Headteacher’s Blog

On This Rock. Ribblehead Viaduct two years ago and before COVID had entered anyone’s consciousness.  It is a bright sunny day with sun bouncing off the green hills. This is a place steeped in history, echoing with the past, redolent of the voices and clamour of the navvies who dug through the hills to lay railway […]

‘Building Back Better’. ‘Heads Up’ is the podcast of Mr Matthew Burke, Headteacher of St Edward’s School in Cheltenham.  In episode 11 of this podcast, Mr Burke talks with Mrs Raffray ‘about what schools should be doing to “build back better” as we come out of the pandemic and look towards the future.’  Among subjects […]

“You’re going to have to go on a journey and you mustn’t be afraid. You were always braver than you knew.” This last year we have been on a journey none of us saw coming. A year ago we were watching from afar as numbers of COVID cases were tracked. From a conference of Headteachers […]

“Would you empty the dishwasher?” “You couldn’t set the table could you?” As you read those mitigated directives are you hearing a woman or man’s voice in your head? That they are all questions situated in the kitchen we might disregard but did you know that there is a body of research evidence exploring what […]

Although we can mark the Christmas season until the Feast of the Presentation, or Candlemas, on 2nd February, we have now entered the Ordinary Time of the liturgical year. There in one sentence is the finely strung balance between the sacred and the ordinary which Christmastide celebrates. The Catholic Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales […]

In an age where we are taught to distrust strangers, where schools regularly receive nasty alerts of real life dangers to children, it is important to remember that there is also a place for pushing at open doors and knocking on closed ones. All too often schools tell parents “your child just needs some confidence” […]

This year marks the fortieth anniversary of the Alzheimer’s Society, all prompted by a 1979 radio broadcast by Professor Davison on his research into Alzheimer’s disease.  A former carer, Cora Phillips, contacted him to set up a charity and Professor Davison put Cora in touch with Professor Gordon Wilcock who had contacted him about the […]

This is a shaggy dog story. It is Easter, which is possibly one of the loveliest times of the year. The days are lengthening, Spring flowers surprise you, birds sing again, wild garlic proliferates and every year I plan to use those delicious leaves for some kind of foraging recipe. Easter is also when I […]

Sometimes it takes time away to understand the implications of the lives we lead. When faced with the sheer bliss of another place, another reality, the impact of the West’s rampant consumerism on the environment and on our lives can be realised and reflected on, a different perspective seen. This Christmas I was fortunate enough […]

Are you helping your child to enjoy the snakes and ladders of outrageous fortune? We all have the potential to be gamechangers.  In this article by Headteacher, Mrs Raffray, first featured recently in ‘Primary Times’, a way in which all parents can be gamechangers in the lives and education of their children is examined.  And […]