Leadership Likes: Mrs Bradshaw
This week, Mrs Bradshaw looks back on her years in her final Leadership Likes. Thank you, Mrs Bradshaw. We will miss you!
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This week, Mrs Bradshaw looks back on her years in her final Leadership Likes. Thank you, Mrs Bradshaw. We will miss you!
Read MoreIf you look me up on our school database, you find a fresh-faced young woman with not so much as a wrinkle. Some say I haven’t changed (they are lying) but a certain more honest someone (you know who you are) describes it as false advertising! Lucky for me, the database seems wedded to my very first school photo and so, for over a decade, I have been frozen in time. My 10 years at Croydon High have – apparently – not aged me a day. At this time of year, our newsfeeds are full of reviews of the year. Best movies, most memorable moments, and our most played songs. So, for my final Leadership Likes, here is my 10 years at Croydon High: unwrapped.
I began at Croydon High as we said goodbye to the noughties. In 2010, no school had boxes to store children’s phones when they handed them in at registration. Why? Children didn’t have phones. 2010 was also the year a young Mrs Bradshaw tried her first iPhone. Bye bye Blackberry! That first year at Croydon High, 2010-11, saw me teaching a delight of a Year 4 class – I couldn’t believe my luck arriving at this school. Engaged and polite girls, the biggest classroom I had ever taught in, with huge display boards and so much natural light. And that was before the Junior School was refurbished.
In 2012, we celebrated Queen Elizabeth II’s Diamond Jubilee and hosted the Olympics. The controversy of the very expensive logo (which could have been matched or even bettered by school children) was soon forgotten when The Games opened. I took my own children to complete the mascot trail in London and gave up my seat to see Usain Bolt to my 8-year-old because it was a once in a lifetime opportunity. She is now 18 and says she doesn’t really remember going! 2012 found me working with the wonderful Mrs Troop in Year 5. We spent an idyllic week in Nettlecombe where the sun shone, the girls were so well behaved, and the only negative was Mrs Troop taking a picture of me every single time I sunbathed to prove she was working harder than me (which she almost certainly was). These girls are now 20 years old and at university. But, however successful they become, I hope they remember that a 30 something year old Mrs Bradshaw beat them all at ‘scream and run’!
At the end of 2015, world leaders reached a landmark agreement on climate action in Paris. In the same year, social media was exploding with the Ice Bucket Challenge where people tipped iced water over their heads and challenged others to do the same. 2015 was also my first year back at Croydon High as Head of Juniors. It was a fast-paced year and one I could not have got through without the amazing Junior staff. They stepped up to the plate and got behind each and every new idea I had, however crazy! One of my favourite outlandish ideas was our 2016 #ICouldBeAnEngineer day. I can still remember coming up with the name with Mrs Cook halfway up the dining room stairs. It was months in the planning – but what a great day. A highlight of my time as Head of Juniors. In 2017, we introduced Mrs Krishnamurthy as a specialist teacher of Computer Science; and the idea that later became Enterprise Technology was born. We also hosted our first Year 6 Enterprise Challenge in that year, which is still going strong five years on.
From the day I took over as Head of Juniors, I started campaigning for the refurbishment of the old Junior Hall. While many of my now sixth formers remember ‘the bridge’ fondly, it (and the accompanying 1970s gym equipment) needed to go. In 2018, we got the go ahead to start planning the new space. Mrs Raja and I could not have been more excited if we had been planning our own houses. Of course, she then did all the heavy lifting as I moved into Seniors before the mess started! Thank you Mrs Raja – the Holt Hall, Foyer and Enterprise Technology Room all look amazing.
2019 saw me say goodbye to the Junior School. Although I didn’t go far! And I left Juniors in the most capable of hands. Mrs Raja and I had shared a vision for Juniors in 2015 and we had achieved so much in 4 years. Of course, when she took over as Head of Juniors, and I became Head of Sixth Form, neither of us knew what was around the corner. 2020 is a year everyone will remember. And it affected all of us differently. While the Juniors were working out how to swap reading books remotely through car windows, I was instead dealing with a year group of girls who were watching their A levels being pulled from under them. The year of TAGs and then the year of CAGs were certainly not what we expected. But I am so proud of how the school navigated those two years. Our staff pulled together and embodied our mantra: ‘every girl every day’. Teachers learnt new ways of working overnight, our Heads of Department reimagined exams, our pastoral teams introduced online check-ins, our Sixth Form Team hosted Saturday Best Hat Google Meets, our caterers made meals for the elderly, and our marketing teams produced video content to keep the Croydon High community spirit alive. I could not have been more proud of the team effort or the resilience of our girls. I could also not have wished for a more proactive and pragmatic Senior Leadership Team to work in. There were many occasions where we spent long meetings making plans, only to discover that the news was reporting a change in policy from Number 10 – and we had to start again. And what we would have done without Dr Purvis’ ability to read 300-page documents through the night – I do not know.
