Thomas Tallis School
  • Home
  • About
    • An Overview >
      • The Leadership Team
      • Who was Thomas Tallis?
      • Ethos and Values
      • School Vision
      • Artsmark
      • International School
      • Ofsted
    • School Prospectus
    • Mrs Roberts Writes
    • Tallis Habits >
      • Tallis Pedagogy Wheel Guide
    • Tallis Character
    • Tate Exchange
    • Secondary School Direct Hub
    • The Pupil Premium 2017-18 >
      • The Pupil Premium 2016-17
      • The Pupil Premium 2015-16
      • The Pupil Premium 2014-15
      • The Pupil Premium 2013-14
      • The Pupil Premium 2012-13
      • The Pupil Premium 2011-12
    • Exam Results 2017 >
      • Exam Results 2016
      • Exam Results 2015
      • Exam Results 2014
      • Exam Results 2013
      • Exam Results 2012
      • Exam Results 2011
    • Early catch-up review and action plan 2017-18
    • Job Vacancies
    • School Map
    • How to find us
  • News
    • Tallis Newsletters
    • BBC School Report 2018
    • Tallis Photography
    • Tallis Video
    • Tallis Sounds
  • Calendar
    • The School Day
    • Term Dates 2016-17
    • Term Dates 2017-18
  • Curriculum
    • Curriculum Areas >
      • Business & ICT
      • English & Philosophy
      • Design & Technology
      • Humanities & Social Sciences
      • Mathematics & Computer Science
      • Modern Foreign Languages
      • Performing Arts
      • Physical Education
      • Science
      • Visual & Media Arts
    • Pastoral Care
    • Key Stage 3
    • KS3 Assessment guidance
    • Tallis Choices
    • Key Stage 4
    • Tallis Post 16
    • Guidance
    • More Able Learners
    • Special Educational Needs & Disabilities
    • Learning Support Unit
    • Support Centre for Autism and Language Impairment
    • English as an Additional Language
    • Deaf Support Centre
    • Extra-Curricular Activities
  • Community
    • Letters Home
    • Supporting Thomas Tallis School
    • PTFA
    • Admissions
    • Transition
    • Support Your Teen
    • eSafety
    • Attendance & Punctuality
    • School Uniform
    • WisePay Payment Portal
    • The Tallis Agreement
    • Governing Board
    • Policies & Guidelines
    • Tallis Post 16
    • Making Complaints
  • Students
    • Year 11 Support & Guidance
    • Home Learning
    • Exam Revision
    • Stay Safe
    • Rewards
    • Reading
    • The Library
    • School Council
    • Creative Manifesto
    • Cycling at Tallis
    • Alumni
  • Staff
  • Links
  • Contact
  • Search
T: +44 (0)208 856 0115

EDUCATION TO UNDERSTAND THE WORLD & CHANGE IT FOR THE BETTER

A visit from the Three Kings

5/12/2015

0 Comments

 
Picture
Tai-Shan Schierenberg The Adoration of the Magi, 2012
Quite a bit, actually since we last corresponded. Community Day last week where all bets are off: events, dear boy, rather than the usual curriculum. Trips out (we are not afraid) theatre companies, Gangs Against Violence, debating, life at work, revision, yoga, spacehoppers, legacies and UCAS. Then a training day: curriculum, standardisation, Prevent, attendance. Business Manager goes to the y10 council and they collectively despair about the shape of the canteen again. A Public Intellectual comes into grill Oxbridge candidates who emerge a little charred round the edges. Undeterred, one offers the lower school a lecture on The Meaning of Life. Governors’ Learning and Achievement Committee hear six teachers talk about their areas of expertise. Parents' Evening is year 10, the crucible of adolescence. Three official visitors this week introduced at the staff briefing. One we know, one we're getting to know, one we didn't know at all before now. They point out things to us helpfully, usefully, sometimes irritatingly. 'Such and such is great, better than I thought it would be!' delivered cheerfully. Say what? Did you think us barbarians? 
The third category visitor is from Sanctuary Buildings, on an immersion visit. This great scheme puts civil servants into schools for three days to see what kinds of legs policies have and what schools are actually like. I’ve had a few over the years largely, in the north east, from the Finance and Pensions department in Darlington. Useful, but…. This week’s was from Due Diligence and Counter-Extremism which was apposite as we’ve been considering our Prevent duty. We were glad to talk and learned from each other. A contribution to the system!
 
