Thomas Tallis School
  • Home
  • About
    • An Overview >
      • The Leadership Team
      • Who was Thomas Tallis?
      • Why Tallis?
      • School Vision
      • Mrs Roberts Writes
      • Tallis at 50
      • Artsmark
      • Prince's Teaching Institute
      • Secondary School Direct Hub
      • International School
      • Ofsted
    • School Prospectus
    • Tallis Praxis
    • Tallis Habits >
      • Tallis Pedagogy Wheel Guide
    • Tallis Character
    • Tallis Threshold Concepts
    • Policies & Guidelines >
      • Data Protection
      • Making Complaints
    • The Pupil Premium 2022-23 >
      • The Pupil Premium 2021-22
      • The Pupil Premium 2020-21
      • The Pupil Premium 2019-20
      • The Pupil Premium 2018-19
      • The Pupil Premium 2017-18
      • The Pupil Premium 2016-17
      • The Pupil Premium 2014-15
      • The Pupil Premium 2013-14
      • The Pupil Premium 2012-13
      • The Pupil Premium 2011-12
    • Exam Results 2022 >
      • Exam Results 2021
      • Exam Results 2020
      • Exam Results 2019
      • Exam Results 2018
      • Exam Results 2017
      • Exam Results 2016
      • Exam Results 2015
      • Exam Results 2014
      • Exam Results 2013
      • Exam Results 2012
      • Exam Results 2011
    • COVID-19 Catch-Up Report
    • Early Catch Up 2019/20 and Action Plan 2020/2120 >
      • Early Catch Up 2018/2019 and Action Plan 2019/2020
      • Early Catch Up 2017/2018 and Action Plan 2018/19
      • Early catch-up review and action plan 2017-18
    • Job Vacancies
  • News
    • Tallis Newsletters
    • Tallis Photography
    • Tallis Video
    • Tallis Sounds
  • Calendar
    • Term Dates 2022-23
    • Term Dates 2023-24
    • The School Day
  • Curriculum
    • Curriculum Areas >
      • Business & ICT
      • Computing
      • English & Philosophy
      • Design & Technology
      • Humanities & Social Sciences
      • Languages
      • Mathematics
      • Performing Arts
      • Physical Education
      • Science
      • Visual & Media Arts
    • Pastoral Care
    • Guidance >
      • Tallis Futures
    • Key Stage 3 >
      • KS3 Assessment guidance
      • Tallis Choices
    • Key Stage 4
    • Tallis Post 16
    • Exceptionally Able Learners
    • Special Educational Needs & Disabilities >
      • Learning Support Unit
      • Support Centre for Autism and Language Impairment
      • Deaf Support Centre
      • English as an Additional Language
  • Community
    • Letters Home 2022-23
    • Bromcom Guide for Parents
    • PTFA
    • Governing Board
    • The Tallis Agreement
    • Admissions
    • Attendance & Punctuality >
      • Apply for Exceptional Circumstances Absence in Term Time
    • School Uniform
    • Support Your Teen
    • Online Safety
    • Tallis Post 16
  • Students
    • Year 11 Support & Guidance
    • Bromcom Guide for Students
    • Co-curricular Activities
    • Exam Revision
    • Stay Safe
    • Duke of Edinburgh Award
    • Rewards
    • Reading
    • The Library
    • Cycling at Tallis
    • Alumni
  • Staff
  • Contact
    • School Map
    • How to find us
  • Search
T: +44 (0)208 856 0115

EDUCATION TO UNDERSTAND THE WORLD & CHANGE IT FOR THE BETTER

​Ethics, Education, Endurance

18/6/2022

1 Comment

 
Picture
Well, Lord Geidt, quite the stir. Despite a mini-obsession with ethics, I hadn’t really clocked him until this week. I was still stuck on the resignation of the last one, Alexander Allen over Priti Patel’s bullying and didn’t realise the PM had got on with recruiting and destroying another one. He is a busy bee. This Geidt looks pretty tough on Google.  Perhaps he decided that life in Downing Street compared badly with Bosnia and other war zones of his military and diplomatic service, or with his years at The Palace, though I expect it can get pretty excitable there.

Tim Harford was writing about ethics, or more particularly about metacognition versus virtue in the FT last Saturday (don’t worry, this’ll get scrappier soon). Metacognition, teaching people how to think is next to impossible to define, so what about looking at what kind of people emerge from education? How have their temperaments and virtues benefitted from years of investment? Harford suggests love of truth, honesty about one’s failings, fair-mindedness, humility and a willingness to seek help, perseverance, courage, good listening, perspective-taking, empathy and wisdom make for better learners. Others added the ability to see connections and a sense of humour, humanity and getting-stuff-done-ness. Persuasiveness (hmmm). Curiosity. 

