Results day …
Right! I have so much I need to blog about – serves me right for doing “part” blogs that need continuing (it just isn’t sitting right with my “finisher-completer” OCD thing I have) so I’m apologising for the stream of posts over the next few days. Sorry!
Anyway, first things first….
I am aware that not every school, not every teacher and not every school got the results they wanted yesterday. Two anecdotes spring to mind, so bear with me (I promise I’ll get to the money shot):
- As a child it was drummed into me that not everyone was as lucky as me and that boasting made the other person feel bad about themselves sometimes. I certainly wasn’t spoilt and I vividly remember getting a Dragon 64 (they were a “thing” at the time and very expensive!) computer for Christmas (little did I know that my Mam then spent 60 weeks paying it off from the Kays catalogue!) and when asked at school what I’d got I said “oh you know .. the usual .. books, clothes, money”.
- When I got my GCSE results a couple of my friends called me a “spod” (it was a derogatory term at the time .. think of the ways in which geek used to be said before we made it cool to be a geek!) and it was all said very maliciously. The reaction of my bessie mate Jo, however was totally different even though she hadn’t got the results she’d wanted she was ecstatic for me and I still remember that to this day. (Thanks Jo-Jo .. love ya!)
As I drove into school yesterday I was excited. I was genuinely excited to see the looks on the faces of some of the students as they opened their envelopes. It’s been a few years since I felt this emotional about it all – I suppose early entry had taken that anticipation away in maths and this year has been an absolute roller coaster. For the first time ever, I cried seeing a student open their results … don’t think I’ve gone all soft (I’m a big softie really!) but I was genuinely moved – It has been a tough year (it turns out that your first year in a new school can be worse than your PGCE and NQT year .. who knew??), but that moment alone made it all worthwhile. I was reminded about the reasons I came into teaching and I’m really grateful for that reminder. I love my job!
There are so many individual stories of hard work, effort and overcoming challenges that I could regale you with – the fact is there are too many to be able to single any one person out. It has been a real team effort on behalf of the staff and the students and everyone should be proud of achieving THE BEST EVER RESULTS the school has seen. Should I say that again?? I won’t but I will say that there has been a 20% shift in the 5 A* to C measure from 58% to 78% … this could put the school in the top 10% of most improved schools nationally. Wow! Just Wow!
In a previous post, in terms of Maths, I mention wanting an “8” in front of our number … well …
… we got TWO “8”s…. and the expected (and above expected) levels of progress are amazing and we’ve also narrowed “the gap” where we needed to. Basically we’ve “mullered” all the key measures. This is just so fantastic given that the benchmark tests we set in September were less than half of the final result … such an amazing journey for lots of students. Creating a culture of “we believe in you” and “you can do this” makes a massive difference. Never ever underestimate students.
It’s not just about Maths and English though and these levels of results are replicated in other subjects – the whole school performed exceptionally. The school has had some tough times in recent years and some tough decisions have had to be made by our Head and we needed these results, not for the sake of getting results but to raise expectations and aspirations. Its part of a longer term plan, part of which involves getting a visit from the “big O” this coming year but more importantly to make a difference to the futures of the students involved. So as I wrote the above I PROMISE I wasn’t doing it in a boasting way (my Mams words are ringing in my ears!) and it isn’t about me anyway. There are so many teachers and students that need to be proud of their achievements. So, so many!
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