It was the writer and football fan, Nick Hornby, who wrote that ‘the natural state of the football fan is bitter disappointment’.  And it was the comedian Jack Dee who admitted that his own ‘natural state’ was grumpy. 

Others, with maybe more intellectual insight than those two, have agreed that the natural state of the human mind is to be dissatisfied or, at best, to be as happy as the human condition allows us to be. 

As I get older, I do find myself more inclined to be grumpy, like most people of my age and generation, I guess.  But I have also identified a trait which may be more in tune with my job role, that of being ‘restlessly dissatisfied’.  I run a terrific school, with marvellous people working in it, fantastic students and great parents.  And yet, it is never enough. 

As I walk the school site, I always come across something that isn’t quite as it should be - a student who isn’t where they’re meant to be, a display that has become tatty or unsightly, a poster on a wall with a spelling mistake.  I carry my phone with me (it ought to be a note pad) and will quickly note it down, or take a picture of it, so I can address it later.  As I do this, I sometimes wonder whether other people notice what I have seen.  I ask them but invariably they haven’t - they’re simply too busy, or they’re doing something else and don’t have the luxury that I have perhaps to walk the site without singular purpose, with my head up.  Basically, looking for things that aren’t as they should be. 

The challenge for me – in grumpy middle age – is not to overreact to what I have seen.  I must put right whatever the problem is and try, as far as we can, to prevent it from happening again.  But not to blame, not to show too much dissatisfaction.  My leadership philosophy has always been to communicate my expectations, based on our Trust and school values and vision, and then to empower my staff to deliver to the best of their ability.  This carries an inherent risk that they will make mistakes.  But the pay off in terms of their motivation and creativity and discretionary effort is more than worth it.  Which is why, when mistakes are made, I mustn’t overreact or attach too much blame. 

But it does getter harder as I get older.  Being aware of it, I suppose, is part of the remedy.  As is having other senior leaders who will point it out when I get things wrong, as they do.  

***  

This week we have been putting our finishing touches to the Third Edition of The Eagle, which will be emailed to you shortly.  Reading these before they go out definitely moves the dial in the positive direction on the ‘grumpometer’.  Seeing the range of activities that our students are engaged in, across sports, arts, charity work, as well as in their classrooms, fills me with pride.  Whilst we send out The Eagle edition which corresponds with the year group your child is in, you can read all five of them on our website.  It will give you a strong sense of the full breadth of activity taking place in our school. 

Thank you also to everyone that has completed the Edurio Parent Survey.  This is still open until the 10 March and can be found here if you have not yet completed it. 

***  

There are now just 38 school days until our Year 11 students sit down in the hall for their first external GCSE exam.  They have acquitted themselves admirably this year, especially during recent mock exam weeks, which they have mostly taken in their stride. 

There is a huge amount of activity taking place to support our Year 11 student, with lots of information being communicated to them, and home.  To help organise this, next week we are launching a dedicated area on our website which will enable students and parents/carers to find things such as exam timetables, revision schedules, tips on studying at home and so on.  We will share more information with you next week on this. 

***  

On the subject of Nick Hornby’s ‘bitter disappointment’, Hull FC have begun their season in typical fashion – a good win which promises hope, followed by crushing defeat.   By the time you read this, they may well be back in action again on Friday night against Huddersfield.  My son and I will be watching on TV, prepared for whatever happens, knowing that the downsides, just make the upsides even better.  Just like life really. 

However you are spending the weekend, I hope you can spend some time outdoors enjoying the spring sunshine.  Thank you for your support. 

Mr Groak

Headteacher

You would think it would be impossible to make Ofsted's system for reporting on schools any worse than the single phrase judgement system. And yet, according to Pepe Di’Iasio, general secretary of ASCL, that is precisely what they have done. The proposed report cards, he said, were “worse than single-word judgements”. 

These were introduced on Monday at the start of a twelve-week consultation period which, in theory, should lead to them being used in inspections from November. This is a timeframe which is extremely short and has already led to whistleblowers from within Ofsted reporting that the whole process has been too quick and lacking proper scrutiny.  Alongside the report card is a proposed monitoring system, the detail of which I have read three times, and still don't quite understand.  

