Keith Morrow

Summer Holidays or more School Days?

Fri, 03 May 2013 08:53:00 -0400

Just as I was enjoying the sunshine (and hopefully you were too) the last few days of a restful and restorative Easter Holiday, the press was full of Mr Gove’s latest protestations about the length of school holidays and why they should be shortened.

It’s a theme that appears in the press with a degree of regularity and it’s easy to see why. School holidays are long, and most parents work, so how do we balance the need for parents to work with who looks after the children?

I have a great deal of sympathy with this view. When I was growing up, I came from a very traditional family where my mother didn’t go out to work, and there never seemed to be the same issues about child care in the school holidays. Most of my friends were in the same situation – this was the 1970’s after all!

Today, society is different. Increasingly both parents work and therefore the issue of child care in school holidays is a major concern for such parents. I am always amazed by the ingenuity of parents who manage the long school holidays with a rota of time off work, family and relatives drafted in and coming to mutual child care arrangements with friends. There are an increasing amount of holiday clubs available to help parents, with all year round nuresery care and activity sessions from Mad Science to sports in school holidays to provide worthwhile fun activities, as well as quality care.

Whilst having sympathy for parents struggling to find holiday care for their children, I disagree with Mr Gove’s arguments for shorter school holidays and longer school days for pupils.

What parents need is good child care for their children during the school holidays rather than more school. What children need is a break from their studies, a chance to play with family and friends, a chance to recharge batteries and assimilate their learning, a chance to take up new hobbies and meet new people and, dare I say it, a chance to be bored and have to make their own fun to fill an unstructured day. In other words, we need to give our children the opportunity to be children.

Mr Gove is also keen to make comparisons with schools in The Tiger Economies South East Asia, with long days and lots of homework. Having visited schools in China and Vietnam, the work ethic of the pupils is impressive, but the schooling is not something I would wish to replicate here. Very large classes of children sitting in serried rows, learning by rote, demonstrating excellent computational skills but limited creativity, is not the education system we should want for our children. Why is it, that British International Independent Schools are in such demand overseas? Why do so many families living overseas seek to send their children to British Independent Schools? It is precisely the quality of education offered, broad and balanced curriculum, creativity and thinking skills that is valued so highly the world over, but not so by Mr Gove.

Would longer school days and shorter holidays improve results? The evidence for this is far from clear. Anecdotally, children at Independent Schools as a whole achieve better exam results and have longer holidays than state school pupils.

Having seen how hard our pupils (and teachers) work, I feel the holidays are a necessary balance between the long days and demanding curriculum that our children already experience at school.

The Value of a Good Education

Fri, 22 Mar 2013 11:22:00 -0400

A good school does much more than educate its pupils in the three R’s. At The Elms and Trent we often speak about educating ‘the whole child” and I believe we do this very well indeed.

Just taking the Lent Term, our children have had numerous opportunities to play sport, star in plays, go on visits and residentials, dress up, ride ponies, make masks and ascend the Eiffel Tower! Our children are very lucky indeed to come here, and very fortunate to have parents who place such a high value on their children’s education, valuing not only their children’s academic success but education in the broadest sense.

The statistics released by the government this week showing a rise in the number of children who are “persistent absentees” from school are very alarming. In the academic year 2011/12, 41,224 penalty notices were issued to parents of children who did not regularly attend school. The fact that such a large number of children are disengaged from the education system and not attending school is shocking.

The reasons for non-attendance are many and varied. I know from parents’ comments and from seeing children at The Elms, how happy our children are here, how they skip into school each day, and how hard the staff work to provide a stimulating, enjoyable and varied curriculum. It’s hard to imagine children so disenfranchised from schooling that they do not attend. Whilst schools have a moral duty to ensure the education they provide is fit for purpose, parents also have a duty to instil in their children the value of a good education, as a life enhancing privilege not available to many of the world’s poorest children.

Malala Yousafzai, the Pakistani schoolgirl shot in the head by extremists because of her support for girls’ education, returned to school this week and is now attending Edgbaston High School, Independent School for Girls. The example shown by this remarkable young lady, who clearly values the importance of education, should be food for thought for those thousands of teenagers in the DfE statistics who do not attend school regularly.

So in a week where the Chancellor’s red box didn’t give much cause for celebration, I thank all of our parents for the values you instil in your children and for the value you place on a good education.

Your comments, as always, are welcome.
Best Wishes
Keith Morrow

Homework hits the headlines! Homework or ‘prep’ is one of...

Fri, 15 Mar 2013 10:52:38 -0400

Homework hits the headlines!

Homework or ‘prep’ is one of those perennial issues, where schools are often criticised by parents for giving too much homework, or not enough. In my experience as a Reporting Inspector for the Independent Schools Inspectorate, I find many schools face the dilemma of deciding ‘What is the right amount of homework to give?’

Homework hit the headlines recently in China. The boss of a Chinese company ordered nine employees to do his 12 year old daughter’s homework. Unfortunately for the father and daughter concerned, one of the employees reported the incident to the girl’s school and the whistle was blown! This incident raises several questions. There is the moral issue about cheating, the question about the amount of homework being given to a 12 year old if it takes nine employees to complete, and a sense of jealously as to why my dad didn’t give me the same help with my homework.

At the other end of the spectrum, Franoçis Hollande, the French President, has declared an end to all homework given in primary schools; “An education programme is, by definition, a societal programme. Work should be done at school rather than home”. This move in France follows the success of Denmark, which after introducing homework free schools, reported a rise in overall grades.

So what is the answer? Well, certainly at the junior school level, there are some learning advantages to certain types of homework. Learning and practising common spelling words, reading, learning number bonds or times-tables can certainly assist children with their classroom work. Practising a musical instrument also leads to improved performance. But beyond this, for younger children, there is very little evidence that hours of homework each night are helpful, productive or add anything to a child’s learning.

Indeed, homework can be rather a challenge for parents as well as children! I don’t necessarily mean the level of difficulty, but the impact on family life and the quality of relationships between parents and children. After a hard day at work and school, a family meal and time together is far more life-enhancing than having to become the nagging parent forcing a tired and reluctant child to begin hours of homework.

At The Elms, we have a Homework Policy that we keep under constant review. In brief, we aim to hit the middle ground of balancing those beneficial aspects of homework (spellings, reading and times tables) with a ‘little and often’ philosophy for homework. I am very aware of how hard our children work at school during the day, how far some children travel to be here, and that many families and children have hobbies and interests outside school, which are as valuable as any homework we may set. Unless you feel differently?

