Principal's Blog:

Smells Like Team Spirit!

As we approach half term, it seems like an appropriate moment to take stock of the academic year so far. It´s been an exceptionally busy half term with Open Season, two curriculum evenings, two days of exams analysis with the Academy Council, visits from educationists from South Africa, Sweden and Holland, weekly sporting fixtures...I could go on.

In this Rugby World Cup season, let´s start with the latter. Last week our Under 16 Football Team  pulled off what looked to be an impressive victory against Twickenham Academy; 5-0 up at half time! And then they nearly lost it as their opponents proceeded to mirror their performance in the second half and a draw looked a distinct possibility. But our boys scored one more time and victory was sealed against our Specialist Sports Academy rivals. In the same week our Under 13 girls´ football team enjoyed a brilliant win (this time, 5-0 stayed 5-0!), also against Twickenham — well done girls, especially our new Year 7s who have already demonstrated excellent competitive instincts.

Sadly we didn´t manage to make it a hat trick as Waldegrave School defeated our netballers — though as was pointed out, they do have twice as many girls as us from which to select their team!

Both Sport and the Arts continue to play an important role in the life of our school. As part of our programme of lesson observations (undertaken each autumn term) I have been privileged to watch some very good drama lessons where students have exhibited a range of skills, not least those of teamwork and constructive criticism. Formative assessment by their peers visibly helps students to improve their performances and I have been struck with how well some of them do it. They manage to make practical suggestions about stagecraft, lighting, props, use of voice and so on without belittling or disparaging the performers; some of our politicians could well take note!

Less glamorous than the stage, but vital to the achievement of every student at Hampton Academy is the work of our Maths Programme Area. We are pleased to have working with us this year a very experienced maths consultant, Jonathan Longstaffe, who is leading and guiding our maths team, which includes several new and enthusiastic staff. Jonathan has been conducting ‘Student Voice´ sessions with every year group to help identify which techniques in maths teaching are most successful with students, with some interesting results. Maths also featured strongly in the Leadership Team´s recent two day Learning Review, with students highlighting it as a subject that they all knew they had to do well in even though some of them admitted to finding it difficult.

We are fortunate to have been able to expand our team of maths teachers this year to ensure that every class has a specialist teacher, despite the ongoing absence of one colleague. And we might be the only school in the country to have twins working alongside each other in the same team! — Mr. Byrne as maths mentor and cover teacher, and his sister Ms. Byrne as maths teacher.

On Friday we will be saying farewell and thank you to a key member of the Academy Leadership Team - Niall Smith, Associate Principal. Mr. Smith joined HCC as Vice Principal in September 2007 and quickly established himself as both teacher and leader. During the academic year 2009/10 he led the school whilst I was working on the implementation plans for our academy and under his leadership HCC achieved its best ever exam results, enabling the school to go out on a high note. Niall has been appointed Headteacher of Southborough School in Kingston and I have no doubt he will make a great success of his new role. We will miss him, but we wish him well.

For the next half term until our new Associate Principal joins us in January, the Academy Leadership Team (ALT) will comprise Mr. Hayes, Mr. Collins, Ms. O´Brien and Ms. Taylor, together with myself. I am very grateful to the team for shouldering their considerable responsibilities so cheerfully and willingly despite being a ‘man down´. Here we return to our Rugby World Cup theme — have you ever seen a team play better with 14 men than Wales did for more than an hour on Saturday?!

Alas, they didn´t quite win — but they did show what can be done with reduced resources provided the commitment and team spirit are strong enough. I am confident that my ALT will show similar qualities over the next two months.

Sue Demont