Head Teacher's Report

Presentation Evening November 2011        Headteacher’s Report

Mrs Steere, Mr Brown, Mr Le Page, Ladies and Gentlemen, boys and girls, I am pleased to present my report to you tonight in which I record formally some of the events of the last academic year.

I think the academic year 2010 to 2011 will go down as a seminal year in the school’s history. In the November of 2010 we finally received the go ahead from the States of Guernsey to begin work on the new building and work duly commenced in early December. Despite some setbacks in the building programme the school is well underway and on schedule to open in the September of 2012 (fingers crossed!).

During the year, staff and students have been considering a new logo for the school and, latterly, a new, more formal uniform which, I believe, has the support of the majority of our students and their parents. We are mindful that the move into a new building is an opportunity to make some changes in the way we work. We have put in process a shorter KS3 and a longer KS4 curriculum as well as exploring whether the provision of an individual netbook computer for students will really enhance what we mean by independent learning. Innovative curriculum work in a course directed by Mr Belford in Years 7/8, which we call L@B, has also captured the imagination of staff and students and acts as a good preparation for KS4 courses. When we move into the new building it will most certainly not be a case of old wine in new bottles but a real leap forward in the way we work and the opportunities we can offer our students to enjoy their learning in an exciting environment.

In the May of 2011 we were pleased to host a follow up visit from the Validation Team who inspected the school in 2009. In that report the inspection said:

“Students are well taught. Good relationships are a hallmark of lessons and a strong platform for teaching and learning. The range of activities in classrooms contributes very well to students’ enjoyment of their work and their all-round development. Staff plan work carefully so that students of all abilities can do well. They rise above the limitations posed by cramped accommodation and successfully help students to build key skills and prepare well for the next stage of education and their future working lives.”

Validators on their return visit in May recognised the huge agenda for improvement we have set ourselves and have commented that they are confident we can achieve our goals.

All of the yearly events that we take part in or put on at school gave further opportunities for our students to gain from a rich curriculum. Students in Year 8 took part in the BBC Radio Guernsey Schools’ Report programme under the direction of Miss Taylor. Authors Paul Dowswell and Nigel Hinton visited the school and worked with students. Miss Jordan directed two entertaining plays, notably the musical ‘Hairspray’, with double casting of main characters to give more actors the chance to experience the footlights and to gain accreditation for a BTEC qualification in Performing Arts... A smaller but very focussed cast also represented the school in the Shakespeare Schools’ Festival with an intimate performance of Twelfth Night.

Mrs Haimes prepared a large number of students for Speech and Drama classes in the Eisteddfod and Ella Botzenhardt was our main speaker in the Rotary Club’s Youth Speaks competition at St. James, ably assisted by Gussie Oliver and Edward Chauvel.

Gussie, along with Paul Kirby, also both gave an outstanding presentation to an audience of employers on their Work Experience. Tiffany Jordan and Jessica Santos in Year 11 were part of the winning Young Enterprise Group, ‘dot.ink’ which created a magazine for young people. Jess Evans was awarded Link Student of the Year by the College of Further Education for her work on the Catering course. For a second time, our entrants in the Young Chef Competition, Jacob Travers and Lydia Eastwood, took first and second place respectively and went on to represent the island in the UK competition.

All year 11 students took part in another successful Conference held at the Peninsula Hotel. Organised by Miss Williams, Gary Burgess from BBC Guernsey was tasked with motivational workshops for the students and he subsequently wrote an article in GBG magazine saying how impressed he was with our Year 11 students and how much he had enjoyed the day – despite his initial fears!

Our annual Senior Citizens’ Party, a delightful event organised by Mrs Bentley, saw nearly one hundred ladies and gentlemen invited to a Christmas Party hosted by students and a guest appearance from Harry Gabriel in Year 9 as Santa Claus. Our Carol Service at Deslisle Church was well prepared and students conveyed the spirit of Christmas to an appreciative audience. Our annual Arts and Craft Exhibition sponsored by Bank Julius Baer was again a great success. Students also took part in various Maths workshops here and in Jersey.

Perhaps the most ambitious event of the year was the challenge set by the L@B team to Year 8 students to set up a market garden in the quadrangle of the school and to sell and organise the produce in a Summer Fayre. It was no small feat to wheelbarrow in literally tons of soil and to construct raised beds for the growing of a variety of vegetables. The plants prospered and the home grown produce was displayed and sold on a glorious summer’s Day in July. Students also served homemade muffin and cream teas along with sideshows and bouncy castles – all organised by the students themselves. A Christmas Fayre was also a great success.

