David Rogers

GRIT assembly Jan 2016 from David Rogers I love giving assemblies.  It's a real privilege. At Patcham, we believe that grit is an important area to talk about and develop if our students are to do well.  We've distilled character down to this one trait. We have research evidence that is showing signs that we are doing the right thing too, but that's for another time.  Although Carlsburg may make the best stuff, only Heineken reaches the parts that others can't. What follows is my assembly, the slides are above. Our assemblies at Patcham are very special. Each one has three features: A piece of music, dance or theatrical performance by our students The Patcham News - our way of ensuring that our messages get across: A reading from a book to support our culture of reading for pleasure and our aspiration to have every student reading at their chronological reading age. This week, I had the pleasure of speaking to my House - a quarter of our s...

The photo about was taken at  Þingvellir  in Iceland. It's where the Mid Atlantic ridge cuts straight through the country.  Those are my feet as I'm trying to show that you can climb between the continental plates of Eurasia and North America.  Of course, the actual rift valley is around 7km wide, and the students I take are far more sensible with their own images: Anyway, getting to the point.  Þingvellir is also the sight of the 'first' parliament of sorts (although it wasn't democratic) as the Viking descendants met each year to share laws, settle disputes and get the women pregnant.  There may have been some horse trading too.  The place is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.  The place is epic special and not far from this place, Regan and Gorbachev signed some Perestroika agreements. (see you've learned something, right?) People coming together to celebrate and reinforce the ethos of a school is one of the most important events in a school. ...

The title of my International assemblies this week is 'Why bother?' I have used some images from my recent trip to Goa and finished with a short movie created with Photostory. The simple programme creates an effective effect using Queen's Breakthru. My main point to the pupils is that even if you can put a smile on someones face for 15 minutes then it is worth donating money, time and/or effort. It is said so often that UK pupils are not as engaged as those in developing nations it has almost become cliched, however, in my experience it is the truth! Some of the stories are both funny and sad. There is a photo of the bathroom and toilet shared by three families. You can imagine the smell and I compare the area with our local tip.The lady standing proudly in her dwelling brings home how small the homes are. Our tutor groups sit in a square 5x5 chairs big so I have been using this to try to communicate the small nature of the abode. | View | Upload your own The photograph o...