Our students are articulate, astute and so committed to their education and to Alice Smith!
This week I have had the opportunity to work with Student Voice in Key Stage 3 and 4. Firstly, on Monday we met to discuss Two Stars and a Wish when they very openly shared their views on what they love about school and what we can work on to further improve. It was very pleasing to hear that the first star on their list was our teachers! Other elements that featured strongly in discussion were our campus, opportunities such as Wider Learning Days, Trips Week and charity work and also how they very much feel part of the Alice Smith community. Areas for us to improve were wide ranging; including improving our environmental awareness and action, developing more one to one dialogues and feedback on learning between students and teachers, the canteen provision and more opportunities to interact with students in different year groups. We look forward to working with them next year on areas they have identified.
The second opportunity was with Mr Schultz as we shared plans and sought their views on the school vision and mission. Once again, our students were incredibly perceptive and they made a very meaningful contribution to the current discussions about our school’s future direction.
Today we held our fifth and final Wider Learning Day of this year. It has been another fun filled day with opportunities to learn, create and develop outside of the classroom. We are delighted to have had Year 5 on campus today for a day of Science with exciting activities ranging from screaming jelly babies to maggots versus crickets! Year 7 travelled to Nexus School for a cultural and language day, Year 8 have been working on Street Art, Year 9 have been taking part in a cross-curricular project: Science Fiction and Robotics and Year 10 have been taking their Morrisby tests, which provide detailed information about careers as part of their educational development. I would like to thank Mr Connell for his leadership of Wider Learning Days throughout the year and also to all our teachers who design and lead such varied, interesting and educational experiences for our students.
I began my message today with student voice and I would like to end with parent voice! Please can I remind you to complete our annual survey? Your views are very important in helping us to further improve and we very much value your feedback. The survey will close on Tuesday 26th May before the half term break which begins on Wednesday.
Have a lovely weekend.
Sarah Howling
Sarah Howling
Principal Secondary Campus