Firstly I apologise, with some considerable shame, for how long it has been since I last blogged. As something of a ‘wannabe’ writer, I always struggle with quick and shallow posts, which the blogosphere seems to thrive on - the ‘little and often‘ approach isn’t really me - I prefer ‘lots but less often’. Once I start a blog post, it tends to become something of a broadsheet article rather than a tweet or two. So apologies again for the ‘radio silence’. Too much has happened to include here… BUT… ESA has at last been recognised as a GOOD provider by Ofsted. It’s been hard fought and hard won over the last four years and it has taken a huge collective effort from our super students, brave staff, committed families and innovative partners. Put in unbelievably brief and simple summary, we have:

built a specialist, creative curriculum relevant to our culture industry which has value both to our students and our professional partners.
recruited and retained good teachers both in our creative specialism but also in English, maths and science (which, during a national teacher shortage crisis has taken some time).
developed a culture of collaborative, professional, positive learning in the arts, technical crafts and disciplines that underpin the creative industries.

If you want to read the report, click HERE.

Last week, I closed out our first half term with an assembly about Diwali (The Hindu festival of light), which is being celebrated now from Oct 27th to 1st November 2019. Fortuitously, our own production company right here at ESA worked with a Hindu puppet theatre just 2 weeks ago to produce a short filmed version of the story of Rama’s rescue of Princess Sita from the 10 headed demon king Ravana. Thanks so much to Ramayana puppet theatre for hiring us. In the story, Rama must track the princess Sita who has been kidnapped by the demon Ravana. Rama needs help from the monkey king Hunuman and also the army of the bears. Together they build a bridge to the island where Sita is being held. Rama rescues Sita and then all the animals of the world light lamps to guide them home. This is why Hindus, Sikhs, Jains and some Buddhists observe Diwali by lighting candles, fireworks, lanterns and lamps. The festival celebrates the power of light over darkness and good triumphing over evil.

As I planned my assembly, I really appreciated the collective building of the bridge and the idea of lighting the way. ESA has been open for 6 years. We’ve been building something and we are attempting to light the way. We’ve been building a way to a different approach to education - one where students are included more, where the curriculum has value and connection. We’re trying to give light to a fresh approach which is not the typical standardised and ‘factory’ learning model but rather something of variety and difference, colour and light. We study lighting and sound and visual media arts - we rejoice in vibrant colour and performance. We have built this approach to school together. Parents and families, governors and industry partners, students and staff together are building something and lighting it up!

So as a thank you to all our community of staff and students, and in recognition of the very considerable achievement of being formally recognised by Ofsted as a GOOD school, we got everyone a lego brick. It is of course a token - a symbolic gift which says you are a piece to this whole. You have a part in what we are building together. You can play with each other and build something fun and meaningful when you submit your pieces to each other in positive collaboration. The bricks were all different colours, just as our community if diverse but they do all fit together to be bigger than the individual. Students took their brick in the same spirit as it was given - symbolically. I really love this school - we believe in what we’re doing and we value the bridges we build and the educative pathways we light up.

esa: together, we create.