I am delighted to share news of the recent parent governor election. I am always grateful when parents offer to contribute to the success of our school. There are many ways to do this, and being a governor is an especially important one. We had a high number of parents willing to put themselves forward, and I would like to thank each of them for doing so. I am sorry all the candidates could not have joined the group, but there were only two vacancies. The successful candidates in the election were Dr. Day and Rev’d Hullyer. Congratulations to them both. Their biographies are below:

Paul Hullyer: "I have been Vicar of Pinner Parish Church since 2008, having been ordained for 23 years. Before ordination, my career was in credit management and corporate finance. I have experience of school governance, having been a governor at 2 schools in Addlestone, Surrey (2000-2003), then later chair of governors at the Oak Farm Primary Schools in Hillingdon (2003-2008), and as a community governor at Bishop Ramsey (2008-2013) where I chaired the finance committee and also the steering group managing the transition to academy status. I am also an Officer (Chaplain) in the Army Reserve.

I am used to working both within teams and individually, and pursuing goals which emerge from a corporate decision making process. I understand corporate responsibility, and feel strongly that the role of school governance is to assist, not direct, the head teacher and all staff in their roles. I can bring experience of school finances and governance in a variety of settings to this role.

I passionately believe in in Pinner High School and its challenging and stimulating education for young people; it’s ethos and it’s capability for inspiring learning in every discipline. I am able to give the necessary time to the role."

Kerry Day: "I would be delighted to have the opportunity to join the Governing body as a parent Governor, as I believe I have the skills and experience to be able to make a meaningful contribution as Pinner High continues to grow and establish itself as an outstanding school in the community. 

I have 7 years’ experience as a Governor of a local primary school and fully understand the role of strategy and challenge in an education setting. I have been the designated Governor for safeguarding, pupil premium, SEND and EYFS. I have also been Chair of the Curriculum and Community committee. My term has included Head teacher and SLT appointments, decisions on school expansion, extensive building works and 2 successful Ofsted inspections. 

Professionally, as a Consultant Paediatrician, the development of children and young people is something I have always cared passionately about, and I believe that an education that is engaging, inspiring, wide-ranging and fun gives young people the best possible start in life.

As my children are growing older, with my daughter now in Year 8, I would relish the chance to bring my experience as a Governor and my perspective as a parent to the Pinner High Governing body."

Governors meetings are all virtual at the moment, but I look forward to Rev’d Hullyer and Dr. Day’s contributions to our school. Our students continue to show considerable resilience during this challenging time, and I am so impressed with the way they continue to approach their learning. We are keen to make sure that the ‘fun’ that features so prominently in students’ views of Pinner High continues this term, and Year 7 have been looking at form time House Events, and Year 8 have been reflecting as a year group on the Pinner High School Values.   

The blog this week is guest edited by Miss Bloss, Head of History, who led our reflections on Black Lives Matter, and Black History Month.

This year we chose to focus on the Notting Hill Carnival for a month long celebration of Black History. This has enabled students to connect with Black History in their own city and provided an opportunity to honour and understand this historic and inspirational annual carnival.

Our celebration began by focusing on the history of the Notting Hill Carnival. Our students learnt that the carnival was set up in order to show case, promote and honour Caribbean and African achievements. Prior to this Notting Hill area had been subjected to riots and tension. In order to help educate the wider community and provide a platform for the black community living in Notting Hill. Claudia Jones and others started the Carnival in 1959. This is an important message we wanted our Pinner High School community to understand - it is still crucial to provide a platform today to show case black culture and history.

Our students have learnt how Carnival has changed over time to grow and build into a weekend celebration. In collaboration with the Drama and Music departments, we have been able to highlight to our students how Carnival has been revolutionary in performance, creating stages and show casing a variety of musical styles. Miss Sims, Head of Drama and Enrichment, highlighted to our students why “the Notting Hill Carnival is the most wonderful celebration of diversity. It’s a festival that shows that through adversity comes creation, that art will always carry on and that differences only make us stronger.”

