It seems that Spring is here at last. As I look out of my window the sun is still shining and it is still light even though it is past 6pm. The daffodils are well and truly out and the blue-bells too are on their way. I love the Spring as for me it is a time of renewal, fresh hope and optimism.
It seems that, as a school, we have good reason to be optimistic too. The Government recently published a white paper outlining their proposals for a Schools National Funding Formula. In broad terms the document outlines how schools will be funded in the future and confirms the Govern-ment’s commitment to smoothing out the significant regional variances that exist under the current sys-tem. It is still early days, and the exact details have yet to be confirmed, but as Buckinghamshire second-ary schools have traditionally been amongst the worst funded schools nationally we do believe that we have good cause to be optimistic.
On the last day of term we received further good news and our bid for £100,000 funding from the Educa-tion Funding Agency to renew and upgrade much of our electrical distribution has been successful. Alt-hough perfectly safe the electrical distribution in the original parts of the school dates back to the 1950’s and looks like something taken from The Revenge of Frankenstein. The work will take place during the holidays this summer and will give us reliable, safe and effective electrical distribution for the next 60 years.
My birthday is also in the Spring and, perhaps this year more than others as a significant milestone ap-proaches, it is also a time of reflection for me. I know too that it will be a time of reflection for many of our girls with the exam season approaching and thoughts of what success or otherwise might bring. I know that for me, as a Challoner’s girl all those years ago, it was really easy to over analyse everything and in so doing put off what I should be doing. My advice is give yourself a break, relax and breathe. Re-vise diligently and often and don’t spend too long creating a colour coded revision timetable, instead just get on with it. Accept that you can only do your best and know that your best will be good enough.
Debbie Grimsdale
