Hello!
A busy week last week. The Wind Concert on 28th was stunning, with so many emails of praise, especially for the quality. Well done to Clare and Cynthia who organised and those who helped out. Rock School exams went very well on Thurs and Fri. Again, well done to all.
As many will have seen, the GCSE and A level Music coursework went off last week. The GCSE music results are totally crucial to all that we do and students have had challenging grades to achieve. This is why some performances had to be re-recorded. The listening exam is next Monday, and then Year 11 musicians move on to all other subjects. Thankyou to Natalie and Danny for their work last week, and to Neil for time spent on A level music.
Next Monday, 14th May, we move to a 3:2 split. Many timetables require sorting for next Monday - use the times you had in January. If you need help, please ask, but in plenty of time. It is not fair for Sue or myself to have to run around on the day. The week of Monday 21st May - all Year 7 are on the adventure trip (used to be Bude). No lessons for them, they must be made up later in the term.
I have had several comments about the last staff newsletter. Yes, I do speak to individuals where practice needs to be improved and yes I am raising the bar as to what is expected. The consistency that I spoke of has to be addressed, pure and simple. Parents pay the same, whoever the teacher is and it is unacceptable that if with one teacher they have outstanding teaching and with another, adequate teaching. Clare and Debbie have been charged with monitoring much more closely their teams - lesson observations, checking on students preparation for exams, challenging existing practice. I will be monitoring the contemporary music team. It is the usual things - how motivated are your students? How inspired are your students? Do you use accompaniments in every lesson? Are you musically stretching your students, or just having a jolly lovely time, spending a term or more on one piece? Do you regularly communicate with your parents? The usual things. It is this monitoring, this drive for excellent practice that maintains our numbers when all around are loosing students. Hard work and outstanding teaching breeds success.
Linked to the teams, please make sure that if you have a new idea or request, please ensure it goes through your team leader (Wind, brass, Phil - Clare. Strings, singing, piano - Debbie, all else, me). This is so we have clear lines of communication. Please do not see Sue separately, it must come through the team leader. Sue is also going to ensure that communication regarding team activities comes through the team leaders. Decisions are then made with the 'bigger picture' in mind. This has been working fairly well this year, but I need to make sure it is tighter now.
Next half term there will be team meetings, where we will review progress this year and continue to improve the quality of our teaching. The Curriculum Team are looking at questioning, the quality of teaching and are reviewing practice for GCSE. There is a clear national agenda and we have to move with it. No exceptions. I will have a clearer idea of budgets this week and this will set in stone what our priorities are and how we will progress in the coming 12 months.
There is a new 'digital developments' page linked at the top, detailing all the developments of IT in school. It will affect us all gradually, so do have a read!
The events of the past week, the celebrations, the exams, the coursework remind me that we continue to have a fantastic music department. There is also so much fantastic work in the pipeline - concertos, an American themed concert, lots more singing and gigs. We must not forget that the quality is built on the great team that we have. If we all move in the same direction, we will get even better!
Have a great week
Mark
