I am sitting in my office with my team feverishly preparing for our Fair Banding tests for the Year 7 applications. Quite a feat of planning where paper letters and phone calls of confirmation meet the most enormous Excel spreadsheet. We anticipate with excitement the attendance of the students tomorrow and next week. It is strange leading a school without completed buildings or students.
The 6th Form Open evening at SPGS was a triumph. Lots of students from local school and others from out of borough braved the freezing temperatures to come and listen to what we have to offer. Students travelled through our ’Market Place’ with exhibitors from academic institutions like Westminster University and The Brit School. Also, music and media organisations like Music Tech, Red Bee and Escape Studios. These young people were armed with career and qualification type questions, used with laser like intensity, targeting them towards Hammersmith Academy staff and other professionals. We are looking to hold more specific course type open evenings in the New Year in different venues like The Lyric or Riverside Studios. Watch this space!
The first showing of our radio advert and viral video showed what students of a sixth form age can produce. Some students who registered won iPod shuffles and one lucky year 11 walked away with an iPad. I will not forget the look of surprise and joy on her face. I hope the iPad is used in the production of material for our future competitions, and to support her success in her GCSEs this year so she can get onto the right course at Hammersmith Academy. You never know when luck is going to smile on you. We want to see the talent of all those students in West London and we will be offering more digital equipment as prizes for posting to competitions through our website. Keep your eyes peeled.
Zoe Thompson, deputy head, is crunching all the data and we will be interviewing all applicants in the New Year. Another enormous spreadsheet is growing. Get those applications in!
This Academy team, though small, is fantastic, rising to every challenge that I set. I have not been disappointed yet due to their absolute energy and professionalism. The culture of success is infectious. The small team is growing with job adverts going to press and online. Just today I finished the lengthy job description for our IT Systems Manager and Director of Finance and Resources. What key roles they will have to lead this state-of-the art building with some of the most advanced ICT and equipment.
Meeting the students makes me realise why we are on this journey. I am inspired by my colleagues and the plethora of supporters that are giving their time freely to support the academy’s development. So much assistance with our artwork, graphics, press and marketing, writing of policies, all working to our vision of creativity and excellence. This makes long building committee meetings all the worthwhile. Ensuring we stay on track for building completion by 1st June 2011. I have been agreeing the fixtures, furniture and fittings for the entire building. I am still looking for the perfect classroom and dining rooms chairs. I know they are out there. I will not compromise on quality and comfort, as well as style. Hammersmith Academy students deserve the best.
Christmas is fast approaching. It is a busy time for all. I am astounded by the amount of kind messages we are receiving form all sections of the community for this amazing project. Good luck to all year 11 students who are currently revising for their upcoming mock exams. There are no substitutes for hard work.
Headteacher
Gary Kynaston
Tuesday 7 December 2010
Friday 15 October 2010
Where has the half term gone?!
Another month has gone by and I’ve realised that, once again, Christmas is literally just around the corner. With our Year 7 open evenings behind us, I finally have some time to reflect on how busy and intense it has been in our small office, at SPGS, since September. Open evenings, site visits, 1-2-1 library sessions, 6th form open evening planning and the continued engagement with local businesses, have all combined to keep me occupied and fired up.
The Year 7 open evenings were our first order of business. Organising open evenings is complicated at the best of times. Doing it without an actual building is even more difficult. Somehow we had to convey the atmosphere, ethos and vision of a school, without a physical or tangible manifestation. Thanks to the generosity of SPGS and The Lyric Theatre, we were able to hold two evenings, one in each location. Both saw over 400 people signing in and were, for a variety of reasons, totally different.
SPGS was the first and blighted as I was with what my wife and PA termed, “Flu d’homme,” the evening passed off relatively smoothly. This is, in large part, due to the unfailing and exceedingly generous support we continue to receive from SPGS. They repeatedly go out of their way to accommodate us and offer their help unreservedly. We are incredibly grateful to them. Still, being perfectionists, we gathered the day after our first Open evening and analysed what worked and what we needed to improve, before the next one, at The Lyric.
