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Friday 27 September 2013

Open Evening Coffee Morning

Thursday was the school's Open Evening. I'd attended a couple of these as a parent some years ago and was quietly impressed by what I saw, but I can't remember much about them save an exploding Jelly Baby trick involving a test tube, Bunsen Burner and said item of confectionery. 'Well' I thought, 'if they can nuke a Jelly Baby, that's the school for our kids.' And so it was. 

If you attended Thursday's event and were brave enough to venture near the science labs, you may well have witnessed the feat for yourself, as it's still a favourite with prospective parents and children. But that's not all you will have seen. The hall was packed with punters who experienced some great live music from our students. Our new head, Dr. Riding gave a talk, setting out his vision for the school.  

I did my bit too. Not wanting to single-handedly destroy our reputation for artistic excellence I decided against a song and dance act and said a few words on behalf of the governing body instead. Short and sweet. Well, short anyway, 
Our purpose as a governing body is to ensure that Matravers becomes a School in which every child fulfils their potential.

We aim offer students an education that will stretch them academically so that they achieve the best possible exam results. Year-on-year our results have continued to improve. We will set ambitious targets for next year’s GCSEs and A-Level grades.

As a thriving arts school we seek to unlock our pupil’s creative talents and encourage their self-expression.

We maintain a strong and caring pastoral ethos where every child matters, not matter what educational challenges they may face.

Matravers offers a full, enriching and rounded curriculum in a safe and inclusive environment. We want our students to be academically successful, but that’s not all. We also want to help form them into mature and responsible members of society, with a strong sense of moral purpose.

Our driving ambition is to ensure that coming to Matravers will not place limits on students’ life-choices, but open them up. Speaking as a parent as well as Chair of Governors, I know that’s why we sent our children here.
I hope that the open evening experience helped prospective parents and children to see that Matravers is the school for students aged 11-18 in our community. 

And then it was back to school for Friday's Coffee Morning in aid of Dorothy House. The event was organised by Sixth Formers, with hot drinks and tasty cake in plentiful supply. Once more, school musicians did us proud, providing an eclectic soundtrack for visitors and staff. 

Somewhat embarrassingly I received a telephone call on returning home, telling me that I (or the wife, more precisely) had won a rather fetching red Pashmina scarf. If a governors team also wins the quiz competition, people will think that there has been a fix. We were tempted to use our smartphones to Google for one or two of the answers, but resisted, as cheating in a 'test' would not have been be a very good example for governors to set. Conscience makes cowards of us all. 

Around £275 was raised by the Coffee Morning for a very good cause, so thanks to our brilliant staff and students for all their hard work and to everybody who came along for their support and generosity. 

Friday 13 September 2013

A week in the Chair


No, that doesn't mean I've been doing nothing but sit around for seven days on the trot. I've been up and about occasionally. Honest. But this has been my first full week as Chair of Governors. 

As this is the beginning of a new school year there has been lots to do, including fine tuning the Terms of Reference of our various committees and thinking about the goals and objectives of the governing body for the coming academic year. What larks. Actually, I quite like tweeking Terms of Reference. Did I really just write that sentence? Oh man. I'm becoming a proper governance geek. 

On Tuesday morning I put Dr. Riding's 'open doors' to Staff and Governors policy to the test by bothering him about something or other. Then we had a 'meet the head' full Governors' session in the evening, where Dr. Riding set out his 'route map' for school improvement. We carefully scrutinised his plans, with governors newbie and veteran asking lots of pertinent questions and the head giving some well thought out answers to our queries. That's what we do, us Governor types.

Parents and carers had their own opportunity to meet Dr. Riding on Wednesday afternoon. I'm a parent as well as Chair of Govs so I thought I'd pop along too. There was a good turn out, with the hall's tiered seating virtually full. The head outlined his vision for the school and he and other senior leaders were available to speak to parents after the presentation. There seemed to be a very positive buzz about the event.

That brings us to Friday when I had my weekly meeting with the head. Most of the time was spent sharpening up our targets for school improvement. Hang on a minute. I'm having a Bernard from Yes, Prime Minister moment. Technically speaking it's not targets that need to be sharp, but the darts that are thrown at targets. But you probably know what I mean.

Last week I attended a Head Teacher Performance Management course, which was useful. Amongst other things I learned a new mnemonic that came in handy when it came to setting goals:  CSMART Objectives.

C CHALLENGING
S SPECIFIC
M MEASURABLE
A ATTAINABLE.
R RELEVANT
T TIME BOUND

Clever, eh? That's what this school needs: some nice, shiny CSMARTies. We're working on it.

So much for my first week in the Chair.

Guy Davies
(Chair of Governors) 

Tuesday 3 September 2013

Goodbye...Hello

First up, hearty congratulations on behalf of the Governors to our students on their BTEC, GCSE and A-Level results. It's good to see grades improving year-on-year. We'll be doing all we can to ensure that next year's results will be even more successful. We wish school leavers well as they head for University, College or the world of work. Thanks to our staff who have worked so hard to help many of our students realise their dreams.

We also want to welcome the new Year 7 intake to Matravers and other students who are new to the school. Our aim as Governors is to make sure that all students fulfil their educational potential. We expect our pupils to make rapid and sustained progress from the moment they start at the school until the day they leave. That won't happen without the students' hard work, support from parents and carers, good teaching and effective leadership. Together we can make sure that children get the best out of their time at Matravers.  

The task of the Governing Body is to provide the school with strategic leadership and accountability. We look forward to working with new Head, Dr. Simon Riding in the quest for continuous school improvement. Next Tuesday evening the Governors will be holding a special 'Meet the new Head' session of the Governing Body where we'll be scrutinising Dr. Riding's plans for the school. 

Parents and Carers will have an opportunity to meet the new Head on Wednesday 11th September, 5pm to 6pm. See the school website for more info. 

Here's wishing all our students every success at the beginning of a new school year.

Guy Davies
(Chair of Governors)