One of Harford’s correspondents objected, saying it wasn’t her place to teach students how to be good people. But if not, who?  He ends the piece, having admirably made not one reference to the PM, with ‘And if we don’t know who will teach those virtues or how to teach them, that explains a lot about the world in which we now live’.
You heard it here first. We‘re queasy about the language of virtue, and the churches don’t fill the space any more, so who teaches young people how to live a good life? Obviously: we do. Teachers and parents, schools. Unfortunately, the cheaply functionalist, any-means-necessary, measure-by-results, structure-not-quality mechanisms of our system drown the virtuous route: sustained endeavour, curiosity, substance, breadth, depth, kindness and selflessness.

Did the Times Education Commission report, published this week to deafening fanfares, dive into this, I hear you cry? Not so much. Their twelve-point, forty-five recommendation plan is interesting. There is much collusion with government policy hidden in the very small print, such as the outrageous ‘elite sixth forms’ cuckooed into disadvantaged areas, for example. Some of the narrative smacks of poverty tourism and paternalism such as ‘private schools understand all too well that there must be more to education than knowledge’. The ‘teachers are heroes’ damaging trope is given another run out – heroes don’t need paying properly, of course – as is the inevitable Birbalsingh. While any document using ‘superhead’ should be flung across the room, the commitment to broad, deep and memorable educational experiences appears to be real.  It would be churlish not to quote the first two recommendations, a 15-year strategy for education run by an independent body, and an end to three-year funding cycles. Oh yes.

The other report this week is from the Rethinking Assessment group, a coalition of educators trying to reframe the way we assess schooling and what children know. There’s much to be said for this. Perhaps the combination of the two might dislodge something?
 
What’s not included, in either, is a broad, deep or even memorable critique of our divided society, and the effects of cynicism, slovenliness and playing it for laughs in public life on our children. Both reports have a serious tone, but the Department is congenitally obsessed with structural reform, and the PM doesn’t seem to have time to care about anything other than continuing to be PM against the odds. I’m not holding my breath. 
 
But I write this at lunchtime on the hottest day of the year and, despite some rather coarse inter-student shouting I can hear through my open window, all are cheerful. We got through year 9 Sports Day with a gentle breeze before someone turned the gas up, and when I held the block 4 bridge door open for the hordes almost every single one of them said ‘thank you’ or asked me how I was.  One even blessed me from under a straw hat as she scuttled past determinedly. Three teacher trainees called in to say goodbye at the end of their placements, the GCSE Art moderator has been and gone and, fabulously, among the exams of the day have been Persian and Astronomy.  Wouldn’t it be great if Caspar, Melchior and Balthazar were among the candidates?

We had Tim Oates in school this week, talking about the long-term educational effects of the pandemic and the things we should focus on.  It was good to have him in in the flesh: we started the year thinking about his insights, in September.  And we’ll return to it this September, because in the end, these children in this place haven’t time to wait for the tanker to turn round, even if the order is sent down from the bridge. We have to look to our own skills in teaching and questioning, reading and really thinking hard about the concepts that unlock doors in children’s brains and make them yearn to find out more. We need to put our learning virtues to work. 

Good people, good learning, good classrooms, good schools. If the PM can’t find a replacement for Lord Geidt he doesn’t need to scrap the post. Lots of us could do it. At your service, matey.
 
CR
17.5.22 
1 Comment

The Menace of the Years

18/10/2020

0 Comments

 
Welcome to the inaugural meeting of the Society for the Protection of Invictus. Someone has to act: things have got out of hand.

My mother didn’t care for poetry, but she furnished my habit from youth and provided the Oxford Book of English Verse from the Literary Guild Book Club. I liked gung-ho stuff and learned a lot of it. Invictus was a favourite as I was all for self-realisation – though she had another term for it. It drives me MAD when I see it misused.

When I read of a school where everyone has to ‘follow Invictus’ and the children are encouraged to learn it by heart I nearly had to self-isolate with rage. I may be misinformed but apparently they suggest that children choose their friends by whether or not they’ve committed this Henley to memory. You can picture the windswept coastal playground chat:
I say old man, have you learnt Invictus yet? It’s bally good, you know.

Sorry, old thing, don’t think I’ll bother. Prefer to focus on the ladies, what?
​

Well I’m the sorrier, old fruit. I’m afraid it’s curtains for you and me. Can’t be seen with chaps of your sort. The Chief wants us all to make our own path by following his every instruction and you just can’t argue with that. No need to make a face, it’s perfectly clear to me. Toodle-oo.  ​
What kind of person wouldn’t take up this challenge? asks the school. Well, one who had read the poem. 