The second half of 2021 was a slightly less chaotic affair. But it wasn’t totally without drama. The name Nigel became extinct. No parents deemed the name Nigel to be suitable for their pride and joy. But some 400 Nigels did meet for ‘Nige-fest’ in a pub to commiserate! 2022 saw the Nation and the World say goodbye to Queen Elizabeth II. And as a reminder of the circle of life, it also saw Princess Charlotte instruct her older brother – a future king – on when to bow. The future of strong women in our monarchy seems safe!
And now 2022 sees me say goodbye to Croydon High School. I will miss the remarkable girls and their supportive parents, I will miss the dedicated staff, and I will most certainly miss my rather misleading database photo.
Mrs Bradshaw
Deputy Head (Sixth Form and Operations)
Class of 1994’s Dr Michelle Tempest MA LLM MB BChir (Cantab) ACAT – a Croydon High achiever in the fields of medicine, psychiatry, psychotherapy, business, law and politics.
Michelle worked for fourteen years as an NHS hospital doctor, psychiatrist and cognitive analytical therapist and continues to lecture in ‘medical ethics and law’ at Cambridge University. She is now a partner in the strategy consultancy company, Candesic, who deliver insight into specialist sectors, including life sciences, healthcare, technology and education. She has led multiple projects, reviewing market opportunities for investors and working with public and private providers to develop beneficial partnerships. She has delivered projects for NHS Trusts (acute, community and mental health), private hospitals, specialist hospitals, private patient units, community providers, care homes and Care at Home. In 2006 she edited the book, ‘The Future of the NHS’ and has delivered strategy projects for the UK government on ‘new ways of working’ including working with medical technology companies.
Michelle is the author of a book about technology and the human brain called ‘Big Brain Revolution: Artificial Intelligence – Spy or Saviour’ which was a best seller on Amazon in the AI sector in 2020. The book offers unique insights into the consequences of mixing psychology with Despite the title. The book is not academic; it keeps knowledge simple and questions if humans can actually be manipulated by machines by personalising messages back to the brain and update love, desires and even our destiny!
Last year, Croydon High hosted Michelle as part of our Academic Scholars’ Programme, as part of a series of thought-provoking presentations seeking to address our relationship with society and each other, particularly in times of challenge. Michelle’s talk was incredibly interesting and posed some pertinent and perplexing questions regarding the future (and ethics!) surrounding artificial intelligence. She generously gifted a copy of her book ‘Big Brain Revolution: Artificial Intelligence – Spy or Saviour’ to each of the pupils who attended the session.
We are extremely proud of Dr Tempest and grateful for the inspiration she delivered to our pupils.
Mrs Roe
Alumnae Relations Manager
As a follow-up to my “Leadership Likes” article a few weeks ago, I am proud to inform you of the amazing success our students had in the Bebras Computational Thinking Challenge. As stated previously, this challenge is aimed at increasing the participation of students in the fields of computational thinking and problem solving and is run in over 50 countries around the globe.
Bebras awards certificates based upon coming in the top 25% or top 50% of the country, there is also a second round for anyone who manages to get in the top 10% in the UK in their age category. This year we have had outstanding results, as you can see below:
Top 10%
(Invited to the next round) |
Top 25%
(Distinction) |
Top 50%
(Merit) |
Overall Participants | |
Year 6 – 7 | 12 Students | 35 Students | 89 | 140 |
Year 8 – 9 | 15 Students | 38 Students | 112 | 149 |
Year 10 – 11 | 1 Student | 4 Students | 7 | 11 |
For those students who managed to make it to the 2nd round there will be some online tutorials and practice quizzes for them to access over the Christmas break so they are ready for the challenge when they return in January.
However, I would also like to send out a huge congratulations to everyone who participated as our average as a school was far in excess of the national average and everyone who took part should be proud of what they accomplished.
Mr Murphy
Assistant Head (Digital Strategy)
Our Year 9 students have been learning about Sénégal and its link to France.
Read MoreThis term in French, Year 9 have learnt about Sénégal and its link to France.
We discovered a lot about the history of the country, why they speak French and we also enjoyed listening to some of their music.
Students were told that hibiscus flower juice (called jus de bissap) was extremely popular in Senegal.
Shriya S went out of her way to order the flowers and experimented with two recipes.
I had the pleasure of trying her juice and was pleasantly surprised: it is delicious!
A big Well done Shriya !