Throughout the year, the school put on various charity events raising over £5000 for various charities including Help for Heroes, Water Action Aid and Les Bourgs Hospice. Students took part in the Swimarathon Team organised By Mrs Allen and this year lots of our students took part in the World Aid Walk and the Pink Ladies Walk. We collected shoeboxes for Albania at Xmas and we continue to sponsor a family and their children’s education in Sri Lanka.

Of particular note was the community project work completed by Year 10 students. One group of students raised over a thousand pounds for a Teenage Cancer Charity with Jacob Travers raising over £500 alone after a marathon golfing effort.

A Karaoke event, compered by our versatile assistant caretaker Mr Inder, along with other events, helped to raise nearly £600 for Children in Need. Modesty prevents me from telling you who was the winner of the staff charity Ready, Steady, Cook competition!

During the year, students visited Normandy, Paris and Strasbourg under the direction of Mrs Horton and Mr Stables organised ski-ing trips to Italy and the USA in tandem with other schools. Mrs Jordan and Mr Costen took a group to the Globe Theatre in London and students also saw some theatre in Jersey. Students camped in Sark and Herm during Activities Week.

On the Sports field it was most definitely one of our highest achieving years for some time. The Autumn term started with the Year 9 boys leading the way in the football season. They went unbeaten through all league matches which secured a football league win for Les Beaucamps High for the first time in 12 years! They were only stopped all season by Elizabeth College in the Sigma Cup final, which prevented a league and cup double. Not to be outdone the year 9 girls’ netball team also took the league and comfortably won the Island Netball tournament too. The combined Year 9/10 team took the winner’s trophy in the Netball Tournament. The same year groups were the winners of the Girl’s Football tournament.

The year 11 and year 7 Netball teams also finished as runners up in the Island tournaments. In the Netball Inter-insulars. Lydia McClean and Abbi Greening both played key roles in the under 14 victory against Jersey. Lydia received the player of the match award too. Clare Henry displayed a full range of skills in the under 15 Netball inter insular and Jessica Burgess also featured in the under 16 squad. Shanna Jackson played for the U13 Island Netball Team. Lydia McClean was selected to go to Regional Academy and Clare Henry went to National Trials.  Unfortunately Clare was injured so was only able to watch.  Abbie Greening was invited to Sussex to a skills training session and played in the Under 16 island team even though only 14.

The Years 10’s carried on the success in the spring with some formidable performances on the rugby field. Their strong team spirit helped them reach a 3-way play-off for the league. They won their two games and secured the league. Another notable performance during this term was the league victory for the boys in the badminton ‘A’ division. Consistent performances brought the success they deserved. Whilst the girls were playing well in the mini football, after participating in the development events they went on, once again to win the under 15 event.

The summer term brought more success on the ever popular softball diamond. Les Beaucamps continued their impressive track record to win two out of the three cups in the annual softball tournament.

Our Sports Day in June took place on the school field evoking memories of past sporting occasions and Dobree came out as the winning house.

The athletics season is short but the performance of the junior girls in particular deserves note and six students from Years 8 & 9 went on to represent Guernsey against Jersey at the inter insular. Bernadette Benstead was undoubtedly the star, being selected for three events including the blue ribbon event, the 100m and the 4 x100 relay.

We also had Island football representation in the Star Trophy match through Kyle Smith, Seb Skillen and Liam Mahon; these boys played a key role in Guernsey beating Jersey for the first time in eight years! Leigh Cramphorn and Jacob Travers also represented Guernsey on the rugby field in the Lord Jersey Cup. Ryan Staples captained the Guernsey Schools’ Rugby team in Jersey.

We were also delighted when Rachel Le Cocq was selected for the Under 17 inter insular hockey team which defeated Jersey so convincingly in December.

Although we cannot take any credit at school for her success we are also immensely proud of Lisa Gray who won a silver medal in the team event for Archery at the Island Games. Elliott Jordan represented Guernsey in the UK Artistic Roller Skating competition placing first in the formation team dancing section.

Turning to staffing, inevitably, there were further staff changes this year. Three colleagues retired after distinguished careers in teaching. Mr Le Messurier, Head of English, Mrs Turner, Head of Special Needs and Mrs Brice, Head of Food. Mr Le Messurier was a much loved and inspirational Head of English, Mrs Turner, a supportive and hard working SENCO and Mrs Brice, a talented teacher with three students achieving Young Chef accolades during her tenure here. Ms Smith, a similarly inspirational teacher, moved on to Blanchelande School to take up a promoted post as Head of Science. Miss Karrer, an excellent linguist and exceptional Year Head, left the island to teach in Malaysia. We were sorry to lose such a committed professional. Along with Mr Prowse, an excellent English teacher who left at Christmas, both members of staff were reluctant leavers coming to the end of five year licences. (Any comment I might make on this would not be printable!).

From our Administration staff we were sad to say farewell to Mrs Wilson in the school Office who took up a promoted post in another school and Mr Dupré, our School Administrator, who went on to work as project Director for the new school building.

