Exciting new partnerships, significant enhancements to our curriculum, 2 films in production, construction works have begun, we’ve finally joined our new trust and we are launching our new virtual open event with a live broadcast online, crewed by our students working with industry partners… coronavirus certainly ain’t slowing us down!

**Lots of big and brilliant stuff going on!**

What a wonderful, ambitious and relentless first half term. I apologise for not having blogged since the very start of term. We are now 7 weeks in and I’m determined to catch you all up on a truly high paced half term.

The start of a new academic year is always tough but I love it…. it’s so creative - deciding on the development plan priorities for the coming year, looking at what milestones have been achieved and which ones are coming up. The operational demands of this particular new year have been a serious challenge. We’ve never had to zone the school like this before, never had to install 40 hand sanitisers, create new entrances to the school and separate assembly spaces for different year groups, redesign the school day to allow for staggered breaks and lunchtimes and schedule time for the cleaning of classrooms between lessons! Yet even with all the Covid security measure, we have pushed forwards with an ambitious and profound list of projects, partnerships and innovations, as you can see from the post-its (yes, the photo is a little staged, I have omitted some of the more boring and ‘operational’ post-it reminders, like the installation of new outdoor lighting, the relocation of the staff car park and the learning walk planned for this week).

So there is plenty going on - some really big and exciting pieces of work (some of which have been literally years in the making). I have decided not to write a single blog about it all… with such ambition and innovation, the blog would be 2 days long! Instead, I am going to write several shorter blogs over the next three weeks offering some details on the following headlines happening at the moment:

Our ‘Character Curriculum’ and post Coronavirus approach to learning, developing and achieving [CLICK HERE to read]
Our current and pending student projects and film productions
Our new partnerships structure and the ‘Pipeline Curriculum’ for post 16 learners
Our new official membership of the Danes Educational Trust
The construction works currently underway and the plans for our improving campus

So from no blogs for seven weeks to six blogs over the next three weeks! Here goes…

Before now embarking on the first, I would like to extend my authentic thanks to the ESA community. Times are uncertain just now…. Coronavirus presents a risk to us and our loved ones (especially those more medically vulnerable or older) and we are all carrying more anxiety at this time. Just now, as I write, London has been moved into ‘tier 2’ of the Covid security measures. It would probably be understandable if we had all just ‘coped’ for this first half term; if we had just survived the challenging times we face…. But ESA has impressed me in our collective determination to thrive at a time of insecurity. Indeed, we are pushing on with exciting opportunities and developments whilst we respond to these new and trying times. Two students were still in school at very nearly 7pm one evening, they were working keenly to finish the editing on one of our current film productions… I asked them why they were so persistent and driven in this time of increased fear, the answer I got spoke volumes about the committed mentality of a creative person working in their craft - “It’s not quite done so what else is there to do?”.

I love this place.

So much going on!