and Wellbeing award and commitment to professional learning shows our dedication to raising this standard still further.

Thinking of Outstanding teams reminds me of our brilliant Year 7 netballers, undefeated so far this year. Our indoor athletics team had another strong showing, as did our basketballers.  We also hope for strong showings from Year 9 in their Midterm exams next week. It is designed to give students an early insight into their performance so far in their GCSEs, and to help sign post them towards areas to develop still further.