🔹Principal’s Update
Happy Monday dear colleagues,
Thank you to everyone who contributed to the reports for 6th formers, from the lecturers who wrote them, to the admin team who checked them, to the SLT who quality assured them and finally to MIS for doing a data check before emailing them to parents and carers.
The team were impressed by the quality of these annual reports, particularly from the following areas:
- Childcare
- Hair and Beauty
- Business
- Foundation Learning
- Art
You may have seen on social media “The Atlantic Takeover” of our restaurant which for the third year saw Will Holland, Executive Chef at the Atlantic Hotel, lead our trainees to deliver a truly outstanding dining experience. Will Holland commented:
“I’m not just saying it, the class you have at the moment is one, if not the, strongest I have ever worked with when we have collaborated. Some real stars of the future in there. Great attitude, skills, willingness and eagerness to learn…It’s a pleasure having such a great relationship between Highlands and The Atlantic Hotel.”
Dom and the team did us proud once again – congratulations.
The GCSE mocks ran smoothly last week. We will be doing some analysis of uptake of exam access arrangements. These examinations are a mammoth task for English, maths, Learning Support and Examinations teams so we need to ensure the resources are being used to their maximum effect.
This week and next we have Parents and Carers’ evening – The aim is to have 100% contact either tomorrow night or next week (via TEAMS) with all parents and carers. I know for some staff there will be gaps between appointments, where I used to do my admin, but at least we only have to do it once and not multiple parent and carer evenings for every year group like in a school 😊. These meetings are vital and always have positive impact.
This week I am attending a preview of an Art Exhibition at the Arts Centre where Corey Ceccarelli is exhibiting. Corey has been doing some sessions with Creative Arts student. Entangled Realities: Quantum Impressions – Jersey Arts Centre. I also have Heads and Principal’s meetings with the Chief Officer for CYPES. I am taking feedback on the draft of the Strategic Plan at Union Street today (Monday 3 March) as well.
On the Senior Leadership Team agenda this week is our regular review of Learning Support, Teaching and Learning summary of Learning Walks and an update from Skills Jersey.
We met with unions last week about the Learning Walks process; lessons are not graded but agreed areas of focus are reported on and if there are multiple lost opportunities to demonstrate these, another observation will be arranged. We have agreed to review feedback mechanisms for individual lecturers. We aim to feedback within 72 hours and the feedback is always agreed by the paired observers beforehand. All observers are experienced. If you have any queries, please contact Stuart Philip who leads this process. Feedback is crucial in any learning process as we all know. Fewer than 10 lecturers have been re-observed and coaches are assigned for support.
I hope you enjoy a great week. I met with the staff volunteer representatives today and will feedback next week on the themes.
Best wishes,
Jo