Schools will be placed in ‘special measures’ if any area (except leadership) or safeguarding is a concern, and leadership is also a concern. Those schools will get six monitoring inspections over 24 months. A school will ‘require significant improvement’ if any area (except leadership) or safeguarding is a concern, but leadership is not. These schools will get five over 18 months. Clear?  

It remains to be seen how 'high stakes' this becomes and what the consequences will be if a school gets an 'attention needed' judgement. That will depend on the perception of parents, local media and the rest of the system as to how they respond and whether schools will also get support from inspectors before, during and after each inspection. We can only hope that this will not be the 'cliff edge' judgement that has led to such perverse incentives in our schools for the past few decades.  

The consultation is open now and runs until end of April.  It is open to parents to please consider taking part.   

***  

This week’s lunch trial has been a qualified success.  Successful in the sense that the plans we had in place were effective; but this was qualified by the fact that it didn’t rain or snow! 

When choosing early February to run a trial, we anticipated that we would get some wet weather which would enable us to see how our plans would cope with high numbers of students wanting to remain indoors.  That didn’t happen and, for most of the week, students have preferred to socialise outside once they had grabbed their food.  Nevertheless, the queues were managed well, adapted space was used well and, as ever, our students coped admirably with the change.  We will have another attempt at trialling this further later in the term. 

On Monday, Year 11 students begin their last round of Mock Exams before the real ones take place in the summer.  The importance of mocks cannot be overstated.  They are useful for teachers in determining what a student still needs to work on and can also influence the tier of entry that a student goes.  For students, they have a big influence on confidence, good or bad.  We urge all students, and families, to treat these as if they were the real thing and prepare accordingly, which means getting plenty of sleep and exercise, but also doing independent revision at home, as well as in school.  This ‘balanced’ approach is always more effective than relying on revision sessions with teachers, or last-minute cramming.  If there is still any doubt about the pitfalls of ‘cramming’ then please look up the Ebbinghaus Forgetting Curve to see what I mean. 

***  

I always think (optimistically) that February half term marks the beginning of the end of winter and the start of Spring.  That may not be meteorologically correct but it often feels that way as nights grow longer and the chances of snow and slush recede.  Tomorrow the rugby league season starts and we are just one week from half term.  I hope you have nice plans over the next couple of weeks to spend more time outdoors and with family over the half term break. 

It has been another calm and purposeful week at school and we know that cannot happen without your support so thank you.  And have a lovely weekend. 

Mr Groak

Headteacher

The True Cost of Education 

School leaders’ and teachers’ unions have for years talked about the lack of funding directed to schools.  So, in 2018, the Government challenged the Headteachers’ Union, ASCL, to come up with a figure which would represent what schools actually need to do their job to the standard we might all expect.   

ASCL took that challenge and produced a report ‘The True Cost of Education’ which was published in March 2019.  The report concluded that primary and secondary schools in England required £40.2 billion of funding in 2019-20.  In that year, they had actually been allocated £34.5 billion. 

ASCL calculated the figure by working out how many teachers and support staff were needed to support the number of pupils in the system that year.  They based this on all staff having sufficient preparation time, leaders having time to quality assure provision, a maximum secondary class size of 30, a broad and diverse curriculum and all students being taught by a qualified teacher. 

That £5.7 billion gap represented underfunding of 16.5%.   In simple terms, in 2019, it meant that each and every student was being short-change by around £800.  And that was before Covid and the impact this had on children’s health, wellbeing, behaviour and attendance which has probably made that gap even greater. 

For a school the size of Hessle High, this represents around a million pounds of ‘lost’ funding.  Just to give a sense of the difference that could make, with one million pounds, we could: 

• Employ around 15-20 extra teachers (taking all employer costs into account) which would reduce class sizes significantly, or 

• Employ around 30 teaching assistants to provide more targeted support, or 

• Equip every student with a digital learning device and equip a raft of rooms with upgraded ICT  

• Provide all students with an overseas educational visit (and a domestic one) each year or 

• Much else besides..... 

