Up next in 10
Richard Wijeratne and Steve Jarman from Xabia International College with Moody
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Oct 29, 2024
Xabia International College director Richard Wijeratne and head of Primary Steve Jarman were in with Moody for an update on how students are settling in and coping with the new measures/restrictions. We're also just a few weeks into life at the brand new secondary school...but how is it going? Subscribe: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCHyiJYOOyp4cWu5kzr_2RrA Website: http://www.bayradio.fm/ Mobile App: https://app.appinstitute.com/yddcc Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BayRadioInSpain Twitter: https://twitter.com/bayradioinspain Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bayradiospain/
View Video Transcript
0:00
[Music] this is bay radio delighted to welcome back mr witch richard wijaratni and steve
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jarman of happy international college well welcome back i mean your email to arrange this uh
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sorry we've been a bit busy here and i didn't find it hard to believe either um it's i mean the last time we
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spoke to you just heading towards uh opening the secondary school of course the new term
0:21
so did you make it well yes we did we survived i mean it was um a very
0:27
interesting summer um summer that was exciting but also one of those ones where you couldn't actually predict where we were going to
0:33
be because everything hinged on whether we were going to be able to get into the new secondary school
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and if we could get into the new secondary school we moved the secondary children and then we split the primary site into two and we move
0:46
our um older primary children into our secondary our then current secondary school site
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so there was so much hinged on on whether we would move or not and that was really
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um very close but i i think the last time i was here and we congratulated those people who
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were responsible for um building the site for us and they really did pull out all the
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stops so um we were in a situation where we could only tell just at the end of august the very beginning
1:17
of september whether we would have the building in time yeah and uh and and then everything
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everything just shot forward because you then press all the buttons and say to all of the staff okay we're
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go and you move from one school to the new school and another school to the current
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secondary school so it was uh it was a busy time yes i mean i i did sort of get in touch with you say are you coming in next week
1:41
you say well a little bit preoccupied at the moment sorry we'll see you very soon yeah we were driving driving
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driving vans around the place yeah people wouldn't believe that to you a bit hands-on and doing that yourself but
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you'll be sleeves rolled up i mean we saw you around we did the video of course which is on our youtube channel
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um when they were still working on the place and it looked to be coming on uh but it was fine it came down to the
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last minute it was the simple thing was um they had to secure the building put the doors on it right it sounds it sounds it sounds absolutely
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crazy but um we couldn't put anything in it until they put the doors on it because once they got the doors on and we were secure
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then we could go but um you know i i know steve will talk about it shortly but um
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you know we we we are very privileged with the uh the colleagues we work with and i can never praise them enough
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because we literally said listen guys we are go and we are going to have to move in
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three days and that is move everything in three days that's every desk every shelf every book every television
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everything has to go in three days and they did it um we we hired a couple of vans because
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with the greatest of respect to removal companies and they are they are brilliant i know but um we have to be flexible we had to
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be able to say this fan goes there that van goes here such and such a team is is emptying vans over there such a team is putting
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desks in over there i suppose they know their own individual stuff and they're absolutely responsible for that yeah they did and
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uh and but no no i'm a huge debt of gratitude to the people we work with
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because um theoretically they were still on holiday um but uh that was the last thing in their
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minds though what we know and what we can see is that they were really keen to create an
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environment where our youngsters who we could welcome back to the college um would be able to come
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back and and enjoy their days immediately you know that was really key and it's key to what we do we want them to be
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happy but we want them to be happy in a nice surrounding but what is fantastic you know is is we focus quite a lot on on
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on the conversations i've i've had with you and uh and and with mike uh over what we're trying to do with
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moving our secondary school but honestly there has been almost a well not a normal uh revolution but it's been a
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transformation in in what we can offer in our primary schools and that's why you know i'm
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i'm really delighted that steve's joined us today because he can tell you a bit about what's been going on there yeah steve how are you enjoying the new uh
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space i suppose you're getting a bit more room to play with there what's been lovely is not only the work which richards
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mentioned in in moving from one site to another but the way that the teachers
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on both sides have worked since the beginning of term to personalize both
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sites we have lots of walls that are painted with strange things flowers
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sayings for the children of pencils and and flowers for the little ones so the
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staff are really behind what we're trying to do and it's worked very very well it was
