We’ve got over that period of New Year’s resolutions – the continuation of those resolutions with some of us and the slippage with others. That old line about ‘picking yourself up and dusting yourself off’ comes to mind. It is important to have something to commit to do but we shouldn’t make it a millstone […]
Read More...Probably for the final time this year: Happy New Year. I hope that you all had a wonderful break and you have been able to recharge the batteries. We know how challenging that first term can be for everyone; staff and students. The nights get longer, the days get shorter and colder and the […]
Read More...Having avoided, week on week, the election… I know that many of you will have voted this past few days. Some of you may be happy with the result, some of you may not. As Principal of this college I really do try to make it my business to be professionally apolitical. It isn’t […]
Read More...Thank you for your efforts this week. We countdown to the Christmas break. We have a couple of weeks to go at the end of a long long term. I know that it isn’t easy to get up and out and into school every day but the overwhelming majority of students do so with good […]
Read More...I’m concerned about you all. I’m concerned that the opportunity to drawn into the carnage that is Black Friday might be too much for you. You just might get drawn into the madness that is Meadowhall (other large retail outlets are available) and you’ll end up spending your well-earned or hard-earned cash on ‘stuff’. That […]
Read More...As we move into the depths of this Autumn I am absolutely determined not to talk about the general election and/or politics. In particular, I’m not going to discuss how politicians should or do behave – on the campaign trail or in office. If I state that I might just have half a chance of […]
Read More...The wheel of life turns. As a teacher you celebrate the successes of those who have completed their time with you and you turn, almost immediately to those who have those challenges ahead. This week I’ve spent time with those who have finished their education with us and been working with those young people […]
Read More...It’s not been the best of weeks really. Not that it’s been that bad at college necessarily, but the week started with defeat for England at Rugby World Cup final and ended with terrific floods locally and the sad news that a woman has died, having been swept away in floodwater. All I can […]
Read More...It’s the end of the longest half term and as such there seems little value in trying to find clever things to say to keep people motivated and ‘up and at it’. All I need to do is say thank you to everybody for their contributions over the past ten weeks; be that students, parents […]
Read More...Like many of you I watched Monday’s England football game (0-6 by the way) in Bulgaria. It was a strange experience. On one hand I felt angry and repulsed by the overtly racist behaviour being displayed by significant minority of fans. And on the other hand, quietly proud of the England team, all of the […]
Read More...I think I need to start with an apology. In my general irritation with the accountability framework that schools and colleges have to face I forgot that it was one of the most important days of the year last week. You might have missed it too. On Saturday 5th October we should have all been […]
Read More...Many of you will know that OFSTED have been in the college this last week. We await their published judgements. Those of us who work in education understand that we must be held to account for the performance of our children and young people. We may not like the OFSTEDs of this world but […]
Read More...In considering what I might discuss this week it has been immensely difficult to avoid the momentous national ‘judgements’ and related political and constitutional discussions that have subsequently taken place. It would have been relatively easy to make some play over the Supreme Court judgement or the conduct of MPs in parliament; I have heard […]
Read More...Last week I talked about the positivity I felt having worked with some colleagues newly appointed to the Trust. This week, amongst other things, I’ve had the pleasure of interviewing some colleagues for key teaching roles within Thomas Rotherham College. That got me thinking about the teaching profession in general. There is something of […]
Read More...Education is complicated these days. Long gone are the days when we had simple constructs. To a degree we knew we all knew where we were within those constructs. The central government directed the local government and the local government directed schools and colleges. We are now in a much more complicated educational landscape. That […]
Read More...The return to college Thank you for all of your efforts this week. However much we prepare for the return of students it isn’t until they are in the building that we fully realise what is needed and what we need to do to support them in their learning. However much the students prepare […]
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I intend to share a weekly message through the website with students, families, the community and the staff body of Thomas Rotherham College. This is the first of those weekly messages. I hope that you have all had a wonderful summer. It’s been particularly strange meteorologically, but it seems that that is something we are […]
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