Start of the new year!

The start of a new school year is always a time for reflection.  Many parents and carers will wonder where the time goes as students who started in Year 7 so recently now become our senior students and are facing GCSEs as Year 11.  As always it is wonderful to welcome our new Year 7 intake - we will do everything in our power to ensure that they are happy and settled so that they can learn.  For the first time in many years the school is now full, with several years oversubscribed.  That is a real vote of confidence in the ethos and culture of the school - an ethos and culture that we are determined to preserve. On that note, please feel free to spread the word about our Open Evening on Monday 17th September, starting at 6pm. I am also, as always, happy to show anyone around the school when it is in operation so that people can see us in action.

As you may have seen in the press, and you can see on the website (https://www.waltonledale.lancs.sch.uk/news/2018-08-23-celebrating-every-individual-success), we are very pleased with the individual successes of our outgoing Year 11s and we look forward to celebrating with them at Presentation Evening in November.  Most importantly we are delighted with the number of them who are able to progress onto their chosen courses and take the next steps in their lives as responsible, talented, young adults.

I wrote about the Ofsted report in my letter at the end of term (https://www.waltonledale.lancs.sch.uk/news/2018-07-15-wld-updates-16th-july-2018) and you will know that we have taken the comments of the Ofsted team to heart.  We are good school that does not always do good things all the time (to quote an Ofsted inspector) so consistency, particularly in teaching and learning, is our absolute top priority.  As a good school for the last decade the fundamentals of the school have not changed - we are an inclusive, child-centred community which seeks the very best education for every single young person who walks through our doors - we just need to make sure that the quality of what we do is consistent across every area of school life.  I will write in detail about our plans and actions over the next couple of weeks and I am very happy to talk about these matters to anyone. Just before the end of term we had our annual visit from the inclusion Quality Mark reviewer (we are a Flagship School) and the report is extremely positive - you can find it at https://www.waltonledale.lancs.sch.uk/about-us/inclusion 

On a practical note, all our student toilets have been refurbished which will make that aspect of life at school much more civilised.  "A" Block is covered in scaffolding as it is being re-roofed - we expect that to be completed this term. Tree roots have been dug up and the path re-tarmaced at the back of school and a new meeting room has been created by cutting my office in half. Our next practical project is to enable the Sports Hall to be used for examinations as the Gym is now not large enough to hold a year group under examination regulations.  Many schools use their Sports Halls during exam seasons and those of you who know our Sports Hall know that this will require a bit of work from us!

Another school year begins - full of expectation, hope and promise! 

James Harris

Headteacher

  

P.S. My intention is to update this blog each week to further improve our communication with parents/carers and the wider community.... let's see how that goes!