One of our values is respect. I am hugely impressed with the way you demonstrated your respect for others last week, through the amount of money you raised for BBC Children in Need. You raised over £1300, which is a great total for a great cause; the money will help young people both in this country and in others. Well done and thank you. Last year you raised well over £10000 for various charities – we are well on our way to beating that total already, with over £2500 raise already. Well done!

I am always proud of your behaviour, effort and work in College. Last week, however, I think you all showed yourselves at your very best. Our Armistice assembly and commemoration with the poppies you made were both outstanding. You demonstrated respect and empathy for those who have given their lives for us. It is important that we continue to remember them throughout the year – not just at the beginning of November.

This week, we commemorate The Armistice and remember the many millions of people who lost their lives in the World War One to give us the freedom we enjoy today. This is an important time for reflection across the World; many of you will have family members who fought and died in the War. It is right that we remember them and pay our respects to them. It is particularly significant this year, as it is 100 years since the War ended. We have a series of events in College this week and we will come together as a community for the minute’s silence on Friday at 11am. I would like to thank the students who have made the fantastic bunting which is on display in the canteen and I look forward to seeing pay your respects to the Fallen. Please make the effort to buy a poppy; these are available from student reception.

Firstly, I’d like to start by welcoming you all back to a new half-term; I hope you all had a restful break and are ready to work hard this half-term. The next few weeks will go by very quickly – we have lots to look forward and several opportunities for you to give your very best. I’d like to remind you all that we commit to doing our very best every day and that we work do better today than we did yesterday. Through doing this, we you will continue to make your College improve.

Well done on another good week in College. In every lesson we visit, we see you working hard, engaged in your lessons and behaving well. A huge well done to you all. Our values of respect, happiness and achievement are apparent in the way you are working, supporting each other and being polite and helpful to each other and staff. Thank you and well done. It is important to do better every day and to work commit to do better than you did today. It’s not an easy thing to do, but if we commit to do this the College will continue to improve.

Whilst looking for inspiration for writing this blog I stumbled upon an idea from another teacher (@LessonToolbox). The post I saw was all about seeing items on twitter that make you think “I wish that teacher taught my kids”. With all the sharing good practice work that we have been doing as a College I felt this idea fit all of us really well. So here are some of the amazing things we have done that make me think #iwishyoutaughtmykids.

The above quote is going to be stencilled on the wall on the first floor over the half-term break. I think it is a very powerful and one that we can all learn and take something from. I think it does need a little further explanation, which I will do below.

I’d like to start this week by mentioning Mr Lloyd’s assemblies from the last two weeks, around our push for you all to ‘get ahead, stay ahead.’ You all did so well in terms of completing additional tasks (extra to homework), and handing your golden tickets in for the prize draw. One of our values is achievement and if you are completing all the ‘get ahead, stay ahead’ tasks, you will put yourself in the strongest position to achieve your very best – something we all strive to do.

I’d like to start this week by thanking you all for another really positive week in College. Last week, a visitor from United Learning came to see our College and she was incredibly impressed with everything she saw. She thought you were well-mannered, that your uniform looked great and that you were working hard in your lessons. Thank you for such a positive start to the term – please keep it up and well done!

With one of our focuses being the teaching of boys and the fact that I am teaching my first ever all boy group in English, I decided to do some research on different ways to keep them engaged and challenge them at the same time.  Having focused initially on high expectations, respect and getting their initial interest in the subject matter, I am now looking for specific strategies to keep their engagement high and unlock their potential.