Love Your School visits Longlands Primary School in Market Drayton, where the new headteacher once walked the corridors as a young pupil herself

Shropshire Star

Watch Love Your School visits Longlands Primary School in Market Drayton, where the new headteacher once walked the corridors as a young pupil herself - Shropshire Star on Dailymotion

Transcript

00:00So we're here for our Love Your School feature, Longland's Primary School.

00:04We're here with Headteacher. Introduce yourself.

00:06I'm Rowena Kaminsky.

00:08But you weren't always Rowena Kaminsky, fucking easy for me to say.

00:13Your surname used to be Cheta and you used to be a pupil here at the school.

00:17I did, so I came here in the 1980s.

00:20This school was built in the 70s, so it was relatively new when I came here.

00:25And I learnt to read and write here and started my educational journey here.

00:28And you're literally just starting here as a Headteacher, aren't you?

00:31Yes, I am.

00:32Just a few weeks.

00:33Brand new chapter, yes.

00:34So I've taken on the role as Executive Headteacher of Tilstock and Longland's Primary Schools.

00:38Cool.

00:39And your father was a teacher.

00:41Was he head at the Grove?

00:43He taught at the Grove in the 1980s.

00:46So I lived in Market Drayton as a child.

00:48I went to the Grove to do my GCSEs as well.

00:51And while we were living here, my dad taught at the Grove.

00:54So he gave me the inspiration to work in education.

00:57Yeah, you were saying you used to kind of, you'd be with him in the town and the children

01:02would be going, hello, Mr. Jetta.

01:03And you're like, oh, that's my dad, that is, you know.

01:05Yes, wherever he went, if they saw him out of school, they'd think it was absolutely bizarre.

01:10Yeah.

01:10And they'd be shouting, Mr. Jetta.

01:12Yeah.

01:12And they'd just think, wow, this job is something else.

01:15Yeah, so that kind of gives you the bug for teaching.

01:18Yes.

01:18So did you go straight into teaching or did you have a dally with another career when

01:22you first left school?

01:23So I actually went into banking.

01:26Did you?

01:27So I was a finance manager, yeah, I was in banking.

01:29And I just found it really boring.

01:31Well, I was going to say, that reaffirmed your love for teaching.

01:34Yeah.

01:35I'd always wanted to go into teaching, but certain things in life take you off track,

01:39don't they?

01:40Yeah.

01:40And so I actually went into teaching in 2008.

01:44Yeah.

01:44And so I came into it quite late, but I thought, I'm really good at this.

01:49So when you had the opportunity to come and kind of take over leadership here, was it a

01:54no-brainer then?

01:55Absolutely.

01:56So the advert came up for the role here, and I just thought, how fantastic to come back

02:00to the school that gave me such firm foundations in education.

02:05Yeah.

02:05And gave me the confidence, the creativity, the love and nurture that I had here, the

02:10memories that I had here, and at the Grove, to come back and give something back to the

02:16children of Mark at Drayton would be fantastic.

02:19But also for them to see that I was one of them, I was a lot of these pupils, and I'm the

02:24head teacher here now, and if I can do it, they can do it.

02:27Yeah.

02:27Well, great, great lesson for them, really.

02:29Miss, we're here with a few of your pupils.

02:31Yes, we are.

02:32And who've we got there, miss?

02:34So, would you like to introduce yourself?

02:35Uh, I'm Austin.

02:37I'm Ava.

02:38I'm Zach.

02:39Cool.

02:40So, guys, I'm going to ask you, what do you like about this school?

02:43Any particular favourite lessons?

02:45Go on.

02:46Maths.

02:47Maths?

02:47Oh, not too many people say maths.

02:49Would you like to have a job to do with maths, mathematician or science or something?

02:54No?

02:55No?

02:55What would you like to do when you leave school?

02:56Be a footballer, yeah.

02:58Do you?

02:58Playing for the best team ever, Wolves?

03:00Yeah.

03:00No.

03:02Who would you like to play for in...

03:04Man United.

03:04Oh, okay.

03:05We'll move on.

03:06Good luck with that career.

03:07You, young lady, what would you like to do?

03:09Be a footballer.

03:11Oh, you at one point were playing for Shrewsbury as well, weren't you?

03:15Yeah.

03:15Cool.

03:15So, you're a Tottenham fan, aren't you?

03:18Yeah.

03:19And what do you like about school?

03:21Any particular lessons that you...

03:23PE.

03:23PE, yeah.

03:24And what about any others?

03:26Because I know it's...

03:26No.

03:26No?

03:27PE's the one for you.

03:29Miss, you need to teach you the skills of the oboe.

03:32Go on, boss.