Invictus is a great piece of Victorian rhetoric written by someone who had a terrible early life (and incidentally may have been the model for Long John Silver). It speaks of the undefeated human spirit and is where we get the phrase ‘bloodied but unbowed’. Allow me to quote the last verse:
​It matters not how strait the gate,
      How charged with punishments the scroll,
I am the master of my fate,
      I am the captain of my soul.
Schools are pretty hot on charging scrolls with punishments. We call them detention lists, or sanctions or corrections. Children who do their own thing no matter what are prone to end up on these scrolls. If they persist in being master of their own fate they will, sooner or later, be shown the door and invited to take their unconquerable souls elsewhere. Invictus is not about conformity, uniformity or obedience. It is about taking a long view of the difficulties of life and deciding to win through endurance. 

Don’t misunderstand me. Telling children that they can escape the grinding poverty and hopelessness of their birth is an entirely good thing. I’ve led a school in those circumstances and I sympathise with the aim – but it can’t be at the expense of truth. Captaining your soul to a good berth requires a following wind and predictable seas. 

The photographer Chris Killip died this week and his collection In Flagrante has followed me from house to house.   They’re photos taken in the north-east between 1973 and 1985 and illuminate my memories of the same time in the same place. ‘Youth on a wall, Jarrow, 1976’ was for many the definitive image of the time, but as a work of art it is itself timeless.

The school that the boy on the wall went to wouldn’t have bothered much about Invictus. The education he got might not have been up to much and he was probably selected for it, luckily or unluckily. In Jarrow in the seventies his prospects would have looked pretty bleak at 16, but he’d have been used to bleakness. Would it have helped him to go to a school where he had to learn Invictus by heart? Hard to say. If the school was well-run and kindly, energetic in finding jobs and filled with skilled teachers then the poetry could have been an added bonus, a consolation in troubled times to come. If not? Would he have turned the blame in on himself for being insufficiently unbowed? What does the picture say to you?

And now? He sits on the wall rather than going to school. He missed 6 months of education last year and ran wild in that time, with criminals. He might get a grade 3 in English if he works hard with a gifted teacher, but its still a fail.  He can enrol at a college with next-to-nothing, but he’ll have to carry on fighting GCSE maths until he’s 19 while youth unemployment heads for 20%. With what does he captain the small ship of his fate through these menaced waters?

Children deserve to be told the truth. They are free to read poetry and they are the master of their souls but neither puts food on the table. Learning Invictus and repeating it in a community of Invictus-chanters will not prevent you from failure in a system that requires 30% to fail. We can choose as a nation not to provide for the most vulnerable but we cannot escape our responsibility. 

It is shameful to download the failure of the state into the hearts of our children and mask it with the 19th century equivalent of ‘just follow your dreams’. They deserve the truth – and they deserve an education system that cares about them all.
 
CR
16.10.20      
0 Comments

Tell us the truth

23/9/2019

1 Comment

 
Picture
Week three and some small girls accost me with a legitimate grievance. They offer documentation in support. ‘Miss, it says in the uniform list in the planner that you can’t wear false eyelashes or nails, but we’ve seen loads of people wearing them.’ They’re right on all counts. I tell them I’ll do better in future. Revision required. Truth to power, bang to rights.

Truth matters. HM Government has been reprimanded in the past by the Office of National Statistics for telling untruths about school funding. Because of this track record of mendacity the recent funding undertakings have been met with moderate enthusiasm by Heads. So, today, the Institute for Fiscal Studies published a second annual report on education spending in England, funded by the Nuffield Foundation. I only quote the bits that affect children in our age group, but it is worth a read.

Spending by local authorities on services for children and young people is increasingly focused on mandatory elements and responses to crises. Spending on children looked after by the state is up nearly 20% since 2010 and spending on children’s social care is up 9%. However, spending on preventative services has been cut significantly. Spending on Sure Start is down 62% and spending on services for young people is down 65%.

Extra funding announced in the spending round effectively reverses past cuts to school spending per pupil [but that’s all it does].
  • Total per-pupil spending on schools in England has fallen by about 8% in real terms since 2009–10. This is largely driven by a 57% cut in spending per pupil on services provided by local authorities and a cut of more than 20% in sixth-form funding per pupil.
  • Funding per pupil in primary and secondary schools fell by 5% in real terms between 2015–16 and 2019–20.
  • The government proposes teacher starting salaries of £30,000 for 2022, an increase of about £6,000 or 23% on current levels. Few details are available on how this will be delivered, but such details will be very important in determining likely pressures on school budgets.
  • Despite the increase announced for 2020, funding per student aged 16–18 has seen the biggest squeeze of all stages of education in recent years. School sixth forms have faced budget cuts of 23% per student since their peak in 2010–11. The 2019 Spending Round allocated a further £300 million for 2020–21. This represents a 4% real-terms increase in spending per student, but will still leave spending per student in further education over 7% down on 2010.
  • Student numbers are growing, so an additional £300 million on top of current plans would be required by 2022–23 just to avoid further cuts in per-student funding. Fully reversing cuts since 2010–11 would cost £1.1 billion on top of current plans by 2022–23.

