One week into the new academic year and all of the students and staff are working hard already.  The staff however, returned to work a day earlier than the students and spent Monday 2nd September involved in a Staff Development Day.  The programme for the day was packed with many important elements that needed to be covered in order to lay a firm foundation for the academic year ahead.

The day started with Mr Turner (Executive Principal) and Mrs Ash (Deputy Headteacher) taking us through the GCSE and A-Level examination results.  This allowed key points to be highlighted and important questions to be asked – all in search of future improvements.  Many teachers were rewarded for their hard work last year that led to excellent results.

Mr Turner then set the vision for the year ahead which is ‘Embedding Greatness’.  We want BMS to embed many of the great elements already in place so that our school serves your children as well as possible.

This was followed by Mrs Ash covering some important moral and legal points relating to safeguarding and a team of ten staff members then helped me to deliver a presentation on ‘Embedding Greatness in the Classroom’.  Each person presented for 4 minutes on the following areas:

• Start of lesson routines / starter activities / use of mini-whiteboards: Mr Varsani
• CDC time tips: Mr Besisira
• Seating plans: Mr Johnson
• Keys to success / positive behaviour for learning: Mr Gall
• T+L equipment trays: Mr Cartledge
• Presentation of work: Mrs Charles
• Marking and feedback: Miss Booth
• Professional organisation: Mr Searle
• Home learning: Mr Lyley
• Communication home: Mrs Blowers

During learning walks over the first couple of days, it has been really nice to see the staff demonstrate many of the points above.

The final part of the day was faculty curriculum planning time.  This gave staff the chance to meet with their faculty members to discuss important next steps and plan for the year ahead.  Planning a cohesive learning journey from Year 7 through to Year 13 is an integral part of the new Ofsted framework and so staff at BMS will have many more opportunities to meet throughout the year to improve the schemes of learning so that the lessons delivered to students are even better.