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Friday 15th June 2018

After five memorable years here at Harrow Way we always like to give our Year 11s a good send off. An occasion to celebrate how far they've all come and send them on their way to what we hope is a bright and successful future. The Leavers' Assembly is always an emotional affair and this year didn't disappoint with Miss Walker, Mr Fluellen and the Year 11 tutor team organising a fantastic assembly. Year 11 were given a very nostalgic walk down memory lane, revisiting all the wonderful times they had together at Harrow Way.

As a first this year there was also a staff video about what the staff get up to once students have gone home. This will be uploaded at the end of term - you will hopefully spot me leading an aerobics session with my senior team! (Don't ask.) The atmosphere has been delightful and it's so satisfying to see those relationships that have been formed between students and teachers.

This week I really enjoyed popping into see Year 6 students from Portway who were taking part in an enterprise challenge organised by Miss Gregson and Miss Escritt and some of our Year 10 Business Students. I was really impressed with their energy and commitment .The students seemed to have had a great morning and I hope learnt entrepreneurial skills including creativity, teamwork, and communication.

I was also able to try my hand at some golf! More than 50 children from Portway Junior, Applehsaw, Knights Enham and Roman Way chipped and putted fantastically in our Y3/4 Tri Golf Festival. Harrow Way Y7/8 students led brilliantly too! Thank you to Mrs Salmon for organising this.

Leadership and Learning Partner – Annual Visit
We had a very successful visit from our Leadership and Learning Partner from Hampshire Inspection and Advisory Service, Jean Thorpe. This involved a discussion with me about self-evaluation and student data, a learning walk across the school, visiting a number of classrooms, a discussion with middle leaders and Senior Leadership Team (SLT) and student interviews with a selection of Year 7/8 students. I was delighted by the comments in the report.

"The school continues to be judged a low priority for the Local Authority due to the effectiveness of the school's leadership in driving improvements."

"A number of part lessons were observed as part of the teaching and learning walk at the start of a new week and the school was calm and very purposeful. Lessons were clearly structured and the use of the recall/retrieval strategy was seen as a springboard for the next steps in learning in a number of lessons. Lessons were challenging and supported by whole class modelling. There were a number of examples seen of clearly directed questioning to specific pupils where they were required to provide a deeper explanation of their understanding and where this resulted in considerable extension. A number of examples of good quality extended writing were seen in English and humanities lessons, and looking at books showed that marking is comprehensive. Pupils are positive about the quality of teaching they receive."

Parent Survey Results and Next Steps
Every year we undertake an evaluation of our performance, acknowledging our successes and also identifying the areas that we need to improve. Parental input is essential if the process is going to be truly meaningful and the evidence we collect helps to determine the priorities for the year ahead and the longer term. The information we receive from the questionnaires is summarised. The information has been discussed at Senior Team Meetings and a Full Board Governors' Meeting. We have identified four areas we would like to include in the School Improvement Plan 2018-2019.

The Annual Parent Questionnaire Results can be viewed in full here.

Year 8 - Calshot Residential
The group returned very tired but happy after lots of challenging activities on the land and water at Calshot Activity Centre. You can see some of their activites, including sailing, mounting biking and track cycling, on our Twitter feed.

End of Year Exams - Years 7-10
These internal exams are taking place over the next two weeks, with some being taken in the Sports Hall, particularly to help the younger students get used to exam conditions. Most, however, are in their normal classrooms. Staff have given guidance on what the students need to revise.

Assembly - Tutor Teams
Year 7 had a lovely, inclusive assembly by 7DSR who looked at the importance of UNICEF article of the week: rights of the child. Every one of 7DSR took part and should be proud of themselves. More information can be found about our rights respecting school agenda on www.unicef.org.uk/what-we-do/un-convention-child-rights

Year 8 were depleted due to the Calshot Residential visit this week, but Mr Carter went through expectations for the exams next week and challenged his year group to take part in the inter tutor competitions.

I have seen silent discos before, but 9DJM demonstrated a thought provoking and reflective assembly on the meaning of a rights respecting school. We also had the opportunity to revisit the story of Malala (which can also be found here, and reflect how lucky we are with what we have and the opportunities that are available to us.

10APM's ​Tutor Assembly was on the subject of Child Labour.

Staff Vacancy
We currently have a Cover Supervisor vacancy from September, details can be found on our website.

Guitar Festival - Saturday 16th June, The Wickham Centre, Wickham. Calling all young guitarists, soloists, bands and ensembles - young guitarists have a unique opportunity to improve their performance skills with a professional guitarist. More info...

These visits for 2017/18 have currently been agreed by the Headteacher. Others will be added throughout the year. There is no guarantee that they will all go ahead as this depends on student uptake. Further details on each visit will be given out to the year group/classes involved by the member of staff organising the visit.

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