Events

My first year at Churchill

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I started at Churchill a year ago – and what a year it’s been! One of the first things I wanted to do as Headteacher was develop communication between home and school. To help with this, we relaunched the newsletter, redesigned the website, and I started this blog. Here are some of the highlights that have been captured in the Headteacher’s Blog over this first year in charge…

Taking stock and planning

I spent the first few months at Churchill looking, listening and learning around and about the Academy. In March, I gathered my thoughts in What have I learned?. This process led to the planning of the Strategic Priorities for Churchill – our blueprint for the way ahead over the coming years.

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How we learn

I have published a series of posts on learning and on developing a growth mindset, including You Can Learn Anything and How to Grow Your Brain. I also showed this really interesting video to families on my meet the Headteacher evenings. It describes some really interesting findings from research into the way in which praise can change students’ attitudes to learning and achievement. Take another look:

How to revise

I’ve also used this blog to help students preparing for exams. I started with How to revise: techniques that work, and I’m now part way through a series of How to revise posts on the six most effective revision techniques from cognitive science research. So far, I’ve outlined retrieval practice, spaced practice and elaboration. Make sure you follow the blog this year for the final three posts in this series!

Performing Arts

In January, I attended the Churchill Music! Young Musician of the Year competition, prompting me to write about The Power of Music  This year’s event is just around the corner, and I’m looking forward to it very much! It was also a production year and I had the chance to review West Side Story – I’m still  in awe of the brilliant show that the students and staff put on. The year was rounded off by the fantastic Christmas Concert which inspired me to write about how much I love the Junior Choir!

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The amazing West Side Story cast on the Playhouse stage

Assemblies

I’ve taken a few assemblies during the year! I love stitching together quite diverse examples into topics for my assemblies. For example, my assembly on Concentration featured coloured balls, an optical illusion, a cat gif and the dog from the Disney/Pixar film Up; my assembly on being Different featured metronomes, coke cans, Barack Obama and DNA. In Think Before You Speak I used a YouTuber, a tube of toothpaste, some ridiculous safety equipment and a poem by Emily Dickinson. I was relatively restrained before Christmas in discussing The 1960s as I talked about President Kennedy, the moon landings and an incredible mathematician called Katherine Johnson.

Fun

 

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A rowing sprint competition against the GB champion wasn’t in the job description…

There has been so much to enjoy this year! From Activities Week, through Sports Day, the Year 11 and Year 13 Balls, right up to Christmas at Churchill – and it’s all still to come again this year! I even got to go to a day out at Buckingham Palace…

I can honestly say I’ve looked forward to coming into work every single day of the year. It’s a privilege to work with such polite and hardworking young people and such dedicated and expert staff. Here’s to many more years – and weekly blogs! – to come.

Christmas at Churchill

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I’ve had a fantastic time enjoying my first Christmas at Churchill, witnessing all the traditions I’ve heard so much about first hand! We’ve got into the Christmas spirit with an array of spectacular festive knitwear on Wednesday and Thursday as lessons continued – it’s quite a sight to see a teacher dressed as an elf explaining the details of an exam mark scheme to a student wearing a fluffy reindeer jumper with a light-up red nose…

We also had a delicious Christmas lunch prepared on Wednesday and Thursday, with the main hall transformed into an elegant family dining room with crackers, streamers and squeaky blowouts!

Today, Friday, saw us celebrate Christmas proper. The day began early with the senior team in from 6:30am to cook and serve breakfast for all the staff of the Academy, to say thank you for all their hard work this year. I managed to grab some leftovers – it was delicious!

 

The day continued with our carol services at the Methodist and St John the Baptist Churches, alongside our in-school activities for students in the four houses. The Sixth Form did not let us down with their spectacular fancy dress parade around the Academy site at break time! See the website for some more photos of their amazingly creative costumes. They also put on a brilliant Revue performance in which I was honoured to play a small part.

As is traditional , the Sixth Form team had been busy putting on a little entertainment of their own. See if you can spot the teachers taking on Queen in our very own Bohemian Rhapsody:

I was also lucky enough to get a treat in the English Department’s Secret Santa draw which has set me up nicely for 2017…

A merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to you all!

Why I love the Junior Choir

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This year’s Christmas Concert was an absolute triumph, as you can read in my review for the website and all the lovely emails and messages which were sent in afterwards. The standard of music-making and performance was exceptional, and the variety of acts was joyous. But for me, and I think for most of the audience, the Junior Choir was the perfect way to close the show. Here’s why I love the Junior Choir…

Collaboration

By my count there are 237 students listed on the programme in the Junior Choir, including 21 soloists. This captures the ethos of the Academy – it’s inclusive, where all students are valued, where everyone has a voice. And what a fantastic sound 237 Year 7 and 8 students make when they’re together!

