Bulletin

And on into the Indian summer...

1. New member of staff: Paul Stapley
Most of you have now met Paul, who is replacing Laura Wigley with immediate effect. He has had the briefest induction in the history of British education and is starting on Monday morning, so please make him feel welcome and point him in the right direction should he have questions about how things work here.

2. Open Morning
Thank you for all your hard work on Thursday's Open Evening, I felt we sold the department very effectively. Following on from this, Year 6 students and their parents will be in school on Monday morning, taking a look at Cheney in the cold light of an actual teaching day. English, as is always the case, will be a main focus for many parents, so do expect to see people pop their head around the door. I have said before that I don't feel there is any reason for us to change the way we work or teach in light of this - you all do an excellent job and that will be apparent to anyone who sees you teach.

3. Performance management
Many thanks for all your hard work on Friday. If you have done your PM on BlueSky then your job is finished. If you did it on the old paper system, please can you send a copy of your PM form to myself and Phil Waters.

4. SEF/DIP feedback
There's no department meeting this Wednesday - you'll be with colleges 2:00-3:00 and free after that - but can I ask colleagues to take a look at the re-drafted SEF/DIP in preparation for our meeting on Wednesday 12th Oct. If you have any comments on it, I will look to take them then and draft a final version for submission to the powers that be.

5. Coursework catch-up sessions
These started up again on Wednesday and we were overwhelmed by a staggering attendance of one student. In fairness, several did come to me in advance with legitimate excuses but letters will be going home to students who pulled a bunk. I'll give a list of non-attendees to classroom teachers so that they can also follow up.

6. Achievement Assistant job
An advert has gone out for an Achievement Assistant for the English department (replacing the role that Fliss fulfilled last year). At present there is only funding for the job until the end of March. Charlie Field will be applying and I will be emailing the PGCE co-ordinators at Oxford Uni and Brookes to see if they can put the word out. If you know anyone who might be interested, please direct them to the relevant page on the school website: http://cheney.web6.devwebsite.co.uk/page_viewer.asp?page=ACHIEVEMENT+ASSISTANT+%2D+ENGLISH&pid=280

7. Predicted grades for Year 11 students
We need predicted grades for Year 11 students for the English/English Language exam in January. I have emailed the spreadsheet around to Year 11 teachers, if they already have a statistical predictor (and you agree with it!), please just leave that in; if they haven't, or you think it's wrong, please add/change as you see fit.

8. Staff tea
It's our turn to provide staff tea on Friday. Get baking/buying as applicable.

Enjoy the sunshine, have a great week.