Another exciting week this week, following on a wonderful World Book Day last week. It was Band Night last night which is a real showcase of our creative and cooperative musical talent. So many bands and such a huge audience that we should really use a bigger hall – except that we like the atmosphere! We’ve had Fitkidz for year 7, cycling (and a signed picture of Chris Hoy, which I didn’t recognise), a competitive universities training session and another wonderful careers event. We are so grateful for all the partners and friends who support us in our endeavours to broaden the horizons of our young people.
As I write, I’m about to head off to the Annual Conference School and College Leaders which is Friday and Saturday in Birmingham. I’m presenting a workshop there, as is Shaun Brown. Ashley Tomlin, Jon Curtis-Brignell and Jon Bradshaw have all done work for them recently too, so we keep Tallis’s name afloat and share our own brand of the purpose of education and the role of schools. We talk about knowledge, organisation, habits, character, creativity and kindness: education that’s rounded and grounded, not just measured.
Thank you for all your support.
Carolyn Roberts, Head
Don't forget that you can engage with us via email, on Facebook and Twitter and using the Contact page of the website.
Our Tallis Habits focus this half term is on becoming more disciplined. We think of discipline in terms of the attributes needed to craft and improve, reflect critically and develop new techniques, all very relevant to those preparing for public examinations Thank you for your support at home.
Please keep your children out of Woolwich Town Centre
We have had this letter from the police. Please would you read it? We have talked to our young people in assemblies, and would ask you to support us and the police too.
We want to introduce ourselves and let you know what we do and how we support the school. We’d also like to thank Tim Warner for his continued support and excellent leadership as Chair of Governors over the past six years. Tim has decided to stand down and has handed over to Cath Farrant.
We have recently appointed two new parent governors: Elise Black and Charles Duckworth, as well as a new associate staff governor; Carly Simmons who is the school’s Facilities Manager; and a new Co-opted Governor, Kim Hitch, who is the Rector of our local Parish Church. You can see more about the governors here. We are trying to ensure the Governing Body more fully reflects the diversity of our community, so please feel free to let us know if you have ideas about how we might achieve this.
Governors need to ensure they know what’s happening in school by visiting and taking part in school life and by reading and questioning the reports that senior leaders prepare for our meetings, and to be an effective ‘critical friend’.
We provide support and challenge to the Headteacher and her senior and middle leaders on exam outcomes, on how the school spends money to ensure delivery of a good education and how they manage performance of staff.
Governors volunteer, and it’s a demanding but very rewarding role. We work in a committee structure and we have three committees, each with different focus:
Resources monitors everything to do with money, people and premises.
Inclusion focuses on the learning, wellbeing and safeguarding support of all students in the school as well as the behaviour management and pastoral care systems.
Learning and Achievement monitors the progress and achievement of pupils across all subjects at all levels and ensures that all groups are achieving in line with expectations.
You can find out what decisions we have been making and how we have challenged the school by accessing minutes of our Full Governing Body Committee meetings here – you’ll need to scroll down the page. These minutes go up on the website once they have been approved and signed off as accurate so they are usually a term behind. Meetings last around two hours. You will also find a log of attendance so that you can see whether or not governors take their responsibilities seriously – they do!
Our committees meet twice a term and we all sit on at least one committee, most sit on two. We also meet twice as a Full Governing body to record and approve any decisions but more importantly to discuss strategy and how the school is meeting its school development target. We also meet regularly to review and develop our vision and strategy for the school in a Saturday half day training or brainstorming sessions. Our reward is our own development, our sense that we are supporting our community and the occasional cup of tea and a sandwich!
Some areas we have focused on over the last year are:
Approving a development of the Safeguarding policy with a focus on Harmful Behaviours.
Providing support on the implementation of the behaviour management system to ensure consistency and a reduction in fixed term and permanent exclusions.
Discussing with the Leadership team how we can continue to deliver quality education with a reducing budget, that will continue to reduce year on year.
Ensuring that the gap in attainment between disadvantaged and non-disadvantaged pupils is diminished.
Ensuring that attainment in all subjects is in line with or exceeds national standards - through a focus on teaching quality and curriculum design.
This is just a small sample but represents some important issues.
We would like to build stronger connections with parents, staff and pupils by visiting a range of school events and activities and hope to get feedback on how we are doing. So if you see us please do stop to talk and ask us questions. We will do our best to answer. We also ensure that the school surveys staff, parents and pupils in order to get your feedback on what works well and what could be done to improve the learning experience and environment.
Thank you to all of the staff and students who dressed up for World Book Day last Thursday 2nd March. It was a fantastic day and there was a real buzz of excitement around the school about books. It was really hard to choose our top costumes as there were so many fantastic efforts.