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necessary because naturally the classes are in bubbles in primary yeah um which is which is good
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but from year two up they still have to wear masks which in itself we thought would present
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a problem and actually hasn't the the younger children uh perhaps the
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secondary children perhaps a little bit different but certainly all the children we have in primary
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have adapted to it very very quickly they wear their masks all day um
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naturally it's not ideal but they've got on with it and to be quite honest i talk to parents
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at the beginning of the day and at the end of the day and the parents have more problems with it than their children do
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yeah so it's it's lovely to see the children in school with their friends in their bubbles um
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and enjoying being back at xic which for us and for them is is their family
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so it's been a really really good start to the term amazingly it's been very tranquil
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now we've got a little bit more space a little more room for parents to arrive in the morning
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we have a staggered entry and exit and that's worked very very well as well both for the children coming in and and
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for the staff so in terms of organizing what we've had to do
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to get the children in that's gone like a dream we know we are absolutely delighted and
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i will reiterate what richard said you know i can't thank the primary staff enough for their for
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their commitment and loyalty to the dream that we want to carry on pursuing
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um which is xic yeah well um steve sorry to to to drop just for a second i mean it
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was it was quite quite um amazing i was uh saturday morning i i'm not too sure what i was doing but i
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looked at my phone which is always a mistake but i looked at my phone and steve had sent me a whatsapp which was a photograph
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of staff working painting murals in the primary school i went across
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about an hour later to have a look and see what they were doing it was staggering you know the idea um
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has always been to try and create an environment which is not only an area that they play in but it's an area that they learn from and this is
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exactly what there is there's a solar system in there um there's all sorts of work with maths
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and the children would see this and and then and and they notice it and they're learning from it all the time but the
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the staff are taking their weekends they were taking their weekends to do this so you know um where where you know
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the whole point of it is i i'm and i'm seeing it all the time with with um colleagues in xic yes it's
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a job but it's very much more than that you know it's very much more than that and and their job is made that much
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easier if they create an environment within which the children can enjoy and learn sure i mean if you've taken some getting
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used to for yourself particularly steve with the the new restrictions i mean all the things i used to get told off for at school uh wearing a surgical mask
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wasn't one of them but you must that would be the obvious thing to keep an eye out for i guess yeah we do but as i said
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the children are adapted to it very very quickly um and the the teachers are very responsible um
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all the teachers we've all had our our covid training um so the teachers are very aware of the
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things that we can and we can't do and we've made the children aware of the things that they can and can't do
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so there's regular hand washing masks are worn all the time even even though our very
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youngest ones um don't have to wear a mask in school because it's up to six years old
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they still wear a mask when they come in and leave the school or if they're moving around the school so if they're
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moving out of their bubble um then they're protected uh and everyone else's as well
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so in terms really of of how the children have adapted to covid um they've done it very well um
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our protocols are are quite strict and they're followed religiously every
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day so every morning every child is you know zapped with the temperature
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gun so we check that for every child that enters the school if a child
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um as children do feel unwell during the day and the first thing we do naturally is
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check the temperature um the the guns are very good how accurate they are um i suspect
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they're not spot on so we double check then with with a digital thermometer
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right um if if it's just a very slight temperature normal for children to feel a bit poorly
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and then the child will go home so we've got all that in place you know we have covered rooms
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um you know we have specific staff on on all the sites who can deal with any
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issues that come up with any children but for us it's the children
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always i mean we always come back to the children and they're the ones that have made it such a brilliant start to the
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year because they've come in they're happy to be with their friends they're happy to see their
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teachers they still leave at the end of the day with a smile on their face well we think
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they do they've got masks on but we think they we think they are yeah we we're getting yeah we're getting used to
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recognizing eyes now so yeah um is it big incorporated into the dress code for the school like uh the to
