Bullying!

I hope everybody has had a good half term. The next term is always a challenge particularly with an early Easter as we only have five weeks until the holidays begin again! I wonder if anyone managed to catch the BBC programme ‘The Gift’ earlier this week, if not I recommend it to all students and parents. It focused on the impact of bullying for victim and perpetrator. I am sure that it will be used in PSHE lessons in the near future. All schools have bullying and BCCS is no different, we must be constantly vigilant raising awareness at every possible moment. There is no legal definition of bullying but we have our own definition at BCCS: http://www.bccs.bristol.sch.uk/Home/BCCSOnline/Community/Policies/Anti-Bullying-Policy I hope that as many parents as possible can join us for the joint concert with Churchill Academy this Thursday at 7:30 in the Cathedral. It promises to be a wonderful evening. In addition I hope that you will be able to join us in the Cresswell Centre on Wednesday when we begin our consultation process for the joint sixth form application with CGS. The presentation begins at 7pm and there will be time for questions. All parents and students are welcome.

Changing Bristol

Thanks to Mr Moreton for organising the conference last week focusing on extremism and radicalisation. I attended most of the day and we all learned a great deal. We had presentations from some excellent key-note speakers and I was also pleased that so many of our sixth form students were able to attend. We were joined by representatives from most Bristol schools and a number of others from other local areas. There are a number of high profile cases in Bristol including that of a student at City Academy who disappeared without warning for Syria before Christmas. The school governors met on Thursday for an away day. This is an annual event that in previous years has been held in different schools around Bristol. Over recent years we have visited: City Academy Bridge Learning Campus Oasis Brightstowe Merchants Academy Gordano School This year our governor Edward Benzecry kindly hosted us in his offices across the road from the school .The office is on the top floor of 2 College Square and affords a wonderful view of the school. On the agenda, the proposed sixth form development bid and the timing of the school day. I am anxious to discuss both of these issues with parents and students over the coming weeks and months and hope to see as many as possible in our first discussion on 25th Feb at 7pm in the Cresswell Centre. Education in changing rapidly and Bristol is not immune.

Training Day, Politics and Extremism.

The staff training day on Friday focused on data and extremism! Quite a contrast! The data aspect is really about student performance, knowing your school, class and individual children. Teachers are now able to complete electronic seating plans for their classes complete with data about progress, SEN etc. Staff spent a good deal of time in departments discussing class profiles ensuring that we have the answer to the following questions. Who are underperforming? Which students need to be stretched and challenged more often? What are we doing about it? How are we communication these actions? We also considered how we might encourage reading more particularly among boys. For one of the initiatives staff have been asked to recommend a book for display on classroom doors. There are a number of other recommendations and I will complete a separate post on this issue. A number of students in year 11 also joined staff on Friday re-drafting English coursework. In the afternoon session we were joined by a representative from Special Branch, who asked us to consider how schools can be encouraged to spot the signs of extremism, in all its forms. Essentially this is a child safeguarding issue and prompted a useful debate. On Tuesday BCCS host a radicalisation and extremism conference aimed at raising awareness for all schools in Bristol. We had a wonderful sixth form event last week in the Cresswell Centre. Representatives from all the main political parties were invited for a Question Time event with all members of the sixth form, We were also joined by some students from CGS. The students asked questions to the panel who were predictably divided in their opinions. Students voted at the end. A clear winner was the representative from the Green Party, Darren Hall with the Lib Dems in second place.

Passport and sport

It was good to be at the sports fixtures on Saturday. All four teams both netball and football won. Well done all. Not all parents will be aware of the pilot trial we are doing with the Year 7 students called “Passport”. We recognize the importance the importance of involvement in co- curriculum and want to encourage all students to be involved developing life skills. This year we are asking pupils in year seven to make a diary of what they have been doing or involved in, recording this is via the VLE Personal section using blogs: Music Sports Clubs Community and Green Projects Student Voice/Ambassador Visits Outside school events and activities These blogs have been set up in IT lessons and can be updated by pupils at home, in school and even in tutor time. Tutors can encourage this further by setting as homework on the VLE. Time should be found in tutor time to review and I hope that parents are encouraging at home and reviewing the blogs online. At the end of the academic year we hope to celebrate the students achievements in a special assembly and will be inviting parents to attend. As I mentioned in my letter to parents on Friday we are looking to make some changes to the timing of the school day maximizing time for academic lessons and co-curricular activities. I will send more information about this over the next few weeks.

Year nine options and politics

The year nine options process begins over the next few weeks. It is an important decision for students and the first opportunity they have had to make any curriculum choice. For the school, it is a time to consider what we will need to be teaching in the future. What is the most appropriate curriculum for our students? As an Academy we have some choice but our size does limit our options. There has been a good deal of debate, again, in the recent months about the value of some subjects over others. Progress 8, a new measure, will be introduced for all schools in 2016. It is based on students’ progress measured across eight subjects: English; mathematics; three other English Baccalaureate (EBacc) subjects (sciences, computer science, geography, history and languages); and three further subjects, which can be from the range of EBacc subjects, or can be any other approved, high-value arts, academic, or vocational qualification. These new measures make it clear to schools that some subjects count more than others! In 2017, reformed GCSE grades (grades 1-9, in which 1 is the lowest grade) will also be introduced. Only qualifications that count towards the EBacc measure can be included in the Progress 8 slots reserved for EBacc qualifications. Of course this is all designed to ensure that all schools offer a broad and balanced curriculum. The irony, is that schools too often schools change their curriculum in response to league tables. I am no fan of the EBacc, believing that all schools should design a curriculum in response to the community they serve. Who knows, it may be that education dances to a different tune after the elections in May. We will attempt to explain the changes at our evening this week.

France

My thoughts over the last week have never been far from the events in France. I began our assembly on Friday in the Cathedral with a minute silence and asked the students to consider the value of free speech, tolerance and kindness. It is something that we will no doubt return to in lessons and it is important for students of all ages to be able to discuss world issues and conflict. This week students in year eleven receive their mock GCSE results and our A level students begin their mock exams. It is a challenging time for all but there is still 70 days or so of teaching left before the examinations begin, ample opportunity to correct the mistakes and improve the understanding and technique. I did enjoy the performance of the first eleven-football team on Saturday. A well-deserved 2:2 draw with Millfield is a terrific start to the season. Well done all.

Happy New Year

I hope parents and students have had a good Christmas. Happy New Year to you all! We have some new staff starting with us this term: Rose Cawthorn - Psychology Teacher replaces Mrs Wright. Darren Fuller and Catherine Farrell replace Miss Lewis and Miss Quinn. Before Christmas we wrote to the parents of all children who have been affected by the staff changes to inform them of our plans to minimize the disruption to learning. It is never easy receive resignations before Christmas but we have of course done our best to recruit experienced teachers and minimize any disruption. Mr Bugler, Mr Atkins and Miss Telfer have also taken on more teaching for this term. We begin the term with a service In the Cathedral tomorrow morning and I am very much look forward to seeing students then. We will of course be checking that students arrive back at school in full school uniform please do remind your children about our expectations.