Dear Parents
Welcome to this week’s Newsletter!
This final week prior to the half term break has seen a whirl of exciting activities and events across the school. For me, however, the focus has remained, as always, on the learning and teaching that happens on a daily basis across Britannica.
Quality assurance
One of the real joys of working at Britannica is to experience seeing the learning process in action when visiting classes across the school on a daily basis. Before moving in to senior leadership, this was my daily job, as a Maths teacher, head of department, consultant and advisor. I know (and sometimes miss when involved in a long business meeting regarding the extension!) that amazing feeling of seeing a child truly understand something (‘penny drop’) or be able to explain a complex idea to their friend sat next to them. That never leaves you and is why teaching and working in Education is such a rewarding profession. In my view, the absolute best!
My belief is that we have an amazing set of teachers, the absolute best in Budapest, capable of coaxing these ideas and learning out of the students at Britannica. I hope that you agree?!
However, my belief is also backed up by strong systematic quality assurance procedures and evidence based processes that we implement throughout the school across the whole school year to ensure our standards and expectations are continually raised.
The senior team are constantly involved in quality assuring what happens across the school, from the quality of lessons to the behaviour and attitudes of students to the social dynamics within form groups and classes. The SPG (Secondary Performance Group) and the PLT (Primary Leadership Team) meet weekly to discuss such matters.
We are passionate about our roles and focused on your children having the best and most holistic education possible. Part of that process is visiting lessons and engaging in dialogue with the teachers and students. It is a fascinating and rewarding experience. We are fortunate enough to have a highly skilled and qualified set of staff. However, what I appreciate most is their passion and reflection on what is going on in their classes and how they can improve even further. Self-reflection is absolutely crucial.
Over the last two days, I have visited lessons and experienced the joy of ‘adding ten’ for the first time (Year 1), analysed Jane Austen’s Mansfield Park novel through the eyes of both negative and positive critics (Year 11), seen students explain and dissect Platonic and Archimedean solids (Year 9) and students perform a tableau of the key scenes from the early Acts of ‘MACBETH’ (Year 11). It has been a pleasure and a joy.
I wish you and your families a pleasant half-term break and I look forward to seeing you all back at Britannica on Monday 25th February.
Kind regards
Neil McGarry (Principal)
