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.
