11 May 2012

I wonder if you, like me, think that four day weeks are a good idea? I had a great long weekend mostly spent with my son who has just bought his first car from a local garage on Halliwell Road. It’s true what they say that the insurance is more than the cost of the car! It’s also true that things like this represent a big change in our lives. For the first time ever I got in the passenger seat next to him while he drove – a very strange feeling – I’m very proud though!

The long weekend gave us time to work too. We’ve made some changes to the outside of school and they are BIG changes. The ‘positivity’ posters are all up now and, if you don’t know what I mean by this then have a look at the front of school! Have a look at the links on this website too! Make a contribution to the website – yes you! Go on, do something different and send us a photo, a poem, a photograph, some writing that means ‘positivity’ to you. Again, follow the ‘positivity’ link on this website. Make a difference – send us something positive!

Very best wishes!
Alec Cottrill

26 April 2012

I do hope you all had a wonderful Easter.  I certainly didn’t expect snow; about eight inches in less than 12 hours where I live and this certainly made driving ‘interesting’ on one day. Having thought that the bad weather was out of the way and that long sunny days are with us for a while, we now find we’re back into rain, cold and wind! Just when our optional summer uniform has started too!

One of the things that has interested me for a while is the way people outside of Smithills see us. I’ve been fascinated by people who have a picture of our school that is far from the way it really is. The very best way to see us as we should be seen is to visit us during a normal working day. Anyone who wants to do this is very welcome to ‘see us in action’ but they must make an appointment first.  Over the next few months we are going to be doing some work on ‘positivity.’ Amongst other things we will be looking at the fantastic progress we have made in a lot of detail and asking staff and pupils to do some work on this. If this sounds a bit vague, it is and it’s designed to get you curious! But wait and see what’s coming. It will be far from vague!

Very best wishes
Alec Cottrill

6th March 2012

We have a Friends of Smithills Group that was formed last Thursday!  The very draft aims of this group are as follows:

1. To support the life and work of Smithills school.
2. To help publicise the rich opportunities that exist for students and staff at Smithills.
3. To attract funds or other support to help the extra curricular life of the school.
4. To act as a budgetary body independent of the schools budget allocation for the purpose of supporting the extra curricular life of the school.
5. To review and add to the School Improvement Planning system (Milestones document) with a view to enhancing the extra curricular life of the school.
6. To establish a ‘former student’ / Alumni group?

If you’re interested in getting involved in supporting the school through this group then there will shortly be a link on the Web Site that will let you get in touch with those that run the group.

This week we welcome three of our local councillors into school. They will be having lunch with us and touring some of the schools new facilities like the band rehearsal space and new Music rooms.  There is the regular House Captain’s lunch with me on Wednesday AND, also on Wednesday; we should have GCSE results from the January exams. We very much hope that these will show significant improvements (especially in boys’ performance)!

We have just started Cycle 4 of our Monitoring the Quality of Teaching and Learning system so staff are under even more pressure for the next two weeks!

And, at last, we have sunshine!

Wednesday 29 February
 

I hope half term was good for you all! A lot of work was done by the site team to improve the building for all our pupils and staff. Our major refurbishment in the newly acquired building is almost complete and Music will be on the move over the next few weeks, as will all of our bands for their rehearsals. We also installed a brand new fibre optic cable to increase the band width and speed of our internet access capacity for students.
 
As most of our students already know, I had an interesting time on Sunday morning – I fell in the River Derwent whilst out fishing! I got very wet, cold and muddy! It was not perhaps the highlight of my half term, and far from my finest hour, but it certainly gave me a lot to think about in a very short space of time!
 
Fortunately it is not quite the same feeling of immersion that we all get when we come back to school after a holiday! We are looking forward to 7 March so much when we get the results of more early entry GCSEs – we’re sure it will show significant improvements in areas we need to work on!
 
Our meetings with Cumbria University and the Operations Manager for the Rugby League World Cup have proved really rewarding so far this week. Much will come of these meetings for our staff and pupils.
 
I await a meeting with pupils about energy use in school with some apprehension – we have a lot of work to do here!
 
The first meeting of the new Friends of Smithills takes place in the Main School Hall this Thursday at 5.30pm. If you’re interested in being part of the ‘other side’ of school life, then please join us. I will certainly keep you posted about how this group develops.
 
Very best wishes,
Alec Cottrill

Monday 13 February

As the February half term holiday draws near, I wish to take the opportunity to update you on progress and a number of changes in and around school.

• Firstly, a reminder that school is closed to all pupils for a staff training day on Friday 17th February!
• Attendance is the highest it has ever been at Smithills! Please help us to continue this rising trend.
• Our new building development in part of the old Sixth Form College building is proceeding well. We will shortly take over three new music classrooms, a much improved band rehearsal space and some new IT-rich classrooms.
• Early entry GCSE results published in January show that we are 9% up on this time last year! This is a phenomenal achievement and we look set to have our best ever examination results again this Summer!
• Our new Options process has gone brilliantly with Year 9 parents and I am sure that Year 8 parents will find the detailed consultation with members of the senior leadership team similarly worthwhile in March.
• The first ski trip to be launched for some years is almost full now – if there are any more interested students then please see Mr Hamilton as soon as possible!
• We have reviewed our school uniform. I have decided that I will not make any changes for September this year BUT, I will be making some changes for September 2013. We will obviously keep you fully informed about this.
• Fundraising for the Senior Brass Band tour to the United States, the Dance trip to New York the Kenya expedition continues apace – any support you can give (financial or otherwise) is MUCH appreciated!
• We are collecting information for a Smithills ‘Wall of Fame!’ Do you know of anyone who is now famous who attended Smithills School? If so, please e-mail the school office with any details which you have.

Last, but by no means least, we are reforming the Friends of Smithills School. We would hope that this body (similar to a Parent-Teacher Association) would support the work of the school and, in the immediate future, act as an organisation submitting bids to various funds in order to support improvements and projects which we wish to carry out in school. If you are interested in being involved, please e-mail us at office@smithillsschool.net with your name and contact details. We plan to hold the first meeting on Thursday 1st March at 5.30pm in the main school hall.

Have a lovely half term.

A.T. Cottrill                                                                                     

Headteacher

Wednesday 1 February

Dear All,

This Blog is a new! This is, in fact, the very first ‘Blog’ I have ever written! I hope it will become a way of improving communication with the extended Smithills Family. Like all large families, its very easy to lose touch with people – you only tend to write or meet up with people on special occasions. Smithills represents a huge and very extended family. We have regular contact with people from all over the world who have had an association with the school and we know that they want to keep up to date with what we’re doing!

We’ve just had two excellent Nights of Dance – our thanks go to all involved in them. Saturday sees ‘the Bands’ performing again at Victoria Hall – it will be a spectacular event as usual!

Yesterday we were given our indicative budget. Myself and Alice Lees (the Business Manger) are looking closely at the figures!

Today has seen our first collaborative fieldwork venture with Bolton School – we hope there will be many similar events in the future too! The weather is being kind to them! Today sees sunshine for what I think is the first time in ages. We all know (and there is a lot of evidence to support this) that weather affects children and if it affects children it affects learning! We’re VERY interested in learning at Smithills and – I guess you could say – we’re very interested in the weather too!

For me one of the highlights of each half term is lunch with the House Council – that’s today in 20 minutes time.

I welcome comments on the Blog especially ideas for improving it!