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what there's not no off limits as far as mine in fairness but i mean you know when when steve was talking about the primary
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school it's exactly the same in the secondary school they've reacted with uh you know incredible resilience i think is is the word you know young people
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by definition the older they get it doesn't that they necessarily need to be cool or whatever but they they
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they look they want to look the part and and the mask doesn't really hit that you know um i i remember in the holidays
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we took a short trip away i took a photograph of my three sons and they all looked quite good in the
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clothing that they were wearing but the photograph was totally marred by the fact that all three of them were wearing a mask
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so if you look at these as teenagers you know it's the same thing in secondary they have complied amazingly well with all of the protocols
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that we put in place exactly the same as with primary with the temperature guns with all of the
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cleaning of the hands with the gel dispensers and and people they get into the process what was
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uh particularly um uh uh uh impressive was you know when you moved to a new site
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as each of these staff some staff in in primary were were remained in their own own
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original sites but but the vast majority i'd say over 60 percent of our population staff-wise
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started school in a new environment they had to learn that environment very quickly and then make the children
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who care or try and encourage children who joined us on the 9th of september to enjoy their
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experience very quick you know as quickly as as possible that's very impressive you know because it's not easy
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when you go to a new site to know where everything is and how everything works and there's a lot of there's a lot of
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training going on to use the the the new promethean televisions which are we went with these because they they are
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absolutely the top end of of the range of of technology to be able to use them in the
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classroom but some of the teachers are still learning well yes i mean that's a good old tradition as well the teacher used to ask for help to setting
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up the v8 vcr in the classroom when that was wheeled in back in the day not a clue
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for plugging the cables in and stuff but yes so you're all trained up on that they're they're they're the process is ongoing you know because you really if
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you look at your mobile phone there's probably 90 percent of what certainly for me 95 of my mobile phone i don't use
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no so the idea is you can you you need to understand how to use this technology and use it to the to
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the best for the children but um yeah i mean we found we found that the secondary children you know they they they nobody
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likes to wear the mask no maybe the greatest respect this conversation isn't all about the masks but it but it's a fact they do wear them they
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wear them when they do sport but they're able to stop take a drink take them out move away
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take the mask off when they're perfectly they're distant sufficiently to be able to just take a rest and enjoy
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not having to wear that mask for a short period of time but um we have to comply and we do and we will and the whole
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point of it is to protect and yourselves walking around the school you're wearing masks absolutely in the building absolutely all the time
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could i just give you a a very short little story that i think is indicative of how well the children
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have adapted i covered a year one class a few days ago so we're talking about
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five six year olds now we've taught our children that when they go out they do their hands
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to play time when they come back in they do it lunch time they wash their hands thoroughly before they go to lunch um so it's there
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all the time after lunch i brought the children back in to class
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um i didn't i didn't have to say anything the first child that walked through the
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door the first thing that child did was go and get the the gel and as the
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children went in they just squirted the gel on their hands and all the children had it and this is five-year-olds so that they
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are they are remarkable um i think they can show a lot of adults the way to go to be
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quite honest sure um but it's made it so much easier for us because they've taken on board the
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training that and and the instructions that we've given them and it's just become part now of their daily routine the children like routine
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so it's part of their routine and they just do it and they become used to it yeah i find that in in in the secondary
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school um student you know they they're they're just good to be around you know they get it they understand
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yeah and you know i'm i'm it's a horrible thing for young people to have to be living with you know we we just need to hold our breath for a
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second and and and flip back one year or flip back um eight months and remember where we were i was going to say to you you imagine you're talking
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this time last year you couldn't possibly imagine what this is not at all like a year's time you'd never believe it
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not at all and you know children across the globe are are going through this this this process
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we can only talk about our children um and and the experience certainly that we've had um
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it's a it's a it's a pleasure and it's a privilege and it will just it actually makes us stronger and i think i spoke