Your comments, as always, are welcome.

Best Wishes

Keith Morrow

The Pursuit of Happiness

Tue, 19 Feb 2013 06:21:53 -0500

The world can be a pretty gloomy place at times and the worries and stresses of being an adult are all too easily passed onto our children without us really knowing we are doing it.

Whilst children, especially as they get older, should be aware of the world around them, they should not be burdened by it. Getting the balance between motivating our children, encouraging them to have high expectations of themselves and not feeling anxious is an important balance we must achieve as parents, as a school and as a society. I appreciate the pleasure and the pressure Year 6 children may have experienced when been under taking scholarships exams recently. How we prepare children for success and disappointment and teach them resilience is a key life-long characteristic and one route to achieving happiness. Childhood should be a time of happiness and excitement, and mostly it is! It’s very hard to be anything but happy working in a school such as The Elms with young children. Children are naturally joyful and do bring so many smiles and so much sunshine into the everyday. This week 6RF did an excellent assembly all about love and St Valentine’s Day. The children’s comments and ideas about what love is were very moving and revealed that children can be tuned in to the really important things in life. Happiness is not necessarily brought about by external factors. Money, fame, power and beauty are not the panacea we may think they are.

Different things make us happy. According to the research by Professor Sonja Lyubomirsky (psychologist and happiness expert) we are looking for happiness in the wrong places. She explains “What makes us happier is under our own control; it involves how we think and how we behave in our daily lives. Are we comparing ourselves to others or are we grateful for what we have? Are we forgiving? Do we invest in our relationships or not?”

Some schools are attempting to teach children how to be happy. Wellington College has hit the headlines for introducing happiness lessons to all of its students. Another approach is to challenge our children to perform acts of kindness. In a study carried out in the USA with children aged nine to 11, where children were tasked with carrying our acts of kindness such as helping friends with homework or visiting elderly relatives, the children involved became happier. Their acts of kindness were appreciated, the children received thanks and praise and became more popular with their peers.

So enjoy this half-term break, encourage your children to be kind and help others, and know that happiness is about our outlook on the world.

Be happy!

Should schools teach lessons in manners?

Thu, 24 Jan 2013 09:41:12 -0500

In the wake of the Head of a leading public school calling for a new General Certificate of Character Education (GCSE), Mr Morrow asks ‘Should schools teach lessons in manners?’

Schools are subject to constant demands from politicians to address the ills of society at large:

Riots on the streets of Britain? Schools should teach more about social cohesion.
Obesity crisis? Schools should teach children how to cook for themselves and to reject junk food.
Not enough gold medallists in the Olympics? Schools should teach more sport and stop selling off playing fields.

Is it right to task schools with developing an ever larger curriculum? Or will these demands distract from the core business of school: teaching pupils to become numerate, literate and ready for work in the 21st Century?

Certainly, Dr Anthony Seldon, Master of Wellington College and the country’s most quotable Head Master has set out his vision for the General Certificate of Character Education (GCCE) to be introduced in all British secondary schools to give pupils a grounding in good manners, self-control, responsibility, punctuality, kindness and tidiness (source: Daily Telegraph).

On the surface, it seems a ridiculous notion. Surely children are taught manners by their parents, not to mention the other attributes mentioned as possible components to the GCCE? Well, apparently not! Or perhaps a more accurate answer would be that not all children are fortunate enough to grow up in households where parents teach their children manners, kindness and responsibility or tidiness.

Throughout my career, I have never worked in a school that doesn’t teach these characteristics. I would regard the components that Dr Seldon speaks about as the stuff of everyday school life; the un-written or ‘hidden’ curriculum that pervades the school culture and add to the ethos of a good school. So is the GCCE a headline catching gimmick or a real call for schools to adopt a different approach?

The key would appear to be for schools to know their pupils and their parents well. We can’t take it for granted that all children and indeed all parent share the same values as we do. Social ‘norms’, like language, evolve over time and we do well to help our children understand that their norms are not always the same as other adults in authority, university admissions tutors or indeed prospective employers. Parents who turn up to see the Head in his study wearing muddy boots, sit during a meeting wearing a baseball cap and feel at home to answer their mobile phone when it rings are not as rare as one might think!

Children receive mixed messages about the attributes that are celebrated by society. We live in a world where footballers, pop stars and celebrities in jungles, can gain fame and fortune through a public display of lack of manners, tidiness, kindness and responsibility. Societies where adults rarely greet each other, manners are an optional extra and the right of the individual supersedes the right of the majority.

All schools have a responsibility to prepare their pupils for the best possible start in life. Academic qualifications are only part of the story. The best schools already have a programme in place to educate children in the broadest possible sense, giving children a wealth of real learning experiences, for a successful future life. If schools are to do their pupils justice, they should instil in their pupils the social skills that will propel them into successful adulthood. If we are to serve all pupils from a variety of backgrounds, clearly schools will need to make decisions about the type of character education that their pupils need. To those schools serving pupils in the most disadvantaged areas, the role schools have to play in inspiring pupils to achieve is transformational. The key is to allow schools to adapt their curriculum offering to meet the needs of the pupils it serves. For successful schools already in tune with their pupils’ needs, teaching manners, responsibility and punctuality are the elements that pervade the ethos of the school; modelled by the teaching staff.

Thank you for reading this blog!

Keith Morrow

Should all independent schools sponsor academies?

Mon, 03 Dec 2012 09:54:00 -0500

The reaction to Lord Adonis’ admonishment of independent schools for not sponsoring academies rumbles on.

Earlier this month the former Minister for Education commented that Trustees of private schools should look at their charitable values as a “matter of conscience and duty”.

Ever since the threat from the Charity Commission, challenged in the High Court by the independent sector last year, has sought to change the legal definition of what constitutes a charity, independent schools have been under the political microscope.

The Independent Schools Council was instrumental in defending the sector against the Charity Commission and established that, in the words of Matthew Burgess, General Secretary of the ISC, “The diversity of the sector simply means there can be no single moral compass pointing unwaveringly in the direction of the government’s academy programme.”

There are several and many significant reasons why independent schools should not feel a sense of duty to sponsor academies.

Primarily, independent schools are exactly that, independent from Government interference in terms of the curriculum and how they operate. This independence should be fiercely defended. It is what has enabled independent schools to meet the aspirational needs of pupils and parents for many generations.

