Remembrance

On Monday the school fell silent at 11.00am as Mr Batley played the Last Post. Students who were on break gathered in the main quad and stood in reflection to mark the loss in so many wars.  Students in lessons stood and ended their lessons in a period of silence before the day moved on.

Discovery Day

On Wednesday the school was a hive of activity, with lots of visitors in school and students involved in a wide range of activities, from dancing to graffiti art and from sign language to arts and crafts, there was a lovely atmosphere in the school. Thank you to everyone who made it so successful.

Also on Wednesday, we took student ambassadors for an afternoon of planning and training to develop leadership projects in school. This is part of our partnership with the Royal Shakespeare Company and the Theatre Royal, Nottingham. We look forward to these projects developing through the rest of the academic year.

Children in Need

The end of the week saw a non-uniform day and fund-raising for Children in Need. The school continues to have a strong commitment to our community and to developing responsibility for ourselves and others.

National developments and Chilwell School

Recent announcements from the government have highlighted the importance of local accountability for schools and parents will know that as a foundation school with strong links to the local authority, we have always been keen to ensure that we are accountable and careful with our spending and our actions.

Next week our governing body meets to discuss our budget and plans for the future. I am pleased that the school has ridden the storm of challenging funding over recent years and that we invest all of our income into resources for our children, development of our site and ensure that we employ qualified teachers. There are still area challenges in Nottinghamshire, as is clear at the schools forum meetings that I attend, but we continue to ensure that all of Chilwell School's funding is directed at our school community and our future plans, including the new build.

We look forward to the development of regional improvement teams, announced by the government, which we hope will support proper local accountability. There are currently a number of multi academy trusts in Nottinghamshire, with significant amounts of funding directed at numerous layers of executive teams. We hope that the regional improvement teams can soon have an impact on ensuring that the same levels of efficiency and investment, that we operate on a individual level, can be implemented across our sister organisations. We anticipate that there is much that we can share and we will continue to promote that schools are about learning and benefitting our communities, rather than funding executive pay.

Revision matters

As well as year eleven students focussing on revision on discovery day, Mr Moore led a session for parents on Thursday evening to support children in the lead up to the trial examinations in December. In addition, sixth form interviews will start next week for year eleven students as they plan their next stage of their learning.