Madame Paris
Head of French
Well done to our Year 6, who sang beautifully at The Royal Marsden Hospital in Sutton
Read MoreOn Tuesday 6th December, our Year 6 pupils were invited to sing in the Celebrate a Life Carol Service at The Royal Marsden Hospital in Sutton. As well as joining in with several congregational carols, accompanied by the Epsom & Ewell Silver Band, they also sang a carol on their own ‘It Was on a Starry Night’. Two of our girls had the honour of switching on the Christmas Tree lights! We are extremely proud of our Year 6 pupils for singing so beautifully and making such a valuable contribution to this very special event.
Miss Delany
Head of Junior School Music
We are very proud of our students who participated in the regional Royal Society of Chemistry’s 'Top of The Bench' Competition.
Read MoreFour of our pupils travelled to Woldingham school accompanied by Ms Conrad to take part in the Royal Society of Chemistry’s Top of The Bench Competition. The team consisted of Lucy R (Year 11), Ellie M (Year 10), Phoebe R and Prajnaa S (Year 9) and had been selected by Ms Leppala and Ms Howgego during an internal competition.
Nine schools took part in the competition; pupils in the different age groups had to complete a practical task which they hadn’t previously known about. They were marked on how well they carried out the task, if they worked safely and cleanly as well as the quality of their observations. They then had to answer questions about the practical they had carried out to test their scientific knowledge. They finally had to complete some multiple choice questions.
Ms Conrad was really impressed by the way the pupils showed determination and resilience to carry out the task in an unfamiliar setting, especially Ellie and Lucy who had to work in silence on their own! The evening was rounded off by some well deserved refreshments!
As one of our team wrote ‘I really enjoyed participating in the Top of the Bench competition! I was able to try practical experiments that I hadn’t yet done, and then draw conclusions based on the results, which allowed me to consider how and why the reaction occurred. The Top of the Bench competition gave me a better insight as to how chemical reactions worked; it was great fun!’
We are very proud to announce that our team was place joint third. Well done to all our amazing team.
Mrs Conrad
Head of Science
Such a fun way to celebrate the end of the term for our Year 9 students!
Read MoreThe Year 9s had a fantastic time on the 7th December at the Oxygen Freejumping for their end of term celebration. There was a lot of jumping, laughter and games. One of the biggest highlights was the gladiator duel between Mr Flower and Ms Baptist! Thank you to all Year 9s for your enthusiasm and fun that evening.
Mrs Murray
Head of Year 9 and Teacher of History
Well done to our Year 11 student's who participated in this year's UKSDC Competition!
Read MoreOur Year 11 students, senior members of Astrogazers, went to Imperial College on Saturday 3rd December to take part in the UKSDC.
The UK Space Design Competition is a multidisciplinary space-themed competition designed to be a simulation of life in industry! The UKSDC gives students a taste of the vast potential offered by future study of STEAM subjects, through this fun an engaging simulation of a career in the industry!
Students from multiple schools are combined to form an engineering company and take on the task of designing a crewed space settlement within our solar system.
Our students are looking forward to participating in next year’s round of UKSDC.
Mrs Karteepan
Head of Physics
Hear what our students had to say about the competition.
The competition was an incredible experience and tested our abilities to work in teams. I worked in the operations of our ISS-like structure, figuring out how to recycle waste and air sustainably and how our structure would generate its own electricity. Meg (fellow UKSDC teammate) and I came up with folding solar panels to protect from solar flares and atmospheric algae bags to regulate air composition – both were recognized by the judges as two of the best features when we were given feedback! I can’t wait to participate next year and perhaps have a go at being a team leader!
Tara K, 11T
The UKSDC was overall a wonderful experience. With an early start, we were all quite tired however, as the day went by, we all had lots of fun working together with other schools in our own area at Imperial. Though we believed it would be long and tiring, the day flew by quickly and we all had a fabulous time with some pizza as a treat at the end of the day. It was interesting to work with other students and we were proud to hear that Croydon High, as a school, did quite well. We can’t wait to join next year and have an even more thrilling experience.
Aashka P 11F
Season 2 Episode #7 – Our guest on this episode of Raise Her Up is behaviour and data scientist Prof Pragya Agarwal, an expert in matters of equality, unconscious bias, diversity & inclusion. We discuss her latest book, Hysterical, which explodes the myth of gendered emotions & uncovers false ideas of innate differences between the way men and women experience and express their feelings.
Listen on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcast.
Our School Minibus service offers an efficient and flexible option designed to help families with journeys to and from school. Minibus travel is offered to pupils in Year 3 and up.
The service is managed on our behalf by Vectare, a specialist school transport management company. All bookings for our school bus routes are made via our online booking system, which can be accessed at croydonhigh.vectare.co.uk.
The website allows you to book travel 24/7 from anywhere, meaning that if you need to leave early for work one morning or are running late and you would like one of our students to travel on a school bus as a one off, you can make a booking right up until the route is due to depart. Payment for the school bus service is made at the time of booking, so there is no need for pupils to carry cash.