Educational Comment from the Senior Leadership Team - Miss Dunn

One of our Academic Development Priorities for the year as published in our School Development Plan, is ‘to instil in all students a drive for personal excellence in all pursuits.’  While we strive to enable our students to attain the highest of academic accolades, we know that the reach of their educational experience at Blackheath High goes much further and wider.

The joys and responsibilities of teaching and leading in all girls’ school involve ensuring that all of our students leave school ready for their adult lives in our ever-changing world.

At Blackheath, our students have strong moral values, know right from wrong and develop secure and respectful relationships with their peers and teachers. Our sense of community is strong with our excellent teachers modelling the high standards of personal integrity and tolerance that permeate our school. Our students are outward looking and compassionate as demonstrated in their willingness to help one another and to become involved in charity work at home and overseas such as our forthcoming trip to Tanzania in July 2017 with the The Livingstone Tanzania Trust.

These attitudes and expectations are transmitted throughout the school with older girls working with younger girls in collaborative projects as demonstrated in our recent Year 9 Architecture day when Year 6 and Year 9 students were engaged in designing and building – future architects, planners and designers in the making! Year 7 students have Year 11 ‘buddies’ to steer them through their first year of Senior School and last week in assembly forty-three Maths mentors were appointed. These are older girls who dedicate time to helping and encouraging younger girls with their Maths.

From a very young age our students are actively compassionate, supporting local and overseas charities by fundraising in school. The Junior School raised a stunning £1603 for Children in Need recently and our Year 7 girls are preparing their Christmas Fair this Friday 9^th December, to raise money for Crisis for Christmas, whilst Sixth Formers in the Amnesty Society have organised to send ‘winter warm bags’ to refugees in Greece.

One of the highlights of the school year is when our Year 10 students invite local Senior Citizens to a tea party in school and spend an afternoon of fun and entertainment in the company of their wonderful grandparents and friends.

Our students’ self-esteem is built by a clear knowledge of themselves and precise knowledge of their aims. Our girls do not shy away from the highest of goals and with a new grading system using the numbers 9-1 at GCSE and new two-year linear A-level courses, there is a lot to aim for.

When we consider the qualities that our students leave with to embark on their adult lives, they are considerable, including an ambition that is not based on slavish perfectionism, but on a knowledge and awareness of excellence and how to achieve it and when they come back to visit us, how do we recognise our students? By the high quality of their relationships with other people.

Miss Dunn
Deputy Head (Academic)