The ‘Riot Act’ were our visitors earlier this week, with a road safety presentation for Year 7. They have brought us their theatre performance before, and blended really important safety messages into a thought provoking and enjoyable session.
The first Deep Learning Day for all year groups took place this week, with Year 7 immersed in E-safety, Year 8 exploring their futures with an emphasis on GCSE options, and Year 9 looking at the values of Diversity and Tolerance in the wider community. Year 7 took part in sessions on their digital footprint, sexting and cyber bullying, supported by PC Peacock, our schools liaison officer. Amongst their other activities, Year 8 had visits from older students at Whitmore High School, to whom I am very grateful for their support, discussing their academic pathways from a Sixth Form perspective. Year 9 had the immense privilege of hearing Holocaust survivor Lady Zahava Kohn talk so movingly about her experiences. Feedback from the day has been extremely positive; my thanks to students for engaging with such challenging material so successfully, and my colleagues for their time and efforts planning such ambitious projects and delivering them so effectively.
Our choir was on the stage on the High Street at Pinner Panto last night, which was a brilliant event. They sang a range of festive songs to an enthusiastic audience. My thanks again to all involved in another great contribution to the community outside our gates.
I am conscious that with some much going on outside the classroom I sometimes don’t refer to classroom practice within this blog, but some positive external data this week reminds me to talk about our core business: academic progress. Each student at the school takes a ‘Reading Age’ test on entry to the school, to help us tailor our support for their academic needs. By taking this test at the start and end of the year it enables us to see how students’ reading ages advances with their chronological age. It is externally set, assessed and processed. The result that each student makes almost two months progress for every month they are at the school provides a resounding endorsement of the all round academic progress they are making at Pinner High School. Good news to end the week!