Grammar schools have been and gone, academies may well do the same. If some independent schools with over-flowing coffers and the willingness to sponsor government funded academies wish to do so, that is their prerogative, but the independent sector as a whole should not feel obliged to follow.

The vast majority of independent schools demonstrate their ‘public benefit’ in a variety of ways. This can be as diverse as running master classes in particular subjects, sharing campus facilities with local organisations, fundraising for local and national charities, involvement with education projects overseas, holding community or field days supporting local charitable groups and children with special needs.

The Elms is involved in all of these activities and more. In addition, many schools offer various schemes to widen social access and diversity to a first class independent education.

But Lord Adonis seems to over-look two very important factors when criticising the apparent lack of appetite from the independent sector as a whole in not jumping into bed with the Government over sponsoring academies.

Firstly, Britain is in the grip of a financial crisis. Many independent schools, which range in diversity from those tiny proprietorial schools to Eton and Harrow, are simply not in a financial position to give away their income from fee paying parents and let the government off the hook in terms of adequately funding state education.

Many independent schools are struggling to hang on to pupils and support parents whose businesses or income has suffered as a result of the economic downturn.

Secondly, and crucial to any argument about why should independent schools enjoy some small benefits from the taxation system, is the notion that independent schools save the exchequer and the general tax payer an estimated £7billion per year.

Independent schools receive no money from the state and instead rely on parents paying fees from their taxed income. In effect, parents are paying twice in order to send their children to independent schools - once in fees and again through their taxes.

If all independent schools closed tomorrow and the pupils entered the state sector, the general rise in the basic level of taxation needed to fund the additional school places would place a huge burden on the public purse, making any savings made by the sector by keeping their charitable status seem totally irrelevant.

The real question, the political dynamite that all governments have shied away from facing up to, is why are parents willing to pay twice for the education of their children?

What is it independent schools do so well that parents make huge financial sacrifices for in order to send their children? When the government has developed a state education sector to mirror the success of the independent education sector, parents will make their choices accordingly and the arguments of charitable status will be defunct. We can then debate how affluent parents are skewing the housing market in the catchment areas of ‘good schools’.

Until that moment Lord Adonis and his supporters should focus on how to make all schools as good as independent schools and consign the politics of envy to their rightful place.

Winning Ingredients

Fri, 28 Sep 2012 09:26:00 -0400

Every year, members IAPS (Independent Association of Preparatory Schools) gather to learn from each other, share information about the ups and downs of life in the prep-school world and generally take some time away from school to think strategically.

As I’m sure those of you who have ever attended a training course or conference appreciate, they are a mixed bag of the truly exceptional, and the mind-numbingly tedious! Sometimes it’s not always clear where the new learning lies and it can take a little while for the ideas to percolate through the grey matter and become something tangible.

Sifting through the conference programme, there was one gem, one nugget of gold that shone more brightly than all the others. Humphrey Walters, BT Global Challenge round the world yachtsman, motivational speaker and coach for developing high performance teams was an outstanding speaker. He spoke with passion, humour and common sense about the recipes for developing and sustaining high performance teams.

To summarise, he identified three key ingredients:

Firstly, that winning teams know their cause. This can be expressed both in terms of clear strategic intent, as in the school development plan, but also in the daily actions of others. Teachers knowing and understanding how concentrating on delivering excellent teaching and learning, caring for our pupils and leading on their area of the curriculum contributes to the success of the school as a whole.

The second ingredient was ‘pride in the badge’. Successful organisations are ones where people want to belong! I’m always humbled by the pride both pupils and staff take in being part of and belonging to The Elms. This is demonstrated in the pride with which pupils wear their uniform, compete in fixtures and the length of service staff give to the school. It’s a place where people want to be, and that’s got to be good news for everyone who works there.

The final ingredient for a successful team is about the behaviour of the team and how we look after each other. Consideration for others, good manners and compassion are all qualities which are in daily evidence at The Elms. I was delighted that Humphrey Walters found this to be an important factor in successful organisations. It means that looking after each other, caring and supporting pupils and staff is not only the right thing to do, but helps continue as a high performing organisation.

There are always areas for improvement. Nothing is so good that it cannot be better, and I take a huge amount of pride at The Elms that my role as school leader is not about having all the ideas, but more often about tempering the enthusiasm and energy from my team, to introduce new ideas gradually into our school. No idea is unworthy of consideration and to work in a culture where there are so many ideas is an excellent way to keep renewed and refreshed.

So…

I return to The Elms with a renewed sense of pride in the achievements of our team, with some more ideas for our journey of continuous improvement and with a feeling that I’ve missed being at school. I wonder if anyone has missed me….?

A Question of Sport

Fri, 14 Sep 2012 06:21:59 -0400

So it’s back to school, end of the rainy season, and hello to an Indian Summer. As well as providing a feast for the eyes and soul, the London 2012 Olympics fuelled much debate about the divide between those athletes educated in the state versus independent sector.

So what is all the fuss about?

Well, the nub of the debate centres around the success of those athletes educated in the independent fee paying sector. More than a third of the British Medal Winners in the 2012 Olympics were from independent schools, which educate only 7% of the school population in the UK.

Team GB won 65 medals, 29 of them gold. The proportion of state-educated gold medal winners is broadly similar to previous Games. The proportion of privately educated Olympic winners (37%) is similar to that for MPs (35%), but less than leading journalists (54%) or judges (70%), according to the Sutton Trust.

How do we use such statistics? Do we congratulate the independent sector on their amazing success? Well, no! Only in Britain can we turn such a success story into a negative; rather than a celebration of our independent school sector. Cries of ‘unfair’ and ‘elitism’ can overshadow more searching questions and help us learn from this experience.

Why do I think the independent sector is able to provide a disproportionate number of medal winners? Is it simply a question of money?

It’s hard to argue that facilities, especially in some sports, make a difference. Independent schools have invested heavily over the years in sports facilities and have not been prone to the same pressures to sell off playing fields to raise funds. Some may have been tempted! But a culture of sport, love of sport and appreciation for sport in the curriculum and beyond would have prevented them from doing this, even though the independent school market is facing tough times in some regions.

At the prep /independent junior school level, most junior schools set annual fees that are not significantly different to the capitation given by Local Authorities to state primary schools. Our independence allows us to use our funding where we feel it benefits pupils most. Employing specialist teachers, rather than generalist primary teachers, is one way prep / independent junior schools are able to teach sport at a higher level than state primary schools (and I speak as the former Head of two state primary schools). It is this specialist knowledge, opportunities to play a range of sports and take part in regular competitive sport that plants a seed of enthusiasm and love of sport in children of a young age, which senior schools go on to develop and where we see our athletes flourish.

