Landau Forte College

Principal's Message - Autumn 2010

This Principal's Message is an extract from the Autumn 2010 edition of Newslink. You can download a copy from our Downloads section.

A very warm welcome to all of our new students and their families; I am certain that your time at the College will be successful and enjoyable. I trust you will enjoy our first edition of NewsLink for the new academic year; it reflects that wealth of fantastic opportunities available for all at the College. Our new editor is Vicki Ellis and she takes the baton from Caroline Adams who served as editor for the previous 3 years.

In the last edition of NewsLink I drew your attention to the new staff that have joined us at the College; they have since been joined by Stewart Green, Tutor of Religious Education who will cover the maternity leave of Anwen Brown and Genevieve Kerr, Tutor of Science. Also new to our team of Learning Support Assistants are Lucy Gardener, Laura Brannigan, Adam Horvarth and Jonathon Levers.

All at the College were shaken and deeply saddened by the death of Hazel Kirk. Hazel, Tutor of French and German, died aged 49 on Monday 26 July 2010. Diagnosed with cancer only 6 weeks before her death, Hazel had worked at the College since August 1995. Hazel will be remembered for her love of French and her love of life, always ready to embrace events such as Children In Need. She would always be keen to adorn the fancy dress theme of the Modern Languages Team and over the years had been everything from a Landau Forte College student to a hippy! She leaves behind a husband and two sons; Tom Kirk successfully completed his Post-16 education at the College and gained a place at The University of Nottingham to study Engineering.

Inspired by Hazel and recognising the importance of challenging ourselves, I will learn Mandarin Chinese this year with the students in Year 9 who begin their new language. We have welcomed Wei Ping Zhang, our new Chinese Tutor from our partner school in Shang’Hai. Wei Ping is a Senior Teacher at the Win Hua School and will be employed at the College until June 2011. There are already lots of activities planned for the months ahead; at present Wei Ping is supporting our students in their preparation for the College’s second visit to China in October. She will be tutoring students in Mandarin from Year 9, 10 and 11 and we hope to build on the success enjoyed by Sarah Hutchinson who achieved an A* grade in GCSE Mandarin Chinese last year.

There are several staff with new or additional responsibilities this year. Some restructuring following the appointment of Julie Grant as Vice Principal will support our drive to raise our performance further still. Congratulations go to Caroline Anderson, Caroline Adams and Paul Harvey, appointed as Curriculum Leaders in Post 16, English and Physical Education respectively. Dan Bloomfield, Nick Harris and Sophie Floyd are subject leaders for A Level Physics, Biology and Chemistry. Andrea Briggs will lead GCSE Business Studies and the coordination of Trade Fair will be shared by Lydia Wahid and Pete Riley.

We look forward to another successful year ahead at the College and my message to the staff and students at the beginning of the academic year was that if we continue to focus on improving what we do, rather than proving what we do, we will achieve great things.

Liz Coffey
Principal