This week has seen our Faculty system working at its best.
The Faculty of a school is comprised of the people who work there.
Faculty comes from the Old French word faculté, which means “skill, accomplishment, or learning.”
This week we have seen Mr Payne (Head of Maths), Dr Evans (Head of Science) and Mrs Sims (Head of Computing) work together to create something brilliant for our pupils.
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Here is our Faculty structure:
Faculty Members 2018/2019: Areas of Responsibility.
| St Peter’s Qualities | Core Academic Languages | Core Academic Sciences | Humanities | Creative Arts | Performing Arts | Sport | ||||||||
| Head of Faculty | Mrs Evans | Mrs Parker | Mrs Evans | Mrs Hughes | Mrs Tyson Mrs Coombe | Mr Hoban | Mrs White | |||||||
| Faculty Member | Pre-Prep | EP / SBr / HSt / HA / (EG) / ABJ / KW / JH / CS / LD / PGr | Mrs Bruce-Jones Mrs Small Mrs Howard Mrs Davies | Mrs Glanvill | Miss Green | Mr Ball Mr Harris Mr Reynolds Miss Dutton Miss Hoare Mrs Hughes Mr Cunliffe Mr Pritchard Mrs Ball Mr Roulstone Mrs Wyeth Mr Parker | ||||||||
| Lower | CC / AH / KS / PGB / DE / EH | Mr Godwin-Brown | Mrs Sims Mr Cunliffe | |||||||||||
| Upper | RC / SP / ETy / VE / CP / MP | Madame Evans | Mr Payne Miss Hoare | Madame Thomas Mr Pritchard | Mrs Tyson | Mrs Wellington Smith Mrs Colwill Mrs Lowles | ||||||||
The Faculty structure we have built (and continue to build rapidly) means that staff from across the school subjects and age phases come together to discuss all manner of future projects, events or curriculum developments. Cross-curricular links appear easily between Faculty subjects. These are not tenuous links; rather genuine opportunities for our staff team to support children to make links in their learning, thus enabling speedier progress across many more areas of school life.
It is a recipe for boosting a pupil’s self-esteem and ultimately a pupil’s all-around performance. If you are studying, let’s say, Africa – then why not learn African music, dance, art and design, texts, people, culture, finance all at the same time – using library resources, technology, secondary resources and visiting enrichment experiences to find out as much as possible to quench your curiosity. It is both economical with curriculum time and allows staff to teach the same skills across different subjects.
Faculties by their very nature allow people to share “skill, accomplishment, or learning” and we are furiously carving out time for this to happen with our very busy staff team. During some days, weeks, terms and years this is easier said than done! As I always say … it all just starts with a conversation.
To share teaching experiences and to swap ideas about the hows, whys and what we deliver within the curriculum keeps each of our teachers fresh and it is always wonderful to watch everyone in the team encourage each other to have a try at something new. We simply do not have time in the term to meet weekly, but colleagues work closely together over a term and you often hear conversations going on in the staff room about adapting lessons to suit the needs of the cohort or topic. Our teachers all have the freedom to teach for learning and no other reason.
In addition, all staff have access to shared documents called ‘Curriculum Planners’. These are written for all subjects within Faculties and we use our ‘Pen Pictures’ and ‘Subject Overviews’ to guide us on how to enhance all areas of learning with enrichment experiences and opportunities for critical thinking, computing and outdoor learning.
With a staff body who get on incredibly well (most of the time!) we have built and continue to build, a culture where educational principle, personal pedagogy and open debate are welcomed and encouraged.
Just like every single one of our pupils being unique and individual with strength and things to work on – so are the staff. Together we are indeed more powerful. Just look at the gallery of pictures to see what the children have achieved thanks to our Faculty of Core Academic Sciences…