There is another reason why sport (amongst many other areas such as clubs, CCF, educational visits), both curricular and extra-curricular, flourishes in some schools and not others; the school culture. In the best schools, where staff feel valued and cared for by the school leadership and appreciated by parents, teachers give over and above any narrow ‘job description’. The culture of the School Master or School Mistress, the expectation that all staff help run extra-curricular activities, which not only provide rich learning opportunities, but cement relationships between staff and pupils. Teachers in the independent sector often have very favourable working conditions, smaller class sizes and generous lesson support / planning and preparation time, which enables them to give more of themselves than in the state sector. This willingness and expectation that staff give time so generously, enables sport, amongst other areas to blossom.

Congratulations to all our athletes, wherever they were educated. And thank you to the teachers up and down the land, in whichever sector, who give their time so generously to all pupils to help them follow their dreams.

Where does the time go?

Mon, 09 Jul 2012 05:57:07 -0400

Another school year is now at an end! Where does the time go?

Today we said farewell and good luck to our wonderful Year 6 children; most of whom will be continuing their journey on this campus over at Trent College.

We send them on their way with a fabulous legacy: belief in themselves and a love of learning. I look forward to seeing them grow and develop over the coming years and who knows what the future will bring? One day, they may even return as a teacher at The Elms, like Mr Jolly, our new Year 5 teacher, who many years ago attended The Elms in Year 6 as one of our earliest pupils!

I was delighted with the enthusiastic support received at Speech Day. Thank you for your warm words and appreciation for what was an excellent end of year celebration. To re-live the experience, follow the link to my blog by clicking HERE.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank you for your continued support throughout this year and to wish you and your family a fabulous restful and rejuvenating summer holiday. May the sun shine on us all!

Best wishes,

Keith Morrow
Head Master

Olympic Values for All

Fri, 06 Jul 2012 10:14:53 -0400

In a year in which we celebrate the 2012 London Olympic and Para-Olympic games, I want to turn my theme today to the core values that lie at the heart of these events: Friendship, Respect, Excellence, Courage, Determination, Inspiration and Equality.

Friendship

Relationships are at the heart of any successful school. Visitors and prospective parents are always taken aback by the friendly atmosphere that pervades the school when they look round, or their child visits for an assessment day. The quality of relationships that exist are not accidental, we work at our relationships. Throughout the school year, we ensure that our children have many opportunities to make and sustain their friendships.

We face the challenge of educating children to know what true friendship is and what it is not. To know that a handful of true friends are worth more than a hundred on-line ‘virtual’ friends.

Respect

Respect is not a given, it is earned and then reciprocated. At The Elms, we model respect to our pupils by the way we treat them on a daily basis, by the energy we bring to the school and by the high standards we expect from all our pupils.

Our pupils show exemplary behavior and manners, and we should never underestimate this ‘unfashionable’ quality in the ME, MY and I world in which we live.

Excellence

At The Elms, we are committed to maintaining the excellent teaching and learning that the Independent Schools Inspectorate judged us as having. We continue to develop our curriculum, our assessments, our provision for very able pupils and our support for those children who need learning support. This year we introduced specialist teaching in art, design technology and ICT to our Year 5 and Year 6 pupils. This means that our oldest pupils now receive specialist teaching in 9 areas of the curriculum, including music, modern foreign languages, sport and games, dance and drama and science.

Courage

There are many examples of courage I could share with you from The Elms. Courage shown by our pupils who have overcome personal loss or cope with disability as part of everyday life. Courage shown by staff, who have overcome serious illness, surgery and pain and returned to their jobs at The Elms as soon as they can so not to let their anyone down.

Courage shown by our governors to support new ventures like our new Nursery for under 3’s which is already a huge success.

Determination

At The Elms, we are always determined to do the right thing for our children and our school and not just follow the easy path. We are determined our children follow our behavior code and our dress code,. We are determined to be honest and constructive in our reports. We are determined that our classes are well-balanced to maximize learning, where children learn to get along, rather than classes of just friendship groups. We are determined to ensure our curriculum remains broad, balanced and relevant to the children we teach.

Inspiration

It’s hard not to feel inspired working in an environment as privileged as The Elms and Trent College.

Inspiration is everywhere, for children and adults alike. We find inspiration on the stage, we find inspiration on the rugby pitch when a remarkable try is scored, in a poetry reading when the hairs on your neck stand on end and in the last note of a solo performance in the Spring Strings concert. And here at The Elms, we are fortunate enough to be part of a larger Trent Community. The inspiration doesn’t stop at Year 6! One of the joys of being part of a 0 to 18 school is that we can look in awe across at our Senior School, and be inspired to be our best selves as we grow older.

Equality

Equality if the final Olympic Value to explore. We are not all the same, it would be a rather dull world if we were. Having true equality means being treated differently, according to our gifts and needs, so that we all have the chance to prosper and flourish. We do this at The Elms through rigorous assessment in learning, matching challenge to the needs of the pupil. We provide equality through a wealth of opportunities, both curricular and extra-curricular, were every child can find something they enjoy and are good at.

If we are able to live these Olympic values, we will all be gold medalists!

The Virtual World

Tue, 26 Jun 2012 03:49:00 -0400

I am a huge fan and user of modern technology. I recognise the opportunities it brings to organise one’s life, give access to a vast array of information and mis-information via the Internet, and its potential to revolutionize learning for all.

Advances in technology do not always mean progress. This is especially true when considering the potential harm of social media, which I am learning first hand! In the past few weeks I have had my Twitter account hacked, sending out messages to my followers about users who had made unkind comments as well as recommending ways to lose weight without altering one’s diet! If only it were true! I have also been sent Facebook comments which are at best unhelpful and do nothing to illuminate mis-understandings or seek answers to questions that would be best expressed face to face or in a telephone conversation. Posting a message on Facebook does not help answer a question or seek clarification on an issue.

It’s easy to hide behind ‘anonymous’ emails, tweets and Facebook comments and take comfort in the avatar of a virtual existence. I know from issues that are increasing coming into school, that we are all affected, including pupils who can be subjected to ‘cyber-bullying’. Many of our children have Facebook accounts, even though the minimum age for holding such an online account is 13 years. Children are easily upset when they receive unkind comments or ‘friends’ dislike their comments or photographs.

