Senior Reflections Week 27 2024
Dear parents,
It has been a busy week and great to see the sunshine at last!
London Marathon and Mr Adam Cunningham
Members of the school community were involved in last Sunday’s London Marathon. We congratulate Rory Barclay-Watt in the Middle Fifth, who was invited to run in the mini marathon over the weekend, and also Mr Adam Cunningham, who you might have seen, very unfortunately, broke his leg just 850m from the finish. Heroically, Mr Cunningham, our maths lead in the junior school, was not going to give up – and shuffled on his bottom all the way to the finish, covering the last 850m in over an hour. We take our hats off to Mr Cunningham, and in honour of his great accomplishment, and in order to raise additional funds for the British Heart Foundation, we held a sponsored ‘bum shuffle’ this afternoon at school. Mr Cunningham is the RAF head of section in the cadet force, all members of the CCF were encouraged to take part and we hope that they all felt well supported in this community show of great character. Mr Cunningham started the event – and was the guest of honour. Well done to Mr Cunningham – and we look forward to seeing him back in school as soon as he is mobile enough.
School uniform
On Tuesday we had a visit from Schoolblazer, our new uniform supplier, who came to meet with parents in a focus group and talk about the proposed changes to the school uniform. This was an extremely helpful discussion about a number of aspects of uniform in general, and looked at some proposed changes to our uniform. We invited a wide range of parents, from across the whole school and had good representation present in the meeting. We feel that our current uniform is not smart enough, and also has not been changed for many years (probably since girls joined the school two decades ago) so we are looking at a change. This has also been forced by the fact that Monkhouse, who are our current suppliers, have let us down dreadfully on customer service and supply. The meeting allowed us to consider the views of parents, and to look at some suggestions. We have not yet made any firm decisions, and we know that any changes to the uniform must take into account a range of factors; every school is unique, and we have to think about this when considering change and of course cost. What we want is for pupils to be proud of their school, and to wear their uniform smartly and with confidence. These will be the key things that we are looking to engender in any new uniform items.
Staff changes
Last week I announced the appointment of Dr Smale to be head of chemistry from September and I am delighted, this week, to be able to confirm that our new subject team leader for science in the autumn will be Mrs Jade Seaton-Burn. A passionate biologist, Mrs Seaton-Burn has been with us as a teacher of biology for a decade and is very excited about this new position. She has lots of great ideas for bringing technology and research into science and we look forward to watching her develop the department, working alongside Mrs Julia Metcalf, head of biology, Dr Simon Smale, head of chemistry and Mr Dominic Tuohey, head of physics.
Open mic night
Very well done to the pupils who performed and ran a brilliant open mic event in the music hall on Tuesday after school. Darcey Beau Hedden organised and ran the event excellently and the performers showed great talent and commitment. Well done to all involved!
Sixth form entrepreneur scheme
On Thursday after school we were pleased to welcome governor, Mrs Claire Bailie and friends of the school, Mr Roger Killin and Mr Richard Marsh, to reflect on the pupils’ brilliant work in the school’s enterprise scheme and to judge their presentations on their companies’ progress and success. Mr Stuart Mackintosh, head of business and economics, has worked hard with our groups to develop their business skills and they have risen to the challenge brilliantly. You might have seen them selling their homemade sea glass jewellery and soaps at school events, and we have been really impressed with this year’s groups’ creativity, drive and industry. Very well done to all the Lower Sixth pupils involved, their presentations were extremely impressive. You can read more in our news story here.
Middle Fifth parents’ evening
Yesterday we had online parents evening for the middle fifth, and I hope that, like me, you found the meetings helpful as you talked to your child’s teachers about their progress, attainment and targets for next steps. We included a brief video, filmed in the building site that is the sixth form centre, currently under refurbishment, which we hope all parents will enjoy seeing. You can see the video here. We are very excited about the refurbishment work, and the impact that this will have on the daily life of our sixth form in the future. We hope that you agree and we look forward to welcoming members of the community into the newly refurbished space when it is completed in September.
This weekend
We have cricket fixtures aplenty this weekend, with matches against Wellington School, King’s College Prep, and King’s Bruton, with a mixture of girls’ and boys’ teams both at home and away. We wish them all every success and hope for fine weather both for the players and spectators. The Middle Fifth Duke of Edinburgh’s Award CCF bronze practice expedition will be winding its way around the locality and we wish Ms Trica and all those involved every success for their adventurous activity. I hope that both the pupils’ navigation skills and the weather hold up!
