Interview with Duncan Gittins from Colton Hills Community School

Express & Star

Express & Star senior reporter James Vukmirovic went back to his old school to talk to acting deputy headteacher Duncan Gittins about the school's 50th anniversary celebrations

Transcript

00:00 Hello, I'm James McMirovich. Behind me is Colton Hills Community School. It's about

00:06 to celebrate its 50th anniversary since two schools in Penn and Graslie merged together

00:11 to form the Goliath that we have today. I'm actually a former pupil, I was here between

00:16 1993 and 1998. I've been here today to speak to the Acting Deputy Head, Duncan Gissings,

00:21 about his memories of the school, some of the people who've come from here, including

00:25 a Commonwealth Games gold medalist, and find out a bit more about the 50th anniversary

00:30 celebrations. So we're here to talk about the 50th anniversary of Colton Hills School.

00:36 Obviously you've been around for a fair bit of that time. Tell me about the significance

00:40 of 50 years of this school as a school. Well, it's incredibly significant. The school is

00:47 a school that serves the community and has done for 50 years. The title is Colton Hills

00:54 Community School. We welcome students from all different backgrounds. It's great to see

00:59 how successful students from Colton Hills have gone on to do all kinds of jobs in the

01:05 community that we serve. That's something that we'll look at. Who are some of the most

01:09 notable students who have come out of the school over the last 50 years, that you can

01:13 think of anyway? Off the top of my head, we've got a student, ex-student, who's competing

01:18 in the Olympics, DJ, this year. That's exciting for us in boxing. We've got a student, a number

01:25 of students who have come to, perhaps come to the country without any English, and we've

01:30 been able to support them to get quality grades. We've got a student who's currently working

01:33 for AstraZeneca, played an important part in developing the vaccine. She came to Colton

01:38 Hills without any English in year seven, and we were able to support her, and she's done

01:43 brilliantly since she's left. There was a time where the Queen's Chaplain, the Queen's

01:48 Private Chaplain, was ex-Colton Hills, superb. And yeah, a number of other students in superb

01:55 jobs across the country. I remember I was surprised a few months ago when I turned up

01:59 at the dentist. My normal dentist wasn't there, and staring down at me was an ex-student.

02:05 It says something about this school, then. It's just, it's given people tools to go out

02:09 and pretty much do whatever they want to do. That's it, yeah. So we try to offer students

02:13 as broad a curriculum as possible, with plenty of extracurricular opportunities, chances

02:18 to go to visits. We've got our schoolhouse in Port Madoc where all students get to visit.

02:24 So trying to give students as many opportunities, see things that they wouldn't normally see,

02:29 and just have a great learning environment in the building as well. That's the thing,

02:32 because I remember going to Gethnewick as May Sunset did, and it's always been an exciting

02:37 thing. People, I think, these days, they still look at it and they go, "Oh, we're going to

02:41 go and stay in that house in Wales. We're going to have a proper trip away." It's still

02:45 got that feeling now, hasn't it? Absolutely, yeah. So for a lot of students in Year 7,

02:50 it's what they're looking forward to. And for a lot of students older than Year 7, it's

02:53 one of their best memories of the time at Colton Hills. So things like spending time

02:58 on the beach, going to Carnauban Castle, just being away from home in a supportive environment

03:03 is something that they really enjoy. For yourself, what's been the evolution of the school over

03:08 the time you've been here? Well, if I say that my first ever lesson that I taught at

03:12 Colton Hills was me in front of a blackboard, it gives you a bit of an indication of how

03:16 far things have come. So yeah, in terms of technology, in terms of the quality of teaching

03:21 and learning, Colton Hills is the only school in the city that has high-performance learning

03:26 accreditation. But just so many different areas where students have really been able

03:31 to benefit. Let's talk about the anniversary, though. What does it mean for you personally

03:36 to be part of the anniversary? Well, I'm looking forward to the anniversary. I'm looking

03:39 forward to seeing colleagues that I haven't seen for a very long time. As I said, it's

03:43 my 17th year at the school. And I can still remember my first day at Colton Hills where

03:48 I'd walk into the staff room and people would warn me, "Don't sit in that seat, don't

03:51 sit in that seat," because it belongs to a certain number of staff. And yeah, they've

03:56 long since left the school, and I'm looking forward to meeting them again, seeing how

03:59 they've got on, but also just seeing what people have gone on to since their time at

04:05 Colton Hills. Well, you're going to talk about their memories, but what are some of

04:09 your memories? Some of my memories? Okay, so I remember that first lesson with the blackboard.

04:13 I can remember some of the lessons that I've taught. I can remember some of the trips that

04:19 I've organised as a history teacher. I would run trips to the Black Country Museum, to

04:23 RAF Crossford, and to Roxeter, Roman City. And those are some of my personal highlights.

04:29 So you've seen the reaction on students' faces when we get to some of those places.

04:32 The joys of overhead projectors as well. That was before my time, overhead projectors,

04:37 but yeah, we've seen things evolve certainly over the years.

04:39 Okay, let's talk about the future plans for the school. It's obviously 50 years have

04:46 just gone. What's next? One of the big projects is the AstroTurf,

04:52 which down at the bottom field is no longer in use, and we're pleased to announce that

04:57 we're going to be getting a brand new 4G pitch in the next couple of years. So we've

05:01 got that kind of physical investment around the school, improving new technology, more

05:06 computer rooms, more science labs, that kind of thing. But also just general progress in

05:11 terms of things that we're offering staff in terms of professional development and opportunities

05:16 that we're able to offer to students. Is it a case that the school's become more

05:19 diverse over the years as well? Oh, absolutely, yeah. The school is incredibly

05:22 diverse. I think we've got about 40 different languages spoke across the school. And one

05:27 of the things that we're really proud of at Colton Hills is we have our culture day

05:31 where people are invited to come in their cultural dress, talk about the foods that

05:35 they would have from their backgrounds. And that's something that we definitely celebrate

05:39 at Colton Hills, yeah. Obviously you've progressed up to being

05:41 a deputy head, but you're also, I think I can still feel that sort of excitement of

05:46 coming in here every day as well. Yeah, well, it's something that I remember,

05:51 as I said, my first day at Colton Hills, teaching with that blackboard. And then I've

05:55 been lucky that the kind of promotions have presented themselves at the right time. So

05:59 I've been head of history, I've been head of humanities. And yeah, my current role is

06:04 acting deputy head teacher. Yeah, the fact that I've stayed at the school for so long,

06:08 I think it says that there is something special about being here.

06:11 And what does Colton Hills mean to you? Colton Hills means to me somewhere that's

06:16 hungry to get better, somewhere where there's lots of opportunities, somewhere that's supportive

06:22 and caring for students and for staff, and somewhere that is excited about the future,

06:27 the next 50 years. Speaking of 50 years, there's a party to

06:30 come. What can people expect from that night? So for our 50th anniversary party, we are

06:36 going to be inviting staff and students from way back in those 50 years. We're going to

06:41 be having performances from students, dance performances, musical performances. And there's

06:48 also going to be an opportunity where people can share their own stories. And we're putting

06:52 on like a banquet in our sports hall as well.

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