Headteacher Weekly Bulletin 27.01.17
Good afternoon
You will deduce from the wide range of activities covered in this week’s ‘bulletin’ that it has been another full and enthralling week at Wellington, and here we are just two weeks away from half term. Mrs Copeland also mentions that it is a mere 4 weeks from our sponsored walk (24th February), and I did a double-take at 6th Form parents’ evening last night when it popped up on the screen that it is only 65 school days until A level exams and, therefore, fewer until GCSEs begin. There really is no slowing down time; it waits for no man nor for our students approaching public examinations. This is not intended to instil panic but a focused sense of urgency, and I am definitely sensing it, particularly following recent parents’ evenings, among the relevant groups of young people.
Mrs Moorhouse ‘advertises’ the Bowdon Youth Festival in her piece this week. We have enjoyed considerable success in the competition in recent years. It’s usually a fairly short but enjoyable evening at Bowdon Church so I hope as many parents, teachers and fellow students as possible can join us on Thursday evening; you’ll be royally entertained.
Last week, there was a report of the Year 10 field trip into Manchester. Well, we received a lovely email from a parent of one of the students who participated in the excursion;
“We just wanted to write a quick note to say thank you for organising and taking the trip into Manchester that our daughter was part of.
It was lovely sitting round the dinner table that night talking about the trip and seeing her inspired and her understanding of human geography grow through a single day’s events. We’ve been told she’ll give us a guided tour.
She may not have told you but her older sister is studying geography at university and it was a trip like this that first fuelled her decision to take her studies further.
Thank you for taking the time to take her out of the class room and bring the subject to life in a way that no class room probably could.”
None of our teachers do these things for the praise or the thanks but it is so lovely to get this sort of feedback. The knowledge that we can at times fuel someone’s passion, inspire them or just deepen their understanding is thanks in itself. At Wellington, there are numerous such opportunities across all subject areas both in and out of School, and our students certainly grasp these opportunities and profit from them. It is hard work to organise such activities on top of the ‘day job’ but comments such as these will undoubtedly spur Wellington staff on to keep going that extra mile.
One of the unqualified successes of recent years has been the introduction of the anti-bullying ambassador / peer mentor scheme, established by Mrs Copeland and now coordinated by Mrs Cooke. I’m sure you will enjoy reading about the training of 60 ‘ambassadors’ this week. What I was particularly inspired to hear was how brilliant the established 6th form ambassadors were in training the new cohort; Wellington community and citizenship in action.
It’s been a great week for sport and you can read the articles attached. In short, the Year 7, 9 and 10 rugby teams have been in action, all enjoying very satisfying results. The Year 7 and 8 girls took part in phase 2 of the Trafford handball tournament, following an unbeaten start last week; click on Miss Challinor’s contribution to see if they were able to maintain those high standards. What do you think?!
Well done to all the students mentioned directly or indirectly under the other features in our Latest News this week, whether you are Mrs McDonnell’s 10.0 superstars, Mrs Ryan’s Year 8 and 9 culinary geniuses, one of Mrs Simpson’s budding journalists or a member of the Gilder family who helped to produce Toby’s video (not forgetting Toby himself, of course!).
We seem to be a bit down this year on news of activities and achievements outside of School. It really is important that we celebrate these things every bit as much as what our youngsters do in School so, please, let’s hear all about them.
Anyway, I’ll leave you to peruse the other items at your leisure, and please do give us feedback on the anything and everything we do here at Wellington, including how you find the website and the emailing of the weekly news; we’ll only get better with your help.
Can I take this opportunity to make you aware of an incident this week. Unfortunately, a bike was stolen from the bike sheds at the back of school. This was an expensive Christmas present and the owner was understandably very upset. Due to the prompt action of our site staff and school CCTV footage one of the two thieves was apprehended and will be charged. Could I recommend that students do lock up their bikes as we cannot secure the site completely.
Finally, you know I don’t like to be political (!) or express an opinion (!!!), it really is out of character, but I mentioned that I was keen to get home last week to see how President Trump’s inauguration had gone, and I have been relieved to observe over the last week that the polemic and hype that surrounded his election campaign has abated and it transpires that Donald is actually a lovely bloke of sound mind and judgement and clearly much maligned and misunderstood. Who could argue against advocating torture, building a huge wall to stop immigrants and the importation of goods from Mexico, building controversial and environmentally damaging pipelines and ‘cosying up’ with the Russians?! I feel totally reassured by recent events.
Note to self; you must really lose that sarcastic streak.
Have a great weekend.
S Beeley
P.S. Fact for the day that I’ve literally just this second learned; Lewis Carroll (born Charles Lutwige Dodgson) was born on this day in 1832 in Daresbury, Cheshire, which is just down the road from where I live. Well I never knew that.