All week I’m on assembly. We now have 3 lots per day each week.Firstly there are School assemblies – run by a senior member of staff in the Hall; then a House assembly, led by the Head of House and in the Drama Studio.Because our Drama Studio is not quite big enough to fit a whole House the third type of assembly and the type I was on was a Year out of house assembly. Each day I have the 30 or so Year 11s from each House with me.It’s perfect timing because I’m holding a parents evening for Year 11 parents tomorrow. I’m talking about the year ahead, mock exams, checking statements of entry and showing a video of the recent results day (I must publically thank my husband for editing the DVD from the camcorder!).
The Video
The results video shows some celebrations with many smiling faces , it also shows Daniel, who only just made it into college by gaining 4 GCSEs at A*-C plus passing both Adult Literacy and Numeracy tests. He’s one of my successes from the intervention programme I ran last year.The video also shows Stephen who got 1 C grade and only discovers on camera, thanks to a teacher, that he hasn’t made it into college.
Going for Gold
When I talked about results to staff on our INSET day I tried to personalize the picture with stories like these. I told them that 2 out of 3 getting 5 A*-C was like getting the silver medal in Beijing. This year we had to go for GOLD.It may seem cruel but I am hoping that these tales also convince the new Year 11 to knuckle down. Certainly the group I had this morning was very quiet and focused throughout. Let’s hope their parents are on our side and work with me rather than against me to get these pupils motivated and ready for GCSE success.
For the time being I’m just going to hope that I don’t let myself down, standing in front of 300 people and being unable to get the projector to move from PowerPoint to video feed!