Secondary
Elizabeth Mason
As the Head of the Secondary School at HeadStart, I am extremely honoured to be part of this fantastic team. The first year of my Headship has been one of the most interesting and rewarding of my life. It is great to think I can come to work every day smiling and ready for my staff and learners to reach for the stars, knowing that together we can achieve amazing things. As you know I am an experienced senior leader and Arts specialist who has worked in education for over 20 years. I am qualified to Masters Level in Education from the prestigious Institute of Education (IOE) in London’s Russell Square. I have a PGCE from the University of Birmingham and a BA (Hons) from the University of Manchester. In addition, I have also have been a participant of senior leadership training with the IOE and took part in “Leading from the Middle Training” which takes a year to complete. I have international teaching experience in Africa, Asia and the Middle East. I have British teaching and leadership experience in London as a Senior Leader (Vice Principal) in charge of whole school teaching and learning. I have worked in London as an advisor to the “Building Schools for the Future” programme. The achievement of students academically, socially and emotionally is extremely important to me. This is why I am an advocate of Guy Claxton’s Building Learning Power ethos which we are embedding into our daily lessons. I am interested in developing the whole child and ensuring students leave HeadStart as confident young people that are responsible global citizens and possible future leaders. Over the years, I have been fortunate to touch the lives of many students, some of whom now as adults have sought me out to thank me for the work I have done with them and to tell me that I made a difference. This is the most rewarding part of the job for any teacher. I strongly believe in a happy, positive school with happy students and staff as this results in the best progress for all. It is the equipping of staff with the latest up dates in international pedagogy, especially teaching and learning techniques, that ensures staff development, smooth and interesting classroom delivery, plus clear goals and outcomes for our students. I am passionate about corporate and global responsibility; I believe in promoting charitable giving in school. I also enjoy both the performance arts and the visual arts, am an accomplished mixed media artist, having had exhibitions in both the UK and Africa. I am also an amateur singer who enjoys performing live. I love nature and the outdoors. I feel strongly about green issues and teaching students about our beautiful planet and natural wonders that we must preserve for our future generations.
I am very proud to be a member of the HeadStart community and having the opportunity to lead a developing and progressive school is a pleasure, albeit a challenge.
My background is Art and Design. Some may consider it unusual to find a head teacher with this background as it would normally be in Science or Maths and sometimes an English specialist. However I believe it is a creative mind and an idea’s person that really is the best type of person to lead a school like HeadStart, to future success.
I am extremely happy to be part of the HeadStart journey to excellence and inspiring a love of learning. This love of learning extends to both students and staff. This year I will be working hard to ensure that staff have good professional development opportunities both inside and outside of school. These will feed directly into the teaching and learning throughout the faculties. I will be continuing to have robust quality assurance in place and will be listening to students to make sure we are getting it right for them.
Here at HeadStart, our Secondary school offers the Cambridge curriculum leading to Check point examinations at year 9 and IGCSE at Year 11 and AS and A levels at 6th Form, combined with the National Curriculum of England and Wales. We are expanding our range of subjects and we have a full cohort in all year groups plus a growing 6th Form.
I am proud to say that for the 2016-2017 academic school year the Secondary school students have achieved a staggering 39% of A Star/A grades and I wish to continue this trend into 2018 with 42% A Star/A grades.
This year we are beginning to introduce building learning power which was invented by Professor Guy Claxton. It is a way of encouraging all students to use their full learning potential as it focuses on the 4R’s.
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Resilience–not giving up.
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Resourcefulness–being able to use a range of learning strategies and knowing what to do when you get stuck.
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Reflectiveness– being able to think about yourself as a learner and how you might be able to do this better.
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Reciprocity-–being able to learn with and from others as well as on your own. Students are encouraged to ‘stretch’ within their everyday lessons and activities and apply to different aspects of their learning.
By installing learning power, all of our learners will achieve their very best at all times.
If you would like to know what textbooks your child will be using throughout the year then please refer to the website posted below for a comprehensive book list for each year group. If you wish to purchase any of these textbooks then please use the title and ISBN code to purchase from any book store.
GCE-Ultimate Resource for Cambridge International Examinations