We were overly-organised and prepared, come the 6th and raring to go...and then...all I can say is, 400 people arriving at The Lyric, at the same time, half an hour early, tested even the limitless patience and graciousness of Kate, my PA, who somehow managed to keep the queues orderly and laughing. Unfortunately, the combination of everyone arriving at the same time and The Lyric’s insistence on Health and Safety being observed, in relation to numbers allowed in the Studio at any one time (120), meant that there was a lot of waiting around for all. This is where my team, led by; Deputy Headteacher’s, Zoe and John; Kate, my PA; architects, uniform models and sponsors, took over and answered the hundreds of questions being fired at them, by multitudes of people. Jake (Kate’s 11yr old son) and Holly (his friend) modelled the uniform and answered questions ranging from, “Is that the uniform?” to, “What is the durability of the material like?” and “If you were allowed to, would you want to go to Hammersmith Academy?” They handed out goodie bags, with the help of an amazing Year 12 SPGS girl, Alex Compton, who had volunteered to help out for the evening; they entertained tired children and debated football with Adrian Chiles. Inside the studio itself, I discarded the prepared speech of the previous week and spoke from the heart. I am incredibly passionate and excited about my vision for Hammersmith Academy. I wanted everyone listening to hear and taste a little of that passion and vision. Education doesn’t have to be dry, dusty and disheartening. At the heart of it, Hammersmith Academy wants its community to be excited about education again; to be passionate about the possibilities and opportunities that abound; to be ambitious; to be excellent. I hope I conveyed that ethos and vision to all who were there.
Next up is the 6th form Open Evening, to be held here, at SPGS, on November 24th. Details are on the website if you wish to come along. It will be an altogether different evening to the Year 7 events, as there will be a larger number of partners and speakers. They will be there to talk to Year 11’s about the sorts of things they will be studying and doing, both in the specialist subject areas and the more traditional A-levels.
Moving on from the Open evenings, I am happy to report that the building itself is now watertight – a very exciting milestone reached.
So, everything is on track. I continue to engage with local businesses and not a week goes by where I am not off to meet someone new, who wants to provide unique opportunities to students of Hammersmith Academy. I feel privileged to be Headteacher of this new and groundbreaking Academy and I look forward to continuing my partnership with the local community.
The Year 7 open evenings were our first order of business. Organising open evenings is complicated at the best of times. Doing it without an actual building is even more difficult. Somehow we had to convey the atmosphere, ethos and vision of a school, without a physical or tangible manifestation. Thanks to the generosity of SPGS and The Lyric Theatre, we were able to hold two evenings, one in each location. Both saw over 400 people signing in and were, for a variety of reasons, totally different.
SPGS was the first and blighted as I was with what my wife and PA termed, “Flu d’homme,” the evening passed off relatively smoothly. This is, in large part, due to the unfailing and exceedingly generous support we continue to receive from SPGS. They repeatedly go out of their way to accommodate us and offer their help unreservedly. We are incredibly grateful to them. Still, being perfectionists, we gathered the day after our first Open evening and analysed what worked and what we needed to improve, before the next one, at The Lyric.
We were overly-organised and prepared, come the 6th and raring to go...and then...all I can say is, 400 people arriving at The Lyric, at the same time, half an hour early, tested even the limitless patience and graciousness of Kate, my PA, who somehow managed to keep the queues orderly and laughing. Unfortunately, the combination of everyone arriving at the same time and The Lyric’s insistence on Health and Safety being observed, in relation to numbers allowed in the Studio at any one time (120), meant that there was a lot of waiting around for all. This is where my team, led by; Deputy Headteacher’s, Zoe and John; Kate, my PA; architects, uniform models and sponsors, took over and answered the hundreds of questions being fired at them, by multitudes of people. Jake (Kate’s 11yr old son) and Holly (his friend) modelled the uniform and answered questions ranging from, “Is that the uniform?” to, “What is the durability of the material like?” and “If you were allowed to, would you want to go to Hammersmith Academy?” They handed out goodie bags, with the help of an amazing Year 12 SPGS girl, Alex Compton, who had volunteered to help out for the evening; they entertained tired children and debated football with Adrian Chiles. Inside the studio itself, I discarded the prepared speech of the previous week and spoke from the heart. I am incredibly passionate and excited about my vision for Hammersmith Academy. I wanted everyone listening to hear and taste a little of that passion and vision. Education doesn’t have to be dry, dusty and disheartening. At the heart of it, Hammersmith Academy wants its community to be excited about education again; to be passionate about the possibilities and opportunities that abound; to be ambitious; to be excellent. I hope I conveyed that ethos and vision to all who were there.
