headteacher-secondary

teachwire.net delivering lessons scheduled to our normal timetable. That said, we have shortened the length of lessons slightly, so that they’re around 45 to 60 minutes. That’s designed to give our staff and students screen breaks, since we’re conscious that sitting in front of a screen all day isn’t especially conducive to general wellbeing. Staff are otherwise delivering fully live lessons using Microsoft Teams, setting assignments and giving students feedback on their work, just as they would normally. All students still have tutor time, and are continuing to take part in ICAS sessions from home on Tuesday afternoons, where they get to choose from various enrichment opportunities. We've endeavoured to set up an arrangement that’s pretty much as close to normal as we can get. Upfront and honest Student wellbeing is obviously important to us, but so too is looking after our staff. Where they’ve needed to, be it for mental health reasons or technology issues, staff been able to come into college, but on the whole they’ve been encouraged to work from home. We've also switched to using remote software for events like parents evenings. Where we’ve had students needing to self-isolate, or year groups that have had to be sent home, we’ve looked to deliver live or streamed lessons. Where some students have been at home and some in college, we’ve delivered in-college lessons to student groups while simultaneously streaming them to students dialling in from home. During this time, we feel that our standard of communication has been one of our real strengths. We’ve had a great deal of positive feedback, particularly in the last few months, from parents regarding our communication arrangements, which I see as the result of us being very transparent and honest about the situation we’ve found ourselves in, and the subsequent uncertainties. We’ve explained carefully how we're dealing with those, what we're planning to do, and the limits of what we can provide. I've been sending regular updates to parents at least once a week, and sometimes daily or even hourly, depending on the situation. Throughout, we’ve attempted to show why we're doing the things we're doing, and why we've made the decisions we have – all of which has been hugely important. Professional lessons I first joined Impington in September 2014 as assistant principal, and became principal of the school in 2020. The main professional lesson What we’ve been doing Despite overseas trips currently being off limits, this academic year we’ve still been extremely keen to continue with our programme of cultural exchanges. Throughout November, our Sixth Form International Baccalaureate Japanese Ab Initio and Year 7/8 enrichment groups took part in a number of virtual exchanges and live lessons with our partner school in Morioka, Japan. The aim of these short lessons was to engage both sets of students with different cultures and classrooms, widening their understanding of the languages and allowing them to put their hard work into practice. It was 5pm in Japan and 8am in the UK, and the lessons kickstarted the day with a bang. The students thoroughly enjoyed themselves, and were thrilled to even make it in to the Morioka local newspaper! their actions, and that they understand the consequences of those actions. If a student does something that results in some form of sanction, there will often be a restorative meeting where they sit down, reflect on their behaviour and are given an opportunity to talk things through with a member of our pastoral team. We operate a vertical house system, with each house having a deputy head who predominately supervises Y7 and Y8, and a head who looks after Y9 to Y11. They’re given a fairly generous allocation of time, so that at different points throughout the year, when different year groups might need additional support, that time and knowledge is available from the house team. Screen breaks At present, we have around 60 students in school – a small number of key worker children, our EHCP students, plus a handful of vulnerable students. Those students are accessing the same provision as their peers at home, however, since we’re STUDENTS GETTO PICK ONE ACTIVITY, ONE CREATIVITYTASKAND ONE SERVICE ROLE EACHTERM –WE THEN RUN EVERYTHING FROM FENCING TO PORTUGUESE LANGUAGE LESSONS TO BAKING, YOU NAME IT. VICTORIA HEARN, PRINCIPAL 49 C L A S S R O OM L I F E I’ve learnt since then is the importance of being able to remain calm, and the impact that has on the wider staff body. I’ve also learnt lots about the importance of professional honesty, and the need to be upfront with people – staff as much as parents – about what leadership decisions are being made and why. The two things that remain most important to us as a school are the wellbeing of our staff and students, and the teaching and learning experience. What we've endeavoured to do throughout the pandemic, as much as we can, is make sure that our students and staff are well looked after, and that they receive the best possible experience. Helen Turner, lead for international education, describes how the school’s international exchange activities have taken on a rather different form this year...