From Building Castles to Building Schools

Welcome to my first ever blog, as Principal of Drapers' Academy.

This is a chance for me to share with you both informative, and interesting, aspects of life as a Principal of an Academy in Harold Hill, Essex, close to London.

From daily life at the Academy, with judging homework projects of castles, to the challenges and daily decisions being made for our new state of the art school buildings in progress, such as choosing bathroom fixtures!

I hope you enjoy reading and look forward to your feedback and comments.

Cry Wolf
Last week saw the publication of the Wolf Report, a long awaited review of Vocational Education by Professor Alison Wolf of King's College London. This 197 page document was difficult reading, and not simply the length of the article. Whilst the proposed changes will not be immediate, it confirms the shift towards an academic curriculum for secondary schools, not necessarily something that will suit all our pupils. However, we can now start making plans for this in the future.

Interestingly, Professor Wolf agrees with my view that work experience in Key Stage 4 is not is good use of time, and is not something we implement for our year 10 pupils.

Building Castles
In the last week I have had the great fortune to judge the year 7 castle building competition. This homework task, an extension of a history project exploring the development of castles in Britain after the Norman invasion, produced some amazing work, with congratulations to Sabrina Majeed for the outstanding detail she included on her stone keep castle.

Toilet Time
From the sublime to .... this week finds me looking at fixtures and fitting for the toilets in the new school building. Nothing unusual in this daily task but I like to think that design, which is for mixed communal toilet facilities on the main street of the Academy building, incorporates the finest materials.

And Finally
This morning I had the pleasure of visiting Broadford Primary School. Thank you to them for the warm welcome and hospitality, it was lovely getting a chance to tour the school.