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about this before it's brought people together it's made us stronger we've had a huge intake of new children
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into the college um in september and what has you know that they've had to under how do you
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make a friend behind a mask it's a really incredible thing to have to do you know there's a new child
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comes into your college they're wanting to make friends facial expression is how humans communicate in many ways you know um so that's a
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challenge so you're relying on the people who are actually who have been present in the college the the friends the buddies whoever they've
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been buddied up with in order to help them um ease themselves into the new school that's really really important you know
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and and i i again you know we we talked about the staff but i must say the students have been phenomenal
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you know to try and um welcome new people into the college uh in in these strange strange um circumstances so yeah um
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we're moving on and um i'm delighted that the name and uh of of of exercise
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is sort of um traveling far and wide we've got an issue now where um the new
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college uh the new school was built to accept uh 20 children in each class that's our our
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maximum that's our protocol with the covered restrictions that of course reduces down to 16 and 15 in some
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classes so um many year groups are now uh with waiting lists yeah i've had to turn away a couple of
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people just yesterday and it's a really sad thing because they want to join the college we'd love to have them with us um but
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it's impossible at this particular time particular time so as soon as we get back to the normal um you know these lists these lists will
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be able to sort of service the people who are actually on our waiting list just gone 2211 mainland spain 20 to 10
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is all in the uk and the canaries and talking to richard wijuratni and steve german from happy international college we've
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covered uh the uh secondary school and you made it in time for the new term yes it's quite something
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um so just give us an idea because i'm actually i'm sort of picturing high-tech stuff in there just give us an idea of what's what's different what's new in
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the in the school well i mean we did talk about uh the the television technology and the
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televisions but um the site had a wonderful old villa there which we um completely gutted and
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put in a science department science block so there are four laboratories there
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beautiful laboratories for chemistry physics biology but also um there's a 10 uh i don't know we call it 10-sided
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um um food technology laboratory okay so it's got 10 cookers in there
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it's got a whole whole lot of fridges and everything we're just about to start it's it's difficult to actually cook in
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there because of the the different restrictions we have just now but the children will shortly be taking advantage of that
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we've got a we've got a lovely indoor gym which currently is doubling up as classrooms because
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we have to socially distance and and have and use those areas um a huge commodore a huge dining room
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again it's our year eight classroom so right you know these these times and and when
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i speak to people who work in other schools all over the place and they're talking about having to adapt in such a way
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so um the the buildings i think one of the most beautiful things about it is they flow very nicely the children have not too
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far to go to go to wherever they need to be in a secondary building um the idea is certainly at the at this
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time is is not to have them traveling too far and and and and and wasting time between them
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between lessons um you know when you write a school timetable you don't want to have too many lessons in in
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a day because every time you have a break it takes some time to get settled to to move so the the the actual site
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itself is is delightful and when you when you when you stand at the far end of the sports court and you actually look back across the
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whole of the the new college it's it's a it's a fairly sizable site isn't it steve yeah i i think that
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the the biggest thing i mean i've i've spoken to a lot of my old primary students um which is
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always lovely and every single one of you know i've said you know how do you like the new
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school and it's ah mr j it's absolutely brilliant it's large and we've got space um we've
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got this lovely technology um they love it i think
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for me we've now got a really lovely balance because secondary children need and deserve
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a site that's specifically geared to the things that they need to do so it
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has to be specialized whereas our primary sites um both schools now
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they're quite quirky um they're they're not sort of run-of-the-mill buildings
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they say the teachers are personalizing them so they're sort of very warm places for parents to come and
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a lot of parents have always said this is what i want because in primary it's about
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the teaching it's about the children being happy it's about them enjoying where they are so the sites
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that we have in primary actually serve a completely different purpose to say the secondary
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site but now we have if you like the full monty
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because they have the wonderful sites the the sort of homely sites in primary