Confidence

The soloists – and the rest of the choir – who performed on the night were incredible. It’s important to remember that some of them had only been at Churchill for eleven weeks before they took to the Playhouse stage! To sing so skilfully, word- and note-perfect (or dressed as Elvis!) on a professional theatre stage is testament to all we do to build the confidence of our young people; it is this work that makes our students our best ambassadors.

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Creativity

The songs that the Junior Choir sang were all composed by Churchill students. This year we had new compositions from Finn Williamson, Lois Hart and Brooke Knight alongside some from previous years’ songwriting competitions. The chance for students to showcase their creativity on this huge scale is such a fantastic opportunity! And the songs are great too; a fantastic alternative to traditional Christmas carols.

Choreography

As well as the sound, the sight of all those students moving together is breathtaking! The choreography really brings energy to the singing, too, and brings the words to life.

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Continuation

The Junior Choir are the Youthful Spirit of tomorrow. Having the younger students in the Playhouse to hear the senior students sing, play, act and perform allows them to see where the performing arts can take them at Churchill. Our senior students are superb role models, and having the Junior Choir alongside them in the theatre ensures that this vital area of our work remains strong into the future.

Christmas!

Although our Christmas Concert takes place at the end of November, for me it marks the start of the Christmas season. It’s the first time this year – outside of shopping centres! – that I’d seen festive tinsel and it got me properly into the Christmas spirit.

You can watch and download a video of the Junior Choir, along with a selection of other performances from the Christmas Concert, at the Music Department website.

 

Remembrance

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Mr Hildrew’s blog for Remembrance Day.

chrishildrew's avatarTeaching: Leading Learning

Remembrance Day in school is one of those moments which make you realise what an important job we do, and what a privileged position teachers are in. It’s always the day of the year when Iwantto be teaching period 3; I’m disappointed if I have a non-contact session. It’a an honour to share the silence with young people as we reflect, separately but together, on our individual and collective experience of loss and sacrifice. There are few other occasions where I’m so intensely aware of what Graham Nuthall calls the different worlds of the classroom. On the surface we all experience an identical minutebetween the bells, but in our private inner worlds each person has an unknown and unique journey.

SourceSource I always preface the silence with my classes with a little about why Remembrance Day is particularly important to me. I tell them about my Grandfather, an…

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Open Evening 2016

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Open Evening is a key event in our school calendar. It’s when we get a chance to showcase our wonderful school to children and their families who are interested in coming to Churchill in Year 7. This year was my first open evening as Headteacher, and as I walked around the site I couldn’t have been prouder of the staff and students! There was a fantastic “buzz” in every part of the school, from the twinkling fairy lights outside the Design and Technology grotto to the Duke of Edinburgh fire pit, from the tarantulas, rats and tortoises in Biology to the magic in Mathematics, and from the Shakespearean photobooth in English to the crumble-making in Catering…and everything in between!

I was especially proud of Elliot, Anna and Stephen from Year 13, and James, Emma and Drew from Year 7, who spoke confidently and so warmly about their time at Churchill to the packed houses in the Academy Hall. Our student tour guides were also excellent ambassadors for the school, answering questions and making sure that no stone was left unturned. I even found myself clapping along to the Youthful Spirit Gospel Choir at one point! Thanks to everyone from the Academy who came out to help.

Next week we have our Open Mornings when we will showcase the Academy on a normal working day. We can’t wait!

You can download my presentation from the evening here. Meanwhile, below are a few photos – and a couple of videos! – from Open Evening.

 

 

Summer Time

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We certainly know how to finish on a high here at Churchill! This week has seen four excellent Celebration of Success events held at the Academy. These events are a great way to finish the year, recognising the achievements of students who have excelled in particular subjects or as members of their tutor groups throughout the year. At each event, I read out the following quotation:

“If you are going to achieve excellence in big things, you develop the habit in little things. Excellence is not an exception – it’s an attitude.”

Colin Powell

This is the key to sustaining success. The students who received certificates as part of Celebration of Success – 1080 of them! – all demonstrated this. They were getting the little things right, day in day out, all the time. Turning up for school, on time, in the correct uniform. Listening carefully. Applying themselves. Working hard. Doing their best. Looking out for others. Caring. Smiling. Helping. Not just occasionally – but all the time. These “little things” build up an attitude and approach which contributes to bigger things, recognised in the awards handed out at Celebration of Success: the formation of an attitude which will contribute to excellence not just at school, but beyond.