However, special mention must go to:
Year 7 Aine Lawrence 7RJ - Hermoine
Chelcie Rayner 7RJ - Cat in the Hat
Year 8 Ruby Harte 8AC - Effie Trinkett from The Hunger Games
Bethany Attridge 8AC - The Mad Hatter
Josh Johnson 8AM - Willy Wonka
Year 9 Tyrese Anwoju 9BN
Year 11 Connor Muir 11LD
Best Tutor Groups: 7HO, 7CB
Best Staff Mr. McCarrick for his fantastic Gandalf
Best Faculty Effort Performing Arts for Lord of the Rings
Humanities for Greek Mythology
To get even more of a flavour of the day, take a look at our special World Book Day video, put together by Spencer Dollner (8AB), Anders Bach (9KA), Daisy Veacock (9KA) and Joe Galler (9AP).
As part of the GCSE Controlled Assessment in Textiles, the students must design and make a textiles product that can be sold in a Natural History Museum. What a great opportunity for us to visit one on the most famous, world- renowned museums!
As well as exploring the vast range of exhibits, the student’s main aim was to visit the Museums four shops to undertake first hand research which can be included in their Controlled Assessment.
They were asked to carry out product analysis on as many textile products as they could find. For Example what was being sold, price, material, target market, etc.
Lots of information was obtained during a very INQUISITIVE day.
As Spanish students, the opportunity to experience a two week language course at the University of Westminster heightened our confidence in Spanish. The combined provision of an intense focus on grammar and the wide range of Spanish culture we were introduced to gave us the right balance to learn and enjoy Spanish at the same time.
We thank our teacher for giving us this opportunity to be taught at a higher level of education and although it meant we had to give up our free time, we would do it again and recommend others to go next year! Specially if, like us, you are considering studying Spanish at further education".
Congratulations to our Spanish year 11 students who attended and passed the Spanish GCSE Skills Club at the University of Westminster as part of their extended learning in the build up to their GCSE exam. Mr Adofo, the co-ordinator of the club said: "I would just like to say your students were fantastic role models for Thomas Tallis School and you should be proud of them. Our lecturers were impressed and I want to wish them all the best in their GCSE’s this summer"
¡Muchas felicitaciones a Hodan (11CC), Nancy (11LD), Majlind (11KR), Francesca (11AR), Ayanna (11LD), Kym (1CC) y Rania Aatik (11KR)! Please come and collect your certificates!
The Year 13 Historians departed from Gatwick South on Thursday 23rd February to touchdown in a very chilly Berlin, expertly supported by veteran trip organiser Mrs Heather Odd and Ms Camilla Evans.
During the four day visit, students exercised inquisitiveness to engage in enquiry into the story of Berlin, with a particular focus on the era of the Third Reich and the Cold War when the city was divided between East and West.
Our visits began in earnest the next day, first stop a 2.5 hour tour of the Stasi Prison. We had an excellent guide who answered all our inquisitive questions about the methods of interrogation in the GDR with patience and a sense of humour. After a brief stop to refuel at Alexander Platz it was off to the Jewish Museum, where students and staff were shown only a small section of what is an amazing museum culturally and architecturally. The students at this point thought their day had drawn to a close, however we wanted them to reach higher heights, we took them to the top of the TV Tower, with popping ears and a ‘look miss its snowing’, this rounded off our first day in Berlin
Saturday dawned bright and chilly, we set off on the ever reliable M29 bus to Check Point Charlie, an eclectic museum, which reflects the history of the division and the subsequent falling of the wall. Next up was a walk around the ex-SS headquarters and a reflection back to a time when Berlin was under a blanket of fear. Next stop was the Story of Berlin, a chance to reflect on over a 1000 years of history of Berlin. For the students it provided a focus on the changes of regimes we had been studying in class, but also a chance to reflect on cultural changes. We also visited the nuclear bunker under the museum, the students gained an understanding of the genuine fear that Berliners felt during the Cold War.
The next day, we visited the German government building, the Reichstag. Students enjoyed a tour that educated not only on the history of this immense landmark, but also at how a different government system works. One student remarked ‘this is so democratic compared to the UK’, this led to an interesting discussion. Next we were off to visit another impressive landmark the Brandenburg Gate and a lesson on where the wall ran.
One of our lasts visits was too Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp, our guide Thomas met us at Potsdamer Platz and explained how Berlin has changed from 1945. Once again the temperature of the day befitted the history we were hearing, a very cold 2 degrees and a 3 hour outdoor tour set the scene of the bleak reality of the holocaust and the prisoners who had suffered torture at the hands of the Nazi and then the Soviet regime. After a lot of questions and a period of reflection we went off back to central Berlin and a visit to the Holocaust tombs, a fitting memorial to the victims of the Nazi genocide.
Our last stop before coming home was the friendly souvenir shop and endless enquiries of whether the wall of key chains was part of the ‘real wall’ and so our final day in Berlin drew to a close
Congratulations to Xuan Xueshan in 12AK who has earned a place on a week long summer Physics School in CERN in August. Xuan submitted an essay on Astrophysics to the competition organisers at Alleyn's School who congratulated her on her 'original and thoughtful' essay. She is one of 18 successful state school students selected from schools across south London.