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but the parents now know that their children can then move on to secondary into a state-of-the-art building where
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the children will have the best opportunity to achieve their potential yeah i mean it's curious when we talk
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about technology and things like this in in in schools what's also really important is adaptability
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having places that uh young people can go to to to be entertained and entertained so um where the secondary building very
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much like also um both the primary schools there are things there for children to do so
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they're not hanging around and they're not hanging on their phones um shortly there will be four table
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tennis tables will be placed in the secondary school um children love table tennis
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it's just an absolute um you know it's like an obsession with them um there's also uh intended to put in a
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climbing wall around the back of a beautiful fronton court that we had there there is a running track that runs through it you
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watch the gcse and a-level students actually running and exercising before they do their activities their
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the idea is to have them engaged to have um us be able to put them in a place where
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they're they're not bored during their breaks and i know that sounds a bit a bit bit bit bit offline
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but um it's really for them to think away from the phone away from something else like that that
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they can they can be drawn to so easily it's just it's a it's a very easy fix is your phone but when you when you put
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table tennis tables in and you put exercise um units in there um children prefer that they actually do prefer that they enjoy
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it so um yeah the the site is is evolving and it will take i would imagine you know when we come
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and talk to you in six months time um uh we'll be able to show you a little bit more but i was talking to one of
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your colleagues downstairs josh who did a great video for us before we actually opened
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and he's going to pop back and steve will show him and everyone around the primary
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school buildings and mike and myself we will have a look at the secondary school because
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currently we can't invite anybody to the sites to see no sure yeah that would be an interesting uh compare and contrast because they were
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still finishing off obviously that that video the first one but you could see it coming along and you could get an idea of the size and
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just the area it's in it's great views and everything did you did you bagsy the office you wanted i can't remember i have an office
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in our in our middle in in in our primary school actually i i don't have an office in the in the new
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school um i i do go and annoy mike um mike mills the head there quite frequently yes and perch on
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on on the edge of his desk but uh no i'm not i'm not uh on time though i'm there every day um
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it's very important to be available to to everybody um staff and and and the children
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and it's just nice to see them um in in in all of the sites using i mean the littles in in in our
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actual primary and in infants it's just gorgeous what um sam evans has done there it was
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just breathtaking i mean she's uh our former head girl has um come and uh done some paint
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painting and some murals down there it is beautiful so you know it's people who are are you know who
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have been through our college have a great uh affinity and a great uh calling to try and continue and leave their mark in the
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right way mm-hmm do the children have any input on you know the design of the clothes what they've got up i know they've probably got their things up on
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the wall like you'd have on your fridge at home yes sort of paintings but you know any little slogans and things well curious that you should ask um is that
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we have a young lady who's um um working with us in our middle school
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natalia and she's a phenomenal artist and during the course of half term she
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will start a massive mural that is on the um that will be placed onto painted onto the uh
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the fronton court that is in the new site and the whole idea about that is to um
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put into put into um pictures the values that are are within xic and she will be taking
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advantage of a whole host of our children who will then be able to make their mark you know you don't want
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to be writing your name in the back of of a loo door you want to be putting something beautiful on into your school absolutely so you can
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be remembered um and you will remember so yeah i mean the idea is to in involve the minute for the
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future um uh we we do want the children hugely involved in what uh what is going to be
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their school their college right now we're looking at um making the the uniform even more adaptable and more
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wearable um for the youngsters we are in a modern world we don't we we we want we i i believe in
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a uniform i think it's i think it's a great thing to have i think it's also gives you a great um belonging to your college um right now
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the children like the uniform that they have and they wear it and you see it where all around the town that's great but we want it to sort of
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we want to adapt that also to their daily use so we will be
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bringing some some different styles for them to have a look at and for them
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to share with us what they would like to wear um also remembering where we live
