To all members of the SMA community 2016-2024

I first announced my plans to leave SMA back in November and at that point, Friday 19 July 2024 still seemed a long time in the future. All of a sudden, more than two terms have gone by in the blink of an eye and today is my last day with pupils as Headteacher of St Matthew Academy.

SMA is a very special school. Everyone who visits comments on our calm and purposeful learning environment and the positive ethos and caring nature of the school. But most of all they can’t stop talking about how impressive our pupils are using words such as delightful, happy, confident, proud, articulate and amazing – I could not agree more and this is what make SMA so special and what makes it so hard for staff to leave. I’ve been fortunate enough to work alongside so many amazing people in school over the last eight years – teachers, support staff and governors – who have all shared my ambition of continually providing the very best opportunities for all of our children. I’d like to put on record my thanks to all colleagues and members of the governing body, both past and present, as the success of our school has always been a team effort. The relationship between home and school has been one we have tried hard to nurture and I would also like to express my gratitude to parents and other family members for all the support they have provided both for their children and for our school throughout the years. The links with the local community, the diocese and the local authority have also been important to me and I want to convey my appreciation to everyone connected with the aforementioned organisations.

In recent months, I’ve been asked many times what I’ll miss about school when I leave. Of course, I will miss the special events, the performances and the trips but what I think I’ll miss most of all are the normal days when it looks like nothing particularly special is happening. However, on those days, if you walk down the corridor and go from classroom to classroom, you’ll see that just below the surface something special is happening – pupils learning to interact with each other, work independently, to read and write, grapple with maths, problem solve and most of all foster a love of learning. I feel extremely proud and honoured to have seen so many pupils successfully move through our school and for me, seeing the progress the children make is what has made it all worthwhile.

 While I do feel very sad to be leaving my position as Headteacher, I am so glad that I am able to pass on the responsibility of this most important of jobs to Mr Potter. I know that under his leadership SMA will continue to go from strength to strength. I wish him and all members of the school community every success for the future!

Thank you and farewell.