Brislington Enterprise College - Principal's Blog

Our final term of the Year

2010-06-09T16:36:00.002+01:00

Many apologies for the lack of detail within this blog this has been due to me loosing the log on details!!!!!

GCSE Examinations are in full swing. This is a very busy week for all our students. English,Maths,History,French and Science all in one week.

Visits are taking place to the partner schools to gain information on our new year seven students for September. Years 8 & 9 students are receiving details of their option choices for next year.

Year 10 are feeling the full force of only one year to go until their final examinations. We have launched our new reward system "Vivomiles". The first impressions are very good form both students and staff.
A good start but as always much still to be done

Three Months is along time!

2010-03-13T16:41:00.003Z

Almost three months since my last input. Must be the cold weather or the dark days of winter that deter me from recording the wonderful achievements of so many of our students. This was shown once again last week when the GCSE music performance evening enabled so many pieces of excellence to be displayed. Just to update you on the Haiti fund raising day. The students raised a record total of over £2,400 during a great day.

This forthcoming week sees the second Learning Review day of the academic year take place. Every parent/carer will have the opportunity to meet with their child's Learning Guide to discuss progress since the November. Staff have worked hard this week to ensure that all the data sources are as current as possible. A good day is promised for all.

The week will end with a day of activities to raise funds to support the Sport Relief Charity. Plenty of effort to raise money for a good cause

Haiti Fundraising day

2010-01-28T21:02:00.002Z

Our first event of 2010. All about raising money for those affected by the terrible earthquake in Haiti. Our target is to raise £1500 on one day. The most that we have raised ever in a similar manner is £1032. So a tall order. The response of students and staff has been excellent. Many new and creative ideas for fundraising and a few classic ones that always bring in the crowds. Many students and staff have voted for fairly horrible things to happen to the Principal. The options range from being dressed by Year 11 girls through to having my hair shaved off. The most popular votes were being dressed and he haircut. I really thought that "gunging" would win. However all will be revealed at lunchtime tomorrow. A great day in prospect for a really good cause

Musical show

2009-12-15T18:04:00.002Z

The evening of our first show. Great excitement at the prospect of our first ever supper show. Food produced by one group of students and wonderful entertainment produced by another. Everyone who is about to take part is excited and a little terrified. We know that they have all worked so hard to make this and the next two evenings a wonderful spectacle. Best of luck to everyone

How time flies

2009-12-08T21:05:00.002Z

We are nearing the end of term two and I suddenly realise that it has been almost a month since my last notes. Since then we have held Anti Bullying week, Global Enterprise week and Healthy Schools week. Our Year 11 students have completed their trial GCSE examinations. We have hosted visits from Kidderminster, Croydon, Clevedon and will finish the term with visitors from Wigan. We have held our first Learning Review day as well as the newly formatted parent/carer consultation evening. We have also opened our Management Information System to all parent/carers. This allows full access to every piece of data that we have on each student. This means that we have met the government target for full access one year early. We have just started a series of events linked to Christmas. These include community discos and a wonderful performance which is being held on three nights next week. The weeks go so quickly for everyone within the College but the arrival of two wonderful Christmas trees does tell us all that a holiday is not so far away.

2009-11-10T21:20:00.002Z

The new term starts as we finished the last. Our Ofsted report has been published on the Oftsed website(www.ofsted.gov.uk). It provides plenty of evidence of our progress throughout the last three years. Now for the work of tackling the areas of improvement. On Thursday of this week we will be attending a Partnership for Schools annual award ceremony on London. The College has been shortlisted for the BSF school of the year award. Ourselves and a school in Leicester make up the nominations. We wish them the best of luck. We were awarded a BSF team of the year award at this event last year. It is great to receive the nomination and to have been shortlisted. Once again as the Ofsted team commented "a really interesting and different College" has been recognised at national level

Two busy weeks

2009-10-22T21:42:00.003+01:00

The last two weeks have been among the busiest that the College has ever known. On Tuesday and Wednesday of last week we were subject to an Ofsted inspection. It was a well focused two days which allowed us to show off many of the great things about our College. The final report will be published in early November. The week ended with us hosting a "RAIS" conference at which Her Royal Highness the Princess Royal was the key speaker. This was a wonderful event. The College looked great and our work in taking forward restorative approaches was excellently presented by students and staff.