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you know we live in a country that is very very hot in the summer very cold in the winter so they have to
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have um the appropriate uh attire to to to come to school in so
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from that to many other other things in the in the in the college it's better to get their advice
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first up because then you won't get it wrong right i'll tell you just coming back to the um the arts side of things you must be used
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to as experienced both of you um spotting certain talents in in very young folk sometimes
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you can sort of see oh hang on there's something there um because what people that could draw because i'm hopeless
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you can learn a little bit about drawing you know something in perspective whatever but some people just do it and they um
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you know four or five years old phenomenally extraordinary there's always a couple in your school that um they just do it how do they do that i
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think one of the lovely things moody is that you have children who are quite academic
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in in terms of the core subjects you have children who are less academic but very creative
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um and the the lovely thing is is that you can meet their needs equally
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yes of course we continue to to teach them so that they can do the best that they can but certainly if we have children
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within a year group who um show a particular leaning towards
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the arts now that's not just art in terms of drawing really in drama and
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excuse me drama and things like that then we use that because one of the lovely
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things with children is children teaching children you know it's um it's not something that
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all teachers do it's something i very much believe in it whenever i had a child that knew
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something about a subject more than i did i would bring them out to the front of the classroom and say right
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i'm going to sit in your chair i'm going to learn with with the rest of you today yeah so it's really about empowering
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these children to make the best of what they've got but not just empowering them to use it but
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to celebrate it as well so we we try to do that i hope we do
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i hope what we do is give these children the confidence to say okay i may not be great at maths but boy
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look at my 3d drawing you know um and and celebrate every child's success in whatever form
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that may take i mean the obvious one is when people are more sporty than others but uh there are certain things
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i thought that send a shiver through me because that's my alarm of the morning is it i'm so sorry excuse me when you hear that
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any other time of the day but someone has that as their ringtone once it works here
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yeah um but that sort of thing but you must spot that at a very early age sometimes something something in someone
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and you obviously try and you wouldn't you'd cover everything else with them but maybe nurture that in a way
28:14
oh definitely yeah yeah yeah what what what is it i've seen you know over years that uh is is
28:19
wonderful you may find as steve said just now that there's a youngster who isn't particularly um strong academically or in maths whatever
28:27
then you can but but you see that they have a great great talent in sport or in drama or or
28:33
or in in in art or something or music or something something like this you can you can really enthuse that and
28:40
bring that through in that young person so that that actually transfers into their academic work
28:45
and you see you see that work that they're doing in in maths in english and and in their sciences it improves
28:52
because it's a confidence game it's i mean we say again and again and again um it's it's a mind game young young young
28:59
people and your mind and how your your attitude towards whatever you do is key you know you may have you may be
29:05
enormously talented but if you don't take advantage of it unfortunately you you aren't going to enjoy the success that you otherwise
29:12
should so equally so you've got young people who are not enormously capable academically but they have huge
29:17
attributes in other ways and this is something that we want to nurture throughout the college because as they start to get towards the
29:23
sixth form and they start thinking about the a levels they're going to be doing and the courses they might do when they leave
29:28
the school we want to be able to engage them in different careers so we are putting together right now
29:34
um a group of people who advise um youngsters in a massive array of
29:41
different careers from broadcasting to finance to to medicine and architecture and it's
29:47
not what is the qualification required it is what is the journey that you will go on
29:52
and how did you get to where you are you know as a as as as as somebody who works in media for example you know where did you start
29:59
did you go to do an apprenticeship in a in in a small radio station or did you go and work on on a newspaper these things are really
30:06
key because young people don't know you can say go and google it go and have a check it but it's not as interesting as speaking to somebody who's actually
30:12
lived that experience so it's something that the college is really really focusing on and when steve talks about
30:18
what is happening in our primary school the thing that is joyful absolutely joyful is there are values
30:23
and there are standards and there are requirements but the the vast majority of the day is
30:29
spent trying to encourage and bring on the confidence of young people and if they have the confidence to put in that toolkit that they take to
30:35
secondary my goodness that is absolutely vital i missed a trick though i should have gone to phones off
30:41
in the studio please what's the policy on phones at the school do you do you have them in general they do have them but they're they're off
30:47
during any lesson time right yeah i did wonder because i know some take them in into a big bag at the start and
30:52
you get it back at the end of the day but uh yeah you sort of it's a bit there's a bit of trust it depends whether it is being um abused
30:58
right if it is being abused then you know we we talk to young people but then again once you have to have that uh
31:04
respectability or for respectfulness sorry of um of of a young person if you they i think young people now are
31:11
days and it's very easy for me to say because being a dinosaur and using my phone as a phone
31:17
