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Parent Voice

Mrs OC — Sun, 16 Nov 2008 21:04:28 +0000

My busy but positive week continued with a Parents Forum on Tuesday evening.

This wasn’t my project so all I had to do was turn up and help respond to parents questions.

The school gave updates on various projects, fed back on progress since the last project and then invited parents to discuss ‘whatever they wanted’ in small groups before feeding back.

Keeping pupils motivated

Mrs OC — Sun, 16 Nov 2008 20:50:35 +0000

Following my earlier post about my "G1" borderline cohort I've been giving some thought to some of the other Year 11 students.

Getting staff's goodwill

Mrs OC — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 05:14:18 +0000

Today’s Think Positive staff briefing will again include music.

It’s Feel Good inc by Gorrilaz as we will be having our second Feel Good Friday tomorrow.

Borderline pupils

Mrs OC — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 05:03:26 +0000

I am having a very positive week.

Last week I re-launched the intervention group for Year 11 pupils who are ‘borderline’ i.e. at risk of not getting 5 A*-C grades or equivalent at GCSE.

We will support and monitor them closely until the mock exams to get realistic grades and also get to know precisely what support they will need to be successful in their qualifications.

What made you go into teaching?

Mrs OC — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 21:31:53 +0000

We have half a dozen trainee teachers working with us at the moment.

"Safe from Harm" interview questions

Mrs OC — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 13:13:29 +0000

I’d like to start my response to The Fielder’s post about safeguarding in a positive way!

I know I’ve been surprised and a little afraid by the answers to even the most child protection basic from current Heads of Department looking to move to our school.

Let’s get some model answers out there and (re-)educate the go ……

What’s a good answer to this question (one that I used last year):

Achiever of the month

Mrs OC — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 22:27:25 +0000

Does your school participate in a Jack Petchey scheme?

Searching for weapons: cascading our inset training

Mrs OC — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 16:07:24 +0000

It was a cold October afternoon. Middle leaders sat waiting for Mrs O'C and Nigel (the pastoral deputy) to cascade what they'd learnt at an inset about searching for weapons.

Luckily only that afternoon Mrs O'C had confiscated a small screwdriver disguised as highlighter pen from a Year 8 boy during a walkabout visit to a maths lesson ...

Do detentions make a difference?

Mrs OC — Sat, 25 Oct 2008 09:09:28 +0000

As I look up from writing this I have 19 students staring back at me. It's 10am on Saturday morning.

Customer relations and pushy parents - part 2

Mrs OC — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 18:04:16 +0000

Following on from yesterday's meeting - I nearly put my foot right in it today.