03:33What's your favourite lesson?

03:34PE.

03:35PE.

03:35We've got a lot of sporty people here.

03:37What would you like to do when you leave school?

03:39Be a boxer.

03:40Yeah?

03:40You do boxing, don't you?

03:41Yeah.

03:42So, what's the club you go to?

03:43Like a drawing boxing club.

03:45Wow, okay.

03:46So, how long have you been involved with them?

03:47Nearly seven years.

03:49Yeah?

03:49Good stuff.

03:50And you're doing okay there, yeah?

03:51Yeah.

03:52Well, it keeps you fit, doesn't it?

03:53They reckon boxers are some of the most fittest people.

03:56And we've had a little look in your forest school area.

03:58What do you make of that?

03:59It's pretty cool, isn't it?

04:00Yeah.

04:01Cool.

04:02And any particular favourite animals on the farm?

04:05Rabbits.

04:05Yeah.

04:06Rabbits?

04:06Goats.

04:07Yeah?

04:07Cool.

04:08Right, we'll let you get back to lessons.

04:10Thanks for chatting to us, guys.

04:12And you were saying that when you're a new head teacher at a school,

04:16often you won't be from that area or know that area,

04:19so there's a degree of kind of, you know,

04:21learning about the area, the demographic and that kind of stuff

04:25and getting a feel, settling in at a school.

04:28But for you, that's just straight off the back.

04:31You've got those, you know, you've got those feelings.

04:33You understand the community.

04:34Absolutely.

04:35It's really important as a head teacher to know the community.

04:37It's really important to know the values of that community,

04:41how that community ticks, what the needs are for the children.

04:46And I feel that I've got that extra benefit of being from here.

04:49I've been a child.

04:50I've lived and grown up in Market Drayton,

04:52and I feel that I belong here,

04:54and I want to make sure that all children feel that sense of belonging.

04:58So it is early days, but, you know, tell us about Longland School,

05:03and we're going to have a look round and meet some of the pupils.

05:05I've been here previously.

05:07You've got a few things I've not seen at schools before.

05:11One thing of those is goats.

05:13Yes, we do.

05:14We have a little farm.

05:15Yeah, fantastic.

05:16The thing about Longlands, it's a very tight, hard-working community.

05:20The staff here are so dedicated.

05:23They all go the extra mile.

05:24They really care about the children.

05:27They show such nurture.

05:29They want to develop their confidence.

05:31One of the staff members said to me,

05:33we believe in the children so they can believe in themselves,

05:36which I just thought was absolutely beautiful.

05:39We've got the farm, which is an added extra,

05:41because children, when they come to school,

05:43they come to school to learn those basic core skills of reading, writing.

05:47But we want them to enjoy being in school.

05:49We want them to feel that they're giving something back,

05:52and the children work so hard to make sure that they give something back to the community,

05:56and that's something we want to build on.

05:58We've got the Zone Community Centre as well, just at the bottom of the field there,

06:03and that's to support children.

06:05It does the half-term holiday clubs.

06:08It does support for parents.

06:10When parents are applying for applications for primary school,

06:13you can drop in there, and somebody will help.

06:15We've got the Forest School.

06:17We've even got a school cat called Suti that walks around.

06:21We're hoping to.

06:22It's Suti will make an appearance,

06:23but the joy of cats is that they're very independent.

06:26It depends on what Suti's up to.

06:28They're very dedicated, and the parents give so much as well.

06:31I went to the L Factor, which was in this summer,

06:34at the Festival Drayton Centre,

06:35and the children, all in their costumes that the parents provided,

06:39all given their all.

06:39It was like being at a West End show.

06:41Well, actually, on that note,

06:43we'll flash up a couple of images now.

06:46That's old press cuttings of you in your costumes at the school place

06:50when you were here at Longlands.

06:52You with your recorder.

06:53I did ask if you actually learned to play it,

06:56and were you a part of the Shropshire?

06:59What was that?

06:59Yeah, so I started my love for music here at Longlands

07:02playing the recorder,

07:04and there's a picture of me with the recorder there,

07:06and I was also in a Christmas concert.

07:08I went on to learn to play the oboe,

07:10and I was in the North Shropshire Orchestra in my teen years as well.

07:13So, yeah, it left a mark on me, definitely.

07:16Fantastic.

07:16And I understand we're going to have a look at your new...

07:18You've got a new SEND hub?

07:20Yes, we have, yes.

07:21We've got a fantastic new provision for SEND pupils,

07:25and, yeah, we can go and have a look at that.

07:28Great stuff.

07:28Well, thank you for inviting us to your school.

07:31Thank you for coming.

07:32We'll take a look round.

07:33Thank you, Miss.

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