yeah about that um they they don't so when when we're when you want them to
31:22
try and respect the fact that their time is valuable massively valuable and if they
31:28
from what i see is young people can drift into that phone and it can be quite addictive so there
31:34
are other things that they need to be doing and i'm not saying homework but there are other things that they need to be
31:39
engaged in and one of the things you know we talk about in secondary all the time is when you write your personal statement when
31:44
you get to that stage to write that personal statement with the view to go to college or university you want to be talking about
31:50
the things that you've been brilliant at i know i'm brilliant to looking at my phone and youtube and tick tock well
31:55
that's not going to get you too far no there's quite a few people who are very good at that of course but yeah
32:01
time management there's a thing i'm not very good at but i need to sort out these days um so i guess some of it will be out of
32:07
your hands but as far as the future goes you've got everything in place you've got the new school there yeah um is it kind
32:13
of wait and see no no no no it's it's it's not wait and see it's make a difference it's really important what we have moody
32:20
and um and i think we've talked about this in the past is we are very adaptable we are a
32:26
standalone college owned by um shareholders who are extremely positive in what we're doing
32:32
um it's it's we don't say can we have such and such or can we do so and so
32:37
unless we feel it's going to be something that's really positive for our children so they very rarely say no um and and
32:44
in a business in an environment and at school for us the school comes first we get that right we get the product
32:51
which is a horrible word when we're talking about schools but it's a fact we get what we do right we do uh evolve and and develop and
32:59
and encourage colleagues to make um uh to contribute good and and and positive
33:05
ideas for our youngsters and if we do that the school just gets the college will get stronger and stronger by every week and with that the the
33:12
shareholders are um absolutely outstanding in in in their support for what we do from the
33:18
uniform to our extracurricular activities to the trips that the children will be going on
33:23
to the training that staff need to the facilities that we're requiring and they they we we meet as a board
33:30
fairly regularly um we are extremely adaptable we are not a huge oil tanker that takes
33:35
hours and well takes takes days and weeks to move we're like a small small um
33:41
speedboat that can move around what we need and adapt ourselves to the to the situation and that's where
33:46
you know the support that we have with regard to things like tablets for the children allows them to work when we had to work
33:54
with seamlessly when we went into lockdown and funnily enough we talked about this you and i about what would happen
33:59
should the school have to be closed for a day yes well we were produ presented with a a piece of paper from
34:05
uh from casa the the water company a couple of weeks ago and and told they were going to close us the next day oh having spoken to them
34:11
said please don't close us the next day you know because we have to let our parents know what's going on okay we'll
34:17
we won't close you on thursday we'll close you on monday right so they closed the school on monday we went straight back into
34:22
the the the the online teaching which is quite amusing because you and i talked about in if there happened to be
34:28
some sort of situation where we had to close a school and it worked seamlessly yeah a perfect example and of course you
34:33
you'd had the practice of it building up to it yeah okay so that's maybe a hint of the future there may be a little bit of
34:39
the online stuff still there um from time to time i think um for for us as a college there are so many
34:45
different things that people want from us and and and what is interesting is um we're hearing from more and more
34:51
families uh that want to join us and sometimes can't um we're hearing from more families who want to
34:56
uh our style of education but remotely so we are we're working on that and it's something that i think um is
35:02
some is it's going to be an interesting development for the college but right now you know the the
35:08
steve and i were talking before uh we came we came in here and and and through the weeks actually
35:14
with mike in secondary we are just so impressed with how the community have
35:19
worked to bring us fairly seamlessly to where we are so we can continue the education that is
35:25
that is being delivered we went through lockdown and they were having their lessons as normal well not as normal but every lesson was
35:32
being taught yep so yeah good for them great for the community and it's really sweet of you of of of of bae and and
35:38
moody really it's really good of you to come and uh let us talk about what we or you feel passionate not at all it's always
35:44
tremendous value is a phrase i use quite a lot but it is it is true and well done to everyone on their hard work
35:49
i just add we do congratulate the children we do congratulate the staff and
35:54
and they deserve it 100 but we are an xic family and and a big part
36:01
of that family is our parents um they've been very supportive in what we've been doing
36:07
in terms of getting the children back they're very appreciative of what we're doing they're very supportive and they help us
36:12
in whatever way they can so you know a really big thank you to our parents as as well
36:18
and as always you know thank you for for bay radio's continued support for the
36:24
the community um we were talking to your colleagues downstairs you knew a lifeline doing covid for
36:32
an awful lot of people and i think you continue to be so because i think the fact that you are
36:38
very good at giving us particularly the news the spanish news um but obviously a lot of um people from
36:45
the uk they like to hear a bit of the uk news as well so um thank you for that and and keep up
36:51
the good work um you know we love listening to you and thank you moody absolutely yeah
36:56
no picking up absolutely i i i totally support what steve's saying but um the the the one of the lovely things about
37:02
talking about the parents was people the parents took time to write to the college
37:07
and say how delighted they were with what has been happening uh that during the lockdown period but very
37:12
much since we went back to school and it's very easy to go to a restaurant love your meal and walk out
37:19
it's really nice to say to um the people who are in the restaurant thank you that was really pleasant you
37:24
know and and i'll be back yeah so that's one of the things that um you know i must thank our our community
37:30
thank our uh our parent body because they've done that they've taken the time to put um you know put something in writing too
37:38
it's not pen to paper these days key to board well um half term next week
37:43
of course of course that'll be feet up for you with nothing to do absolutely but hopefully we'll see back
37:49
in here uh soon uh for a bit of an update someone will get along to the the site as well and do a bit of a virtual tour around both
37:56
both schools well i'd love it if you came because then you know you really see it firsthand you know in action and you have to see
38:01
it with the children in yes there's the difference yeah yeah so xic.college is the website for all the
38:07
details but tell you we'll catch up with you soon we'll put this up on our youtube channel to watch back in full quality thanks thank you for
38:13
coming in
38:23
you