Of course, not everyone wins awards at Celebration of Success, and not everyone has these habits of excellence. But they can be learned – and they can be deliberate acts. I was particularly struck by one tutor’s citation for their Tutee of the Year. The tutor said that, in the first few years of school, the student and the tutor hadn’t “clicked” and they hadn’t particularly impressed one another. But the tutee developed these habits of excellence, getting the little things right all the time, and the tutor saw this build up and recognised that this was someone deserving of recognition. It was one of the most gratifying handshakes of the week – celebrating the success of someone who had changed – and done so consciously – to ensure success.

In the midst of this celebration of success, it was serendipitous that our rescheduled Sports Day  also took place. And what a day! It was great that families were able to join us on the field to celebrate success in the sporting arena. The atmosphere was full of fun and enjoyment, and the Houses as fiercely competitive as ever. Despite a strong surge from Stuart, especially in the lower years, Tudor romped home as comfortable victors. I loved the whole day! There is a gallery of photos on the school website and on Facebook, and a few of my favourites are included below.

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Before we break up for the summer, we say goodbye to some excellent colleagues who are leaving the Academy this year. In particular, I would like to pay tribute to Chris George, who has been at Churchill for over 20 years. I have personally found his wise counsel and listening ear invaluable since I started in January, and I know many colleagues who have been here a lot longer than me will say the same. I wish him well in his well-earned retirement.

Sports Day Selection (14)

Chris George: Chief Timekeeper

I wish all of you a restful, happy summer holiday!

See you in September!

Activities Week 2016

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What a week! It’s been my absolute pleasure (and privilege!) this week to get out and about visiting as many activities as possible. Over the week I’ve popped into Age of Mythology, Be a Film Critic, Candle Making, Magic – the gathering, Crazy Crafters, Cupcake Creations, Day of Sports, Decoupage, Got to Dance, Jewellery Making, Stop-Motion Lego Animation, Fireworks Animation, Music For All, Photoshop Masterclass, Project Catwalk, Paintball, Go Karting, Golf, Bristol City Tour and Coaching, Skiing and Snowboarding, Bag and Wallet Making, Journalist for a day, Book Making, FIFA tournament, and more..and I’ve missed several because there are only so many hours in the day! I even managed to visit some of our Year 10 students on work experience. Whilst my travel budget didn’t extend to Iceland, Austria, Belgium, France, Cornwall, Cardiff, the Forest of Dean or the Harry Potter Studio Tour, I’ve enjoyed the photographs that have been sent back and Facebook, Twitter and Instagram have been buzzing throughout the week.

Activities Week is a great chance for students to try something different. I have seen them learning practical skills like jam making, product design or putting. I’ve seen them gaining cultural knowledge from visiting galleries, museums and our European neighbours. I’ve seen them broadening their curriculum knowledge from History in Belgium, Geography in Iceland, Art and Science in Bristol. I’ve seen their teamwork and resilience improve from problem-solving, and as they push themselves out of their comfort zones into new environments. I’ve seen students taking the opportunity to spend a whole day in the specialism they love – dance, textiles, programming, sport and so on – to get the maximum enjoyment out of their passions. And I’ve seen the working relationships between students and staff continue to strengthen and grow as they experience learning in a different context.

Many schools have stopped offering Activities Weeks. They are time-consuming to organise as the Academy has to risk assess all of the activities, arrange the options, sort transport, and liaise with all the providers. The week requires a lot from staff, with a huge commitment of time and energy to take students on these amazing experiences at the end of a long and tiring year. But having seen the enjoyment and the benefits that everyone gains from it, I’m very glad that Churchill still has its Activities Week – memories have been made! Now to start planning 2017…

I will finish this week’s blog with a heartfelt thanks  to all the staff who organised and ran activities both directly and behind the scenes. Thanks especially to Marilyn Cadman, who is the glue that holds the week together! And thanks of course to our wonderful students for their excellent behaviour and enthusiastic participation throughout the week. Here are a few of those memories – find more on the website and via the social media channels!

Balls

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Year 11 letting their hair down

I hope you will forgive the title of this week’s blog. If you’ve found it in your heart to forgive that, then I hope you’ll also forgive this next sentence.

I’ve been to two fantastic balls in the past fortnight.

