Marking the Milestone: Mastering the Computing Measure
Note to self: I really need to post here more often! It’s been a whirlwind since my last update. Between chasing rapid grade improvements for our Year 11s, general OFSTED prep, onboarding a new team member, and—yes—rewriting the Key Stage 3 curriculum (again), I’ve completely lost track of time.
As ever, there's been a lot going on. That said, I’m seeing some encouraging signs: staff morale in the department is slowly but steadily on the rise. There’s still work to do, but we’re heading in the right direction. Our ongoing review of the Key Stage 4 curriculum is showing promising results too—early predictions for Year 10 outcomes suggest we’re building on the progress made with our outgoing Year 11s.
Behaviour-wise, the picture hasn’t been so rosy. Like many schools, we’ve seen an increase in challenges across both year groups. That said, we did get a bit of unexpected recognition—we were featured in a Channel 5 News story for "bucking the trend" on student behaviour. Nice to have some good news, even if it came from a surprising source.
But here’s the big one—the department achieved something huge recently: we’ve been awarded the Computing Quality Mark! 🎉
That makes us the second secondary school in the West Midlands to achieve it. It’s an external acknowledgment that what we do for our students—our curriculum design, our delivery, our intent—is aligned with what OFSTED would classify as at least Good. It’s a massive win for the team.
And yet… not a word from the headteacher. Not in a briefing, not in a staff bulletin—nothing. Meanwhile, at the end-of-term lunch, there was a whole speech about how OFSTED are “likely” to visit in the first few weeks back. That got all the airtime, while a nationally recognised mark of curriculum quality earned by the department? Radio silence. It’s frustrating, to say the least. I’ll leave it alone for now, but I do wonder how long it'll be before someone outside the department brings it up to SLT or the wider staff body.
Coming up next: we hit the ground running straight after Easter. Year 11s have their first exam the Thursday we return, so we’re hosting Easter revision sessions to give them the best shot at success in a supportive environment. I’m also planning pre-exam intervention sessions (two hours before the exam), and working out how we staff the Paper 2 exam in late May.
That last bit’s a delicate one—there’s often an assumption that staff are in the room to "support the students," but that’s not quite the case. I’ll need to have some tactful conversations to make sure expectations are clear without anyone feeling undermined.
And finally—I've been out visiting one of our feeder schools. Wow. That was a challenge. I'm tempted to write a separate post about it. But the short version? Digital literacy is clearly not a priority in many primary settings. Some of what I saw and heard made it crystal clear that we’re likely to face growing gaps in e-safety knowledge and digital skills among incoming Year 7s. Something to keep an eye on…
The Migration Process
After a year of big changes: marriage, a name change, and the end of my NPQLT. I’ve started migrating every part of my digital life. From leaving the Apple ecosystem to rebuilding my online presence under mrlyall.co.uk, this post dives into what’s changing, what’s staying, and why it’s time for the Davis identity to be gracefully relegated. Same me, just a little more Lyall-logical.
Clearing the Clutter: A Digital and Personal Reset
I’ve been wanting to do something like this for a few years now, and this finally seems like the right time to take action.
It's Been A While...
A lot has changed since my last ramble on here. First off, I have finally rid myself of that dark and questionnable realm that is Twittter (I will call it that until Elon finally gives up his X fettish). I left mainly because I planned to do it years back but never fully committed.