Category: Headteacher’s Blog
Headteacher’s Blog: Speaking to the NBCW
Education, Spirituality, Church and the Feminine. On Thursday 28th April Mrs Raffray was guest speaker at the National Board of Catholic Women (NBCW). This was a wonderful opportunity and Mrs Raffray seized it with both hands, speaking on ‘Education, Spirituality, Church and the Feminine’, an extraordinarily inspirational talk. The NBCW says, ‘As a body with…
Headteacher’s Blog: Creating Space
‘A very warm welcome to the Society of Heads Conference 2022. What a pleasure it is to welcome so many people in person. We also welcome people joining us online. We last met for conference shortly before the first lockdown in March 2020. Since then we have climbed the mountain of moving schools online, responding…
Headteacher’s Blog
We are Creating Space for Truthful Conversations. RADIO We have been involved in the Faith and Belief Forum’s school linking programme since November 2010. We are currently linked with the Jewish Community Secondary School in Chipping Barnet. Previously, we were also linked with Unity Girls School, a Muslim school in Hendon, before they relocated. As…
Headteacher’s Blog: Creating Space for Headteachers surviving a pandemic
The pandemic blurred all boundaries. Some of this was good. To start with we thought it was a great equaliser – anyone could catch COVID. But it wasn’t democratic – some people had a party, will speak freely of enjoying it – without a commute, children at home, salaries coming in. Others were cooped up…
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…
Heads Up…
‘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…
Headteacher’s Blog: Wilderness
“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…
Women and the Word
“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…
The Sacred and the Ordinary
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…
Open hearts. Brave spirits. Visionary people.
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”…