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Sun's out – we're ready! #bollywoodball

A post shared by Churchill Academy & Sixth Form (@churchillacademy) on

Of course, I am talking about the Year 11 Ball here at the Academy, and the Year 13 Ball in Bristol the following week. These great events have got me thinking about the spirit of celebration and what I’ve learnt about Churchill over the past fortnight.

Firstly, I’ve heard some people bemoaning the “Americanisation” of our culture as proms have taken hold across the land. I’m not one of them: I love them! And, it has to be said, Churchill’s are something special. In particular, I love the fact that the Year 11 Ball is held here at the Academy, transformed this year into an Aladdin’s Cave of Bollywood-inspired delights. I love the fact that the whole community turns out to watch the arrivals, cheering and applauding as each new spectacular mode of transport rolls around the coach loop. And I love the fact that our Year 11 demonstrate all the creativity and originality that are the hallmarks of this school in their choices of vehicle, from sports cars to scooters, tractors to trailers, motorbikes, golf buggies, wheelbarrows, camper vans and Land Rovers… And I love the fact that the students waltz, tango, and salsa together under the expert direction of our dance teachers before unleashing their own moves on the dancefloor!

What I loved more than that last week, though, was the joy on their faces and the mood of the celebration. There was genuine happiness that the exams they’d worked so hard towards were finally over, and the summer was opening up invitingly ahead of them. But there was also real warmth and affection for the school and its teachers who had helped them along the way. There were hugs and thank yous, and I think in each of them a sense that, even though many of them would be returning to us in the Sixth Form, their time as a full year group was over and that, from September, a new chapter was beginning.

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Table prepared for the Sixth Form Ball

What, then, of the celebrations for the students two years older? Well, the glamour was still very much in evidence and, if anything, turned up a notch in our Year 13 Ball…and I can certainly vouch for the enthusiasm and energy with which they celebrated! These students too are stepping into a new chapter, beyond the Academy for good. I wished them well as they prepared for that next vital step. It also struck me how many teachers came to celebrate with them, showing the real affection and respect between the staff and students at the Academy. Or the fact that the teachers were in need of a good night out too!

So should schools – places of learning and education – really be expending time and energy in organising parties? Absolutely. They celebrate the warmth of the relationships between students and staff, they bring people together to mark these mileposts on our journey together, and they give us all the chance to relax and let our hair down after all that hard work. And the students deserve it!

The next steps: 2016 leavers

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The last day of Term 5 is always an emotional one. It’s a day of goodbyes as leavers take their next steps. Year 11 step out of main school, and Year 13 step beyond school for good. Of course, it’s au revoir not goodbye, because students will be back in after the half term break for revision and exams, and most of Year 11 will be rejoining us in the Sixth Form anyway, but it still feels like an ending. This blog is for you: the leavers of 2016.

As a new Headteacher joining the Academy in January, I’ve only had a few months to get to know you. Oddly, it’s those in the “leavers'” years that I feel I know the best! I’ve been made to feel very welcome by you at the top of the school, and you’ve been happy to share your experiences with me. You have spent five or seven years at Churchill and have a really good perspective on the things that have made your time at the Academy successful, fulfilling and enjoyable – as well as the niggles and gripes that go into the “areas for development” category! Your approach to study, and your pride in your school, have made you excellent role models to the other students, and given me an idea about what it is possible to achieve at Churchill.

A few moments with the senior students of 2016

 

Being a secondary school teacher is a huge privilege. You come to us, aged 11, as children; you leave us, aged 18, as adults. We have the honour of shepherding you through the tricky terrain of the teen age as you wrestle with your changing bodies, burgeoning independence, and emotions felt more keenly and powerfully than at any other time in life. In partnership with your families we help you to understand the world around you fully and in depth. Your sense of justice and fairness, your passionately held principles, your refusal to accept that “it’s just the way things are” is inspiring. You challenge us as we challenge you, of course, but in all of you there’s the turning point when you realise that we’re all on the same side and that, actually, we can achieve much more working together than we do in opposition. Equally, your humour, warmth and wit as you realise that your teachers and parents are human too – fallible, flawed, and not always in possession of all the answers – keeps a smile on our faces every day.

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What message should you be leaving Churchill with? I think it’s the words of Albus Dumbledore that say it best: “it is our choices that show us what we truly are, far more than our abilities.”We are all born with different abilities, different predispositions, different advantages and disadvantages in life. But these are not limiting factors. We are not bound by our circumstances.  We can choose to make the most of the situations we find ourselves in, choose to take chances and opportunities when we have them, choose to take on the difficult challenge or the easy option. It is these choices that define us all. I hope that Churchill has provided you with the knowledge and skills to make the best choices, so you can be what you truly are and deserve to be.