Mr McCormick, Teacher of Music, was involved in teaching a selection of Year 9 pupils Samba as a part of our celebrations. He stated “I have always been inspired by the words of Nina Simone – ‘I had spent many years pursuing excellence, because that is what classical music is all about... Now it was dedicated to freedom, and that was far more important’. The initial idea behind this contribution was to recreate a school wide parade in honour and celebration of the Notting Hill Carnival. However we were unfortunately unable to do this due to the obvious restrictions imposed by social distancing. We instead opted to have our miniature performance presented by the Year 9 House Captains whilst featuring a Year 7 DJ ”.  One of our performers commented “Even though COVID- 19 forced the Notting Hill Carnival to be cancelled, at Pinner High school we are doing all our best to honour the Black Lives Matter movement this year through the celebration of Black History Month”.

This celebration has been enjoyed immensely by our students and staff.  One Year 9 student said “I have found Black History Month this year extremely useful and I’ve learnt about an area of history I have never studied.” Equally, Mrs Hindmarsh, one our Deputy Heads also found the celebrations insightful. “It has been wonderful to walk around at form time and see each of the year groups learning about Black History Month. The discussion with pupils has been both thought provoking and hopeful. We celebrate this every year, but this year seemed particularly important”.

This is an important area to continue to study and develop. After discussing the importance of studied black history with two Year 10s both agreed “black history is part our history and the roots of England. It should be taught and should not be ignored due to how historical significant it is”.  As a history department we have continued to further diversify our curriculum to now cover an even wider range of histories from around the world. Black History will remain a strong and central part of our school curriculum beyond Black History month. Mr Mason in our history department, summed it up really well: “Studying 'black history' properly means going above just learning about the periods of black and BME struggle throughout time, but embracing the undeniable role black people have taken in shaping the history and culture of our nation. 'Black history' is all of our history”.

In the aftermath of the death of George Floyd we created this website as a hub of resources: https://sites.google.com/pinnerhighschool.co.uk/phsblacklivesmatter/home

It remains available if anyone would like to find out more.

My particular thanks to Miss Bloss for her leadership and the whole community for their support. The student who created the Black Lives Matter inspired art work that accompanies this blog noted: "My choice of images were of the different emotions that are held amongst people during the Black Lives Matter movement. These are: happiness, loneliness, sorrow and anger. The string interlinks all these emotions for one cause."

The Pinner High School Values demand that we continue to respond; there is plenty more to do but it has been a very positive start.

My name is Andleeb Ahmed, and I am the Chair of Governors at Pinner High School. As we have Parent Governor vacancies at the moment I thought it would be a good idea to write to everyone about the Governing Body and the work we do. This might be of use if you are considering putting yourself forward to join us, and even if you are not it is important to know what is going on behind the scenes at your child’s school.

Governors are all volunteers who want to support the successful growth and development of the school. I am a local GP- all our Governors have day jobs, and most of us do not have a background in education. When the school first opened we had more Governors from local schools to help steer our development. Once we had appointed a Headteacher and the school was clearly on the right track, the Governing Body has evolved to include a more diverse skill set, but still involves some experienced school leaders. More details of the current Governors are on our website: https://www.pinnerhighschool.co.uk/page/?title=Governance&pid=11 I have learnt so much from being a Governor at Pinner High School and enjoy the dialogue around school improvement and development. Interacting with the pupils via ‘student voice’ is my favourite part of being Governor . My background in the NHS and public service is useful in helping me understand some of the issues in education, but we welcome a diverse set of skills and backgrounds to enrich our Governing Body even further.

Highlights for me of the last few years include the ‘Outstanding’ Ofsted judgement. Having been a Governor since before the school opened and seeing the journey first hand, it was an emotional moment and a few tears were shed! We were also delighted to learn the school is the most oversubscribed in Harrow. Our local schools are so strong and so supportive that to be competing with them so soon is such a good sign.

We know the last few months have been challenging for everyone. The role of Governors is to support and challenge the Headteacher and the leadership team and we are particularly keen to provide support through the present time. We are proud of the contribution the school has made to the local community particularly in the last few months; making masks for frontline workers; hosting 3 other local schools on site; donating all their PPE to local healthcare providers; and still providing support for key workers in school and everyone else at a distance. As well as this, we are firmly behind the school’s proactive approach to emphasise Black Lives Matter. We recruited the current Headteacher to lead ‘an inclusive school for the whole community’ and this remains the case; to join our Governing Body you also need to be supportive of this position. We welcome new ideas and diversity, but given the school’s shortlisting for the TES Secondary school of the year award and many other positive indicators, we are not looking to steer a radically different course as we must be doing something right!

