This week has seen the first Open Mornings for families of current Year 5 children and they began at the front of school in a chilly wind under the gazebo. I spend most of my day walking around the school but these Open Mornings provide a different insight into the everyday school life of our students as I take visitors in and out of classrooms and talk about the experience of the early years at Wallingford School in particular.
Our core aim and purpose of “Every young person leaving our school able and qualified” drives the message. We begin with becoming “qualified” and talking about results – the hard currency at the end of Years 11 and 13. They are consistently excellent at this school year-on-year and come from hard work, commitment and determination from our students and significant support from our dedicated staff and, of course, families themselves. We are particularly fortunate that we recruit highly effective staff – both teaching and associate – from strong fields. We then talk about the “able” element – the trips and visits, the enrichment and extra-curricular activities, the personal development and the type of young person you become at Wallingford School. This is broad, varied and important. Our thriving House system is integral to this with its two pillars of participation and competition – all of which should be a lot of fun!
On Tuesday morning walking around the school we saw Year 8 in Religious Studies, Year 10 in Maths, Year 11 revising for their Geography GCSE exam the next day – and that was all before we left W block. It was then on to Year 7 in Music touring the world, Year 8 this time cooking in Food Technology, Year 9 playing padel tennis in PE, another Year 7 class learning about the life cycle of plants in Science, followed by a visit to the Sixth Form Study Area where 120 Year 12 students were working in silence before popping up to the library where the Year 5s were particularly interested in the Manga book display.
The school was busy but calm, focused but energized, full of variety and challenge and new experiences. It was a typical morning at Wallingford School.