The Plume School

After four frustrating and unhappy terms at The Park School, in September 1980 I moved to a new post at The Plume School, Maldon. Not only was the job - Head of Curriculum 11-14 - itself new and the sort of challenge I relished, but I was now able to walk to school.

The Plume was Essex' largest comprehensive with some 2,200 students divided between two sites, Years 1 and 2 being in the old secondary modern buildings in Mill Road, a ten minute walk from the Upper School on the old grammar school site in Fambridge Road. My job was to integrate the curriculum across years 1 to 3 and across the two sites, but also to try to improve the student experience.

Much of the teaching on the Lower School site was outdated. To give one example, the woodwork teacher of Year 1 made all students make a pencil box. They were supposed to pay for the materials but many avoided this - they didn't want a pencil box. Those that paid could take their - often unfinished - masterpiece home, but when I asked him what happed to the work of those that didn't, he opened a cupboard which was stuffed full of unfinished boxes.

One of the challenges was to work with a very big staff on two very different sites. Some of the teachers on the Lower School site had taught for many years in the Secondary Modern while some on the Upper site had only taught grammar school students. Many also faced a serious obstacle in that their departments required that they teach mixed-ability classes, though some departments continued to divide year groups into ability sets.

However, it was with considerable relief that I soon discovered that, while there was the usual complaining about lack of support and understanding from the hierarchy, The Plume's staff were, by comparison to Chalvedon and The Park, mainly happy. Better still, the students, who came from a  wide rural area, were lovely, and discipline was not a major problem.

Staff photo is 1995.