Most people have little interest in Government Bonds and Gilt Yields.  However, since 2021 following Liz Truss’ budget and recently since the Rachel Reeves budget, these have increased.  Which essentially means the Government has to pay more interest on the money it borrows.  The extra cost of borrowing money has more than wiped out the £5.7bn that could have been given to schools.   

Children’s education isn’t just essential to their lives, it is crucial to all our futures, especially when we are ‘going for growth’ in our economy.  And yet, we still have not made the argument that schools need to be funded fully.  In 2010, 5.7% of our GDP was spent on education; it is now only 4.1%.   

The public, and media, seldom talk about a crisis in schools, or that education is broken, in the same way that we talk about the situation in the NHS.  I’m not sure why that is the case; maybe we are too good at ‘making do’ with what we’ve got?  

*** 

Another reminder that we will be trialing a potential new lunch format during the w/c 3 February.  In the longer term, it is our desire to have all students taking break and lunch at the same time.  For the most up to date information, please see the letter attached here. 

***  

As we approach the fifteenth week of January, I would like to praise all of our students for how they have conducted themselves during some cold, wet and windy weather.  Attendance continues to rise and behaviour is improving even more, term on term.  Your support with this is invaluable and greatly appreciated.  Thank you. 

***  

Weather permitting, tonight I am driving to Sheffield to see Hull City.  My son is a passholder at Hull City and goes to the games with his friends.  They are all too young to go to an away game on their own, so it falls to the parents to take turns to take them on roadtrips.  Tonight it is my turn.  The last time I stepped foot in the Bramall Lane ground was in 1988 to see Bruce Springsteen on his Tunnel of Love tour.  I suspect much has changed since then and I will not be hearing the music I love but instead the many chants sung by the City fans, most of which my son knows by heart and sings all over the house.  I’m looking forward to it.  It is the passing of the sporting baton from one generation to the next. 

Meanwhile, my wife and daughter have invited my mum over for a ‘Girls’ Night’, which I’m told involves Prosecco, Cheesecake, a Bridget Jones film and a pedicure.  I’m definitely glad I’m going to Sheffield. 

Have a lovely weekend and thank you as always for your support.  

Mr Groak

Headteacher

Firstly, let me take this opportunity to wish you and your family a very Happy New Year and a healthy and prosperous 2025. 

It has been a decidedly chilly first week of the new term and, whilst it took a few hours for the school to warm up on Monday, it reminded me just how bad it used to be before our new school was built.  I remember the old site when it would be either sub zero for months in the winter and tropical for the same time in the summer.  There would be about two weeks in April and two weeks in October when the temperature in the buildings was ‘just right’. 

I appreciate that it isn’t easy for students in these conditions.  Unlike primary schools and in most modern schools, students are not provided with lockers or ‘pegs’ on which to store their outdoor wear or bags and they have to cope with carrying them with them each day.  Lockers were not built into our school design and there simply is not the space to install them in the current building design.  Nor do students have a base room where they could safely leave their bags, coats and equipment as all rooms are used constantly throughout the day.  I wish it were different or had money to change this but neither is possible. 

As a result, we ask students to bring outdoor wear to keep warm and ask that they bring a bag in which to store it during the day.  Where this becomes wet, we are soon to give them a suitable plastic bag to put their coat into which can then go into their school bag.  In cold weather such as this week, we are also allowing students to keep their outerwear on when in the canteen as they come and go from here during lunch.  I have to say that students cope very well with this in general and we have few problems with these measures in place.   

Next week, the temperature ticks up a little so we will not have ‘cold weather’ day in place and students will be expected to remove outer wear in the canteen at unstructured times.   

Thank you for your ongoing support with uniform standards which remain exceptionally high. 

