Children from Haverstock School’s young journalists interview their new headteacher, Mr Hadley.
Q: What were your favourite subjects at school?
Mr H: Economics and History. I’ve always been fascinated by why people do the things they do and why they make the decisions they make. History taught me about the past and how things change; and Economics taught me about how people act in groups and how different countries have different approaches to things.
Q: But isn’t Economics about business?
Mr H: It’s about the allocation of resources. If there aren’t enough resources to go around, an understanding of economics helps you to know what to do with them. But really underneath the
Q: What subjects didn’t you like?
Mr H: Well, that’s really interesting, because in Year 7 I didn’t like History, but then I went on to study it at university!
Maybe there’s a real lesson there: if you don’t like something, just keep going until you like it!
Q: This year the new GCSEs are much tougher and yet the school’s results have improved! Why’s that?
Mr H: I think the main thing we did was to increase the expectations of everybody, really helping students to have higher expectations of their conduct and of their study and also believing that our students can go on and achieve great things. We made sure that those values were communicated to everybody in the school community, parents, students and the staff.
Q: Did you know what you were getting yourself into when you got offered the job as Head?
Mr H: (Laughing a little) I did a little bit – I had been what they call ‘Acting Headteacher’ at my last school. The school was quite different though, so I had to learn a lot about this school and the students. We think that’s why Mr Hadley can often be seen in the playground or the corridors: he is finding out what is going on. Running a school like Haverstock must have huge challenges.
Q: What do you have for breakfast?
Mr H: One Weetabix with Muesli on top,
Only ONE Weetabix! We think he needs three Weetabix… so it must be the muesli on top that helps him, because Haverstock School is the best school ever!
We would like to thank Mr Hadley for giving this interview.