This week began with a visit from Deborah Meaden, the Dragons' Den star. She was visiting in her capacity as chair of the Child line Charity's South West Child's voice appeal. She was launching a new online service from the charity to support all young people who need help.

We have also hosted a Careers Fair for all Year 11 and Sixth Form students. This was followed up by a higher education evening. The Bristol Schools Cross Country Championships were held on site on Wednesday with a number of our students achieving excellent results. Today saw our Lynx community students presenting their Diwali celebration. Oh and just to fill in we have held a full evacuation fire drill.

Tomorrow is the final day of term. We will host our final visit this term from 30 colleagues from Sussex. Our attendance has never been as high as our current figure at this stage in the academic year. I think that we have all earned a welcome period of holiday before we return refreshed on 2nd November

New Chair of Governors elected

2009-10-04T20:57:00.002+01:00

Open week has been a very busy time for us all within the College. We have been visited by well over 1000 people during our five events. This is a wonderful response from our community and provides an early indication to the possible number of applications for 2010 entry.

Also this week saw Mr Des Craddock appointed as the new Chair of the College Governing Body. Mr Julian Anderson was elected Vice Chair of Governors at the same meeting. The outgoing Chair was Mr Tony Bishop who has ended his term of office as a governor. Tony has been chair for the past nine years and has been a governor for sixteen years. We are all very grateful for the contribution Tony has made to the life of the College and for the leadership that has allowed us to take full advantage of the new build project.

Des will be writing to all parent/carers within the next few weeks to outline the changes to the working practice of the governing body that have been agreed and also to inform you of the detail contained within the action plan for the governing body

Open Week

2009-09-26T11:22:00.002+01:00

We have been working very hard to be fully prepared for our Open Week which starts on Tuesday 29th September. We have well placed adverts in the local media, our bus adverts, being used for the first time, have been well received and every parent/carer of a Year six student within our designated area has been invited to attend . This means that we are expecting large numbers of prospective parent/carers to visit on Tuesday evening to explore the wonderful experience that is the College. The next three days will see walking tours each morning. We conclude these opportunities to view the College with an Open Morning on Saturday 3rd October. Students and staff are really looking forward to welcoming prospective new students and their parent/carers to the events of this week. Our new brochure will be available throughout the week and will soon be available via a PDF download from our website.

The current Yr 7 group is now full. We expect a high level of demand for one of the 270 places available for next September. Remember if you are considering the College as one of your choices for entry next year place BEC as your first choice to ensure a successful allocation

Human Scale book published

2009-09-16T21:07:00.002+01:00

On Monday of this week I attended the launch of the book 'Schools within Schools" that has been published by the Gulbenkian Foundation. This book features the College and is the result of two years engagement with the author Wendy Wallace by colleagues at our College. We are delighted with the end product, even if it has caused a few anxious moments. Our profession is essentially a private endeavour. The book makes the private public for all at the College. It does however detail a journey that we are all proud of. The Gulbenkian website: www.gulbenkian.org.uk/ has a down loadable version of the book. The BBC have also featured the book on their education website at news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/8255341.stm. It feels good for the College to receive such positive support for our work

New year , New Opportunities

2009-09-11T09:35:00.003+01:00

The end of our first really exciting week of this academic year. 270 new year 7's have joined their learning communities. Our largest entry for six years. Year 11 have begun the final push to improve on the results achieved this year. This will be a real challenge. The College achieved 50 % 5A* - C grades and 39% 5A*-C grades including English and maths. This was a 12% improvement on the figures achieved in 2008.As I write a motivational speaker, Steve Head is working with the students to enable them to see the many ways that they can make the most of themselves.

Our new website has been launched at www.because.org.uk.. The College looks even better now that the ground works have been completed. The memories of the building works and poor access now appear to be a distant memory

Futures Thinking Conference

2009-06-30T20:32:00.002+01:00

A wonderful day at College; 75 visitors joined us for a futures thinking conference. Colleagues from the South of England and South Wales came to hear about our progress to date within the BSF programmme. Two other "Human Scale" Lead schools were present as was our friend Simon Richey from the Gulbenkian Trust and Graham Powell from TLO. The content of the sessions enabled colleagues to not only hear our story but also to see for themselves the transformation that is taking place within the College. The workshops were presented by senior staff and provided an insight into our new curriculum model, the management of our change process and the reality of small learning community life for staff and students. It is real pleasure to be able to show how far we have come and to identify schools and colleagues from other parts of the country with whom we can now build relationships to take our own learning journey forward. It was great to see BEC colleagues presenting with such clarity and authority.