Social media is a wonderful tool for keeping in touch with family and friends across great distances, sharing ideas and making introductions. But none of this is a substitute for meeting real people, seeing their expressions, hearing their voice, shaking their hands and looking them in the eye. If we are not selective in the way we use Facebook, a generation will grow up with 1,000 on-line friends, but a deep loss that is the rich tapestry of human interaction.

Keith Morrow
Head Master

The Day School Where You Can Spend the Night!

Tue, 12 Jun 2012 04:03:17 -0400

Trent College has a proud history of being a boarding school, and whilst the fashion for boarding versus being a day pupil has waxed and waned over the years due to various social and economic circumstances (including the Harry Potter phenomenon!) boarding is once again on the rise.

Parents and children who may consider boarding as an option for their family are very welcome to attend the ‘Introduction to Boarding’ event being hosted by Trent College this Saturday. This is the first national event of its type and we are lucky to be able to host some very prestigious and knowledgeable guests on the day. During the morning the questions that parents and pupils have about boarding will all be answered; providing a real insight into the opportunities of modern boarding, the reality of boarding life, parenting a boarder and if boarding is right for your family.

Traditional full-time prep-school boarding, typically from the age of seven, has declined in the UK during the last 20 years, and is now the preserve of only a few traditional preparatory schools. However, there has been a surge in the number of prep and junior schools offering flexi-boarding in the UK. Currently, there are 218 junior and prep-schools in the UK that take in boarders. This represents a 7% rise on 2010. The number of boys and girls attending junior boarding is now at 14,000 in the UK.

There are many reasons why the flex-boarding model, where children either board part-time (typically a couple of nights per week) or board occasionally, is so popular. Flexi-boarding is attractive to many working parents for a variety of reasons. Busy work lives, extended meetings and business travel / conferences can be real headaches for working parents organising childcare. Many parents no longer have the extended family living close by, and increasing numbers of grandparents are living very active and fun-filled retirements!

Over the next couple of years we will see the demand for boarding places rise at Trent College, along with the introduction of boarding from Year 7 onwards and flexi-boarding. I am increasingly being asked by parents if boarding, especially flexi-boarding, could be an option for The Elms in the future. The simply answer is YES! This is something we are seriously looking into, especially for Years 5 and 6. I would be very interested to hear from parents your views on whether or not you would actually find this offer valuable, and perhaps an indication of how often you would use this service?

The Elms has established a strong reputation for the pastoral care of children. With the development of a small and bespoke boarding provision for boys and girls, we would aim to become a day school where children could spend the night, and a boarding school where children go home at the weekends. Your thoughts and comments please…

elms.school@trentcollege

I urge you to attend this Saturday morning’s ‘Introduction to Boarding’ event with me, as an opportunity on our doorstep not to be missed, ensuring you have all of the information when planning the future stages of your child’s education, learning all you can from these third party specialists.

The morning begins at 9.00am and further details and an online registration form can be found at http://www.trentcollege.net/2358/boarding/event-an-introduction-to-boarding/

Also for consideration is the boarding taster weekend at Trent on Saturday 23^rd June, which commences as Family Day draws to an end and will be a fun way to introduce the idea of sleeping at school!

Pageantry and Splendour

Fri, 01 Jun 2012 11:46:00 -0400

Life is a mixture of the remarkable and unremarkable, the mundane and the exceptional. Schools echo life, but they are life heightened and magnified, which is why I enjoy being part of the community which is The Elms and Trent College. Hardly a week goes by without some special assembly, competition, concert, play, sporting event, etc, etc… Working at The Elms is life in the fast lane!

Unlike our big sister Trent, with 140 + years of history, tradition and rituals to fall back on, The Elms is very much the young upstart! In the 12 + years The Elms has existed, it has established some traditions of its own, and is still evolving as it comes of age. Some recent ‘traditions’ have proved so successful, it is hard to imagine they only existed this year! Examples of this are our wonderful Chapel Services with Father Whitwell, prefects having afternoon tea with the Head Master, new book worm awards, the list goes on and on.

Schools like Trent and The Elms are remarkable institutions. Life has become so informal, where handshakes are rare, standing to greet a visitor is a thing of the past and ties are a relic of a by-gone age. We instinctively know that life is better for all if we have rules and live by them. We hold our traditions firm at school and whilst I have no ability to stop the tide coming in, I am committed to ensuring that The Elms passes on to its children a sense of tradition and protocol that will equip them for Trent College and the world beyond.

This week, we celebrated Her Majesty’s Diamond Jubilee. Here we can learn about traditions living side by side with an evolving institution that takes people along with it. At The Elms, we wore our red, white and blue clothes. Our infants proudly paraded in the crowns they had created, whilst our juniors produced some stunning portraits of Queen Elizabeth II.

The children gathered, sang the National Anthem, Mrs Dixon raised the Union Flag and declared The Elms’ Jubilee Garden officially open, and then Father Whitwell led a special service in the Trent Chapel. Burgers and sausages were eaten, along with Jubilee jelly and crown biscuits. Just another day at The Elms.

God Save the Queen!

Keith Morrow
Head Master

Going the Extra Mile!

Mon, 21 May 2012 05:00:00 -0400

Sometimes in a busy life, it can be difficult to sift the ordinary from the truly inspirational. One of the privileges of having a very efficient PA is that my desk is very rarely swamped with paper. One piece of paper I was glad made it through to my office was an invitation to attend the 15th Annual Education Conference at Brighton College last week. An invitation I was only too pleased to accept.

It wasn’t so much the chance to spend a day beside the sea-side, or indeed sample the candyfloss or stroll on the pier, which attracted me to this conference; it was the list of guest speakers that caught my eye. The speakers for the day included Rt Hon Michael Gove MP (Secretary of State for Education), Sir Michael Wilshaw (Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector for Education), Dr David Starkey (Historian) and Jeremy Paxman (Broadcaster and writer). It was an eminent list of speakers indeed.

The speakers were entertaining, thought-provoking, and at times, controversial. Dr David Starkey certainly gave me a mental workout and made me question how we teach History in school. But one of the speakers, Lord Bilimoria of Chelsea, an Indian born Life Peer and founder of Cobra Beer, shared some particularly wise words indeed. Lord Bilimoria spoke eloquently about the development of India and why all schools should teach their pupils about India.

