A LEVEL and 6th FORM Opportunities at Laude Lady Elizabeth School | BayRadio

Good morning, this is Bay Radio International, using the word international

probably quite a bit over this next 20 minutes or so, because I am back at the Lady Elizabeth School and going straight to the head of secondary

which is Tom Davidson and our friend there. Good morning. Thank you. Good morning to you too. Indeed, I have the absolute pleasure to be

head of secondary here at the Lady Elizabeth School. I would say welcome back, but I've come to you, change, which is nice

And noticing you have an office, because whenever I'm at the school, which we do some work, because social media and the like

you're always out and about rushing around somewhere. You do have a base for this

I do have a base. Well, you know, anyone who wants to come up and visit us

we always welcome you here at the school. But, you know, I've always been that head teacher

that wants to get out and about and be and see the kids because, you know, when I was in school

my head teacher spent all his time saying, no, no, you can't. And, you know, you can't go there and no, you can't do this

I want to be the head teacher that says, yes, you can. You know, my job is to facilitate that learning journey

for all our kids wherever it will. maybe it may be. And if I'm out and about and meeting them and chatting to them and seeing the parents and the students, we pick up their passions and their desires. And that's what we want to fulfil

It not just telling them to pick that crisp packet up off the floor So we at Lady Elizabeth school People know a little bit about it I sure But what sets the secondary education apart from any other options people may have on the Costa Blanca

I think what sets us apart is our breadth of choice. You know, the scale of the school, and we are a big school

We're a big community. But we keep that family ethos throughout all we do

But we offer over 25 different A-level choices and over 30 GCSE choices

the size and scale of the school allows us to facilitate those choices

You know, it's about being able to track that learning journey for all our students wherever they want to go

And, you know, we're really proud of the support that we give everyone in that development, in that journey

in that vision that they've got for where they want to get to in their next steps

I mean, there's a lot of students at the school, obviously, and when they come to choosing GCSE and A-level subjects

How much can you get involved and help them decide? We have a really clear guidance program

You know, many of our students come from a traditional British education background

and are well versed in how the British GCSE and A-level program work

But we have a number of students as you well know that come from all over the world and we need to guide them through that program It coming back to this idea each kid individual learning journey is different You know we can expect them to follow you know the rigid systems that we have in traditional schools

Some students may want to study in the UK, some in Spain, some want to go on to the world of work or the world of business

We need to track that journey. So it is that individual bespoke journey with all of them

Okay. And when we've spoken to, whether it was Chris Akin or anyone involved with the school, the word facilities comes up

For good reason. I mean, you've got a good setup here. How much does that contribute to the learning

We do have, you know, we're privileged. We have world-class facilities. You know, it's not just the fantastic view we have on the Cumbra overlooking the Mediterranean

which gives that inspiration, that look out to the world. the sea and that internationalism, but also it's the professional and bespoke classrooms we've got

You know, we've got four fully equipped laboratories. We teach four of the main sciences here and individual sciences

So that's biology, chemistry and physics. But we also support marine science as well And each of those laboratories are set up to facilitate the learning They supported also by two other specialist classrooms for electronics and for physics with all

the kit that you might expect. And then music, art, drama, graphic communication, photography

students need this space. They expect those kind of support and those facilities to be able to

thrive, to be able to work in that environment which is going to help them succeed. You know

our 450 seat theatre, we've got that drama and dance studio, and we're blessed with a fantastic

sports hall, which is set up for a multitude of sports, not to mention our semi-Olympic swimming

pool, which is there, and we have water polo and lane swims, and open to our parents and our

community as well, and we're really pleased with that. But it's not just the facilities

it's those teachers that support them as well. Okay, and just with the facilities, again, for a moment

technology. How are you using it in the right way? It's not making it too easy for students

and there's not ways of getting around things. You know what I'm talking about. Yeah, I'm doing AI and the like. I do. Look, you know, technology is is a challenge as always. You know

for educationalists, we've got to make sure that we're doing the research and we're ahead of the curve