***  

A new year is always a great opportunity for a fresh start.  I spoke to all our students in successive assemblies on Monday and praised their resilience for being in school, on time, on such a dreadful cold and wet morning.  I also praised their attendance which, at that point, was 100% for the year!  Maintaining high levels of attendance through the winter is not easy for young people; nevertheless, the benefits of being in school, socially and academically, are proven beyond doubt so we continue to celebrate high levels of attendance and the resilience shown by our students. 

***  

Last night we held our latest Parent First event which focused on how parents can support Year 11 students with their studies in English.  We had over 60 families present who heard tips and advice from Mr Burnett, Mr Kay and Head of Department, Mrs O’Loughlin.  Between them they have decades of experience of preparing students for success in their exams and I am delighted that they willing to give up their evening to share it with parents and students.  I hope that those in attendance found it useful.  Watch this space for more information on these events for other subjects and year groups. 

***  

Finally, it is a quiet weekend in the Groak household over the next few days as we rest and recuperate after the first week of term. Thankfully, the weather is improving slightly and the winter sunshine always invites me to put on my running shoes and get out for some exercise.  Whatever you may be doing, stay warm and safe and thank you for your ongoing support. 

Mr Groak

Headteacher

At the start of this half-term, I deleted Twitter/X from my iPhone.  As much as I enjoyed scrolling through news clips and opinions, I had found myself trapped in a time vortex that usually ended an hour after I had sat down with a me feeling stressed or frowning for no apparent reason.  The ability of smart phones to make us addicted to angst is a modern phenomenon which afflicts us all.  Since deleting it, my screen time is down 30% and I have managed to find much more time for reading.  A book. 

Hypocritically, I also get frustrated when I find my son lounging on the sofa, Sky Sports on the TV, mobile phone in hand, an iPad on his lap.  “What you doing?” I’ll ask him.  “Nowt,” he’ll reply.  “Then get up and do you homework/empty the bins/dishwasher etc,” I’ll snap in frustration. 

Smart phones are insidious objects.   In a generation, they have crawled into every corner of our lives so that now we now can’t live without them.  Just last night alone, I used my phone to time my run, listen to a Podcast, check my work emails, pay a bill, check the football scores, read the news, engage in some banter with my mates on WhatsApp, do some Christmas shopping and text my mum.  The productivity achieved from my phone is incredible.  And yet, I could spend as long as it took me to do those things, doom scrawling through X in search of a momentary dopamine hit.  And I’m a middle-aged man who learned how to live and function as an adult before smart phones existed.  Pity the child who knows nothing else.  

Which is why, this year, we further tightened our policies on mobile phones in schools.  We have now joined the 56% of schools in England that do not allow mobile phones to be used at all during the school day, even at breaks and lunchtimes.  This is up from 39% in 2018 and the trend is only going in one direction.  Some schools have gone as far as physically removing phones from students when they arrive on site on the basis that the presence of a phone in a student’s pocket or bag is a stress creator (there is lots of research to support this). 

I have to say that, since we tweaked this policy, the response from the students has been superb.  They quickly adapted to it and universally comply with it; there are now only a handful of occasions each week where a student uses their phone and has it removed from them.  More importantly, incidents of peer disputes arising from mobile phone use in school have disappeared.  There were never many to begin with, and we still have to content with the regular out-of-school social media disputes which then spill into school, usually on a Monday morning.  If you were to walk into our school canteen at lunchtime, you would find hundreds of young people and teenagers sitting and chatting, sometimes playing Uno or another card game, and just enjoying each other’s company.  In person.  It is great to see. 

***  

This week, we sent out the first issues of The Eagle – our new year-group school newsletter.  If you missed it, they can be found here.  This will be sent to you each half term with the next one due before February half term to provide you with an update of the curriculum that your child is studying as well as the wide range of extra curricular events taking place. 

***  

It has been a tough few weeks in school with lots of students and some staff absent through illness.  I have managed to dodge the germs for now but I can feel the tiredness.  The only people that can understand how tired a teacher is in the week before Xmas is another teacher.  And so, this being the final weekend before the Xmas break begins, we are opting for a relatively quiet weekend in the Groak household, starting with a Christmas movie tonight, some gentle shopping tomorrow and an early morning trip to Bridlington on Sunday to see my son play football.  If the weather holds, we may even go for a bracing beach walk before heading home for another lazy Sunday afternoon.  In between times, I will catch up with my parents and plan the time we will spend together over Christmas.  It still sounds busy when I write these words but it will feel relaxing. 