It may be better than nothing. It may look really encouraging, but school funding isn’t index linked, it doesn’t go up with inflation. This proposed increase, however welcome, is less than the rate at which costs are rising. Will the promise mean additional teachers, resources or extra staff? Will it cut down Tallis sixth form class sizes or reduce our teacher workload? I shouldn’t think so.  

The little ones have got more confident and are picking up speed. Long shiny corridors are irresistible to an 11-year old in new trainers and our day is punctuated by cries of ‘Walk!’ I direct some to Drama every day: ‘Go through all the double doors until you hit the wall then look for your class on the left.’ One looks impatiently at me, as to an eccentric who’s gone too far. ‘I don’t really think we need to hit the wall, Miss.’

Year 11 are facing up to a misspent year 10. Some are being given extra support in Study Hall after school every day, not entirely voluntarily. Some have sought to elude this, outraged by the sheer persistence of adults in league against their frittering away the year. We bring them a motivational speaker of unashamed cheesiness: he’s captivating, and they love it. I sit in on a debate about sex and religion in RE which is loud and beautifully respectful, though distracted by gay penguins. ‘Really?’

I talk to the sixth form about the Supreme Court, and Fuller’s 17th Century dictum be ye never so high, the law is above you. I tell them we live in extraordinary times but they assume that all times are like this and can’t imagine a calmer way to regulate national life, can’t imagine a world in which truth is reliable, systematic, embedded, irrepressible.

We claim of ourselves at Tallis that we mean what we say. The small girls are asking me if it’s true, or if we’re just some more adults who promise one thing but mean something else. They’d really like an answer. I have high hopes for them. 
 
CR
19.1.19
1 Comment

Post Truth

20/11/2016

0 Comments

 
Picture
When Gove declared that the nation was sick of experts during the Brexit (brexpert?) malarkey he sounded the death knell for civilisation as we know it. I could rant rhetorically about how it is possible that a man so fixated on subject learning and top-class degrees could simultaneously hold such a view, but then I remembered. Far from the zealot and idealogue he presented as himself during his occupation of Sanctuary Buildings, he is a cynical and deluded opportunist. Good schools for the poor? Yes, until it costs money. Safer prisons? Yes, until they cost money. 

When Boris declared himself in favour of Brexit, he threw oil on troubled flames. I could rant rhetorically about how an educated global polyglot could simultaneously hold the view that we take no responsibility for shared endeavour with our neighbours, but then I remembered. Far from the lovable buffoon, he is a cynical and easily bored opportunist. London as the global melting pot? Yes, unless it loses party votes. The UK as a model of integration? Yes, until it loses party votes. Who cares, therefore, that they stabbed each other in the back? (We all should, see below) 

Civilisation took another knock in another part of the forest, where Trump’s victory was utterly impossible right up until the moment that it seemed altogether likely. What’s the most worrying thing? Not the reprehensible views and the ghastly boasty claims but his capacity to invent stuff then passed off as facts. How many Mexicans, exactly? Who’ll pay for the wall? Which parts of Europe are controlled by Isis?  Is Hillary Clinton actually a criminal?

And so "post-truth" is the Oxford English Dictionary word of the year. They define it as "relating to or denoting circumstances in which objective facts are less influential in shaping public opinion than appeals to emotion and personal belief."

We’ve got a bit in our Behaviour Policy at school which talks about truth and lies. It says:
Our investigations may lead us to a judgement that a child is lying. Lying is not unusual while growing up, and testing boundaries is normal. Some children lie habitually or occasionally. We would ask parents to remember that when a child asserts that he or she is telling the truth, that may also be a lie. We teach children that they are more likely to be believed if they usually tell the truth.
When we worked together (2000 of us) to decide on the five traits to define Tallis Character we agreed on fairness, respect, kindness, optimism and honesty. None of us realised that it would be like adopting an endangered species: quick, kids, have a try of these before the big game hunters wipe them from the earth. At least they’ll be able to tell their children about them. Do you know, Donaldina, once upon a time people were kind to people they didn’t know and never spread lies to frighten others? 

