In my speech on Open Evening this year, I talked about confidence. I spoke about how we organise the transition from primary to secondary school so that Year 6 children build the confidence to start Year 7 smoothly. I spoke about how, when students leave us at the end of their education at Churchill, we aim to send them out to take their next steps confidently into their futures. And I spoke about how confidence is a vital ingredient for learning, as we confront something we don’t know how to do…yet. When talking about the Academy’s values, I said:

Those values of kindness, curiosity and determination enable our vision here at Churchill: that we set no limits on what we can achieve. Our intention is to unleash that unknown potential that sits within each and every one of our students. We set our systems up here to ensure that there is always a next step, always an extra challenge, always that encouragement to push yourself further, but we also take time to build confidence. Because often the biggest barrier to students’ achievement is not the grown-ups around them telling them they can’t, but that nagging voice inside their own mind which says “I can’t do it.” Or “I’ll never be as good as them.” Or “it’s too difficult.” Our whole ethos and approach here at Churchill is to equip students with the inner voice to talk back to themselves, so “I can’t do it” becomes “I can’t do it…yet.” “I’ll never be as good as them,” becomes “I’m going to learn how they do it so I can do it too.” And “it’s too hard” becomes “this is going to take time and effort, but I’m going to get there.”

This approach underpins our guiding purpose, to inspire and enable young people to make a positive difference both whilst they are here at the Academy but, perhaps more importantly, after they leave us. An education at Churchill Academy & Sixth Form provides young people with the knowledge, skills, character and confidence to make that positive contribution, because if we do our job right, the world our children will build will be better than the one we live in now.

Open Evening itself allowed our students to demonstrate that confidence in spades. Luke, Ela, Saffron, Ionah and Charles stood up in front of a hall full of Year 5 and 6 children, and their parents, and told them in their own words what it is like to be a student at Churchill, whether for seven years or just three weeks. Our tour guides showed families around the site, answering questions and making sure everyone got to see the departments they wanted to. Our student helpers in the faculties gave brilliant demonstrations or led engaging activities for our visitors. The Gospel Choir gave a thrilling performance, filling the hall for a second time! It made me so proud to see the ethos and approach that I was describing in my speech demonstrated so clearly by the students themselves: they are a credit to the Academy.

On top of that, our staff were incredible. It’s a long day’s work on Open Evening, but the team effort was wonderful to see. Just like the students, our staff are proud to work at Churchill Academy & Sixth Form, and their commitment and dedication is second to none.

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