What's New

To mark Pi Day on 1st March, we hosted a week of Pi (and Pie!) themed events, including quizzes, pie tasting and maths themed music production. This tune - Humble Pi - comes from Chris, Christian, Afzal, Leo and Luca.

In this edition, we have something special to celebrate. Last term, Ofsted conducted TCW’s first full inspection since 2018 and after a long wait, their official report is in!

Since we registered as an independent school, Ofsted has consistently rated us as Good. The latest inspection re-confirmed our overall Good status, while raising two (out of the total four) categories to Outstanding! Quality of Education was rated Good: This is an important achievement, as we provide a completely unique education package to every student. Keeping such a bespoke system consistent and equally effective for all, is no mean feat and Ofsted was highly impressed. Also Good, was Leadership and Management, with high praise awarded for this area, but understandably limited by the Quality of Education rating. The two remaining categories, Personal Development and Behaviour and Attitude were awarded Outstanding status. Several key areas of our work were celebrated, particularly the nurturing and respectful culture (100% of students surveyed said they felt their teachers listened to them); the ambition we have for our students; the exceptional range of creative extracurricular opportunities and our culture of creativity in general. I am beyond delighted at the recognition Ofsted have given us and proud that these two key areas in our context have been acknowledged as something very special. The full report is available on our and Ofsted website (see link below).

Creativity, as well as being one of our core school values, has been our theme of Spring 1 (for those who don’t know, we assign a theme to each half term, which underpins the curriculum, provides inspiration for extra-curricular activities and is explored in two whole school assemblies). The theme of Creativity was a real celebration of our incredibly talented and unique students. We encouraged everyone to express themselves through music, writing, traditional and digital artwork, photography and film production. Self expression is a valuable tool for well-being and brings satisfaction and meaning to many people, but this is only a small part of what it means to be creative at TCW. For us Creativity is a state of mind in which intuition and playfulness supersede the rigidity of day-to-day thinking, allowing us to make new connections and insights. This happens across all disciplines, including those not traditionally seen as creative - maths, science, engineering, business, sport and many more. With creativity comes change, innovation and incremental improvement towards a better life.

There is nothing quite like discovering that you can surprise yourself. Whether by having a new and exciting idea, a change in attitude or a sudden leap forward in something you have long been struggling with. This is the feeling of creative insight, a spark of inspiration. It can change your understanding of a subject you’re learning. It can change the way you think about yourself and your place in the world. These flashes of insight may seem rare and out of your control, but they don’t have to be. If you learn how to think creatively, your brain will begin to find unlikely solutions to challenges both in and out of school. We see this development everyday among our students, often described as ‘thinking outside the box’, it is a skill that will be invaluable to them in a modern world.