This edition of the Monday Briefing should probably start with an apology, given the fact that it hasn’t emerged until Friday, but there are times in an academic year where aspects of this role become completely all consuming, and that every sinew must be strained to get a job done properly before one can reflect on other tasks or commit them to writing. 

Inspection is a good example of this circumstance. I recall in 2019, when the College was visited by the Independent Schools Inspectorate for an Educational Quality Inspection, that I had to depart the weekend break which my wife and daughter had been enjoying in order to get home to ensure everything was in place to the standards I was happy with. Then, I was Vice Principal (Academic) and my responsibilities could be defined as those linked to curriculum, progress, marking and assessment. I had to prepare files which set out clear evidence of how we had met requirements - and this was well within my capabilities as our day to day work at the College builds towards progress.

Obviously, times have moved on, and I am now Principal which means that the buck stops with me for all aspects of the management of the school. 

The challenge which faced the College this week was, in essence, the ‘final lap’ of grading for GCSE and A Level students this year. I’ve pointed out in a few previous blogs how much I’ve valued the heroic effort of staff to make our ambitious approach to the Teacher Assessed Grades this year a reality, but this final stage, where results are collated, standardised, moderated and finally inputted is a particularly time consuming and labour intensive task. For a College which enjoys such close working relationships between staff and students, application of final attainment grades has proved to be emotionally draining. Staff have had to struggle with the temptation of unconscious bias and, whilst the final results to be sent have come with less surprise to staff as they would have been, perhaps, on results day, they have still had to deal with feelings of contentment or disappointment where a student has or has not fulfilled their potential, having been assessed rigorously in our April and June Assessments.

Given the need to maintain the high standards we have set for ourselves, I have found this week perhaps the most exhausting of my tenure. Perhaps that’s because we’re getting so close to the end, and because there appears to be light at the end of the tunnel, but I’m more of the belief that it’s because I have picked up on such a palpable sense that the staff of the College, having given so much this year, at such a level of performance, are ‘running on empty’ - and that I feel it acutely myself.

On Monday, I attended another school within the Bellevue group, where all Heads of the Senior Schools met to present to their contemporaries their approaches to the Teacher Assessed Grades, the processes they had gone through, and any final adaptations which had to be made to them. The meeting was incredibly valuable, and the quality assurance helped to reassure me that we’d done as much as we possibly could in our circumstances to give students enough opportunity to provide evidence of their abilities.

Tuesday brought a visit by our Education Director from the group, and we discussed the strategic aims of the College for the next academic year. I’d been preparing for this for some time: reflecting on the priorities for this year; how far we’d met them; how much Covid had impacted on our ability to do so; and how to successfully incorporate all of the views of staff and students so that we could find new challenges with which to inspire us all to better things. Judging by the consultation findings so far, it has been a good year, and one where a great deal of progress has been made in difficult circumstances, but that doesn’t mean that things can’t improve further. I posed several questions to staff, a good example of which are below: 

'The College is a more productive and more pleasant environment in which to work during this academic year.' How far do you agree?

'The College is going in the right direction.' How far do you agree?

'I trust the leadership which is in place to move the College forward.'

To receive overwhelmingly positive feedback in the responses to these questions makes me immensely proud. I value staff happiness and their contentment within the working environment as paramount to having any kind of success here, and hearing a vindication of my approach is immensely fulfilling. I know that things are not perfect however, and that’s what drives me on. By ensuring that any issues that they are having are being remedied, any ideas that need to be listened to which they are suggesting, anything that I can do for them makes their jobs, and so their lives, easier, is something that I simply have to do. Any other approach would represent a missed opportunity for improvement.

Since Wednesday, the focus has been moderation, standardisation and the finalising of the Teacher Assessed Grades. With the futures of students at stake, the time and effort placed into this must be our absolute priority - and I will work tirelessly with staff to ensure accuracy, whatever it takes.

I was always told when I was playing football as a youngster to ‘give everything’, to ‘leave it all out there on the field’ and to ‘have no regrets’ at full time. We’re coming up to the full time whistle on my first year now, and I honestly don’t believe that staff could have done more during such a complex and demanding period of time. 

I am, in essence, the captain of that team, and my job is to lead them onto the field, to win with them, to lose with them, to speak for them, to represent them - and to defend and protect them when the pressure comes. 

I have to say that I could not be more proud to be in that role. It has taken its toll, but the toil has been worth it.

I wasn’t sure, at the start of the year, just how much I’d embrace the responsibilities of leadership. There have been memorable highs this year, and times where my levels of composure have been put severely to the test, but I believe that I have emerged from it a better person and a better leader.