We lay on the full Monty for visitors – trips round the building, meetings, shadowing students, party bags to take home – including this time a vuist to my own classroom where the civil servant enjoyed cutting and sticking on comparative religion. (I still see Pritt as a classroom luxury : Gloy used to ruin exercise books.)  ‘How studious the children are, how confident.’
 
More policy legs in discussion up in town next day, explaining how progress measures feel on the ground, how accountability bites. I’m working up a snake-in-the-grass image. How we prefer the predictable to the unfathomable, the stable to the whimsical. The legislators listened so were also issued with an open invitation to the good ship Tallis.
 
Both Deputies were out training, one on mental health and one on assessment, though a combined session might be very useful. Returning to the mothership, I received the command back from the unflappable F. He’d navigated smoothly through the morning, but the afternoon was all excitement. A lunchtime delegation to complain about a peer who’s become deranged with power since joining the Police Cadets. He’s been threatened with the removal of his hi-vis jacket. A welcome return of a colleague from illness. A training session on dyslexia. Preparation for a hearing. A brainstorming session, teachers and students, on branding Tallis character: we’ve no time to do it in and no money to do it with, but it’ll be great. 
 
Downstairs, fever pitch. Hundreds auditioning for We Will Rock You prepare for stardom at the south end of the dining room. At the north end The Big Book Sale could take over Hay on Wye. The year 9s in charge have baked a sorting hat and made notices. One lurches towards me despairingly and takes his coat out of his mouth (we have rules about that sort of thing) to complain. ‘ I’ve been REALLY ill for THREE days but I’ve got 100% attendance for three YEARS so my mum won’t let me stay at home.’ I congratulate him on his persistence and advise him to drink more tea. He droops even further: ‘my Mum MADE me some tea in one of those hot coffee cups but I FORGOT it so I’ll have to drink it when I get home. ‘
 
At the end of the week, some hard decisions. Comes with the territory. 
 
Best of all it’s red tags week now the trees are up. Everyone writes a message and the lunch time ladies kindly hang them on the trees. For the last two years some of them have had to be censored but this time there’s only one unsuitable joke. I read some as I pass. One is ‘I hope for good enough GCSEs to get into the sixth form and peace in Syria.’ Perfect, the personal and the global from a young person who values his own future in a safer world.  Education to understand the world and change it for the better.

CR
2.11.15
0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    MRS ROBERTS WRITES...

    A regular column about school life.