Other than recruiting senior staff, I am sometimes asked what we do. We meet several times a year in different committees and groups to talk to the school leadership team. They report a range of information to us, and we interrogate that data carefully to look at trends and indicators about what it tells us about our children, and any advice we share as a result. In ‘normal’ circumstances we like to visit the school and see it all at work. Sometimes it is easier to talk about what we don’t do. We don’t run the school. We leave that to the leadership team. I remind Governors from time to time that we are ‘eyes on, hands off’.  

Being a Governor is very enjoyable. It enables parents to have a voice in the development of our school and to help shape its continuing success. What could be more important than that for our children?

A special blog this week to celebrate today’s announcement that Pinner High School is on the shortlist for the Tes Secondary School of the Year award!

The Tes Schools Awards celebrates the extraordinary commitment, quality and innovation shown by teachers and school staff across the UK. The most outstanding individuals and institutions that the education sector has to offer have been recognised in the shortlist for the Tes Schools Awards 2020. TES editor Ann Mroz said: “It is always a highlight of the education calendar to see the best ideas and people lauded at the Tes Schools Awards. But this year, it felt more important than ever to run an event that showcased and celebrated the hard work that teachers and school staff do for children and their local community every single day. This has been one of the most difficult years in education, but – as ever – teachers continue to rise to the challenge.

"We had a record number of entries this year and the standard was very high, so all those shortlisted should be very proud: it's an extraordinary achievement to be on this shortlist."

This is an amazing achievement for the students and staff at Pinner High School. It reflects everything that everyone does every day and I am so proud of them all. Chair of Governors Dr. Ahmed passed on her congratulations to the whole community for their support. Great news!

You can read more about the awards on tesawards.co.uk

It has been a brilliant week welcoming students back to school after such a long time. The whole school community has responded so well to the new ways of working, and I need to thank students, colleagues, parents, governors and friends of the school for their cooperation and warm wishes as we return to the classroom.

In classes I have enjoyed seeing a range of learning activities that I know we have all missed; particular classes I saw included Year 8 at the long jump pit, Year 9 war poetry, a very engaging art class, and an impressive historical debate. Year 11 intervention is already underway- they have an early start and a late finish- and are stepping up to this challenge in a very mature way. Year 7 are getting used to their new spaces and new uniforms, and picking up the trailblazers spirit as the first students to occupy our newly refurbished spaces. More than all this, the chance for students to reconnect, regenerate and work together is happening exactly as I had hoped it would.

Whilst it has been an overwhelmingly positive start we know that it is not easy, and our control measures are not ideal. However, our attendance this week is close to 97% across the school, which is higher than national targets for 'normal' times. I find myself seeing the Pinner HIgh School Values in our students more and more as we negotiate these complicated times together. It is good to be back!

Congratulations to our Year 7 boys table tennis team who are our newest Borough Champions! They had a brilliant tournament this week, and played really well throughout against some very tough opponents. We’ll add the team photo to our growing Wall of Fame to celebrate their success. Brilliant news!

I enjoyed checking in on the refurbishment programme this week, walking round our new spaces and seeing the progress our contractors have already made. The schedule of work is tight, but indications are positive. We are planning how to decorate the hoarding at the front of the building so that the students can make their mark on the process as well. They have been involved in planning the growth of the school through the buildings. I shall continue to keep you updated.

The media has been full of reports about different phases of the coronavirus national action plan. We have been planning for different scenarios, and have developed a range of online learning activities that can be completed from home should the need arise. Teachers have been practising using different apps and resources in class to try to get as far ahead with this as is possible. You may have seen your child preparing Google classroom activities at home. I have enjoyed seeing the creativity from students and staff in the balanced way they have responded to this. The Pinner High School Values or resilience, flexibility and courage spring readily to mind. Whatever the future holds, I know the school community will rise to the challenge.

Year 9 rose to the challenge of their Midterm examinations a couple of weeks ago. Today they receive their grades, and will spend subsequent lessons looking at feedback and how to improve further.