Good luck in all you do in the future to the Churchill Leavers of 2016!

A day at the Palace

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When an invitation like this arrives, you don’t have to think twice!

On Monday 16th May, I had the incredible privilege of travelling down to London for a special Duke of Edinburgh Gold Award Presentation event in the gardens at Buckingham Palace. What a day!

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Buckingham Palace, May 16th 2016

The sun shone down as Mr Tinker (Churchill Academy’s DofE Manager) and I walked up to – and through! – the famous wrought-iron gates of the Palace. It felt very strange to be on the other side, walking past the famous Coldstream Guards in their sentry boxes and round the side to the gardens. Only official photography was allowed inside the gardens, and we weren’t allowed even to get our phones out. I can understand why, and it did make me experience the whole thing “in the moment” rather than through a screen, but the gardens and the Palace were so spectacular that they were just made for Instagram! It’d’ve been a bit of a giveaway that I’d broken the rules, though, so I was very good and kept my phone well away.

Once we’d arrived in the gardens, all the North Somerset and South Gloucestershire LOs (DofE Licensed Organisations)  were gathered together in a reception group. There were hundreds and hundreds of people there from all over the country, all looking incredibly smart and glamorous. Two separate jazz big bands competed from each end of the field, and two of the biggest marquees I’d ever seen were lined up with tea urns and row upon row of shortbread biscuits. I can safely report they were delicious!

Mr Tinker and I met up with Churchill’s Gold Award winner Amy Hogarth, before exploring the gardens. We were inspecting the Coxless Crew boat that four brave women rowed across the Pacific, when we noticed a group of people coming out of the Palace itself – the celebrity presenters! Each group had their own celebrity, and Mr Tinker and I had a great time spotting famous faces: chef Ainsley Harriott, Strictly’s Anton du Beke, Marcella actress Anna Friel, both the Weasley twins from Harry Potter (James and Oliver Phelps), rugby players James Haskell and Ben Cohen, Dr Christian Jessen from Embarrassing Bodies, musician turned businessman Levi Roots, explorer Levison Wood, Nick Hewer from the Apprentice, goalkeeper David Seaman, athlete Sally Gunnell, and Canadian Astronaut Chris Hadfield to name but a few. See who you can spot!

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The celebrity presenters posed for a group shot (source)

Our group received presentations from Gail Emms MBE, mixed doubles badminton World Champion, Commonwealth Champion and Olympic Silver medallist. She was really inspiring, talking to the group about having to dig deep and persevere when playing badminton against Chinese athletes in China – where badminton has the same status as football does here! She also talked about inspiration, citing her Mum (herself an England international footballer) as one who got her into sport by beating her again and again on the badminton court until, aged 12, Gail won. And kept winning… Finally, she talked about ambition and setting yourself goals, describing how she used to visualise herself atop the podium with a gold medal round her neck, and used that as the motivation to keep going when training was tough and times were hard. She was really inspiring!

The presentations followed, with the Gold Award winners rightly the focus of the proceedings. However, as it was the Diamond Anniversary of the DofE, we also received a special plaque in recognition of the Academy’s commitment to running the DofE over twenty years as a licensed organisation. We gave the DofE a copy of our logo in return, which will be displayed alongside all the other LO logos in their offices!

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Our Licensed Organisation plaque – on display in reception soon!

Finally, our group was visited by HRH The Countess of Wessex, who spent time chatting to the Gold Award winners and the Licensed Organisation representatives. She was particularly interested in hearing about DofE Diamond Challenges, part of a one-off initiative to mark the 60th Anniversary of DofE which allows people of all ages to take on a DofE inspired challenge and earn a Diamond Pin. The Countess herself had just announced a 445 mile bike ride from Holyrood to Buckingham Palace as part of her own Diamond Challenge.  Mr Tinker has already completed his Diamond Challenge – a triathlon including an open-water swim! I will be taking to my bike in July for a sportive cycling challenge which includes a rather daunting 850ft climb at one point…you can sponsor me here!

It was an amazing day, but above all it was to mark a particularly good cause. The DofE gives young people a structure and framework to contribute to the community through voluntary work, whilst improving skills and developing confidence, commitment, resilience and teamwork. As we were leaving the Palace, Mr Tinker and I were both saying we wished we’d done DofE when we were at school, but we didn’t have the opportunity. To me, school should be all about opportunity – which is why I’m proud to lead an academy which is licensed to deliver the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award Scheme.