Dear parents,
Happy New Year! It has been a joy to welcome your children back to school after the holiday, and I hope that they have had a good first few days with their friends at school. I hope, also that you had a fabulous break, despite the rather gloomy weather.
The Upper Fifth have started the term with the first of their trial GCSE exams, and there is no doubt that they are showing great commitment in their endeavours in the exam hall. We know that they will have prepared hard over the Christmas break, and I hope that those of you with U5 formers in the family are feeling positive and that your daughters and sons have been happy with their assessments so far. We wish them well with their exams.
Staff changes
We have welcomed Mrs Jade Seaton-Burn back to school following her maternity leave this week. We are very pleased to have her back in the biology department. We also welcome a new colleague, Mrs Catherine Bending, who joins us to teach maths part-time. Mr Ben Masters will be teaching temporarily in the English department for the next few weeks, covering for staff absences. We wish them all well as they settle into the routine of school and the new term gets underway.
Pastoral restructure
As a result of the pastoral restructure, which will be fully implemented in September, this is a reminder that we appointed colleagues for the new posts of heads of year and heads of the new houses (five of them) last term. Just to remind you, these are the colleagues who will be taking on these roles in September. We will be sharing more with you about the new houses and the way in which you will communicate with the heads of year, form tutors, and heads of section in the coming two terms.
| Head of Year (3F) | Mrs Helen Sail |
| Head of Year (4F) | Mr Ed Seaton-Burn |
| Head of Year (L5) | Dr Gary Robb |
| Head of Year (M5) | Mrs Kat Ridler-Murray |
| Head of Year (U5) | Mr Dan Trim |
| Head of Year (L6) | Ms Steph Trica |
| Head of Year (U6) | Mrs AJ Culley |
| Head of House 1 | Miss Emily Horn |
| Head of House 2 | Mr Richard Baker |
| Head of House 3 | Mr Rob Charters |
| Head of House 4 | Mrs Mel Sheehan |
| Head of House 5 | Dr Matt Commin |
Hockey season
This weekend, the hockey season starts for boys, with fixtures both at home and away against Blundell’s School. We wish all the teams every success, and I hope to see some of you on the side-lines.
Have a lovely weekend.