As a child and needing some advice from his father, an officer in the army, about how to get on and succeed in this world, he received this simple advice:

“Go the extra mile. Whatever you are asked to do, however menial, do it and do more than it. If you are asked to make a cup of tea, do it without complaining, make the best cup of tea in your life and do something extra, wash up afterwards or bring a biscuit as well”.

I reflected on these wise words and I believe they speak a great deal of truth. Perhaps, in addition to a good education, ‘going the extra mile’ is the other essential ingredient in ensuring our children succeed, our businesses prosper and the world is a better place.

It’s certainly not a bad motto for any organisation, including The Elms.

Keith Morrow
Head Master

Why Teachers should teach in the Independent Sector

Fri, 04 May 2012 09:28:46 -0400

Recently I spoke to final year graduate teachers about why they might wish to consider applying for a teaching position at an independent school.

Pulling subject material together for this speech really focused my mind once again on why the independent sector has so much going for it for teachers and the knock on effect that has on the quality of education children receive at independent schools.

When you think only seven per cent of the school population of England and Wales is educated in the fee-paying sector this means the majority of teachers and Heads working have had no personal experience of what it is like to be either a pupil or a teacher in the independent sector.

I was one of the ignorant 93% but five years ago I took a leap of faith and moved into the independent sector, a decision I’m very glad I made.

So as an experienced Head in the maintained sector why did I do it?

For me the key word in all of this is ‘independent’. I had found myself increasingly being occupied by local and national initiatives that were not always appropriate or meaningful for the children in my school. The political football that maintained education has increasingly become is, at best, unhelpful to schools and at worst damaging to good schools and good Heads working hard to deliver quality education to the children in their care.

SATS and league tables are also hugely distorting factors in primary education in the maintained sector. The most obvious consequence of SATS is to corrupt the curriculum, particularly of Year 6 children who spend vast amounts of time cramming for tests that mean so much to the school, but that add little to the school’s knowledge of a child’s strengths and weaknesses, doing even less to offer a broad and meaningful education to an 11-year-old child.

Working in the independent sector has much to commend it. Here are a few reasons and the benefits to a child’s education.

1) Class sizes are smaller.

The average class size in an independent prep or junior school is around 16 pupils, making life easier in terms of classroom management and teachers getting to better know pupils. This doesn’t mean teaching in the independent sector is the easy option, far from it! The teaching, lesson preparation and marking are more intense due to higher expectations on independent school teachers to deliver quality and individual attention in the classroom and extra-curricular activities.

As any parent or teacher will tell you, it only takes one or two highly disruptive children in a class of 30 to significantly damage the education of the majority. The ability to tie Heads up in red tape if they wish to take action and remove a disruptive child from a school hampers effective maintained schools establishing good order.

2) Are parents more demanding in the independent sector?

Parents make huge sacrifices to send their children to fee-paying schools. They do this in the belief that class sizes, academic and extra-curricular opportunities will give their children the best possible start in life.

Having taught in maintained schools serving deprived areas as well as in the independent sector, my own experience is that parents in the fee paying sector, are on the whole, no more or less reasonable than ambitious, involved and caring parents elsewhere. The vast majority of parents work hand in hand with the school to ensure a child gets the maximum out of the opportunities.

3) Autonomy in curriculum planning.

The majority of junior and prep schools, especially those with senior schools attached, are free to innovate their own curriculum. There is no compulsion to teach any particular subject in a particular way. Independent schools have the freedom to adopt ‘the best’ parts of a national curriculum and forget the rest. About a third of independent schools do not use SATS at Key Stage 2, freeing up the curriculum in Year 6 for really creative learning.

Independent schools are inspected according to how well they deliver and meet their own aims.

Most independent schools employ specialist teachers in MFL, science, ICT, art, design, music, drama and PE / games. There are great opportunities for Subject Leaders to be Head of Subject in the independent sector, to specialise in their chosen field and develop their career path in the same way that secondary teachers can still develop.

Prep-schools (with children in Key Stage 3), do prepare children for the Common Entrance Exam for entry into Senior School at age 13. This is a very rigorous and traditional approach, but even this is being reformed.

4) Teachers stay longer at the same school in the independent sector.

Even at junior school level, there is much more of a career structure for teachers in the independent sector. This is one of the reasons teachers typically remain in the same school for longer in the independent than in the maintained sector. Some schools offer payments for extra duties and larger schools with boarding communities can also offer accommodation to teachers.

This continuity and familiarity in teaching staff enhances the ‘community’ feel of a school that it so inherent in its long-term success in nurturing children to becoming confident, responsible young adults. The academic relationship between children and teachers can also be developed over time so that there exists a deeper mutual understanding between each, enabling each child’s own individual learning needs to be considered more carefully.

Working in an independent school offers a teacher the chance to shape their own future while helping children make the most of the traditions and opportunities to take on leadership roles and responsibility that independent sector education nurtures. That can only be a good thing for the children they are teaching!

The school places lottery – why gamble?

Thu, 08 Mar 2012 09:32:49 -0500

All parents know how important sending their child to the best school is and the enhanced life chances their child has as a result of an excellent education.

Over the coming weeks, parents up and down the country will be opening envelopes that either bring them great joy or devastating news in terms of their child’s next educational step. The lottery that is state education is a bureaucratic and unwieldy beast!

Parents go to extraordinary lengths to secure a place for their child at a good state school.

Stories of false addresses, conversion to a particular faith, donations to school funds, and local councils hiring private detectives feature from time to time in the press.

Whilst some of these stories are inevitably at the more extreme end of the school admissions spectrum, they illustrate the lengths some parents are willing to go to secure the right school place for their child. A more common issue is the moving into the catchment area of a desirable state school and the associated house price bubble that prices some parents out of being able to select a good school for their child.

There is another option of course, and that is to stay put, not to suffer the house price wars, and to consider an independent education for your child. The contrast in simplicity of the application process and choices available to parents who elect to send their children to independent schools is stark.

As a Head who has worked in both the maintained and independent sectors, I always find the view that parents in the state sector are somehow more ‘worthy’ than those who are paying for their child’s education a strange one.

Having been the Head in a leafy, well healed, state-maintained village school, where most parents chose the local state school, it was clear many of those parents could well afford an independent education for their children. Inevitably income brings choices, and many of those parents chose to spend their income on houses, cars, holiday homes, skiing trips, etc confident that their child’s education was being well looked after by the state.

