Friday 12th September

The end of the first ‘proper’ week brought a big moment for the Year 8’s – the announcement of this year’s House Officials.  Mrs Davey introduced this in assembly by asking ‘What makes a good leader?’ particularly poignant at the moment as the staff, pupils and governors are all about to consider this in working together to produce a job description for the next Head Teacher of our school.  Hopefully all Year 8’s, those selected for roles and those not, will display some of the leadership skills mentioned this morning.

Skills has been an ongoing theme this week as in Wednesday’s assembly, I introduced the concept of Ralph Sadleir Learning Skills.  This is based on the idea that rather than just knowing facts there are key skills which can be applied to any job, situation or subject in order to become more successful.  There has been lots of research around this concept area and our approach this year is a joining of ideas from Habits of Mind and Building Learning Power.  Already I hope you have seen the ideal Ralphie traits in your childrens’ planners, the learning skills have been identified by the staff as essentials for our pupils.  There will be a new skill each half term and school rewards like Merits through to Commendation Letters and Ralphie of the Month will be tailored to reflect them.

We feel that by teaching children about these good learning skills, combined with our rich and varied curriculum, the children at Ralph Sadleir will be best prepared for the learning of tomorrow.