Communicating Clearly?

If you can stand looking through today's Free Press seven-page school prom souvenir supplement, you'll also notice that five of the six local secondaries took advertising. Two were rather simple affairs, both well laid out and eye-catching. A third advertised an open evening for prospective pupils and a fourth rather nicely congratulated its fifth formers. Ysgol Brynhyfryd's was the odd one out in that it was the only one to feature its head. In fact, the banner was more an advert for the acting head than the school. The school's chosen slogan...

"Excellent outcomes for all through being effective, creative with clear communication"

... might well have been written by a first year pupil. It wasn't particularly clear and actually didn't quite make sense in the English. The Welsh was fine, translated as: "Excellent outcomes for all through being effective, creative and through [or by] communicating clearly." So, the English slogan was odd for the reason that Brynhfryd got its semantics slightly wrong.

Mid-way through the 2014/15 academic year that finishes in 10 days' time, the school all but abandoned its longstanding and rather clever strapline, "Nid Dysg Heb Foes". Replaced by "Excellent Outcomes for All" on its website, the former Nid Dysg Heb Foes does still appear on correspondence. Why? This is actually a positive approach on the school's behalf. It reflects its post-Estyn strategic objectives that focus on raising academic and behavioural standards. "Excellent outcomes for all" tries to encapsulate new ways of working to improve the way the school will function and improve communications, including with parents.

This, then, is in anticipation of the negative Estyn report due next week, reflecting the very real need for change at Ysgol Brynhyfryd, the school's leadership and teachers from September 2015 "will be participating in a review of approaches to teaching and learning. The scale and ambition of the review is significant and will have a substantial impact on practice in the classroom. The school will undertake this review in partnership with the Specialist Schools and Academies Trust, a provider with a national reputation for excellence... and [we] are very excited about its potential."

Also, following the mid-year push for proper uniforms, for September, Brynhyfryd is again asking for parents to be vigilant regarding school uniform acceptability. Improvements in this area have a disproportionately positive impact on learning. Says the school, a

"Minority... choose to disregard the guidelines and push the boundaries. Often the problems we encounter with school uniform issues are caused by the students’ loose interpretation of the regulations and their ability to convince you [the parent] that 'everybody else does it!' If we as staff and parents work together to ensure that we adhere to the published uniform regulations, then we can avoid all early morning confrontations about uniform both at home and school"