By the same token, at many independent schools we have plenty of parents who are making huge financial sacrifices, living in modest houses, driving old cars and taking very few holidays, in order that they can pay school fees and give their children the enormous opportunities and breadth of education that the independent sector has to offer.

Currently, the independent sector educates around seven per cent of children nationally. It is estimated that between a further 7-10 per cent of children in the state sector could be educated in the independent sector if their parents wished to.

Despite the harsh economic climate in which we find ourselves, numbers of children educated in the independent sector has remained buoyant. I suspect that as the cuts in state education bite, along with the pressure on class sizes due to the rising school population, we will see a flight to independent education as those parents who can afford to pay, realise that a first class education is a worthwhile alternative investment.

Baby Boom!

Tue, 31 Jan 2012 06:29:23 -0500

I am delighted that, in response to demand from our own and prospective parents, we have embarked upon on a new chapter in the history of Trent College by opening a new baby and toddler unit as part of our Nursery, catering for babies from the age of 6 weeks and open 51 weeks of the year.

Over the past 12 years, The Elms has been building an enviable reputation for excellence in education. I am thrilled that we are able to take our expertise and passion for educating young children and develop this into a passion for giving the very highest standards of nursery child-care to the youngest members of the Trent Community.

What will mark us out from other Nurseries will be our high standards of individual care for children, the quality of relationships with children and parents, excellent resources and a commitment to employing the highest calibre of experienced and dedicated staff.

Trent College has been an important part of the local community for over 140 years. Both The Elms and Trent College, with the development of the Assisted Places Scheme and Scholarships, have worked hard to widen access to as many children as possible in the community, allowing them to benefit from a first class education. Parents are also able to use Government Nursery Funding to assist with our Nursery provision for 3 year olds.

There is enough in the news about the economic downturn to depress us all! What is so delightful about the launch of our newly extended Nursery, is not only the fact we have been able to create jobs in the local economy, but we will enable working mums to return to their careers by providing excellent nursery care for their babies. We continue to go from strength to strength, which shows the commitment our parents make to giving their children the very best possible start in life.

I would encourage all parents with babies and toddlers to make an appointment with Mrs Robinson (patricia.robinson@trentcollege.net) to book a tour of our Nursery as soon as possible!

A Festival for Harvest

Tue, 31 Jan 2012 06:28:20 -0500

Harvest is a difficult concept for children to fully understand. In our 24 hour culture, with round the clock supermarkets stocking goods from all corners of the world, the traditional nature of gathering the harvest is alien to all of us. Many children (and some adults too) are far removed from the production of food. The cling-filmed wrapped vegetables and smart packaging for meat seem hygienically removed from the soil of the field or abattoir.

At school, I think it is important that we try our best to celebrate harvest and pause to think of those far less fortunate than ourselves.

We celebrate Harvest at The Elms on the last day of the first half-term in Michaelmas. It is an excellent way to end the half-term and come together as a school community. I have shared with you my Harvest address to the children below.

Enjoy half-term.

“Good morning everybody.

Welcome to The Elms Harvest Festival Service.

I’d like to start by thanking you and your parents for giving so generously your harvest produce, which we donate to the Padley Centre, a centre for homeless persons in Derby. Your gifts mean that tomorrow someone can have a hot meal; something to drink, a shower, and feel just a little bit more loved and cared for.

I would also like to say thank you and well done to the talented musicians who played so marvellously in the Padley Concert, held in Derby Cathedral last Wednesday evening. You were excellent ambassadors for our school.

Today in our Harvest service we are thinking about the food we grow, and harvest and eat. I’d like us to think and wonder that much of the food we eat starts life as a tiny seed and then becomes something full of taste, and colour and flavour.

From such a small seed comes so much life and potential. A single grain of rice can, with the right care from the farmer, become a plant that multiplies and provides enough harvest to feed a nation.

Like the tiniest seed, we all have huge potential inside us, the power to do good and be something amazing. As I look around our chapel, from the newest fragile saplings in Nursery to the tall, strapping specimens in Year Six, I can see how you are all growing at The Elms. Not only in height, but in confidence, in skill, in ability and as young people with the capacity to grow further, to care about each other and make a positive contribution.

Let us give thanks to God today, not only for the harvest of food which we are so fortunate to enjoy, but give thanks for the harvest of talents and opportunities we enjoy.

Stand tall, stretch up and reach out.

Feel the wind in your hair, the rain on your back and the sunshine on your face.

Know that you have the potential to grow into someone very special, that you are fortunate to have so many opportunities, and pray that God helps you make the most of your talents, whilst helping those who are less fortunate than yourselves.

Let us thank God for all our blessings.”

Back to school …

Tue, 31 Jan 2012 06:25:04 -0500

I remember as a child, looking forward to the long summer holidays, and being haunted by the “back to school” signs that appeared in the windows of the high street shops before we’d even broken up for school! If anything, this is even more a mark of the times today, where we have Christmas decorations in the shops in October and Easter eggs for sale on Boxing Day. I never appreciated that those three little words “back to school” would continue to have such significance for me as an adult too.

With a mixture of excitement and trepidation, for children, their parents and teachers, the long summer holidays are over at last and at The Elms we welcomed back our existing children together with 68 new faces (our largest new intake ever).

As I held the door open and greeted our returning children at the Elms Upper School, my Deputy doing the same at the Elms Lower School, most faces were smiling, many had tales of holiday adventures to share with me, and a few parents looked a little anxious as their child had moved to The Elms from another school, or moved up from the Lower School. It was a similar tale with younger pupils, and indeed our youngest pupils in our Nursery, some of whom had rarely been left without mum or dad for a whole day before. Despite the slower than usual start to a school day because of children learning new routines: where to line up, where their coat pegs is, where to put bags, where musical instruments are stored, where to sit in assembly and Chapel, the day had gone extremely well. Only two children had tears in the infants, and these children were soon getting on fine (once parents had been persuaded to leave them), which all in all isn’t a bad statistic for a school of more than 340 children. I don’t know how many parents, or indeed teachers, shed a tear that morning. Whether the loss of their children from the home environment to school, or the feeling of middle age creeping in as one’s youngest child enters Year 6 (I find myself in this category), or perhaps the tears were of joy as mum and dad skipped off into the car park – was it the cry of “freedom” I heard as the 4x4’s roared off down the drive?