I was talking to a governor in an advanced state of despair about this earlier in the week. He asked: how can we possibly tell children to live good lives when it is patently obvious that the way to get on in life is to be foul, and to lie with every breath? Well, we do it because it is right.  We do it because children want to be respected, happy people. We do it because we model a better world inside our little communities and if that involves pulling up the drawbridge to protect our values then up it comes. Church schools have been at it for years: these are our beliefs, which the world doesn’t value. We can learn from them. 

Which brings me on to the most famous ex-church school head of them all, the rapidly receding Sir Michael. All hail, once again, his principled opposition to grammar schools, the debate about which is a perfect example of post-truth policy. Academic selection entrenches advantage, it does not spread it. Grammar schools are attractive to some because they are an appeal to the emotions and to an idea of life as it might once have been designed, not as it is or as it should be. The man says, grammar schools are wrong, but comprehensives can celebrate tradition ritual and formality. (Yes, good). Comprehensives have been remarkable escalators of opportunity and great forces for social cohesion (Yea, verily). There is no reason why headteachers shouldn’t insist that children stand up when the Head enters the classroom or sing the school song or learn whole tracts of Shakespeare by heart. Pardon?

In aping the hideous proxies of the rich and harping back to a bygone era, Wilshaw undermines himself. Our schools have ritual, tradition and formality of their own. They should be deeply rooted in the school’s DNA, respected and upheld. They should be for the right reasons, to build up community and model a better world, and for no other reason. Traditions cannot be mandated externally. They cannot be imposed: they grow. 

Gove, Johnson and Trump have done civilisation a great disservice and materially endangered the future of our young for personal gain. In protecting that future, schools will have to be very clear about their character and resist lies, bigotry, reaction, flummery and false logic. From sea to shining sea.      

CR
18.11.16
0 Comments

    MRS ROBERTS WRITES...

    A regular column about school life.

