Start of Term

The start of Term 5 has certainly crystallised thoughts about the upcoming external examinations for Years 12 and 13 as they returned to mock exams.  I hope that the students have found it useful to have mock examinations now.

On Monday we had an excellent assembly from the outgoing Senior Student Team:  Alice, Gregor, Rosie and Willow where they thanked staff and students for their support throughout the year.  

The new Head Girl, Head Boy and Deputies for the academic year 2016-2017 were also announced to the whole school.  Badges were transferred to the new team of:

Isobel Green - Head Girl

Harrison Paton - Head Boy

Emily Read and Charlotte Alcock - Deputy Head Girls

 I wish the new team all the very best and I look forward to working with them.

Congratulations - NHS Competition

This year the school did not win the competition but two students were awarded highly-commended certificates and a £30 Amazon voucher each for their entry based on the role of a paramedic.  Congratulations go to Charlotte Patient and Suraya Ali.

Parental Survey Feedback

Thank you to all the parents who responded to our parental survey which was based on questions from the Ofsted Parentview website.  Over the next few emails I will be discussing the results.  

So far, we have addressed some of the general comments made such as ensuring that emails are answered by staff in a timely and appropriate manner and the issue of heavy bags.  Please can you remind your daughters that the school has gone to great expense to buy lockers for all students and that they should be using these lockers for books instead of carrying heavy bags which can in the long run cause shoulder and back aches. Some parents raised doing additional subjects early for GCSE.  This is not really viable with the new GCSEs which have great curriculum content, but also we need to be mindful of what universities require.  Universities prefer GCSEs being completed at the same time.

The issue over the format of emails has also been addressed.  

As a result of the survey we are reviewing Parents’ evenings as we had several comments about these.

On a positive side many parents commented on the fact that the school had a welcoming atmosphere and that their daughter was very happy in school.