    Archive

    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013

    Categories

    All
    11+
    1970s
    Academies
    Academisation
    Accountability
    Achievement
    Administrators
    Admissions
    Adolescence
    Adulthood
    Adventure
    Adverts
    Advice
    Aleppo
    Alevels
    Ambassador
    Annefrank
    Anthonyhorowitz
    Apologies
    Arabic
    Aristotle
    Art
    Arts
    Artsmark
    Ascl
    Askforangela
    Aspiration
    Assemblies
    Assembly
    Assessment
    Assessments
    Attendance
    Autonomy
    Banding
    Battle
    Battleaxes
    Bbc
    Beginnings
    Behaviour
    Belonging
    Beveridge
    Billlucas
    Blogosphere
    Boundaries
    Bowie
    Brexit
    Brext
    Briefing
    Bruisers
    Bsf
    Btec
    Budget
    Budgets
    Building
    Bureaucracy
    Cameron
    Campaign
    Capital
    Catalytic
    Celebration
    Ceremonies
    Ceremony
    Certificates
    Champions
    Change
    Changes
    Character
    Charity
    Charlescausley
    Childhood
    Children
    Choices
    Christmas
    Cicero
    Citizenship
    Civic
    Civility
    Classrooms
    Clothes
    Code
    Cohesion
    Colleagues
    Commission
    Community
    Compassion
    Compliance
    Comprehensive
    Compromise
    Conference
    Confucius
    Conservative
    Context
    Continuity
    Controversy
    Conversation
    Corridors
    Cover
    Craft
    Creativity
    Cressidadick
    Culture
    Curriculum
    Cuts
    Cyberspace
    Dance
    Darkness
    Data
    Davidharsent
    Decisions
    Deliverology
    Democracy
    Deregulation
    Design
    Detention
    Determination
    Dfe
    Diligence
    Disadvantage
    Discipline
    Discussion
    Drama
    Durham
    Easter
    Ebacc
    Eclipse
    Economy
    Edhirsch
    Education
    Eglantynejebb
    Election
    Elite
    Empathy
    Empowerment
    Engagement
    Entitlement
    Epiphany
    Equality
    Equipment
    Ethics
    Eton
    Events
    Everyday
    Exams
    Excellence
    Exchange
    Expectations
    Experience
    Explosions
    Extremism
    Facilities
    Fairness
    Faith
    Fame
    Family
    Fashion
    Festival
    Fidelity
    Finances
    Fitness
    Food
    Football
    Freedom
    Freeschool
    Friends
    Friendship
    Functionalism
    Funding
    Future
    Gcse
    Gcses
    Generosity
    Geography
    German
    Germans
    Gestures
    Girls
    Gove
    Government
    Governors
    Grammar
    Greenwich
    Grenfell
    Habits
    Happiness
    Hippocrates
    History
    Hmci
    Hmi
    Holidays
    Holocaust
    Homework
    Humanity
    Hunger
    Hymnsheets
    Illumination
    Imagination
    Immigrants
    Injustice
    Inspection
    Institution
    Integrity
    Interdependence
    International
    Interpretation
    Interviews
    Investment
    Invigilation
    IPad
    Islam
    Johnrawls
    Journeys
    Joy
    Judgement
    Justice
    Kaospilots
    Kidbrooke
    Kindness
    Knowledge
    Ks3
    Languages
    Laughter
    Leadership
    Learners
    Learning
    Leaving
    Lessons
    Levels
    List
    Literacy
    Literature
    London
    Londonchallenge
    Love
    Luck
    Lunchtime
    Management
    Mandarin
    Mandela
    Marland
    Mastery
    Maths
    Mats
    May
    Memories
    Menstruation
    Metrics
    Michaelyoung
    Misconduct
    Mistakes
    Mobility
    Mocks
    Money
    Mothers
    Motto
    Multiculturalism
    Music
    Myths
    Nationality
    Neo-trad
    News
    Newyear
    Nhs
    Nickymorgan
    Nihilism
    Nolan
    Nqt
    NSPCC
    Nuremburg
    Oaa
    Oath
    Obama
    Objectivity
    Oecd
    Offence
    Ofsted
    Openness
    Optimism
    Outcomes
    Oxbridge
    Parents
    Participation
    Partnership
    Pastoral
    Pay
    PE
    Pedagogy
    People
    Performance
    Persistent
    Pfi
    Philosophy
    Photography
    Pisa
    Planning
    Poetry
    Policy
    Politeness
    Politics
    Posh
    Post16
    Postmodernism
    Poverty
    Powerpoint
    Practice
    Praxis
    Predictions
    Preparations
    Pressures
    Prevent
    Principles
    Priorities
    Private
    Privilege
    Progress
    Progress8
    Proxy
    Pta
    Public
    Punctuality
    Punctuation
    Punishment
    Pupilpremium
    Qualifications
    Questioning
    Raf
    RE
    Reading
    Recruitment
    Refugees
    Relationships
    Religion
    Remembrance
    Reports
    Resilience
    Resolutions
    Resources
    Respect
    Responsibilities
    Restorativejustice
    Results
    Retention
    Rewards
    Rhetoric
    Rules
    Safeguarding
    Sarcasm
    Savethechildren
    Scandal
    Scholarship
    School
    Science
    Selection
    Selflessness
    September
    Service
    Sex
    Sexism
    Shakespeare
    Sixthform
    Socialmedia
    Society
    Speech
    Speeches
    Sports
    Staffing
    Staffroom
    Standardisation
    Standards
    State
    Study
    Suffering
    Summer
    Syria
    System
    Taiwan
    Talk
    Targets
    Tate
    Teachers
    Teachfirst
    Teaching
    Technology
    Teenagers
    Terrorism
    Tests
    Textbooks
    Thinking
    Thomastallis
    Time
    Timetable
    Toilets
    Traceyemin
    Tradition
    Transgender
    Transition
    Trump
    Truth
    Tutor
    Twitter
    Ucas
    Understanding
    Uniform
    Unitednations
    University
    Values
    Veilofignorance
    Victorian
    Violence
    Visitors
    Visits
    Walkabout
    War
    Warmth
    Weather
    Welcome
    Westminster
    Whatwouldyoucut
    Whistleblowing
    Whistles
    Whitepaper
    Wilshaw
    Winter
    Wisdom
    Women
    Workload
    Worth
    Writing
    Year
    Year13
    Year7
    Year9
    Youth
    Zeitgeist