TEACHER AWARDS

2009-06-09T21:05:00.002+01:00

Monday was a good day for the College. At the Teacher Awards ceremony held in Bath I was awarded a distinction in the Head Teacher of the Year award in the West. This is a great achievement for us all at the College. It recognises the journey that we are on and how far that we have come. Our congratulations go to the winner from Cleeve School in Cheltenham, a very different school to ours.

We have also had two other colleagues nominated for awards this year. A wonderful attribute to the quality of teaching and learning that is being delivered on a daily basis within the College

Apologies for the lack of updates

2009-05-19T05:48:00.002+01:00

I am very sorry that this blog has not been maintained during the past few months. We have been working hard on a new web site design. This is now almost ready and will be launched in a few weeks time.

Some news updates: We have increased our student entry number for September to 270. This is from an original number of 216. Our popularity in increasing on a daily basis. During this year we have admitted over 50 students.

Our new ASD centre was opened for students last week. It is a wonderful provision that has excited both students and parents.

The new College mini bus was delivered and handed over by the Brislington Trust members two weeks ago. It is currently in Mid Wales being used on the "Panther" Community camp.

Year 11 are now into their second week of GCSE examinations. Yesterday was the first big Maths exam. Today is English Literature. Breakfast is being served for all candidates at 08.15. I am off to help serve the coffee. Good luck will not be needed as they have all worked so hard along with their members of staff

Partnership for Schools annual awards 2008

2008-11-27T21:14:00.005Z

It is wonderful to be able to report the success gained by the College at the first ever PSF award ceremony held in London on 26th November 2008. We received a "highly commended" for the design of our building. That was a great start to the evening. It got better when we were awarded the "Best School Team" award. This award was presented due to the collective efforts of Teachers, Governors, Students, Parents throughout the past four years to enable us to achieve our great new building. The award also reflected the level of innovation and desire to achieve excellence for every student via personalised learning and the principles of "Human Scale Education" that now inform all our work. The contribution of our partners Skanska, our wonderful and brave architects, James, Tim and Wai Lan of FLACQ, the members of Bristol LEP and our IT partners Northgate is also recognised within this award. It was a very proud moment for us when our College name was read out and we stepped forward to receive the award. Well done to everyone who has played any part in the College achieving this accolade. This is recognition of a job well done

Mr David Kozlowski

2008-10-14T20:55:00.002+01:00

On Friday 24th October 2008 our colleague Mr David Kozlowski retires from teaching after more than 36 years service to the students of Brislington School and College. He joined the staff on 1st September 1972. He was appointed by the then Headteacher,Mr Hellier, to teach Design Technology. He has worked with every Head that our College has had. It is a remarkable period of service to the community of Brislington and Bristol. As with many things he does not wish to have any grand ceremony to mark his retirement. However if you are someone who was taught by him or worked with him and wish to send him your best wishes for a long and happy retirement please use the comment facility on this blog or email Headteacher@because.org.uk. I will ensure that all will be passed on to him next Friday. This is a period of service that is unlikely to be repeated in the ever changing world of education. Our kind,gentle and self effacing colleague deserves the best of farewells from us all.

Success of Open Week events

2008-10-07T20:32:00.003+01:00

I said that we were expecting 600 visitors during the week. In fact we were just short of 1000. I would urge anyone who wishes to be allocated a place for September 2009 to put your forms into the LA and select 1 for BEC. A letter published in the Evening Post last Saturday sums up many parent/carer views of the College. In summary,"I had heard some awful things before visiting the College but having seen the college working and met the staff and students I know this is the right place for my child".
Thank you to everyone who took the oportunity to visit us.
If you missed out and would like to visit before 24th October please contact the College reception

Open Week events

2008-09-27T11:28:00.002+01:00

The third week of term one is when we have the opportunity to enable prospective Parent/Carers and students to visit the College. This year will be a particularly exciting time for all at the College. We finally get to show off the new building and our learning communities. Tuesday will see the start of events with our Open evening. Two sessions are available at 6.00pm and 7.30pm. If you are intending to visit us please be aware of the lack of parking on site due to the demolition of the old building. Walking tours are will take place on Wednesday & Thursday morning at 09.15. These last for one hour. Our final event is at 10.30am on Saturday 4th October. We are expecting well over 600 visitors throughout the week. The 216 places that are available next year will fill very quickly. Our slogan for this year"because the best is yet to come" seems even more appropriate as we reach this important series of events.

