The Headteacher's Blog

Archive: April 2011

• 28Apr

  Welcome Back

  Welcome back to school to all pupils and staff. It is clear that we all enjoyed the extended Easter break.

  The first two weeks of the summer term are broken up with two more bank holidays, Friday 29 April (Cumberland School sends congratulations to Catherine and Prince William) and Monday 2 May.

  Year 11 are making their final preparations for their GCSE exams. I wish them all well. Their five year journey has less than five weeks left.

  Posted at 11:16
• 08Apr

  End of Term

  Today marks the end of another very busy and successful term. I wish all the staff and pupils a very happy Easter break.

  Congratulations to the following tutor groups who have received the most positive referrals: 7B, 8D, 9E, 10A, 11R.

  Congratulations also to these groups with the lowest negative referrals: 7C, 8C, 9D, 10M/10B, 11B.

  During the Spring Term staff have made 16,497 positive referrals. This is further confirmation of the hard work of pupils and staff.

  Pupils return to school on Tuesday 26 April for the Summer Term.

  Happy Easter.

  Posted at 08:46
• 05Apr

  Governors Day 2 April 2011

  On Saturday 2 April the school governors had an extended meeting here at the school. The meeting was held in our constantly improving school library.

  The purpose of these extended annual meetings is to give the Governing Body an opportunity to discuss issues in more depth.

  In addition to my termly report, which was a very positive reflection on the year so far, governors also:

  -          Considered the cycle of review for all policies

  -          Agreed the school’s Anti Bullying Policy and Home School Agreement

  -          Reviewed the Whole School Development Plan (WSDP).

  -          Responded to the very positive Investors in People Report

  Governors were also introduced to the school’s new website and prospectus.

  Posted at 10:38
• 01Apr

  New Web Site New Blog

  Welcome to my new Blog. Our new and improved web site is launched today, April 1st 2011.

  As part of the re-launch I will be writing a weekly Blog, published every Friday during term time.

  

  Since my arrival at Cumberland School we have been receiving support from London Challenge who have provided additional resources to help us to raise standards with  a focus on Maths and English. London Challenge work across London, supporting many schools with their intervention strategies.

  We recently had a visit from Heather Flint - London Challenge Adviser. She kindly sent me the following letter following her visit

  Very many thanks to you and your staff for organising such an interesting and enjoyable programme for the visit yesterday. It was a pleasure to meet your students and to hear them speak so positively about the school, the staff and the opportunities that Cumberland has given them. They had valued the year 11 residential in particular, and as well as the support for English and maths and the activities, they had taken a lot from the session on revision skills.

  Please pass on to your staff my appreciation for the time they gave us in their lunch to describe the impact of London Challenge in their subjects and on their work with students.  It was particularly pleasing to spend time in lessons. It gave us a very good insight into the quality of teaching and learning at Cumberland. Please thank your staff and if possible the year 11 students whose lessons we saw. Staff had worked tremendously hard to engage students in their own learning whilst at the same time actively teaching and assessing the learning taking place. In all the lessons we saw there were excellent relations between staff and students which is clearly an important feature of the work of everyone at Cumberland.

  I am confident that this will lead to a further rise in our exam results this summer.

  Posted at 10:18