Enjoy your weekend and thank you for your support.  

Mr Groak

Headteacher

This week I had the great pleasure to be at a conference which include a keynote speech by Sir Jason Kenny.  Jason is probably not quite a household name but he was a member of the GB cycling team for many years and is the most decorated British Olympian of all time, with seven Gold medals, ahead of more well-known athletes such as Sir Chris Hoy and Sir Stephen Redgrave.

His speech provided an insight into the way in which the cycling team worked and the concept of ‘marginal gains’.  These have become well known and there are numerous anecdotes of the things that the cyclists used to do in order to gain very small advantages over their opponents, such as learning how to wash their hands properly (so that they were less prone to colds and sniffles, which impaired their training) or taking their own pillow away with them on training and competition trips (so that they could get better sleep) or even shaving the hairs on the backs of their hands (to aid the aerodynamics).  Even Jason admitted that the gains from the last one were probably more in their own mind than the real world.

But there were two further take aways for me.  Before the team got to discuss the marginal gains, they had already focused on what they called the ‘critical success factors’ which, in cycling, include training, proper nutrition and having the best equipment (i.e. the fastest bike).  Without these, it doesn’t matter what else you do, you are not going to compete, let alone win.

I reflected on this in discussion with my colleague, Mr Chapman, as we drove back after the event.  In school, there are multiple success factors that are critical: student attendance, excellent behaviour, an interesting and well-constructed curriculum and, most of all, high quality teaching and learning.  Anything else might be important and helpful (marginal gains) but these fundamentals are our focus every day and, listening to Jason Kenny, it helped to clarify this even more for us.

My other take away was how relaxed he was.  Practically horizontal.  In a sport where the competition is so intense and where a tenth of a second can be the difference between a Gold medal or mediocrity, his insight into the team was that they were utterly relaxed about their success or otherwise.  The process for them was everything and they focused on controlling the controllable, and disregarding all of the rest.

The circle of control and influence is something I speak about to my colleagues regularly but hearing someone else talk about the same principle in a different context also helped me to shed some of the things that have been weighing me down.  These are things which occupy my thinking, cause me to worry but I have no control and little influence about them.  I should just forget them, focusing instead on the things I can control and influence.

There are lots of parallels between sport and education (although there are even more differences) and I always find it interesting to listen to athletes talk about their work, what motivates them and how they deal with success and failure.

***

Thank you to the over 200 families that attended our Year 11 Mock Results Evening last night.  This represented 85% of the year group and the feedback has been overwhelmingly positive.  There were some tough conversations and a few tears but, importantly, a determination to move forward together to keep improving student performance.  I wish to also thank all of the staff (teachers, facilities team and admin staff) who made the event happen and ensured it was such a success.

***

There are now three weeks left of the Autumn term, the longest of the year.  Whilst Christmas is approaching, in secondary schools, we ensure that students stay focused on their day to day learning as much as possible.  There will be observation of the season over the next three weeks, through our Christmas Concert at Hessle All Saints Church (16th December), the Christmas Dinner in the canteen (18th) and the Tutor Christmas Party (afternoon of 20th – last day of term).

The number of students with 100% attendance to school this year is significantly higher than the same time last year and we are challenging all students to hit those streaks of attendance so please do not permit your child any unnecessary days off school over the next three weeks.  Learning will be taking place as normal every day so attendance to school is vital for success.

***

Our Christmas tree goes up this weekend and my daughter, having finished her Christmas Present List in September, has now put together our Christmas Movie list.  We return to Home Alone every year, as well as The Christmas Chronicles, but since we seem to have acquired subscriptions to Disney and Apple this year, I am hoping for some greater variety in our movies in the next few weeks. 

Whatever you are doing this weekend, stay warm and safe and thank you for your support. 

Mr Groak

Headteacher