At last we have students

2008-09-16T21:41:00.002+01:00

A great day for all arrived on the 8th September. Our new Year 7 joined us in the new building. This followed three hard days work by all colleagues to unpack some 2000 crates. Throughout the week all the other Year groups joined us in the building to carry out their induction programmes. We have also hosted a ministerial visit ,a media day and completed the unpacking process.
It is wonderful to now be into our first full teaching week. Many more stories in the next few weeks

We have the keys

2008-08-19T21:30:00.002+01:00

Today a wonderful ceremony was held at which the "keys" to the new building were handed to us by the Local Area Partnership and Skanska. We were fortunate to have in attendance Helen Holland,Leader of Bristol City Council, Kate Campion,Director of Transformation,Mark Giltsof,Skanska and John Burgess,LEP. In addition a core group of our Governing Body were present along with other councillors and Skanska, Wilkinson Ayre,Northgate and LEP colleagues It was also wonderful to see Mr Gordon Clements,ex Headteacher,now BSF Manager for Bristol at this event. He has done so much to help secure our new building. Everyone who had not visited the building before was highly impressed with the standard of the build and the exciting facilities now available for all our students. Not long to go now before the arrival of our colleagues and the beginning of the new term

SAD Day

2008-08-14T21:09:00.003+01:00

The day we have been waiting for has arrived. Our new building has been handed over to the Local Education Partnership by Skanska Construction. It has received its independent certification as being fit for purpose and meeting contract requirements. This means that as from tomorrow morning the big move is really on. An army of colleagues will now be engaged in moving hundreds of items into the new building. The IT team will begin two weeks of solid work to fit the IT systems. The next phase has really begun.This is wonderful news for us all.
This picture gives everyone a sneak preview of our wonderful new internal street.

The month of August

2008-08-07T10:00:00.002+01:00

We are in the middle of the big move. Our old building is now fully packed. Today we move into to the City Learning Centre building for administrative purposes. Our old Maths block and the PE block have already been demolished. D&T is next, then Science, then the old college hall.These five blocks will be down by the beginning of September.
Only seven days until the SAD day(Service availability day). A frenetic site with many Skanska colleagues working flat out to meet this deadline.
Very tiring but hugely exciting. The official handover of keys ceremony is planned for the 19th August

The final days

2008-07-24T22:00:00.003+01:00

So we reach the last working day in our old buildings. They have served many generations of students since they first opened in 1956. Our last build programme opened in 1968 and those buildings which include the swimming pool and sports hall will be the first to be demolished on the 28th July. It has been quite an emotional week for staff and students. Our young people left the old buildings on Tuesday with dignity. There was almost a point of calmness when we reached 13.00hrs on their final day. Many were sad to leave the only buildings they have ever known. The last two days have seen much frenetic activity as colleagues pack and throw away. Friday the 25th will be our last day before we reopen on the 8th September in our spectacular new build. Much is still to be done but we are optimistic that everything will be ready. A huge thank you to all who have supported us to this point. A special thank you to every member of the Brislington staff who have made this such a memorable week. Enjoy a well earned break.

Tour the new building

2008-06-24T21:15:00.002+01:00

Next week brings us to the first opportunity for current parent/carers to tour our new building. We will be open on Tuesday and Wednesday of next week,1st & 2nd July.Our aim is to allow as many people as possible look at the building that is less than seven weeks away from completion. Our partners Skanska are making the building available even though they are working flat out to reach the service availability day of 14th August. It is really important that replies slips are returned to book places. Come along and be impressed!

