A New Head for Holy Trinity Primary School

It was my pleasure to pop in to Holy Trinity Primary School at the start of the autumn term to meet newly appointed Head Teacher,  Stuart McClelland.  Mr McClelland has been teaching for 24 years in Bristol and this is his fifth role as Head across the area, the previous two roles being as an Executive Head of multiple primary schools.

As with many of us, the circumstances of the last couple of years has driven home the importance of a better work-life-balance and, with a young family himself, Mr McClelland decided that a position within his own home area of Bradley Stoke and even more importantly in a role where he could get back in front of the children directly, was something he would value.

Exuding a dynamic and energetic personality, Mr McClelland extolled the Christian values at the heart of Holy Trinity Primary – Love and Understanding – Thankfulness – Friendship – Resilience – Service/Humility being just some of these.  These are values to be proud of regardless of faith, or even if you come from a background without faith.

Holy Trinity is fortunate to have children from a variety of backgrounds and faiths and this in itself offers many learning opportunities.  Mr McClelland told me that “Children learn best from each other.  Even as an adult, children educate us all the time, which then enriches our own lives.  You can have a conversation with a child and find that their perspective can really lift you.  Children are very accepting of each other (adults could learn a lot from this).  There is much love and understanding between our children and nothing is better than allowing them to explain to their friends and classmates if they are celebrating a special festival – whether it be Christmas or Diwali – that others may not know about.  As a school it is our job to encourage open vocabulary and in-person teaching where questions are welcomed and encouraged.  We must offer a range of facilities where each child can flourish and make their own informed opinions based upon the facts they have access to’”.

When starting in any school the first thing is to look at what is working well from the stakeholders viewpoint, the children, the parents, the governors and the wider community in order to make the school the best it can be for the benefit of all children who attend; children of any faith and children of no faith.  One thing Mr McClelland hopes to be able to encourage is the offering of different environments for learning, to be able to get outside more and discover outdoor learning.  To encourage more clubs that the children wish to participate in be it sports, drama or something different (this is the subject for a planned pupil vote!).  Schools have a lot to do to support children, but the importance of letting children be children, whilst still preparing them for the next level of learning journey, should not be lost from Mr McClelland’s viewpoint.

At Holy Trinity there is time for collective worship of some kind every day, whether it be whole school led by the Head Teacher (on a Monday morning) or by an external visitor, or just time in class with the class teacher.  This term’s theme is one of the core values – Thankfulness.  The importance of appreciating what you do have and not regretting what you do not.

This was very appropriate with the news of the Queen’s passing late Thursday.  Friday morning a whole school prayer service was held for the Queen and her family and the following Monday 

Mr McClelland headed a full school gathering of Thankfulness for the Queen.  He guided the children to look at the Queen’s life values, how she often spoke of the importance to her of her own Christian faith and how this has helped her throughout her life, as well as in her Service to our country. 

We are pleased to be able to share a sample of some of the children’s own work opposite as they reflected their thoughts of the Queen following the Thankfulness discussion.

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