Next up is the 6th form Open Evening, to be held here, at SPGS, on November 24th. Details are on the website if you wish to come along. It will be an altogether different evening to the Year 7 events, as there will be a larger number of partners and speakers. They will be there to talk to Year 11’s about the sorts of things they will be studying and doing, both in the specialist subject areas and the more traditional A-levels.
Moving on from the Open evenings, I am happy to report that the building itself is now watertight – a very exciting milestone reached.
So, everything is on track. I continue to engage with local businesses and not a week goes by where I am not off to meet someone new, who wants to provide unique opportunities to students of Hammersmith Academy. I feel privileged to be Headteacher of this new and groundbreaking Academy and I look forward to continuing my partnership with the local community.
Thursday 7 October 2010
Tuesday 7 September 2010
Let the countdown begin
It’s that time of year again. Summer’s over (did it arrive?!?!) leaves are falling and schools are starting to welcome back their eager charges. It’s the first September, in a very long time, when I don’t have new students and parents to welcome, old faces to reconnect with and new classes to get to know. It’s a good thing we are so busy here at Hammersmith Academy!
News round-up
• The building is progressing rapidly now and is still on target to be completed on time.
• The prospectus has been written and is on its way to the printers.
• The website is with the designers and should go live within the next couple of weeks. Furniture is being chosen, policies are being written, the curriculum designed – your local school is well on its way to welcoming its first group of students, this time next year!
• So, how do I have time to maintain a blog AND build a school and why bother? Simply put, I have an amazing team of people working with me. As to why I have chosen to start this blog...
Why blog?
A blog is a web page made up of usually short, frequently updated posts that are arranged chronologically.
Blog Advantages
• Convenience and Simplicity: Can be utilised from any computer connected to the Internet. You don’t have to be logged in to your work station/network to make changes to your blog.
• Social/Collaboration: A blog can have several authors or contributors with varying levels of access for publishing comments or posts and other content.
• Engaging/Motivating for students (in the long term!)
• Interactive
• Multiple Learning Styles: Blogging appeals to multiple learning styles.
• Context for Learning: Students can create real products for a read audience and get real feed back.
• Encourages Reflection
• Tech/Work Place Skills: Students learn technical skills for the workplace.
How can Blogs be used in education?
• Class Website: Lessons, assignments and announcements can be placed online; web site links and worksheets can be uploaded; Parents can submit comments in response to a request for volunteers or supplies to be donated
• Class Newsletter: Unlike an e-mail newsletter or a print newsletter, a blog entry is in no danger of not getting to its intended audience because it got caught in a spam filter or discarded on the walk home from school. Plus, if you include an RSS link parents can subscribe to your newsletter.
• Class Blog: instruction tool with students contributing to the blog such as a current events discussion, or a book study, creative writing
• Department/Form Blog: teachers can collaborate and share ideas, have virtual meetings, plan parent/teacher conferences
• Cadre/Committee Blog: members can have virtual meetings, sharing ideas while viewing others’ ideas, collaborate on a group project, etc.
• Professional Development Book Study: members can have virtual meetings sharing reflections and applications of a book study.
• Mentoring: New teachers can use blogs to reflect on their experiences and their mentors can comment.
• Student Team Blogs: students collaborate on a project; Students who are not in the same science class physically, but are in one of Mrs. X’s Year 8 science classes, collaborates with other Year 8 science students assigned to study Jupiter. Or, student in another Local Authority, County, or Country collaborate on a project using a blog.
• Blogging Buddies: like pen pals, but better
• Writing Club: students post their work to a blog, fellow members comment on work
• Student Journals: Students can blog their reflections and the teacher can conveniently leave comments without collecting 25 spiral notebooks.
• Student E-portfolios: Students can publish their work on-line, or use it as a digital filing cabinet for their work. Comments can be posted by parents, aunts, grandparents, etc.
• Activity Updates: Clubs and activities, sports teams, and parent groups use Weblogs to post scores, meeting minutes, and links to relevant issues and topics.
• Building Announcements/Headteacher Memos: These bulletins would then be archived for later reference; teachers could subscribe to the bulletins and automatically receive notification of new postings. Staff members could comment on posts.
• Registration Blog: Workshop registration process could be completed using a blog. The facilitator posts an invitation, all those interested respond with a comment.
Blog Concerns
• It is important to develop guidelines for acceptable blogging. It needs to be information that students are aware of before they become bloggers.
• It is an opportunity for students to be exposed to inappropriate content if blogging not pre-approved by administrator of blog.