Too many Examinations and tests

2008-05-20T19:01:00.002+01:00

It appears that at this time every year a cry goes up about the amount of testing each student at KS3 & 4 is subject t. The government state that parent/carers need to be able to hold schools and colleges to account and can only do so with good comparative data. Others state that there are smarter ways of enabling this to happen. It is right that the progress of each student is measured against their potential. The individual student must be supported to achieve at the highest level. I suspect that in the next few years "Stage not age " will become the order of things and students will be tested when it is appropriate to their needs not at a fixed point within an academic year. Until then we at the college must do all that we can to enable individual students to achieve their agreed targets and we must be able to demonstrate that each student achieves more than they first thought possible at each key stage. Our results this year will hopefully demonstrate this to everyone

Text Messaging

2008-03-01T08:41:00.002Z

Wednesday saw the College enter the text messaging age. At 09.30 we sent our first 100+ texts to parent/carers whose child was not present at College. This action caused an interesting set of responses. From the astonished, " Why have I received a message from you?"; Through to "I,m really please that you are able to inform me in this way."
Our intention is to develop a wide range of ways in which all concerned with a student who is a member of the College can access a range of data sources via the internet. Our initial trial of parent/ carer access to student data has gone very well. We are at present looking to our systems for the new college building which will provide even better access for all concerned.
The key question relates to how much access does everyone require. The Government wish that all reports are available via PDF format within one year. Is there a desire for access to live data? Are there concerns re protection of data that we need to be mindful of at all times.
It is vital that we have an informed debate as we move forward in this exciting arena.

An interesting two weeks with the Media

2008-01-25T11:48:00.000Z

Publication date for 2007 Year 11 results came. Good news on the 5A*-C grades achievement not so good on the 5* - G grades but further improvement on those who achieved nil. The information on the BBC website elements of good and bad for us. A great piece in the Independent newspaper on our plans for the new buliding. A well researched piece that provided plenty of food for thought. Then an opportunity to take part in a Channel 4 Dispatches programme on how the Secondary experience can be different. Finally BBC Question Time arrives tonight for a live broadcast from the College. If we add the involvement of the Bristol Evening Post when the high profile chef arrived it has been an interesting two weeks with the Media. BBC have just arrived......

2008 has finally arrived

2008-01-02T21:26:00.000Z

The new year,2008,has finally arrived. Four years of planning, design and building will finally see us move to our new buildings. A great deal still has to be done in the meantime. Only 31 learning days this term. Followed by 26 for term four. Short sharp terms which need to be packed with high level learning for all students. Hopefully the weather will stay mild and we will not suffer loss of learning for any reason.
Each new year brings renewed optimism. This new year is particularly exciting for all involved with our College. Everyone should be able to achieve 100% attendance over such a short period of time.

End of Term

2007-12-19T10:36:00.000Z

The end of term two has arrived. Trial examinations for Year 9 & 11 have taken place and reports are currently being written. Great success has been achieved by our Netball teams in the Bristol Finals. Our Year 11 team has won again and our now undefeated for five years. Is this a record?
The new building moves ahead on schedule. We held a really interesting parent forum on the design and function of the new building last week. So two weeks holiday and then a return to hard work for all involved in delivering the highest quality education to our students.
I hope tht you all have a really great holiday
John Matthews

Thoughts on holidays and student attendance

2007-10-16T21:04:00.000+01:00

As we move rapidly towards a term break it is a good time to raise the issues caused by parental/carer holidays taken during term time. The overall student attendance of the College is affected by parent/carers exercising their right to ten days entitlement to holiday during term time. A quick look at the different prices charged for holidays outside College holidays show why this is such an attractive proposition for all concerned.
The impact of missing up to ten days in a six week teaching module is enormous for the individual student. Our college is open for students for 190 days per academic year. Should everyone be asked to take their holidays during the remaining 175 days? Should term time holiday rights be removed or restricted? It causes real concern for many parent/carers who have little control over the time made available by their employer. There is a real tension for many who seem to have few options available to them.
Fixed penalties for poor attendance can be triggered by a holiday that takes a student below 80% attendance. Anyone below 80% is deemed to be a persistent absentee by the Department for Children, Schools and Families.
Our policy states that if a student's attendance is below 94% we will not authorise the holiday request. Should we remove the right to authorised holidays?
I do feel that this is a complex issue without any easy solutions. I would however welcome views on possible ways forward that would benefit everyone.