    Archive

    March 2023
    February 2023
    January 2023
    December 2022
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    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
    80s
    90s
    Aamilne
    Ability
    Absurdity
    Academics
    Academies
    Academisation
    Academy
    Acadmies
    Acas
    Accountability
    Achievement
    Addiction
    Administrators
    Admissions
    Adolescence
    Adulthood
    Adults
    Adventure
    Adversity
    Adverts
    Advice
    Aiweiwei
    Aleppo
    Alevels
    Alienation
    Allourfutures
    Altruism
    Amandagorman
    Ambassador
    Aneurinbevan
    Annefrank
    Annelongfield
    Anthonyburgess
    Anthonyhorowitz
    Anti Racism
    Anti-racism
    Apologies
    Apology
    Appointments
    Appraisal
    Apprenticeships
    Arabic
    Argument
    Ariadne
    Aristotle
    Army
    Arrogance
    Art
    Arts
    Artsmark
    Ascl
    Askforangela
    Aspiration
    Assemblies
    Assembly
    Assessment
    Assessments
    Attendance
    Attributes
    Austerity
    Authority
    Autonomy
    Autumn
    Aztecs
    Balfourbeatty
    Banding
    Battle
    Battleaxes
    Battlements
    Bbc
    Beauty
    Bees
    Beginnings
    Behaviour
    Belonging
    Berylhusain
    Beveridge
    Biafra
    Billlucas
    Billyconolly
    Biology
    Blackhistorymonth
    Blacklivesmatter
    Blogosphere
    Borisjohnson
    Boundaries
    Bowie
    Boys
    Breaktime
    Brexit
    Briefing
    Bruisers
    Brutality
    Bsf
    Btec
    Budget
    Budgets
    Bugsy
    Building
    Bullying
    Bureaucracy
    Cambridge
    Cameron
    Campaign
    Cancelled
    Capital
    Catalytic
    Celebration
    Ceremonies
    Ceremony
    Certificates
    Chalk
    Champagne
    Champions
    Change
    Changes
    Character
    Charity
    Charlescausley
    Charteredcollege
    Checklists
    Childhood
    Childq
    Children
    Chinese
    Choices
    Chriskillip
    Christmas
    Churchofengland
    Cicero
    Citizenship
    Civic
    Civility
    Civilservants
    Classrooms
    Climate
    Clipboards
    Clothes
    Clubs
    Cocurricular
    Code
    Cohesion
    Collaboration
    Colleagues
    Commission
    Commissioner
    Committee
    Commodification
    Commongood
    Community
    Compassion
    Compliance
    Comprehensive
    Compromise
    Concentration
    Conference
    Confidence
    Conformity
    Confucius
    Conkers
    Conservative
    Consultation
    Context
    Contingency
    Continuity
    Control
    Controversy
    Conversation
    Coronavirus
    Corridors
    Costcutting
    Costofliving
    Courage
    Cover
    Covid19
    Covid-19
    Craft
    Creativity
    Cressidadick
    Crime
    Cslewis
    Culture
    Cupboards
    Curiosity
    Curriculum
    Cuts
    Cyberspace
    Cycling
    Dameedna
    Dance
    Danger
    Danielhuws
    Darkness
    Data
    Davidharsent
    Deadlines
    Deaf
    Debate
    Decisions
    Decolonising
    Deliverology
    Democracy
    Demonstration
    Deprivation
    Deregulation
    Derekmahon
    Design
    Detention
    Determination
    Dfe
    Dialect
    Dianereay
    Diary
    Dickens
    Difference
    Dignity
    Diligence
    Dipsticks
    Disadvantage
    Disaster
    Discipline
    Discourse
    Discussion
    Diversity
    Dofe
    Dog-whistle
    Dominiccummings
    Donaldtrump
    Donpaterson
    Doors
    Douglasdunn
    Drama
    Dreams
    Driving
    Drking
    Dt
    Durham
    Earthday
    Easter
    Ebacc
    Eclipse
    Economy
    Eddieandthehotrods
    Edhirsch
    Education
    Effort
    Eglantynejebb
    Election
    Elite
    Elites
    Elitism
    Empathy
    Empowerment
    Endeavour
    Endurance
    Engagement
    Enrolment
    Entitlement
    Epiphany
    Epistemology
    Equality
    Equipment
    Equity
    Ethicalleadership
    Ethics
    Ethos
    Eton
    Evaluation
    Events
    Everyday
    Examboards
    Exams
    Excellence
    Exchange
    Exclusions
    Expectations
    Experience
    Explosions
    Expolitation
    Extremism
    Facilities
    Failure
    Fairness
    Faith
    Fame
    Family
    Farewell
    Fashion
    Fatherbrown
    Fear
    Feminism
    Festival
    Fidelity
    Filming
    Finances
    Fitness
    Fog
    Folly
    Food
    Foodbanks
    Football
    Frederickdouglass
    Freedom
    Freeschool
    Friends
    Friendship
    Fsm
    Functionalism
    Funding
    Future
    Gaffes
    Gardening
    Gavinwilliamson
    Gcse
    Gcses
    Generosity
    Geoffbarton
    Geography
    Geordie
    German
    Germans
    Gestures
    Gillliankeegan
    Girls
    Globalwarming
    Goats
    Gotomeeting
    Gove
    Government
    Governors
    Grades
    Grammar
    Greenwich
    Grenfell
    Guidance
    Guilt
    Habits
    Handwashing
    Happiness
    Harassment
    Hartlepool
    Headship
    Headstart
    Headteachers
    Health
    Heating
    Heatwave
    Helicopter
    Heritage
    Hippocrates
    History
    Hmci
    Hmi
    Holidays
    Holocaust
    Homelessness
    Homesecretary
    Homework
    Honesty
    Hope
    Hopes
    Hospitals
    Hugging
    Humanity
    Humanrights
    Humanutopia
    Humility
    Humour
    Hunger
    Hymnsheets
    Hypocrisy
    Ict
    Illumination
    Imagination
    Immigrants
    Inclusion
    Information
    Injustice
    Inquisitive
    Inspection
    Institution
    Integrity
    Interdependence
    International
    Interpretation
    Interview
    Interviews
    Investment
    Invictus
    Invigilation
    Invigilators
    IPad
    Islam
    Janeausten
    Jeremyhunt
    Johndonne
    Johnlecarre
    Johnmasefield
    Johnrawls
    Journeys
    Joy
    Jubilee
    Judgement
    Judidench
    Justice
    Kaospilots
    Katherinebirbalsingh
    Kenrobinson
    Kidbrooke
    Kindness
    KingcharlesIII
    Knifecrime
    Knighthood
    Knowledge
    Ks3
