Not literally, but I have been on a bit of a journey this week. By chance a Gymnasium school in Germany made contact with me about the possibility of creating a school to school link. Intrigued I phoned Herr Huelden and had a conversation with him about his offer. It seems as though this small rural school , just outside Cologne has had a successful track record of partnering English schools and ultimately offering students from both countries the chance of a week long exchange programme. Obviously there are great benefits for such a trip and I will taking the proposal forward to Governors later in December to see if it is something we can pursue.
Then off to Settle to meet with the Executive Headteacher of Settle college. His school, like ours, is small and in the heart of the Dales and also looking at strategic way forward on the academisation agenda. We discussed at length the difficulties we face abou finding suitable partners and how we finance any potential partnership. It is complex and I came away certainly knowing that other headteachers are scratching their heads just as much as I am. The link with Settle may or may not progress any further, but it was definitely useful to make contact.
On Wednesday, we finally practised part of our Lock down policy. Mr Wilkinson led a whole school assembly, pointing out the truth that as a society we practice drills all the time, for example on domestic and international flights and he showed a clip of primary children, in Japan, practicing their earthquake drill. As I have said many times before , we hope we will never have to implement such a drastic measure, but as I and the senior team walked around school on Wednesday, whilst over 450 students and staff were hiding under desks and keeping quiet, it was a sobering thought. The students behaved impeccably and, as is often the case, I was impressed.
The highlight of the week, was not being observed by Mr Wilkinson and Ms Sowter as part of the faculty review process, teaching my Yr13s Business – although it was a very uplifting experience as we grappled with Critical Path Analysis – it was the staff twilight training session on Thursday night. Now twilights are not often embraced as enthusiastically by staff, a late finish mid week is never motivating, but this time we had the added incentive of a staff well being yoga session. After a practical session on dealing with student mental health issues, delivered by Compass Buzz, Kelly turned down the lights and instructed us in the art of yoga. It must have been quite a sight as staff all ages and abilities , some in their work suits, some giggling, stretched and posed and practised breathing! Staff well being is important and even if we weren’t very good students, Kelly made us feel better and that is good enough for me.