    RSS Feed

Thomas Tallis School, Kidbrooke Park Road, London SE3 9PX
T: +44 (0)208 856 0115   F: +44 (0)208 331 3004   E: headteacher@thomastallis.org.uk
  • Home
  • About
    • An Overview >
      • The Leadership Team
      • Who was Thomas Tallis?
      • Ethos and Values
      • School Vision
      • Artsmark
      • International School
      • Ofsted
    • School Prospectus
    • Mrs Roberts Writes
    • Tallis Habits >
      • Tallis Pedagogy Wheel Guide
    • Tallis Character
    • Tate Exchange
    • Secondary School Direct Hub
    • The Pupil Premium 2017-18 >
      • The Pupil Premium 2016-17
      • The Pupil Premium 2015-16
      • The Pupil Premium 2014-15
      • The Pupil Premium 2013-14
      • The Pupil Premium 2012-13
      • The Pupil Premium 2011-12
    • Exam Results 2017 >
      • Exam Results 2016
      • Exam Results 2015
      • Exam Results 2014
      • Exam Results 2013
      • Exam Results 2012
      • Exam Results 2011
    • Early catch-up review and action plan 2017-18
    • Job Vacancies
    • School Map
    • How to find us
  • News
    • Tallis Newsletters
    • BBC School Report 2018
    • Tallis Photography
    • Tallis Video
    • Tallis Sounds
  • Calendar
    • The School Day
    • Term Dates 2016-17
    • Term Dates 2017-18
  • Curriculum
    • Curriculum Areas >
      • Business & ICT
      • English & Philosophy
      • Design & Technology
      • Humanities & Social Sciences
      • Mathematics & Computer Science
      • Modern Foreign Languages
      • Performing Arts
      • Physical Education
      • Science
      • Visual & Media Arts
    • Pastoral Care
    • Key Stage 3
    • KS3 Assessment guidance
    • Tallis Choices
    • Key Stage 4
    • Tallis Post 16
    • Guidance
    • More Able Learners
    • Special Educational Needs & Disabilities
    • Learning Support Unit
    • Support Centre for Autism and Language Impairment
    • English as an Additional Language
    • Deaf Support Centre
    • Extra-Curricular Activities
  • Community
    • Letters Home
    • Supporting Thomas Tallis School
    • PTFA
    • Admissions
    • Transition
    • Support Your Teen
    • eSafety
    • Attendance & Punctuality
    • School Uniform
    • WisePay Payment Portal
    • The Tallis Agreement
    • Governing Board
    • Policies & Guidelines
    • Tallis Post 16
    • Making Complaints
  • Students
    • Year 11 Support & Guidance
    • Home Learning
    • Exam Revision
    • Stay Safe
    • Rewards
    • Reading
    • The Library
    • School Council
    • Creative Manifesto
    • Cycling at Tallis
    • Alumni
  • Staff
  • Links
  • Contact
  • Search
✕