• Students must be taught to evaluate on-line materials, observe copyright restrictions, protect their privacy, identify fraud, and to take responsibility for their on-line activity.
• Privacy of students must be observed. The same policies in place for class web sites are applicable to blogs as well.
In the long term, as many of you aware, Hammersmith Academy will have a fully integrated Virtual learning Environment (VLE). Until that time, there is this blog. Please subscribe with the RSS feed, to make sure you receive any updates and do not miss any news.
It's one year to go...let the countdown begin!
News round-up
• The building is progressing rapidly now and is still on target to be completed on time.
• The prospectus has been written and is on its way to the printers.
• The website is with the designers and should go live within the next couple of weeks. Furniture is being chosen, policies are being written, the curriculum designed – your local school is well on its way to welcoming its first group of students, this time next year!
• So, how do I have time to maintain a blog AND build a school and why bother? Simply put, I have an amazing team of people working with me. As to why I have chosen to start this blog...
Why blog?
A blog is a web page made up of usually short, frequently updated posts that are arranged chronologically.
Blog Advantages
• Convenience and Simplicity: Can be utilised from any computer connected to the Internet. You don’t have to be logged in to your work station/network to make changes to your blog.
• Social/Collaboration: A blog can have several authors or contributors with varying levels of access for publishing comments or posts and other content.
• Engaging/Motivating for students (in the long term!)
• Interactive
• Multiple Learning Styles: Blogging appeals to multiple learning styles.
• Context for Learning: Students can create real products for a read audience and get real feed back.
• Encourages Reflection
• Tech/Work Place Skills: Students learn technical skills for the workplace.
How can Blogs be used in education?
• Class Website: Lessons, assignments and announcements can be placed online; web site links and worksheets can be uploaded; Parents can submit comments in response to a request for volunteers or supplies to be donated
• Class Newsletter: Unlike an e-mail newsletter or a print newsletter, a blog entry is in no danger of not getting to its intended audience because it got caught in a spam filter or discarded on the walk home from school. Plus, if you include an RSS link parents can subscribe to your newsletter.
• Class Blog: instruction tool with students contributing to the blog such as a current events discussion, or a book study, creative writing
• Department/Form Blog: teachers can collaborate and share ideas, have virtual meetings, plan parent/teacher conferences
• Cadre/Committee Blog: members can have virtual meetings, sharing ideas while viewing others’ ideas, collaborate on a group project, etc.
• Professional Development Book Study: members can have virtual meetings sharing reflections and applications of a book study.
• Mentoring: New teachers can use blogs to reflect on their experiences and their mentors can comment.
• Student Team Blogs: students collaborate on a project; Students who are not in the same science class physically, but are in one of Mrs. X’s Year 8 science classes, collaborates with other Year 8 science students assigned to study Jupiter. Or, student in another Local Authority, County, or Country collaborate on a project using a blog.
• Blogging Buddies: like pen pals, but better
• Writing Club: students post their work to a blog, fellow members comment on work
• Student Journals: Students can blog their reflections and the teacher can conveniently leave comments without collecting 25 spiral notebooks.
• Student E-portfolios: Students can publish their work on-line, or use it as a digital filing cabinet for their work. Comments can be posted by parents, aunts, grandparents, etc.
• Activity Updates: Clubs and activities, sports teams, and parent groups use Weblogs to post scores, meeting minutes, and links to relevant issues and topics.
• Building Announcements/Headteacher Memos: These bulletins would then be archived for later reference; teachers could subscribe to the bulletins and automatically receive notification of new postings. Staff members could comment on posts.
• Registration Blog: Workshop registration process could be completed using a blog. The facilitator posts an invitation, all those interested respond with a comment.
Blog Concerns
• It is important to develop guidelines for acceptable blogging. It needs to be information that students are aware of before they become bloggers.
• It is an opportunity for students to be exposed to inappropriate content if blogging not pre-approved by administrator of blog.
• Students must be taught to evaluate on-line materials, observe copyright restrictions, protect their privacy, identify fraud, and to take responsibility for their on-line activity.
• Privacy of students must be observed. The same policies in place for class web sites are applicable to blogs as well.
In the long term, as many of you aware, Hammersmith Academy will have a fully integrated Virtual learning Environment (VLE). Until that time, there is this blog. Please subscribe with the RSS feed, to make sure you receive any updates and do not miss any news.
It's one year to go...let the countdown begin!
Thursday 24 June 2010
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