    Ks4
    Language
    Languages
    Laughter
    Leadership
    Learners
    Learning
    Leavers
    Leaving
    Lessons
    Levels
    Liberal
    Liberty
    Lindsayhoyle
    Lines
    List
    Listening
    Literacy
    Literature
    Liztruss
    Lockdown
    Logic
    Logistics
    London
    Londonchallenge
    Loneliness
    Lordagnew
    Louismacneice
    Love
    Luck
    Lucyholt
    Luddite
    Lunchtime
    Machiavelli
    Macpherson
    Management
    Mandarin
    Mandela
    Marland
    Martinlutherking
    Mastery
    Maths
    Mats
    Matthancock
    May
    Measurement
    Media
    Meetings
    Memories
    Menstruation
    Mentalhealth
    Metacognition
    Metaphor
    Metrics
    Michaelgove
    Michaelrosen
    Michaelyoung
    Mickfleetwood
    Middlesborough
    Midlands
    Misconceptions
    Misconduct
    Miseducation
    Misogyny
    Mistakes
    Mobilephones
    Mobility
    Mocks
    Mojo
    Monarchy
    Money
    Morale
    Mothers
    Motto
    Movies
    Multiculturalism
    Music
    Musical
    Myths
    Names
    Nasuwt
    Nationalcurriculum
    Nationality
    Neo-trad
    Neu
    News
    Newyear
    Newzealand
    Nfff
    Nhs
    Nickclegg
    Nickdrake
    Nickgibb
    Nickymorgan
    Nihilism
    Noah
    Nolan
    Normanrockwell
    Npq
    Nqt
    NSPCC
    Numeracy
    Nuremburg
    Oaa
    Oath
    Obama
    Objectivity
    Oecd
    Offence
    Ofmiceandmen
    Ofsted
    Oldtestament
    O-levels
    Ombusdman
    Openevening
    Openness
    Opportunity
    Oppression
    Optimism
    Options
    Outcomes
    Outrage
    Oxbridge
    Parenting
    Parents
    Parentsevenings
    Parliament
    Participation
    Partnership
    Pastoral
    Paternalism
    Patience
    Paulmuldoon
    Pay
    PE
    Peace
    Pedagogy
    People
    Performance
    Perseverence
    Persistent
    Pfi
    Philiplarkin
    Philosophy
    Phones
    Phonics
    Photography
    Physics
    Piersmorgan
    Pisa
    Place
    Planning
    Play
    Plumbing
    Pm
    Poetry
    Police
    Policing
    Policy
    Politeness
    Politicalcorrectness
    Politicians
    Politics
    Poor
    Populism
    Posh
    Post16
    Postcovid
    Postmodernism
    Poverty
    Power
    Powerpoint
    Practice
    Praxis
    Predictions
    Prejudice
    Preparations
    Pressures
    Prevent
    Pride
    Primeminister
    Princeofwales
    Principles
    Priorities
    Private
    Privilege
    Problems
    Procedures
    Professionals
    Progress
    Progress8
    Protection
    Protests
    Proxy
    Psychology
    Pta
    Pti
    Public
    Publiclife
    Publicsector
    Publicservices
    Punctuality
    Punctuation
    Punishment
    Punishments
    Pupilpremium
    Qualifications
    Quentintarantino
    Questioning
    Questions
    Quotidian
    Rabbieburns
    Racism
    Radical
    Radio
    Raf
    Rain
    Rainbows
    R&d
    RE
    Reading
    Recessional
    Recovery
    Recruitment
    Refugees
    Regulations
    Relationships
    Religion
    Remembrance
    Reports
    Research
    Resignation
    Resilience
    Resits
    Resolutions
    Resources
    Respect
    Responsibilities
    Restorativejustice
    Results
    Retention
    Revision
    Rewards
    Rhetoric
    Rich
    Richisunak
    Rishisunak
    Riumours
    Romans
    Roof
    Routines
    Rudeness
    Rudyardkipling
    Rules
    Ruthperry
    Safeguarding
    Safety
    Sajidjavid
    Sanctuarybuildings
    Sarcasm
    Savethechildren
    Scandal
    Scholarship
    School
    Schoolboys
    Schoolcouncil
    Schools
    Schoolsweek
    Schoolwear
    Science
    Screens
    Seanharford
    Secretaryofstate
    Selection
    Self-actualisation
    Selflessness
    Send
    September
    Service
    Sex
    Sexism
    Sexual
    Shakespeare
    Shops
    Shortage
    Siegfriedsassoon
    Silence
    Singing
    Sixthform
    Skills
    Skipping
    Snow
    Socialcare
    Social Care
    Socialmedia
    Socialmobility
    Society
    Software
    Sorry
    Speech
    Speeches
    Spending
    Sports
    Staffing
    Staffroom
    Standardisation
    Standards
    State
    Statistics
    Stephenlawrence
    Stevemartin
    St.lucy
    Stress
    Strike
    Strikes
    Stuck
    Study
    Suffering
    Summer
    Sunderland
    Superhead
    Support
    Supremecourt
    Surestart
    Surprise
    Survivors
    Syria
    System
    Taiwan
    Talk
    Talking
    Tallis
    Tallisat50
    Tallischaracter
    Tallishabits
    Targets
    Tate
    Teacherly
    Teachers
    Teachfirst
    Teaching
    Teams
    Technology
    Teenagers
    Tennyson
    Terrorism
    Testing
    Tests
    Textbooks
    Thankful
    Thanks
    Thinking
    Thomasfuller
    Thomastallis
    Time
    Timetable
    Timharford
    Timoates
    Timpson
    Toilets
    Tories
    Traceyemin
    Tradition
    Traditions
    Training
    Trains
    Transgender
    Transition
    Treasury
    Trips
    Trump
    Trust
    Truth
    Tsarinas
    Tsars
    Ttra
    Tutor
    Tutoring
    Tutors
    Tweetgate
    Twitter
    Tyneside
    Ucas
    Ukraine
    Ulysses
    Umbrellas
    Uncertainty
    Undergraduates
    Understanding
    Unemployment
    Uniform
    Unions
    Unitednations
    University
    Vaccination
    Vaccine
    Values
    Veilofignorance
    Victorian
    Vikings
    Violence
    Virtues
    Virus
    Visitors
    Visits
    Vulnerable
    Walkabout
    War
    Warchild
    Warmth
    Weather
    Welcome
    Wellbeing
    Westminster
    Whatwouldyoucut
    Whistleblowing
    Whistles
    Whitehaven
    Whiteness
    Whitepaper
    Wilshaw
    Winniethepooh
    Winter
    Wisdom
    Woke
    Women
    Words
    Workload
    Worldbookday
    Worldpeacegame
    Worth
    Writing
    WW1
    Xfn
    Year
    Year11
    Year13
    Year6
    Year7
    Year9
    Yoga
    Youth
    Zahawi
    Zeitgeist
    Zoom