We were pleased to host visits on two occasions when employers and members of the Skills Strategy Group and Apprenticeship Youth Committee came into school to see how we work. Similarly, an Education Board visit in November gave members an opportunity to see the school for themselves and we were pleased to receive positive comments from Board members on their visit.

Of course, recent well publicised events has brought about changes in the Education Board, effectively the school’s governing body. Each year in my speech I briefly select a theme to mention and this year I have to comment on what might be called the GCSE grades debacle, particularly relevant when we are celebrating the success of those very students this evening, and, notice, I use the word success and not ‘failure’. Last year 95% of all students achieved at least 5 GCSE grades at any level, all students (113 of you) achieved at least one GCSE pass. 52% of students attained 5 or more grades at the higher level of C or above. Using the recently introduced benchmark of 5 or more higher GCSE’s including English and Maths, some 36% of students were successful.(58% of students passed English at the higher grades and 42% did so in Maths.)

This particular measure is the one that the Guernsey Press has repeatedly chosen to publish as its measure of success or failure. Aside from the validity of measuring the three High Schools results against the average results of UK comprehensive schools

where the full range of ability is maintained, I would want to emphasize that the success or otherwise of a school cannot be judged by one specific indicator.

It is worth considering this further. I wonder if the dyslexic genius, Albert Einstein, would have passed GCSE English alongside his undoubted prowess in Mathematics? Are all the people sitting in this hall, or working in local businesses, or addressing the States Assembly, are all those people who have not achieved a level C or old ‘O’ Level pass in Maths – failures? Of course they are not. I am reminded of the words of Eleanor Roosevelt:

‘No one can make you feel inferior without your consent’.

Education is a mindset not simply a test of whether you can work out an algebraic formula. An educated person is knowledgeable, can express his views clearly; he is also open-minded; prepared to listen to the views of others, tolerant of others and with the emotional intelligence to negotiate social interactions. He can empathise with others; he believes he can make a difference in all that he does; he has an inner confidence and a restless curiosity about the world. He knows how to be a team player and how to go about solving problems. He is resilient in the face of difficulties; persistent in pursuing his goals. Arguably, he retains that childlike sense of wonder at the complexity and beauty of our world – an acknowledgement of our humanity beyond any scientific explanation.

At the very least, let’s judge the performance of our students not on the skill of some headline writer but through the proper channels and against an array of performance indicators. If there is one indicator I had to plump for above all others it would be that every student leaving this school has found a sense of achievement in his or her education and I think this will be ably demonstrated when I tell you about the many and diverse achievements of our Year 11 students shortly.

It is good to see our Year 11 students here this evening. Lots of you have chosen to continue in education or training through attending the Sixth Form Centre at the Grammar School or the College of Further Education or taking up training as an apprentice. You were one of our bigger year groups and only the second full cohort to go through after the raising of the School Leaving Age in 2009. Most of you applied yourselves to your studies; the girls outperformed the boys and sometimes showed that extra maturity needed to succeed but all of you got involved in some of the many activities put on by the school over your time here and you were ably led by Head Boy, Edward Chauvel and Head Girl, Laura Bean. As mentioned, 52% of students achieved five or more passes at C or above with 36% managing to include English and Maths in that figure. This was a little below last years scores but still a creditable performance. All 113 students achieved at least a GCSE pass in one subject or another, with 95% achieving five GCSE’S or more. We had some very high flying students, as you will hear shortly, but the staff and I know that some of you excelled simply through achieving five or six GCSE’s at good grades, against the odds, or that you achieved through different non-academic paths. We can’t all be high flyers academically.

Shortly, we shall be moving on to our presentations to students but, may I first take a few moments to thank some of the many people and organizations who support this school: they are the Education Board and the Director and his staff at the Education Department; I am grateful to all colleagues from primary schools and post 16 institutions with whom we often liaise in the best interests of our students and to fellow headteachers with whom I work closely. I also thank Mr. Le Page and the School Management Committee and the clergy and constables of our three parishes for your support. Thanks also to the team behind the sterling work of our Friends of Les Beaucamps School under Adrian Hale’s leadership.

I am grateful to all employers who take our students on work experience and for their valued input into the school's work related learning programme and all the other organizations that regularly make a contribution to the sporting, social, spiritual and cultural life of the school. On a personal note, many, many thanks to our hard working office staff, caretaking staff and all teaching support colleagues.

The school clearly relies on the support of parents and I would like to thank you for your help in making this another successful year here at Les Beaucamps. Finally, I should like to end my report, in traditional fashion, by inviting you to join with me in showing your appreciation of the work of the staff at Les Beaucamps who, once again, have worked tirelessly to bring out the best in our students and to raise standards.