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Entering harbour

23/7/2014

Alfred Wallis, The Schooner the Beata, Penzance, Mount’s Bay, and Newlyn Harbour

We bought a grand piano in the early spring and last week we launched it. We had a recital with pianists of many ages, guitarists, singers, films and so forth. It was quite wonderful, Chopin to Hendrix, Beethoven to Glass played by young people, staff, friends and a remarkable old boy. It was, in the best sense, a bit of a do - drinks on the concourse, posh nibbles. That was Thursday. Friday was a languages extravaganza for year 7, France v Spain in cooking, dance, sport, everything. Tallis beribboned, bedecked, singing and dancing on the concourse, Spanish-quality sunshine.

What else has happened as we sail for harbour? Year 8 have been to the Tate Modern. PE won a quality mark. Year 10 had a Directions Day to help them think about the future. We’ve interviewed young people about our three-year KS4. There’s been a Tour de Greenwich for year 7 cyclists and apprenticeships for Business students. We had year 12 taster week and geography field trips. The foyer designs starts to happen. Some staff are leaving, some changing roles, all are thanked, clapped and smiled on their way. We’ve had celebration assemblies – year 7 so enthusiastic they nearly missed lunch. The timetable is roomed, we ready ourselves for exam results and wonder how this term got to be quite so long.

And as the outside world turns, Mr Gove falls off. A remarkably long-lived post holder, did we lose him because he picked too many fights, or because 1 in 10 women work in education and there’s a women issue? Have we got Ms Morgan because she’s calmer or because she’s female? When will we next have a Secretary of State of any party who went to a state school? Where are the 93% in politics? Why are the 7% in charge even in Sanctuary Buildings? Is there no one who understands how we live, to direct what we become?

In the week when the Trojan Horse inquiry reports, perhaps we should muse on our sun-loungers on where the manipulation of schooling structures has brought us. Autonomy is not an educational good of itself and neither is freedom. What joins us together is worth more than what sets us apart. We need the Nolan values of selflessness, honesty, objectivity, leadership, openness, integrity and accountability. We need the principles of public education to be publicly understood and agreed.

However, it is week 39 and I won’t solve that this term. I’m a fan of the Cornish poet Charles Causley, a former primary school teacher. He wrote a wonderful poem about the end of a school day whose opening words fit the end of term too:

                  At 4 o’clock the building enters harbour
All day it seems that we have been at sea
Now having lurched through the last of the water
We lie stone-safe beside the jumping quay.

The good ship Tallis has reached safe harbour for 2013-4 and now we’ll take a little shore leave. We’ll see what August brings and chart our next course from September. Wherever your dinghy takes you over the summer, I hope the weather is set fair for you and yours.

CR 22.7.14

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Tallis Year

13/7/2014

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Kirsty MacColl Days, 1989 (written by Ray Davies)

Our Tallis turquoise dazzles in the sunshine as I look out of the window to organise a thought. How is the year ending, you ask?

With celebrations and showcases, markers and traditions, placeholders for children’s memories, unforgettable for their families. Band Night was enormous fun. Mr Challenger and I are of a certain age. The bands do Blondie and Bowie and I had a great singalong evening as well as new stuff I don’t get on Radio 4: vibrancy and fabulous noise. Headstart Day acclimatised year 6. They had a great time after initial nerves, setting a new standard in polite and enthusiastic companionship. Their voices are just a bit squeakier than year 7, so they change the pitch of the yard. The Art Show private view was wonderful, beautiful work from blossoming artists: painting, photography, sculpture and film. I was ushered into a cupboard to see a horror installation, further broadening my horizons. Our dancers danced with the best at Sadler’s Wells on Saturday and last night the Fashion Show combined mobile art with dance, music and film. To quote a man who knows: arts in harmony, real gesamtkunstwerk (that’s how we talk at Tallis).

But our highlights were the TTRA Ceremonies for years 11 and 13. We’ve been looking forward to this all year but frankly, I didn’t know what to expect. My last entanglement with a record of achievement was when some Secretary of State decreed burgundy vinyl folders containing one’s life: a sort of judgement-day tome in plastic sleeves.Our day was wonderful! Yes, there were folders (blue), but our real achievement was gussied up in their smartest, ready to be applauded. Our young people came to celebrate their school life with their peers, their teachers and their families. We had hundreds of names, speeches, prizes, awards, the inevitable hugging, a buffet afterwards and lovely photos taken. We had music and goodbyes especially to the year 11 band – their final final act – and to Ms Armstrong. She sang Thank You for the Days to the 240 young people she’s loved and hassled for five years: not a dry eye in the house.

Leaving only time for me to spill cream down my big green dress and wash it in the sink, the evening celebration was for year 13. In an evening beautifully compered by students we had goodbyes from form tutors, another final final band performance, Schubert and Shakespeare and two old boys come to tell us about the world outside. This young surgeon and barrister talked about the community and support, the teaching and the values, the Tallis bonus that still gives them the edge. There were prizes at both of these gatherings, for excellence and for effort, but do you know what was the best thing about them? We celebrated our young people before the exams calibrate and codify them. Real young people, real achievement, measured and assessed by real people.

Did you spot a note of asperity there? Apols. We’ve celebrated a good year in a strong school but the national rhetoric still swirls a fog around us. Isn’t it a hoot when we’re getting used to structures being dismantled to hear that HMCI thinks Local Authorities should have the oversight of schools in an area? Isn’t it just a scream when increased freedom means favouring one sort of school? And don’t you just love it when the dirigiste reappears and whacks you in the face. Of course we care about FGM and we’ll do anything we can to stop such inhumanity, but this year’s Most Risible Sound Bite prize goes to Monday’s threat that schools will have funding withheld if the Head hasn’t read the Safeguarding Guidance. Good grief. Why wouldn‘t we read it? Which bit of the money is going to be cut, from which children? Who’s going to come and test me? Will that stop it happening? Exactly what kind of freedom is this, underpinned by what sort of trust?

So we’ve another week-and-a half to go, with everything from Dr Bike and his puncture repairs (free breakfast for cyclists) to an open forum for parents and the launch of our grand piano. We’ll have some staff farewells (sad) and other end-of-term shenanigans, (generally happy). I’ll thank leaving colleagues for their years of service to the children and to a job both inspiring and infuriating, then I’ll go and lie down quietly for a couple of weeks.

A very happy summer to all our readers!

CR

10.7.14

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EDUCATION TO UNDERSTAND THE WORLD & CHANGE IT FOR THE BETTER

Entering harbour

Tallis Year

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