    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?
      • Why Tallis?
      • School Vision
      • Mrs Roberts Writes
      • Tallis at 50
      • Artsmark
      • Prince's Teaching Institute
      • Secondary School Direct Hub
      • International School
      • Ofsted
    • School Prospectus
    • Tallis Praxis
    • Tallis Habits >
      • Tallis Pedagogy Wheel Guide
    • Tallis Character
    • Tallis Threshold Concepts
    • Policies & Guidelines >
      • Data Protection
      • Making Complaints
    • The Pupil Premium 2022-23 >
      • The Pupil Premium 2021-22
      • The Pupil Premium 2020-21
      • The Pupil Premium 2019-20
      • The Pupil Premium 2018-19
      • The Pupil Premium 2017-18
      • The Pupil Premium 2016-17
      • The Pupil Premium 2014-15
      • The Pupil Premium 2013-14
      • The Pupil Premium 2012-13
      • The Pupil Premium 2011-12
    • Exam Results 2022 >
      • Exam Results 2021
      • Exam Results 2020
      • Exam Results 2019
      • Exam Results 2018
      • Exam Results 2017
      • Exam Results 2016
      • Exam Results 2015
      • Exam Results 2014
      • Exam Results 2013
      • Exam Results 2012
      • Exam Results 2011
    • COVID-19 Catch-Up Report
    • Early Catch Up 2019/20 and Action Plan 2020/2120 >
      • Early Catch Up 2018/2019 and Action Plan 2019/2020
      • Early Catch Up 2017/2018 and Action Plan 2018/19
      • Early catch-up review and action plan 2017-18
    • Job Vacancies
  • News
    • Tallis Newsletters
    • Tallis Photography
    • Tallis Video
    • Tallis Sounds
  • Calendar
    • Term Dates 2022-23
    • Term Dates 2023-24
    • The School Day
  • Curriculum
    • Curriculum Areas >
      • Business & ICT
      • Computing
      • English & Philosophy
      • Design & Technology
      • Humanities & Social Sciences
      • Languages
      • Mathematics
      • Performing Arts
      • Physical Education
      • Science
      • Visual & Media Arts
    • Pastoral Care
    • Guidance >
      • Tallis Futures
    • Key Stage 3 >
      • KS3 Assessment guidance
      • Tallis Choices
    • Key Stage 4
    • Tallis Post 16
    • Exceptionally Able Learners
    • Special Educational Needs & Disabilities >
      • Learning Support Unit
      • Support Centre for Autism and Language Impairment
      • Deaf Support Centre
      • English as an Additional Language
  • Community
    • Letters Home 2022-23
    • Bromcom Guide for Parents
    • PTFA
    • Governing Board
    • The Tallis Agreement
    • Admissions
    • Attendance & Punctuality >
      • Apply for Exceptional Circumstances Absence in Term Time
    • School Uniform
    • Support Your Teen
    • Online Safety
    • Tallis Post 16
  • Students
    • Year 11 Support & Guidance
    • Bromcom Guide for Students
    • Co-curricular Activities
    • Exam Revision
    • Stay Safe
    • Duke of Edinburgh Award
    • Rewards
    • Reading
    • The Library
    • Cycling at Tallis
    • Alumni
  • Staff
  • Contact
    • School Map
    • How to find us
  • Search