I thought that I would share with parents a few essential tips for helping your child settle in in their new school, or new class, or new teacher. So here goes…

1) Routine, routine, routine! There is nothing more that causes worry with children than not being prepared for school. As parents we can help our children be prepared. Firstly at home, a good routine to get into is before bed, to put out the school bag for the next day, and get your children (with help for younger children) to go through the checklist of items needed. Teachers will have given older children a timetable in their homework diaries and all parents will soon receive a welcome letter from the class teacher. Some children benefit from having a timetable or visual planner at home reminding them of what kit is needed on each day: swimming kit on Mondays, violin on Wednesdays, spelling homework on Fridays, etc. Having the right kit on the right day helps children get off to a flying start. It is also a good way of encouraging children to check themselves and to start to take responsibility for organising themselves.

2) Independence! All children are capable of remarkable independence from an early age – especially at school. As parents, we tend to do things for our children that they can do for themselves –often because it seems easier or is quicker in the morning when we’re rushing to get to school. For younger children, make sure they can dress themselves and can change into PE kit. Practise this at home and encourage your children to lay out clothes / put them in a neat pile at the end of the day. This helps enormously with changing for PE at school. It’s always telling when children get changed for PE, which children have a go at dressing themselves and which children present themselves in front of the teacher with arms outstretched, waiting for someone to do it all for them. Even older children can be completely disorganised when changing for games. It’s amazing how many children take each other’s kit home on a Friday instead of their own, which usually surfaces on Monday, thanks to the name labels that mums (dads do email in and complain) stitch into the 152 items of the school kit.

Equally, in the mornings, children are quite capable, from the very start of school, of hanging their own bag and coat on their own peg. A quick good-bye kiss, encouragement for your child to join the class line, carrying their own belongings and following the teacher into the classroom is all that is needed. Prolonging the good-bye or insisting that you will make an exception for your child and enter the cloakroom with bag and coat, is not helping your child become independent.

3) Responsibility! At school, we are as much about teaching children to take responsibility as we are about teaching the subjects in the curriculum. All children make mistakes, do things wrong, forget to behave in a certain way from time to time, and school is a safe and secure place in which children can make mistakes and learn from their mistakes. My advice to parents is to let your children take responsibility by not making excuses for them. If a child in the juniors forgets to bring in their homework or forgets their swimming kit, it is their mistake and not their parents. If a child is given a warning for talking in assembly or failing to follow the school rules, it is their mistake, not the child next to them. The best way parents can help their children be responsible is to allow their children to understand that actions have consequences, and this is how we all learn.

4) Communication! At The Elms, we have many and varied methods of communication including texts, emails and of course the website. Infants have the reading diary and juniors have the homework diary. Education is a tripartite process, involving the school, the parent and the child. Do find time to build up a relationship with your child’s teacher, giving positive comments as well as raising concerns. Do realise the best time to speak with your child’s teach is probably not first thing in the morning when they are getting ready to receive the class, unless it’s a quick message about the end of day arrangements or to let them know your child has been upset for some reason. The end of the day is always best. If in doubt, email you child’s class teacher (allow 24 hours for a reply) or email the school office / speak to Mrs Christie (Lower School) or Mrs Cullen (Upper School). I always encourage parents to raise any concerns early on and not to save up worries until they have become pressing. Most issues are resolved quickly and easily by having a polite word with the class teacher.

I remember when I first started teaching, being given the advice “Don’t smile until Christmas”. What was meant by this was one needed to set out one’s stall with the children very clearly in the first few weeks of term to ensure that the rest of the year went well. This is a very important truism in schools and The Elms is no exception. Over the coming weeks of a new school year, teachers and even Headmasters will be setting out our stall with the children. Your child may come home and tell you they have a strict teacher. That they were told off for talking when they shouldn’t be or that they had to practise walking down the path to assembly quietly. And yes, we’ll be doing all of these things to ensure that The Elms continues to enjoy an excellent reputation for our children’s behaviour, manners and self-discipline.

But I have to admit, I’ve never been very good at not smiling, so if your children look carefully, I’m sure they’ll see a smile creeping in before the term is out!

Why do we need school libraries?

Tue, 31 Jan 2012 06:23:40 -0500

The headline in The Times Educational Supplement on Friday was “Books denied to 600,000”. The article proceeded to explain that the spending cuts were having a savage impact on the school library service, which provides books to more than 600,000 pupils in England. These are difficult times and Local Authorities face tough decisions in the coming years. I can’t help think that to make it more difficult for children to access books is a somewhat short-sighted approach to saving money and one we may well live to regret in the coming years.

How ironic that my Friday was spent promoting our school library. I spent an hour in my office discussing The Elms’ Library with the judges of the British Library Association design awards. I’m delighted that our library has made it through to the final stages of the 2011 national competition. The judges spent time in our library, seeing how it was used in lesson time and at lunchtime, talking to the staff and the children. Whilst many of the questions were design orientated, I was able to reflect on our library, added to The Elms two years ago, and think about what a school library adds to our school.

Although our library is located at The Elms Upper School, it is most definitely the library for our whole school. Everyone from the Nursery to Year 6 visit the library at least once each week and there is something for everyone in our library. Nursery children enjoy listening to stories and choosing books for themselves, curling up on the mini-sofas or lying down on the Elmer rug!

We teach information literacy skills to our older children, who become familiar with how to locate books, use the alphabetical and Dewey classification systems and how to use the computers to search for information. One of the most successful aspects of our library is the ‘book worm’ scheme for children. This is a wide and varied range of books, chosen by our school staff, as well as children’s recommendations, that we encourage children to read and enjoy. Children can sometimes lose their way once the structured reading schemes in the infants are mastered and the reward system of badges and certificates is certainly part of the motivation to read for some children.

Our library, apart from being a beautiful space, is at the heart of the reading culture that permeates The Elms. Whilst it would be wonderful to win the design award for our welcoming, visually stimulating, user friendly and child-centred library, there is something much more fundamentally important than the room. A room full of books is not a library, but a room full of books. What makes the difference to the children and teaching staff at The Elms is the people behind the library, our wonderful librarian and library assistant. Together Mirelle and Bev make up a formidable duo! They are great story tellers, fantastic organisers, avid readers and above all, good listeners. In fact, I’ve never ever heard them say “Shhhhhhhhhh”!

Having worked in other schools, some with library rooms and others with a hap-hazard collection of bookshelves, where at best a teacher has a few minutes a week to spare to tidy up the library, having a fully-staffed library is not a luxury, but an essential in any school that places reading, independent learning and children at the centre of its curriculum.