Mr Walton, the headteacher of Chauncy school assumed the role this academic year. I was able to catch up with Mr Walton in his office in late October. 

He joined the school as Head of Geography in 1999 and in the past 25 years he has seen the school grow from “about 460 students” to 1522 students, however the school has tried to keep “the ethos, the philosophy, and values of the school intact”.

I asked him why he decided to put himself forward to be headteacher and he responded that he had “never wanted to leave Chauncy School” having “worked really closely” with the previous leadership “for about 18 years” and he therefore saw it as a “natural progression”.

He explained that he wanted “to keep the continuity” of what they had built at the school together over the past couple of decades.

I then set out to discover how different his role as Headteacher is to when he was Deputy Headteacher.

Whilst he “was doing a lot more work last year under the sort of mentorship of Dennis O’Sullivan” in order to help him prepare for the role, the main aspect that is different between the two jobs in his opinion is that he has had to attend “a lot more meetings” and he has had to “fill out a lot more paperwork”.

As he summed it up, “there’s quite a lot of bureaucracy involved in the early stages”.

The school has an awards system, where gold awards are given out by the Headteacher to students who excel the most and he has “really enjoyed” giving these out, saying that “I really enjoy meeting kids, talking about their achievements, celebrating their success, and just telling them well done”.

I asked him whether he wanted to leave his own mark on the school, to which he responded that he’s “not one for coming in and changing everything”.

While a few minor changes have been made “just to make things flow”, his principle is that it is about “evolution of the school, not revolution of the school”.

What he is passionate about is that “all of our students make progress, all of our students achieve their very best when they’re here and that they’ve got the mechanics"`"to have good choices at 16 or at 18”.

In fact the major goals of the over the next five years for the school are “promoting student achievement” and providing people with “the passport of qualifications to have choices, but also provide them with the relevant information, guidance, and support to make those choices”

To finish off, I asked him how trips can enhance students' experience at the school and he responded by saying that “it’s not about turning up and learning about the Battle of Hastings, it’s about what made you remember those aspects of the Battle of Hastings”.

The future of the school looks positive under the stewardship of Mr Walton.