Senior Reflections Week 7 October 2024
Dear parents,
With half term commencing today, I am sure that you are looking ahead to some rest and recuperation with your children over the coming two weeks. It has been a busy and very productive first half of term and it has been great to see all new members of the school community, children and colleagues, settling in and becoming integrated in the school so well. I hope that, for new parents, your children have had a good first few weeks, and they are happy in their learning, the care that they are receiving, their co-curricular activities and in the social frameworks that they have made.
Approach to learning grades and parents’ evening
You will have received your child’s first grade sheet in the last few days. This is accessed on MySchoolPortal and hopefully is self-explanatory. Please do get in touch with your child’s tutors or head of year if you have any concerns. I hope that parents of Upper Sixth pupils had useful conversations with their children’s subject teachers at the online parents’ evening on Tuesday. These young women and men are looking ahead, quite definitely now, to their next steps beyond school and we know that they are ambitious and excited about what lies ahead. Of course, the small subject of A Level and BTEC exams are still ahead of them, and hopefully the conversations on Tuesday were effective in setting targets, reviewing strengths and considering areas of development in the weeks ahead. The university application process is well underway with Oxbridge and clinical applications all now submitted. It has been a pleasure to read the pupils’ personal statements and to reflect on how much they have achieved to date, and how much potential they have to the institution that will be lucky enough to have them. Well done to them all, and for those still writing their applications, I look forward to seeing them after half term.
Mobile phone policy and practice
We know that the issue of mobile phone use in schools is a national one at present and we, along with other schools, are looking at our own protocols with a view to reviewing these. in order to gauge parents’’ opinions we have sent you a survey to complete and would be very grateful if you can do so before November 4, so that we have the voice of parents in our discussion. We will be hosting a parental forum on the topic on November 21, and we hope that you will be keen to come along to take the discussion forward.
Sport
It has been a busy week of sport this week with fixtures in hockey, swimming, netball, squash, rugby, hockey sevens and football. This demonstrates just what a diverse offer we have in our sport and I hope that all of those participating enjoyed the matches and felt pleased with their performances. It was a shame that our now annual local U15 rugby tournament, due to be held yesterday, had to be cancelled as the pitches were waterlogged. We hope to be able to host this rugby tens tournament for local schools later in the term.
Trips this holiday
We are lucky to have five trips heading off over the holidays. The rugby tour to Portugal set off safely at around half past midnight this morning, the German exchange heads off to Hildesheim on Sunday morning, then on Friday 25 at 1am the geographers are off to explore glacial landforms in Iceland, and just before midnight on Saturday 26 October the French department heads off to Nice to practise their language skills. Finally, on Tuesday 29 October, the physics department are heading off to Geneva to explore the Large Hadron Collider at Cern. My colleagues give their time and skills so generously to make these trips a success and I thank Mr Ross, Mr Trim, Mr Hopkins and Mr Dutch who are taking the rugby tour, Mrs Wilson and Miss Dunning who are off to Germany, Mr Hyde, Mrs Sail, Mrs Roff and Mr Seaton-Burn who are off to Iceland, Mme Masters, Mr Latimer and Mrs Johnson who are going to Nice and Mr Bone and Mrs Pinches who are taking the trip to Switzerland. I hope that they all have a fabulous time away from school and look forward to hearing all about it on their return.
Finally, Mrs Mel Sheehan commences her maternity leave today; Mr Patrick Pugh will be joining the staff team to teach history and politics after half term whilst she is away. We wish Mrs Sheehan all the best as she prepares for the arrival of her second baby and look forward to meeting the new family member in due course.
Have a lovely holiday, and thank you for your support in this first half of a very busy term.
