TKAT
Menu
View Page Gallery
Back to News ListPreviousNext
Posted on: November 3rd 2023

Headteacher Update 03.11.23

Alaric govan sml picWeek 8: ‘Each of us makes his own weather’- Fulton John Sheen

The decision to keep the school open yesterday thankfully turned out to be the right decision. I was awake at around 5am looking at West Sussex updates, the local weather forecasts and communicating with staff in school and other local headteachers. As it turned out, the weather warning was downgraded during the day. With these things, it is impossible to have absolute certainty; if there had been a risk to students and staff, I would have closed the school. Thank you for your patience as we made this difficult decision.

*****

The week before half-term, we made some changes to the ways in which we are approaching behaviour management in the classroom. At Chichester High School, our expectation is to have distraction-free lessons where students are able to concentrate, learn and progress and teachers are given the space to teach high-quality lessons. Everything we do is focused on achieving this.

From Monday 16th October, we introduced a very straightforward warnings system that aims to correct the behaviour, give the student an opportunity to improve this behaviour, and ultimately leads to the student being asked to work in our transfer room if the behaviour isn’t improved. At the beginning of every lesson, teachers were asked to remind their classes of three simple messages:

  • The focus is on behaviour and creating a positive climate for learning in the classroom

  • Students disrupting the lessons will be removed after two warnings

  • This is happening to help all of us focus on our learning

One of the things that I particularly love about working at this school is that the overwhelming majority of students really want to learn and progress. They are ambitious for their futures and they understand that the way to achieve this is for lessons. There are still improvements to be made - school improvement is a continuous journey where you never really arrive at the destination - but I am very pleased how the students have responded. Where other schools have launched similar systems, the Transfer Room (a room where students work quietly for the rest of the lesson before being sent to their next lesson) has been overwhelmed by the number of students being sent. I visited another school before half-term where they’d used their school hall to accommodate over seventy students each lesson. In comparison, the number of students being sent to the Transfer Room has been very low and very manageable.

*****

Elsewhere, we held a very well-attended Sixth-Form Open Evening just before the half-term holiday. We are excited to welcome the new 2024 cohort back to the sixth form to carry on their studies in preparation for university or the beginning of their work lives. We were very proud of our A’ level results, which were in line or better than the local schools and we are particularly proud of the close-knit community which Miss Smith and Mr Freeman have created. It is always a great privilege to go into sixth form lessons and talk with the students and staff about what they are learning, even if the subject matter is sometimes beyond my comprehension (thank you to all the very patient sixth formers who have tried to explain mathematical and scientific concepts to me over the past month).

Linked to the sixth form, I would like to take the opportunity to congratulate Georgie Keynes who has successfully been awarded a place for 2024 at the Copenhagen Dance Education School. This is a particularly prestigious dance school and we look forward to watching her dance career progress.

Over the past few weeks, our Year 11 GCSE PE students have been attending rock climbing sessions. This is because GCSE PE students have to demonstrate skills in three different sports. This has been a new but exciting challenge for these students, some of whom are completely new to this sport. 

And in Key Stage 3, a small number of Year 9 students have been working offsite one day a week as part of the Future Youth programme. This is supported by the Chichester Development Trust and aims to support students with mental health issues, developing better communication skills, and giving them access to a wide range of alternative opportunities such as archery and other sporting activities. It is a programme that we believe helps support our students to be more successful in school.

Have a good weekend.

Alaric Govan
Headteacher

Back to News ListPreviousNext

Categories

Archives

Also in the News