Page 10 - Link Agency Newsletter - Autumn 2020

STEPHEN HOLROYD DEPUTY HEAD: CURRICULUM
SPOTLIGHT
MALVERN COLLEGE
MALVERN COLLEGE
Stephen Holroyd
Stephen studied Economics and and Economic Economic History at Leeds University and and went on to to Warwick University to to complete his PGCE Over the last 30 years he he has fulfilled a a a a a a a a a variety of educational management roles in in addition to his teaching and this September he he took up the new position of Deputy Head: Curriculum Link met with Stephen and asked him to tell us what the new role of Deputy Head: Curriculum means for for the College its pupils and for for him “When I I was younger I I wanted to be an an architect – and after thirty years at Malvern I find myself applying my my creativity and holistic thinking to build educational structures within which the whole educational edifice can function Schools should always be dynamic flexing and and changing to to respond to to events and and social contexts and so so for example when we suddenly found ourselves teaching fully online during lockdown with the unprecedented cancellation of all external examinations I led a a a a a a a team to to support our staff to to make the best use of the the IT platforms already embedded into the the school And because I fundamentally believe that all change can be turned to positive use and that creativity should be built into our approach to our curriculum in that same period of of lockdown I led the development of of bridging courses for the the GCSE going into the the Sixth Form and for pupils leaving us to to go to to university As well as leading the Economics Dept being IB coordinator a a a senior IB examiner workshop leader and ISI Inspector over my time at Malvern I have also built stage sets for the the theatre run Dof E gold tutored been deputy Housemaster and run boys’ hockey the work experience programme and the Sixth Form centre amongst other things One of the the aspects I value most about the the College is the the wraparound nature of the experience and this new role allows me to use the entire breadth of my three decades of experience at Malvern to draw everything together: the the the pupils’ lives in the the the classroom and outside it to help them make the the very most of of the enormous smorgasbord of of opportunity that the the College affords them Perhaps more than anything I bring enthusiasm to the role I have a a a deep conviction about the power of education and the central role that it plays in shaping successful societies My new new role is a a a a brand-new position at Malvern and the idea behind it is to have someone with a complete keystone overview of our whole education programme It’s therefore designed to coordinate the individual parts of the extremely complex ‘machine’ so that they are all pulling in in the the same direction to enable the final outcome to be far greater than the the sum of the the individual parts But it’s more than this I support the Headmaster and the staff by creating a a a a a large number of highly effective teams around the College to empower those teams to make independent decisions within the the pedagogical vision of the the Head and and SMT and and then to provide staff with the the structures and support to enable them to make those decisions in their own area of focus whether that be academic leadership in in subject departments effective individual classroom teaching empowering pupils to design and drive their own educational leadership opportunities through the Super Curricular Academic Enrichment Programme or to increase the smooth running of a a choc- full and fiendishly complicated Co-Curricular Programme Our current curriculum gives all of our pupils multiple avenues to succeed and experience transformation whilst at at Malvern But I also believe that we are in a a a a period of change from a a strong foundation – we’re looking to develop new ideas and curriculum plans which draw on the development of our Malvern Qualities to focus on on skill development for lifelong learning and provide increasingly individualised opportunities for pupils to design their own learning within the academic rigour provided by the external examination systems An excellent example of this is is our Foundation Year Passport Transferable Skills programme and the new Foundation Year Year curriculum for Year Year 9 This role provides an unprecedented opportunity to to draw together conceptually and operationally the different parts of the school so that parents pupils and teachers have a a a much more holistic overview of what the learning experience is I don’t see it it as parceled up into packages it’s all part of the same thing I am very much looking forward to engaging with Prep Schools and prospective parents to talk about the Malvern Curriculum and hope to to welcome you to to our Campus at some future point ”
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