Headteacher’s Blog

This week we held the first behaviour awareness course. The idea behind the focused 2 1/2 hr session with senior staff, selected students and their parents is to tackle the underlying issues of low level persistent disruptive behaviour. The course was a great success and it was encouraging to see young people addressing their emotions, […]

Over recent years there has been much concern over the future of the arts in schools, with some schools investing ever more time in the EBacc subjects like English, Maths and Science. At The Wensleydale School and Sixth form we have always protected the time that we devote to art, music and drama from Year […]

The debate over whether school uniforms are necessary or not has long been held. For some the answer is a definitive NO – ‘Focusing on uniforms takes attention away from finding genuine solutions to problems in education. Spending time and effort implementing uniform policies may detract from more effective efforts to  boost student performance says Tom […]

“I’ve always thought this, I’m not changing now”  In our school, someone who has a ‘closed’ character may behave in ways that many of us find uncomfortable. BUT let’s look at ourselves, do WE behave like this sometimes to certain groups of people and think that we are right and they are wrong? Research can […]

Last year we took the decision to become a ‘Fast Track’ school for attendance monitoring. This has meant we are able to follow up poor attendance issues swiftly and robustly. At times there are very valid medical or personal reasons for attendance at school to drop. We also acknowledge that sometimes hospital, orthodontist or other […]

It has been a very busy Autumn term. Yesterday Yr 11s received their Mock exam results and for some ‘Christmas cheer’ was lacking a little, as they reflected on the grades they achieved. What we must remember is that the Mocks are a tool for both students and teaching staff, to assess where the knowledge […]