Three months and counting!

The Easter break and a royal wedding seem such a distant memory.  Time is racing on but the vision is very much becoming a reality.  The onsite team are working feverishly as the building nears ‘practical completion;’ it’s a strange term but it means that the technical staff can then begin to connect the IT system and ensure the telephony is working effectively.  In turn facilitating the education team to begin to operate from the building itself by mid July.  It’s all coming together now...

In the meantime, we are still gratefully using St Paul’s Girls’ School facilities.  We are looking forward to seeing all our successful Year 7 applicants when they come to SPGS on 13^th June with their parents for interviews and for fittings of the new Academy uniform.  We will be also be able to welcome our new Year 7 students and their parents into the new Academy building on 14^th July at 6pm.  This will be the first test of our new facilities, it is quite a challenge as most furniture is scheduled for later in the summer but we will keep pressing the theatre seating engineers to be complete on time!

We have recruited all our teaching staff who we communicate with via our Virtual Learning Environment (VLE).  They are already working on individual aspects pertaining to their faculty areas.  We are confident we have made high quality appointments and have assembled an incredible team to open the Academy.  We are now moving on to complete our support staff appointments.  They will be advertised via our website in the coming weeks.

Potential 6^th form students continue to be interviewed for places in September.  Be sure to check the website for updated information and application details.  Good luck to all those year 11 students’ who are now on study leave preparing to take exams; it is a nerve wracking time for all but good revision and self discipline will support your success.   The City Dreams media competition also continues – year 11 students can submit video entries for the chance to win a digital video camera – so check the website for more details.

Back on site, hundreds of litres of paint are turning plaster walls into classrooms of colour.  Each department has its own identifying colour.   Carpets have been laid, radiators fitted and light switches connected.  Orders are going out for equipment to all subject areas.  It’s truly a monumental task but we are so excited about having it all ready for our first cohort of students in September.

As the dust settles over the next month we will put more photos of the internal spaces on the website – keep an eye on the buildings pages of the website for how it is progressing.  We will have an Open Evening in October for new prospective parents and at some point, we hope to invite the community in to see our building operational with students learning. 

The mid-term break is upon most schools so enjoy the rest.  I look forward to sharing the next instalment and sharing photos of our founding staff, students and parents at upcoming events.  

Building the Team

We have had a real focus on staff recruitment over the last month, and

we have read through over 1000 applications from potential staff, finally we are almost there! 

Since I last wrote, Facilities Manager David Ashley and Assistant Head Teacher Beth Humphreys have come on board. Beth has overall responsibility for performance management, CPD as well as English.

Beth is an English specialist who has spent her teaching career to date in inner London schools: at Aylwin Girls' School, Harris Academy Bermondsey and City of London Academy. In addition to leading in her own subject area, especially at KS5, she has led on student leadership and literacy across the curriculum. She was the Lead Practitioner on a DCFS project, the Transatlantic Schools Innovation Alliance, partnering schools in London with schools in New York to share best practice and improve adolescent literacy.

She achieved a distinction in her MA in Leadership at the Institute of Education where her dissertation focussed on the leadership of brand new start-up academies. She is also on the board of the College of Teachers.